Blog
Protecting ALL the Innocent in the Sexual Abuse Crisis
April 13, 2011
In seeking to end the scourge of sexual abuse in the Church, it is essential to protect the innocent from sexual predators as well as to protect the innocent from false accusations. Church leaders have made significant progress on the former, but at times show too little regard for the latter, as CMA members Richard Fitzgibbons, M.D. and Peter Kleponis have demonstrated regarding events in Philadelphia. Since sexual abuse is widely recognized as a grave sin and a crime, it is all the more necessary to ensure that the reputations – and the very lives – of innocent men and women are not undermined by misunderstandings, let alone false accusations.
Fulfilling these duties to all innocent parties is rendered more difficult in our society by the unjust coverage by the major media of failures within the Church. This bias is not only unfair, but counter-productive, as it undermines the prevention and punishment of sexual abusers in other segments of our society. Those who distort the truth and turn a blind eye to other sectors in which sexual abuse takes place are enabling the very behaviors they claim to condemn.
All people of good will, both within and outside the Church, should accept nothing less than the highest standard of effectiveness in preventing sexual abuse, and the highest standard of justice regarding the innocent. To be effective, we must have the courage to identify and neutralize the key drivers of sexual abuse. To be just, we must be willing to protect both innocent children and innocent priests. To do any less is an inexcusable failure of charity and justice.
