On Good Friday, Father Raniero Cantalamessa, the Pope’s “official preacher”, quoted a letter from a Jewish friend:

”The stereotyping, the transfer of personal responsibility and blame to a collective blame reminds me of the most shameful aspects of anti-Semitism. I have followed with disgust the violent attack … against Church and Pope . . . .”

The media didn’t like that – and are claiming that two-thirds of Americans say the Pope has handled charges of abuse by priests poorly.

The human race has handled child abuse poorly, that is for sure.

Trying to demonise the Church may not be helping.

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Is it honest to say the Church is the worst offender in this matter? Or are such suggestions lies?

Who knows?

Well, anybody who wants to know, can know.

A study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, found that from 1950 to 2002 about 4.1 percent of American priests (4,392 of 109,000) were accused of having sexual relations with minors. Just 0.1 percent (one in 1000) were convicted.

In the same period, 60 times as many gym teachers and junior sporting team coaches were convicted of such crimes.

A 2004 study, headed by Professor Charol Shakeshaft of Hofstra University, New York, reported the rate of sexual abuse of students by teachers in schools being over 100 times that of priests. (U.S. Department of Education, Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature, Washington, D.C., 2004)

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Headlines saying “it involves the Pope” refer to an episode in the Archdiocese of Munich, where the Pope was Archbishop in 1980. The court decided, among other things, that the decision to accept the accused priest into the Archdiocese had not been taken by Cardinal Ratzinger.

Why should a German newspaper suddenly give its front page to a court case settled 20-odd years ago?

At present, political decisions are being made about the abortion pill, euthanasia, and recognising same-sex unions — only the Pope and his Church are speaking out to defend the sacredness of human life and the normal family.

The anti-life, anti-family, media-owning, wealthy, power-mongers are determined that any who stand in their way shall be discredited.