To Protect The Priests And Sacrifice The Children

Irish bonds have been reduced to junk status, but the general public hasn't paid much notice.

The latest report on clerical child abuse has been released and the information contained within is beyond shocking.

Should it come as any real surprise, given the Church's past history, that the orders from on high were to protect the hierarchy at all costs, and not worry about the human fall-out?

In the report recently published, the former Bishop of Cloyne, John Magee, has come under fire for his relaxed attitude towards pedophile priests, even after the Irish bishops had created a framework for dealing with the perverts.

After the scandal broke in the 1990's, it was supposed to be dealt with and the pedophiles unmasked and routed. The Cloyne Report reveals that such a house-cleaning didn't take place. Rather, the abuse continued.

As it turns out, Bishop Magee was only following orders from the Vatican, where the official position was to adhere strictly to canon law and if that meant breaking local laws, well, it's God's work they're doing and the laity just wouldn't understand.

Protect the hierarchy and don't worry about those they harmed, such was the Vatican's stand on the matter.

An Taoiseach Enda Kenny plans to meet with the Papal Nuncio, amid threats to expel the Holy See's representative, but such a meeting will do nothing to decrease the number of phone calls coming in to abuse victim help lines.

A few months back, there was talk about the Pope coming to Ireland for a visit. That excitement has been replaced by outrage, and it's doubtful that His Holiness will find a welcome on the Shamrock Shore in the near future.

Indeed, the fury that the Cloyne Report generated is about to create a fierce collision between the law of the land and the law of the Church. Mr. Kenny seems to be seriously considering new legislation that would require priests to go to the authorities if a child molester happens to confess.

The Irish bishops have only brought it upon themselves, by failing to adhere to reporting guidelines as mandated by civil law. Now they've walked into a new crisis that will further damage the Church, and that in a land that the world sees as the most Catholic on the planet.

Not for much longer, it appears.