The Bishops are in Rome Facing a "Sin" Dilemma

In his book, God is Not One, Professor Stephen Prothero provides a one sentence summary of various world religions. These summaries are not stated in documents but what the practitioners of these religions talk and think about. Christianity in this sense, he wrote, is about sin.

Sin has painted the Catholic, and others such as Southern Baptists, into a corner. In the past, Catholic Bishops considered child sexual abuse by a priest to be a sin instead of a crime. This meant the Bishop was to forgive the sin. As Jesus was alleged to have said, "Go and sin no more." These sinners were just transferred from one parish to another to commit more child abuse sins and were again forgiven.

Eventually, victims and the press explained to clergy these "sins" are crimes. The reactions by some clergy was astonishment, "You mean some sins and are also crimes? Someone else will have to take care of the crime business. We only know about the sin business."

Complicating things is Christian theology.  A Bishop can say, "Wait. The abused child is a sinner too. It says so right there in the Bible. So, if there are two sinners, the priest and a child, I'm supposed to forgive the child but not the priest? Remember, we Catholic clergy were put here by Jesus himself to run the church. Jesus would want me to forgive the priest. If the child eventually confesses his/her sins I can forgive the child at that time."

In some parts of the world, child abuse is not a crime and in other parts the accused are quickly issued death sentence. After the Bishops at their current Rome gathering have prayed, begged for forgiveness and apologized they will be left with no option but to forgive the sinners, both the guilty priests and the "sinful" child victims. 

Sin is a human invention. Things would work better if clergy reduced their self importance and recognized sin for what it is. It is a technique that allows one person or group to feel superior to others.