Let me first of all alert you to a quote from Monsignor Alex Stenson, who was Chancellor to three Bishops in the 80s and 90s.  In a recent interview for a Catholic newspaper he says:

What abusers did was wrong. It was dreadful, but was it always sinful? It was always wrong. Sinful? I am not so sure at times.

You can read the full article here, but it is now clear to me, as if it were ever in doubt, this church needs to take a look at itself, its membership, its doctrine, its values and how it continues justifying itself in the face of incontrovertible evidence that it is as very sick organisation.  Monsignor Stenson’s chief apologectic tactic is to say that the church’s intentions were to maintain respect and confidentiality for all concerned.  It is difficult to believe this.  It seems to me that the Church was primarily concerned with maintaining its position of authority in this country and they were damned if a few raped children were going to get in their way. The justification of the Bishop’s actions are layered on top of the current tactic of saying that its intentions were always good.

Yesterday I saw a bunch of hooligans burning some rubbish on a building site near a secondary school.  I phoned the Garda Siochana and the Fire Brigade.  I thought this was an obvious thing to do.  You see something happening that is wrong and you call the relevant authorities. I didn’t respect the privacy of the criminals that were setting the fire.  I didn’t see a need for confidentiality.  I phoned the cops and got the thing sorted.

It would have been wrong not to!