Paedophilia and piety

'The moral authority of the Catholic Church is in jeopardy', Bishop Gregory reported that he said to the pope and other senior prelates at the Vatican, before the Pope's summons of the American bishops to a crisis conference.

Letter from America Josh Moody

It's hard not to agree with Bishop Gregory. The recent sex scandals in the Roman church must have dented its credibility. Paedophilia and piety do not make good bedfellows. What's more, there is some extraordinary blindness in this. One local priest got himself on a news radio programme and said that this scandal was not as bad as it seemed because often the victims were over 10 years old. Older children, he explained, recovered more quickly.