The commission dismissed as implausible a central defense of the religious orders — that, in bygone days, people did not recognize the sexual abuse of a child as a criminal offense, but rather as a sin that required repentance.
In their testimony, religious orders typically cited this opinion as the principal reason why sex-predator priests and brothers were sheltered within the system and moved to new posts where they could still maintain daily contact with children.
It cited numerous examples where school managers told police about child abusers who were not church officials — but never did this when one of their own had committed the crime.
All of that, including the paragraph that Julie quoted that would have followed the first two, would be laughable if it weren't so despicable.
Institutional culture seems to be the same all over, "we didn't know, and even if we did we were not as bright as we are now." And then to top it all off, not even an apology, just the demand that no names of any perps ever be revealed or the actual reports ever released if the evidence was to be seen.
"Organized religion" indeed. Are we to think that even deity demands sex with children?
