Recently the bomb regarding the alleged child abuse by priests has exploded. From numerous countries reports are coming in of victims of child abuse by catholic priests. The Vatican tried to calm the reactions of the people down and to temper the allegations. However a comment by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone set up new trouble for the Vatican. He claimed that paedophilia was linked to homosexuality and there was no relationship between celibacy and paedophilia. Of course the Vatican distanced itself from his comments but they could not prevent their image taking another blow. The reason I wrote this comment is because I want to reflect on the way the catholic church is responding to all of this. First of all: the Vatican should have never tried to refer the allegations as minor problems. During the past years the church tried to cover up the cases of abuse by catholic priests and actually succeeded in it. However it is, in my opinion, morally wrong to keep this secret and not punish the offenders. According to the news articles many people have been abused in their childhood by priests and they could not let anyone know about it in the past. The covering up by the catholic church and the fact that they still try to ‘explain’ why it happened by blaming the child abuse on homosexuals is shocking. Child abuse is not something to take easily and cannot be justified, morally and legally. The statement of Cardinal Bertone explained once more that some catholic members do not understand the seriousness of this case. The duty to bring ‘the light of God’ by priests will never be the same: they are to blame themselves.
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