PENNSYLVANIA
Lancaster Online
Elizabeth Eisenstadt-Evans | Columnist
The legacy of the sexual abuse scandals and revelations of coverups that shook this nation’s Catholic church to its foundations is a mixed one.
There’s definitely been progress in redressing the wrongs done to young victims and in ensuring that they don’t recur, even if the progress has been painful and slow.
Such crimes, committed by some priests and hidden by some bishops, are far less likely to happen again, or to be tolerated if they do occur. Victims (though not all; many continue to suffer silently) have been helped. Thanks to procedures implemented in the wake of the sex abuse scandals, children are now much more likely to be safe in Catholic parishes and educational institutions.
“There are very few current cases (of alleged child abuse) in process,” said Charles Zech, who directs Villanova University’s Center for Church Management and Business Ethics.
“The current crop of priests has gotten the word of how wrong this is — and that they will be prosecuted. If they are caught now, the bishops won’t protect them.”
But in ways both obvious and subtle, the American Catholic Church is still paying for the sins of fathers long gone — and the denomination’s determined effort, in many cases, to silence victims.
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