ZIMBABWE
allAfrica
The Herald
EDITORIAL
Church leaders and ministers have a special relationship with their parishioners and followers, a blend of authority, care, loyalty and love. And some abuse this relationship.
We have all heard of the worldwide scandals in the Roman Catholic Church, where a tiny minority of priests and brothers went way off the rails and where a substantial number of bishops then tried to hush-up the problem. We know the solution that has been put in place. In future there is no hushing up and those who commit offences that both church and state see as criminal will be turned over to the cops.
There could be no other decision.
But we also need to note that the Catholic church, or rather the authorities in each diocese where there was a problem priest, knew about the abuses and crimes. Under an old policy they tried to fix the matters internally and failed. What is now different is that they will co-operate with the civil authorities.
In other hierarchical churches with a formal structure – the Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and most churches deriving from the Reformation – there is again little difficulty in someone facing abuse or worse from a minister of the church from getting this information to the church authorities. And presumably, as the Catholic church has now done, these churches will also take swift and effective action.
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