Religion & Law

Paul Moses, who teaches journalism at Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, responds to Weigel at dotCommonweal, here.  An excerpt:

"I don?t agree with his analysis. The reason goes back to something I told the U.S. bishops when I was invited to address them at a closed session of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in Pittsburgh in the late 1990s: that journalists aren?t especially interested in individual cases of sexual abuse, but are very interested in stories about cover-ups in powerful institutions. In other words, the best course for the bishops was to be truthful.

This is what has made clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church the subject of so many scathing reports, whether from the news media or grand juries: that a cover-up occurred at high levels in many dioceses. When a scandal of this proportion is uncovered, journalists will naturally want to see how far it goes ? the basis for the latest round of stories. To say that sexual abuse in other churches or other sectors of society does not get the same media attention misses the point. The issue isn?t that Catholic priests are allegedly prone to commit sexual abuse, but that a small percentage of them were freed to do so, again and again, due to gross mismanagement, secrecy and lack of accountability on the part of church authorities. However dated most of the sexual abuse cases are, this story still calls out to be covered because some of those who failed to stop repeat abusers remain in positions of authority."