Quote:
Catholic orders deny protecting pedophilesTwo Catholic orders have denied colluding to protect pedophile members of the clergy, but say they accept some responsibility for the crimes committed.One in four St John of God brothers and 14 priests of the Salesian order have been the subject of child abuse complaints in Victoria, a state parliamentary inquiry heard on Monday.
More than 100 abuse cases have been upheld in the Catholic Church's Ballarat diocese alone since 1975. More than 60 per cent of them involved one offender, the defrocked priest Gerald Ridsdale - who has been convicted.
...
The inquiry was told that 49 complaints had been made against 14 priests of the Salesian order.
The order had paid out more than $2.06 million in compensation over 37 of those complaints.
And all these stories are
still going on. This is going to take at least a good generation or two at least to work through, I reckon.
I hope the Catholic Church's power and hold becomes irreparably broken, at least in Western countries, frankly. This stuff runs through the Church like the imprint runs through a stick of Blackpool rock.
