Letter: Catholics and the Abuse Scandal

The New York Times
September 16, 2018

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/16/opinion/letters/catholics-clerical-abuse.html

Pope Francis at the Vatican.

A reader suggests that the faithful are duty bound to call for change.

Re “The Catholic Church Is Sick With Sex” (column, Sept. 3):

Timothy Egan’s call to meaningfully address both the plot to undo the progressive Pope Francis and, most important, to upend the church’s endless, writhing battle with sex is long overdue. Alas, the column will probably never be read by the pope, the Curia or anyone who can actually cause change in the church.

The distinction between this ecclesiastical crisis and all those that have preceded it is that the activities covered up and ignored by the church hierarchy are criminal assaults on defenseless children and seminarians that have real effects, not just on the body of the church, but on civil society as a whole.

These crimes are so pervasive and systemic that they must be eliminated, root and branch, from our body politic. It is painful to witness what the faithful go through to beg the church hierarchy to do something meaningful that addresses these crimes while not daring to touch the third rails of priestly celibacy and an all-male priesthood.

Mr. Egan finally lays it on the line. All Americans, Catholic and non-Catholic, are duty bound to demand that a hidebound Catholic hierarchy listen and take action.