Catholic Principal: The Church Cannot be Trusted to Run Schools

While outside of Pennsylvania where the Roman Catholic Church has recently fought tooth and claw to stop an effort to extend the statute of limitations for filing sex abuse lawsuits, the Catholic Church's never ending sex abuse scandal has been somewhat under the media radar.  The same cannot be said for the Church's situation where a royal commission continues to investigate the seeming institutionalize practice of permit the sexual abuse of minors and then covering up the offenses.  Now, a long time lay Catholic principal has stated that the Church simply cannot be trusted to run schools.  Indeed, he makes the case that the Church leadership not only turns a blind eye to abuse, but also attacks those who speak out to stop it.  The Age has a piece on the statements of the principal.  Here are excerpts:

A Catholic principal has blasted the Catholic Church, saying school leaders are being pressured into "inappropriate" situations and silenced.

Paul Tobias, the outspoken principal of St Joseph's College Geelong, has called for an urgent review of the governance of Catholic primary and secondary schools.

In a strongly worded submission to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Mr Tobias said people who expressed different views to the church could "expect to be penalised, isolated or have their careers impacted".

"Principals like myself, who express a view in relation to the pastoral needs of young people in their care, risk suffering the cultural consequences implicit in the statement, "You are either one of us or you are not,' " he said.

Mr Tobias also spoke of the "muted response" he received from Cardinal George Pell – who was then Archbishop of Melbourne – when he apologised in 2000 to former students who had been sexually abused.

He said Catholic principals had been largely silent throughout the royal commission – despite their schools being "prolific providers" of sex abuse victims.

"This silence does not indicate a lack of conviction but to me indicates a culture whereby those who are outspoken can expect the consequences," he said.

He also raised concerns about bishops appointing directors of the Catholic Education Office, sometimes without advertising the position. He suspects they appoint people who "tell them what they want to hear, rather than challenge them, especially around matters such as sexual abuse".

This led to issues being "glossed over", he claimed.

The sad truth is that one's child is much more likely to be sexually abused by a priest or Protestant pastor than by other members of society.  Every "Black Collar Crime" section in each issue of the Free Thought newspaper is truly shocking.  Every Christian denomination seems to be represented and the sexual crimes of clergy are a complete moral cesspool.