Catholic Church Admits "complicity" in Sex Abuse Case

I nearly had to steady myself and grab some smelling salts after reading this story that I found via Civil Commotion (see my blog roll). The Catholic Church is actually admitting that it had some "complicity" in the sexual abuse of minors. This case involves a Swiss priest who was moved to France by superiors who knew he had already sexually abused at least one child. I for one am not going to hold my breath that this is the beginning of a new trend in honesty on the part of the Church. Likewise, I am not going to hold my breath waiting to see any high Church official punished for such misdeeds. Here are some story highlights (http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/front/Church_admits_complicity_in_sex_abuse_case.html?siteSect=105&sid=8648354&cKey=1200940713000&ty=st):

On Monday the Swiss Bishops Conference announced it would review its directives for handling suspected cases of paedophile crimes by priests. It comes after a high-ranking church official described as "complicit" the Church's failure to denounce the priest to civil authorities when it became aware as early as 1989 that he was a paedophile.

In an interview with Le Matin newspaper on Sunday, Nicolas Betticher of the diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg, explained how the Church moved the priest from Switzerland to Grenoble in France, where he admits sexually touching at least one child, his then 12-year-old nephew, in 1992. French authorities are now investigating the 67-year-old Capuchin priest, who has lived in the Montcroix monastery in Delémont, northern Switzerland, for two years. He has not yet been arrested.

He is not the only paedophile priest identified in French-speaking Switzerland. Betticher said there were three other cases "to our knowledge". In December the diocese made three of them public, including the current case, and paid compensation to the victims. It is believed the victim in the fourth case never made a formal claim for compensation.

Walter Müller, spokesman for the Swiss Bishops Conference, admitted the Church simply had swept the assaults "under the carpet". "We accepted a promise from those involved [not to repeat the offence] and just moved them elsewhere – as in the current case."