Estimated 330,000 victims of child sex abuse in French Catholic Church since 1950, commission finds. Church says sorry.
External Link/Members OnlyThis is not to discuss the religion itself, but to ask what governments should do to stem tides of criminal activity in organisations over which they have little if any control?
The difficulty it seems is not tarring many with the same brush or appearing to oppose peoples’ rightful freedom to follow whatever organisations they choose — when those organisations are nominally legal and good. Similarly we must respect the vast majority of good, law abiding Muslims and not confuse them with terrorists. Or call all members of animal rights groups criminals who damage property to free animals. Or think all conservationists are potential M25 blockers. These are very diverse examples of collectives that do much harm under an umbrella of legitimacy.
MI5 (and has long monitored generally peaceful and law-abiding groups such as Greenpeace. Their phone calls have been routinely hacked for more than thirty years but the level of criminality is very low. MI6, and the equivalent French security services, are probably stretched — but there must be other channels.
What else can be done? Taxation? alternatives?
Somehow saying ‘sorry’ doesn’t seem enough.
