Why Does the Catholic Church Keep Failing on Sexual Abuse?

[trotsky]

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/02/sean-omalley-pope-francis-catholic-church-sex-abuse/582658/

This article is a few weeks old but still a good read, with lots of pertinent info.

...Problems with accountability are rooted in the structure of the Church itself. Dioceses, or local areas of governance, are like fiefdoms: Each one is organized in a slightly different way, with little centralized oversight above the level of the bishops or archbishop assigned to that region. Confusingly, many dioceses are also full of semiautonomous groups: Members of religious orders, for example, report not to bishops but to the heads of their organizations.

All of this exacerbates mistrust and confusion around the issue of clergy sexual abuse, because different dioceses and orders have all chosen to handle allegations in different ways. Some, such as the Archdiocese of Boston, have agreed to engage and potentially settle with any alleged victim, even if the legal statute of limitations on the abuse has long passed. Others, such as the Archdiocese of New York, spent years lobbying aggressively against state legislation to extend the statute of limitations on child-sexual-abuse claims, which passed in late January.

Some dioceses and orders have also been hesitant to do a public, historical reckoning, making wildly different choices about disclosing past crimes committed by priests. To this day, many still haven’t released a comprehensive list of credibly accused priests or other leaders who served in their institutions; there’s no consensus within the Church on how to balance justice for survivors with the rights of the accused. “I, for one, don’t exactly see why we should, because the names are already out there,” Timothy Dolan, the cardinal of New York, told The New York Times last fall.

You might encounter individuals, even right here on DU, who look to minimize the RCC abuse scandal by trying to reframe it as overall child sexual abuse, which happens in nearly every group of people in the world unfortunately. They may even demand "statistics" to prove it's worse in the Catholic church. Not only is that not the issue (it's the scope and structure of the scandal, not just that countless acts of abuse happened), but here's a little snip showing exactly why someone who is attempting that ploy is doing it:

But somehow, in terms of both technical reforms and moral reckoning, this issue remains unresolved. Nearly two decades after the Boston revelations, names of offenders and instances of abuse are still regularly being made public. It’s difficult to even know how many cases are still pending in the canon-law system, because the Vatican office in charge of overseeing sexual-abuse charges does not release those statistics. Some cases are known but haven’t been publicly acknowledged by the Church: Its disaggregated structure has enabled unevenness in how bishops address and publicize historical allegations of abuse. And a few Catholic leaders appear to have ignored or mishandled allegations, keeping accused clergy in ministry despite clear Church guidelines against that practice. Each time new revelations emerge, more survivors come forward: After a recent grand-jury report on the abuse was released in Pennsylvania, hundreds of people flooded a state clergy-abuse hotline with calls.

The public will never get to know the full extent of the RCC abuse scandal, because an integral part of the scandal itself is keeping hidden the statistics showing just how bad it is.

Don't waste your time with such dishonest individuals. They only look to defend the church instead of pursue justice for its victims. They'll make demands, equivocate, reframe the question, or even outright lie to accomplish their goals. They are part of the problem, not part of the solution.