Replies

Driver, by calling it "Catholic abuse" you're casting your net far too narrowly. Disgusting criminal sexual aggression by cops, merchants, teachers, athletic coaches, soldiers, youth workers, barkeeps, novelists, artists, dads, uncles, and priests has been going on --- and not for years, but for millennia.

In every provable case, it's a matter which justifies outrage, prosecution, and penalty.

But in my estimation, there are three main reasons why the Catholic Church is especially targeted in cases like this:

1) Records: the Church has documentation on its clergy, including employment and medical records, going back to their seminary days. You won't find that in any other profession.

2) Deep pockets: sue over a priest and you can dump out the assets of a Religious Order or a whole Diocese: operating funds, schools, parishes: quite the pinata.

3) The gotcha factor: Even in unproveable cases, accusations against priests, rabbis, or moral conservatives are irresistable: the accusation itself is as damaging as a conviction; and it's far more satisfying than going after people who cannot be accused of having had any moral standards to begin with.

And oh yes, #4: Got a case from the 1950's? And charges cannot be verified or falsified because, puzzlingly, there has never been even one single criminal charge brought? The secular record discloses no actionable evidence, no arrest, and no trial? And the accused perp, be he innocent or guilty as hell, cannot answer because he's twelve years the grave? Well, now's the time!

Holy Week!