Abuse in the Catholic Church: What About the Girls?

I didn’t even know there were girls involved in the Catholic church scandal, though the fact that no mention of them was made does not surprise me in the least. It seems to me that, in general, when women are objectified, society turns a blind eye, regardless of the context.

It’s taken weeks for the Pope to go from “no comment” to “it’s wrong to go after the Church” to “tearful promises to do better”.

But they won’t do better, will they? If they were going to take responsibility, they would have by now. They wouldn’t have compared the uproar to antisemticism, or blamed homosexuals for pedophile priests. They’ll stall until the issue runs out of steam, and then it’s back to business as usual, just like the last times it’s come up.

So we’re left with some solid gold questions. Here are three in particular that bother me:

Why does confession only apply to laity, and not the clergy?

How can anyone trust a moral authority if morality doesn’t apply to them?

How much trouble is the Catholic Church in REALLY, if they’re willing to shuffle pedophiles around the world instead of protecting kids?

With the numbers coming out, I think I had the girls in mind. When I hear “200 deaf children,” I think children, boys AND girls. Regardless, it’s awful, but I like the point you make:

“Have we become so numb to the fact that on average, many more women will have been abused than men, and so the media only finds it sensational enough to cover the boys?”

Thank you for this article.

Abuse of women by Catholic priests is very old news. The number of Catholic authorities in the middle ages that kept mistresses (including nuns) is part of the church history. And there was a big scandal in Ireland not too long ago and a movie about it) about girls. Needless to say, although non- consensual, coercive sex between people in power and the powerless, often young victims, seems part of the natural history of our species…..it should not be condoned, pardoned or ignored.
What kills me is that the Catholic church lays down so many rules on the sexual behavior of their world wide congregation and yet cannot control the sexual behavior of their own committed priests. Such hypocrisy!

Jesus said you could recognize his true vs.false Christians by their “fruits”. The Catholic church is suppose to be a christian religion and claims to represent Christ, his teachings and the Bible . How would he feel about their “fruits”? I don’t only mean this sex scandal but their long, dark history of corruption, involvement with politics and war, greed, perversion of justice, genocides of natives, keeping people from reading or distributing the Bible in their mother tongue, etc. A mere claim to be a follower of Christ is not enough to make it so. God’s word sets out the standards true Christians must live by and makes no laity vs. clergy distinction (in fact, those taking the lead in shepherding God’s sheep are suppose to set the example and hold to even higher standards).
Matt. 7:15,16: “Likewise every good tree produces fine fruit, but every rotten tree produces worthless fruit; a good tree cannot bear worthless fruit, neither can a rotten tree produce fine fruit”.
Matt. 7:21-23: “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will. Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ And yet then I will confess to them: I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness”.
The Catholic Church did not write the Bible. They are not above what is written in it. I am appalled that they are so arrogant. Jesus was the perfect example of humility. I see no reflection of that in the Catholic church or the Pope. Their “fruits” are quite evident.