Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights leader Bill Donohue issued some scathing statements targeting Pennsylvania’s state government, going so far as to claim legislators are engaging in an open “witch hunt” on those who share his faith.
Donohue’s statements came in response to a highly anticipated grand jury report which focuses on the sexual abuse of children by Catholic institutions. While Donohue certainly couldn’t deny the church has had issues with sexual misconduct between pastors and young church attendees in the past, he seemed perplexed as to why the Catholic church was singled out.
“What about sports coaches, Boy Scout leaders, psychologists, public school teachers, rabbis, ministers, and every other group of adults who work with children or adolescents?” he said. “Anyone who knows anything about the subject of the sexual abuse of minors knows that there is not a single such group or institution that has not had a lousy record of dealing with this problem.”
Pennsylvania has a poor reputation in the United States when it comes to the children’s safety. Reports of sexual abuse of students by public school teachers have quadrupled since 2007, and the state currently ranks #2 in teacher sex crimes overall. Obviously, this isn’t a list state authorities want to rank high in…
Later on in his statement, Donohue turned his attention to State Rep. Mark Rozzi, who has repeatedly called for a statewide probe of the Catholic Church. The legislator has also pushed for a crackdown on private schools, which Donohue suggests is a code word for Catholic schools.
“Why has he never similarly called for a statewide probe of Pennsylvania’s government schools, given that his state has ranked number two in the country in teacher sex crimes?” Donohue posed.
Clearly, Pennsylvania has a massive problem few legislators are willing to work to overcome. If we’re being intellectually honest, we cannot ignore the Catholic Church’s history when it comes to the abuse of minors. However, if the goal in all of these legislative efforts is truly to bring a stop to it, why is the church singled out? Clearly, such an overall should target every public service that caters to children — including public schools. Apparently, lawmakers like Rizzo are unwilling to go that far, and feel that it’s safer (and perhaps more politically savvy) to go after a religious organization instead.
“In every case, the answer is the same,” Donohue concluded. “Their real interest is sticking it to the Catholic Church, not protecting children. The coming grand jury report is just more of the same.”
~ 1776 Christian
