UNITED STATES
USA TODAY
August 19, 2018
The Editorial Board
Catholic Church sex abuse scandal in Pennsylvania gives Pope Francis one more chance to act: Our view
As horrifying tales of priests molesting children have swept through Catholic dioceses across the country during the past 16 years, there is one equally horrifying constant: a systematic cover-up by bishops and cardinals who hid predators, enabling them to ruin the lives of thousands more children.
Last week, the tale was told again in vivid and disturbing detail. A Pennsylvania grand jury found that 300 priests across the state had molested more than 1,000 children over seven decades. The victims included a young girl in the hospital for a tonsillectomy and five sisters, one of them just 18 months old.
The grand jury laid bare the depths to which church elders sank to hide the scandal — its report called it “a playbook for concealing the truth” — regardless of how many children were hurt.
Coming just weeks after Theodore McCarrick, one of the highest-profile church leaders ever accused of molestation, was removed from ministry and left the College of Cardinals, this latest horror makes clear that the Vatican must do more than invoke prayers and make promises.
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