“Protecting Children and Imagining the Worst”

Patricia Snow of New Haven, CT, writes in First Things of the Catholic Church’s self-protection programs in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal.

Instead of focusing on the reality of the problem–homosexual priests preying upon teenage boys, and the cover-ups by bishops–the Catholic Church has tried to say “everyone” is at risk and “anyone” might be an abuser. Thus, all volunteers must get herded through “protection” programs like “Virtus,” and volunteers are treated as suspects who must be feared by one another. Snow writes of ridiculous things she’s experienced, like being told a group of teenage girls couldn’t meet on the stage of a gym while younger children were having classes in the gym because of the fear that the older girls might abuse the younger children. Even though the spaces were separate and there were adult chaperones with each group.

She wonders how Christian community can exist in such circumstances.

Rod Dreher comments.