Someone at the Irish Catholic Church actually has a conscience

... And it's the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, as he comes forth and writes the very things that any good members of the Church should have said concerning the developing scandal involving the beatings and rapes of young children at the hands of wretched priests in religious reform schools and workhouses. Better late than never, I guess.

WHERE DOES the church go from here? The church has failed people. The church has failed children. There is no denying that. This can only be regretted and it must be regretted. Yet “sorry” can be an easy word to say. When it has to be said so often, then “sorry” is no longer enough.

But “sorry” must always be the first word.

See? All it took was for someone to step forth and show a little humility, a little remorse and shame for what happened. For someone to recognize that, yes, the Church has failed at the very thing it was supposed to be a vanguard for: protecting the moral decency of the world. But then again, this is only one example out of so many others that have yet to see the light ...

He does exactly the opposite of what Jackass Donahue did when he wrote his disgustingly ass-covering response to the scandal: he hammers home the importance of these crimes instead of trying to swipe them under the rug and blame the poor victims of decades of abuse and molestation as "miscreants".

The first thing the church has to do is to move out of any mode of denial. That was the position for far too long and it is still there.

Yes, there was abuse in other quarters. Yes, childcare policy in Ireland at the time was totally inadequate. But the church presented itself as different to others and as better than others and as more moral than others. Its record should have shown that and it did not. Ryan reveals church institutions where children were placed in the care of people with practically no morals.

I certainly don't say this often, but I do have to agree with just about everything Archbishop Martin writes. Well, almost. Of course I don't believe that the Catholic Church – or any Church, or any religion, even – are truly the guiding light of human morality on Earth; millenia of corruption, warring, bloodshed, massacres and acts of vile inhumanity and depravity have forever shattered that illusion in me, and countless others. Nowadays, really, the very least the Church can do to try and salvage what little credibility it has left is to recognize when it has failed – such as with the Irish Catholic Church.

(via Pharyngula)