2002-01-07
We are all horrified by the allegations about the Catholic Church's inaction during John Geoghan's child rape spree through three decades, six parishes and 130 children (Boston Globe, 2002-01-06 and 2002-01-07). But we should not be surprised.
In the ever brightening light of human knowledge, an organization with a doctrinal claim on absolute truth must make a business of ever more forcefully denying the obvious. For the Catholic Church, accustomed to denials of such obvious facts as Papal fallibility (ex cathedra) or the tragedy of overpopulation and its own culpability therein, denying that one otherwise insignificant priest is a serial child rapist is, to use an unfortunate metaphor, child's play.