The story related in last week's Pennsylvania grand jury report had all the ingredients of a classic sex abuse scandal: a popular, successful authority figure suspected for years of molesting boys, a host of higher-ups unwilling to report him to police and a trail of vulnerable children left to suffer unspeakable violations while powerful adults looked the other way.
That stomach-churning pattern — of a wily predator victimizing children with impunity while his bosses passed the buck — is sadly familiar to Catholics. For nearly a decade now, Catholics have watched their church's reputation dragged through the mud thanks to a mix of predatory priests and negligent bishops who enabled their abuse.
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