Reuters reports on the Vatican’s decision to “revise Church law on sexual abuse of children by priests, doubling a statute of limitations and introducing penalties for child pornography, Catholic Church sources said on Thursday.”
Responding to the amendment and ever-growing stigma attached to the Catholic Church, John DuRant writes an op-ed for news blog The Blogland of Earl Capps urging the public to move beyond their obsession with scandal and instead recognize the reality of the problem and ways we might be able to alleviate it:
I would like to suggest just a few simple ideas to help prevent sexual misconduct.
The first step is to realize that it can happen anywhere – even in your small country church. Once you and your congregation understand that simple fact then it makes implementation of a plan that much easier. You must have open and honest communication with your officers and your congregation. The congregation needs to understand how implementing a plan will benefit the church. The purpose of a successful sexual misconduct prevention plan should do the following: 1. Protect your young people. 2. Protect your staff and volunteers from false accusations and 3. Simply make yours a better protected church.
Read more on the Vatican’s plan for revision, or see DuRant’s levelheaded response.