The church’s view of these incidents was largely canonical: prayer, forgiveness, and reconciliation were all that mattered.
Criminal justice was shunned as a kind of vengeance, an expression of anger to be avoided.
In the end, they simply couldn’t practice their faith AND take the needed steps to protect children - let alone compensate those already abused.
If not for legal rulings and general public outrage, the church to this day would be protecting abusive priests, and telling victims to go pray.
that’s a pretty bizarre take Steve...if true