Catholic church should be a proscribed organization

If an organization repeatedly breaks the law relating to serious crime, then it should be considered a gang, and, like terrorist groups or some bikie gangs, be proscribed.

But the Roman Catholic church, a serial offender on child sexual abuse, at the very least an accessory after the fact, gets away with it, despite the public being more than aware (indeed "ho-hum") about each new revelation of such crimes, which are incorporated into many "comedic" routines.

If a cabal of child-molesters or child-pornographers had as many members as the Roman Catholic church in Australia has guilty priests and after-the-fact accessories, it would be proscribed, and every member put under surveillance at the very least.

Most Australian jurisdictions have mandatory reporting for child sexual abuse, with failure to report such a serious matter to police considered a crime.  Most Australian jurisdictions have the hindering of a police investigation a crime, and telling suspects they are under covert investigation by the police would normally fall foul of such regulations.

Yet the Roman Catholic church continues to be an accessory-after-the-fact, and although everyone in the community knows such criminal actions are deeply embedded in the culture of the church hierarchy, there is no widespread public pressure for a serious inquiry, and nothing like the public approval for the inquiry launched because of the revelations about Scientology by Senator Nick Xenophon.

Who is complicit in greater harm to Australian society, flouts greater taboos: the Roman Catholic church hierarchy who seem to do their best to cover up child sexual abuse, or the leadership of proscribed bikie gangs, with criminal activity involving illicit substances, robberies, and violence mostly directed towards each other’s members?

If treated equally, the bikie gangs would get tax breaks as charitable organizations, and politicians would proudly extol their adherence to the moral code of those gangs.

Imagine if another (undeservedly) respected wealthy group, such as the board of a bank, covered up such crimes by bank managers!

Yet the inaction of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, even in just individual cases, allows, or perhaps encourages, more children to be molested by those scum they already know have committed offences (The Australian 2009-12-05).  The Roman Catholic hierarchy continues to tip off scumbags that they are under covert investigation (The Age 2009-12-03, making it harder for police to catch criminals.

This constant behaviour of the hierarchy can only lead clerics and those employed in positions of responsibility by the church to believe that they are more likely to escape justice, weakening any impact of deterrence under law, and thus increase the probability of future crimes by others protected by the church, whether already engaged in obscene activities or still merely tempted by such crimes.

The scumbags are probably correct thinking they can continue and get away with it, protected by their church, which is itself apparently protected by politicians.

If politicians were serious about preventing child sexual abuse, and helping victims, there’d be a search warrant issued for covert infiltration of all computer systems of the church, looking for documentation about possible offenders that have not yet been brought to police attention.

If Roman Catholic adherents were serious about the abhorrence of child sexual abuse, there would be mass apostasy, or at least migration to other denominations; every donor that wears a crucifix would also proudly display an "I support an organization that helps child sexual abusers run rampant" badge.

If the public was serious about the abhorrence of child sexual abuse, there would be constant demands for a Royal Commission into the Roman Catholic church hierarchy, and all clerics and members would be shunned as guilty by association.

Have Malka Leifer and those that helped her escape justice been pursued by the authorities, even though the bulk of her wider Jewish community were outraged?  Frankly, however much I disklike the Zionist-leaning "Australian Jewish News", it has behaved much more honorably than the publications from the wider Christian community.

The public only seems to get knickers in a twist about recognized artists photographing with the consent of parents, or "weirdo" minorities like Scientologists who don’t have form spanning millenia.

It’s as if the beatitudes said "Allow the little children to suffer so that more people will believe in me".

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See Also:

• "Inaction on behalf of Catholic education responsible for child rape" (Sean The Blogonaut, 2009-12-06).
   
• "Inaction on rape ‘criminal’" (The Australian, 2009-12-02)
   
• "Church has failed to learn its lessons" (The Australian, 2009-12-05)
   
• "Archbishop to contact police over abuse tipoffs" (The Age, 2009-12-04) – NO, the police should be contacting HIM
   
• "Second priest in sex claim tipoff" (The Age, 2009-12-03)
   
• "Irish Catholic church hid sex abuse for decades" (The Age, 2009-11-27)
   
• "Priests warned to ignore letter on child abuse" (The Age, 2009-10-29)
   
• Unsurprisingly, Tony Abbott’s ‘Forgotten Australians’ speech talking of institutions and child sexual abuse (Abbott’s personal website, 2009-11-11) doesn’t mention the word "catholic" once, except in an indirect manner, and primarily concerned with one institution – Fairburn:
  

  I was taken to task for stressing the ideals of at least some of the institutions concerned, and the good intentions of at least some of the people who worked there.  Some people were indeed helped, while many were damaged. For many individuals there were entries on both sides of the ledger.

  Hypocritical apologist!  Search for ‘sexual abuse’ and ‘catholic’ on Abbott’s web site, then Search for ‘sexual abuse’ and ‘aboriginal’ on Abbott’s web site and see if which articles are laudatory or condemnatory of the groups in question – but the title of one ‘A JOYFUL DISPLAY OF FAITH’ shoud give a hint!)  But perhaps he is no worse than any politician who shakes hands or expresses support for those leading the peak body in Australia.

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