Paul Murty made several appalling claims in his column last Friday. First, he claimed there were “pretty valid reasons” for the cover-ups of sexual abuse. The only reason he gave is a shortage of priests. Is that a reason to cover up child sex abuse? What about a teacher shortage? Then he claimed “people seem to think that these problems are only in the Catholic Church,” implicitly blaming the media for the misconception.
The truth is that the general media enthusiastically covers sex abuse cases stemming from relatives, educators, community leaders, doctors, etc. Justice is regularly served to those offenders; priests have evaded justice with help from their church superiors. Also, his only cited source comes from a book written by a conservative Catholic apologist, Philip Jenkins, in 1996. It is therefore irrelevant to the scandals that have since emerged. The media investigations of child sex abuse cover-ups within the Catholic Church have led to legal investigations, punishment for robed sex offenders, remediation to victims and changes in national education policies.
The church has gone to lengths to protect robed sex abusers time and time again. Murty would rather the media show fairness to religions by covering scandals of this nature for a week, per religion. The victimization of countless children has been ignored by the church hierarchy for decades. Sustained media coverage is absolutely warranted, commendable and necessary to prevent further abuses.
