To Tell The Truth

I've really begun to feel sorry for the Roman Catholic Church, even as I look askance at their accusations of persecution. (But then again, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins are looking to have the Pope arrested, and as they say: You aren't paranoid if they're really out to get you.) But it's not the crime, it's the cover-up, and in this case, the fact that the scandal just never seems to go away is fueling the idea that everything we've seen to date is just the tip of the iceberg.

While I must admit to being somewhat weary of the Church's claims that it's being persecuted, the lengths that people are starting to go to dig up new dirt and the scandal itself, I hope that I'm learning something from all of this. My mother was once very Catholic, and when she told me that she'd left the Church, I was sure that something had gone very, very wrong with the world. And I realized that actions taken and not taken reach very far beyond the actors themselves. Once the scandal had gained legs, and people realized that it was going to be with them for a while, my parents came to me, and wanted to know if I had been molested as a child or teen. I think I managed to allay their concerns, but even the fact that the scandal hadn't touched her family directly wasn't enough to stop the erosion of what I had always considered to be the single most important thing in my mother's life.

I don't ever want to be a party to something that does that to someone. Ever. Now, the only trick is being smart enough to see such a thing coming, and brave enough to stand up to it.