[Note: Friends of Justice is a personal blog. I speak only for myself.]
“As hard as this may be to read or hear, it must be understood. Common sense is now officially suspended when it comes to Catholic priests and sexual abuse. A moral panic has taken its place. It is especially painful – even catastrophic – when the Catholic media and the highest levels of Church governance suspend a search for truth and settle only for the fastest means to smother the fires of scandal. We have lost our way.”
The National Center for Reason and Justice believes in the innocence of Gordon MacRae and have been sponsoring his case for many years. Read his blog post about the current moral panic.
Also read this rebuttal of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report.
I read the report. There is no way to know how credible the charges are, & unfortunately we will never know. I also find some of the accusations bizarre & improbable. But it is important at least to credit the real harm that was done, and most of the accusations are pretty garden-variety stuff.
Seems to me, the trauma any of these kids felt had more to do with the near-worship they felt for the priests, and the ways the priests used their position as the representatives of the Pope, or even God himself, to do what they wanted. Add to that a totally patriarchal institution with a celibate clergy, and abuse is inevitable.
The rebuttal is as biased as the report.
I agree with Judith. A grand jury report — written by the prosecuters — is a list of accusations. It is not evidence. Some percentage of the accusation will be true, in this case likely a high percentage. But the media has a bad habit of emphasizing the most outlandish accusations. It is easier to rail against absolute evil than it is to address actual problems.