Stories raise questions

The seemingly never-ending stories of sexual abuse and cover-up in the Catholic Church raise a couple of questions I have not seen discussed.

First, were such abuses limited to a handful of countries such as the U.S., Ireland, Chile, and Australia? One imagines that a church culture that permitted such abuses to occur is not constrained by geographic boundaries. So, as the word “catholic” denotes, abuse must undoubtedly have been universal.

In addition, and following from that conclusion, is this scourge peculiar to our times only? Again, it is difficult to avoid the further conclusion that this kind of moral depravity must have afflicted countless innocents in the Catholic Church throughout its history. Of course, we have no written record to buttress that conclusion but that cannot be surprising since it is only in our day that victims have spoken out with any possibility of being heard and believed.

It has been 500 years since Martin Luther sought to purge the Catholic Church of abuses he saw in his day and began the Reformation. How long before the church today comes completely out of denial, repents, and reforms itself?

— Reginald Killingley, Longview

https://www.news-journal.com/opinion/letter-unanswered-questions-for-catholic-church/article_90469f06-aa53-11e8-b849-1f8a7a131016.html