NEWS BLOG (WSAU) A comment I overheard about religion and the Catholic church: “Why would I want to belong to a church that’s covered up such awful things?”

There’s a priest sex-abuse scandal in Ireland and Germany, and it is also dragging up stories in the U.S. Among them is the shameful tenure of Rembert Weakland at the Milwaukee archdiocese, where pedophile priests were slow to be investigated and were sometimes moved from one assignment to another.

One of the problems with the Catholic church sex scandal in the U.S. is that it is literally rotting the Church from within. The victims were, in many cases, from the most devout families. Some victims were encouraged by the families to become altar boys; others had parents who regularly invited priests into their homes. Others, like the molestation case of Rev Lawrence Murphy at St. John School for the Deaf in Milwaukee, involve priests using positions of power to prey on the weak and vulnerable.

I personally believe the sex scandal is getting better, and that new policies will ultimately be affective at rooting out problem priests. I also believe there is a lot of dirty laundry to be aired, some of it dating back for decades. The Church is run by men – with all the same human failings as the general population. Some clergy have affairs. Some steal from the collection plate. Some are drunks. Part of having faith is believing that God watches over His church, and that justice awaits for abusers.

Chris Conley
Operations Manager, Midwest Communications-Wausau
4.7.10

Columnist Pat Buchanon writes more about this: http://tinyurl.com/ylhn8gy