By Joel Thurtell
In the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic church got to act as prosecutor in cases touching every walk of life. The church’s behavior was justified by authorities as “defending the faith.”
Legally, in many countries, the Church no longer has state powers and can’t investigate and prosecute people.
But the medieval mentality lives on. The church can still get away with behavior that should have ended with the Middle Ages.
That’s the only way I can explain the reaction of the church after Belgian police and prosecutors raided the Roman Catholic headquarters and seized evidence of sexual abuses by priests.
Here is the comment, quoted from the June 25, 2010 New York Times:
The Vatican’s Friday statement, which was signed by two deputy secretaries of state and the ambassador of the Holy See to Belgium, raised the prospect that victims’ confidentiality had been breached by the seizure of documents relating to abuse allegations.
The church was investigating complaints of sexual abuse by clerics. Records of that probe were seized by the police. Appears church officials granted anonymity to witnesses.
In other words, the church is behaving like the medieval institution its officials still believe it is. By whose authority does the church get to investigate crimes and grant anonymity?
In a modern state, this is utter crap.
Episcopal nonsense.
Clerical doo-doo.
Only the state has the authority to conduct this kind of criminal investigation, granting anonymity and immunity. For church officials to scream that their witnesses have been compromised is sheer hypocrisy. What made them think that in this modern era they could conduct their own private inquisition? If anyone compromised those people, it was church officials who undertook an investigation they had no right to conduct.
There is one difference between the medieval church and today’s clerical “investigators.” No chance these days that the church will prosecute or punish any of the clerical criminals it uncovers. The pope himself turned a blind eye to abuses when he was a German prelate.
What the Belgian authorities did was raid an ongoing coverup.
It took guts to raid the church’s headquarters. The raid stands out because it is virtually unheard of for state authorities to challenge church fathers, even when the priestly bosses manifestly harbor criminals.
Wish some of our U.S. prosecutors would summon the same kind of courage.
The medieval state of mind still fluorishes. Cops and prosecutors seem unwilling to investigate a church that has all too much political power, even in the United States.
Drop me a line at joelthurtell@gmail.com
