VICTORIA (AUSTRALIA)
The Advocate
July 2, 2019
By Carol Oliver
Thank heavens, I am not religious. Which is not to say that I don’t respect those people who are. We are all entitled to our beliefs, and many religions have played a huge and positive part in the lives of individuals and societies for centuries.
But right now – despite news fading rapidly into the ether – I remain scandalised by the widespread abuse and cover up by religious figures around the world.
It’s bad enough to hear about one abuser in a family or community, but the depth and breadth of abuse in the Catholic Church is unforgivable. So when the Pope says he’s ashamed of the church’s failure to adequately address “repellent crimes”, I go into a giant cringe because it appears to be too little … and way too late.
Of course, he is not personally to blame and I am sure he’s probably a good bloke. But because the institution of the church created and covered up these crimes, and because he is the leader at this time, I find his responses too polite and vague. It seems to me he had the chance to re-energise respect and allegiance for believers by rooting out perpetrators so that, by example, the church could uphold its own laws as well as those of society.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.