EDITORIAL – Priest must be investigated fairly and transparently

Another priest has again been accused of sexually abusing young children. Fourteen teenaged students of the Abellana National School have complained that one of the priests who helped facilitate a " Life in the Spirit " seminar touched their private parts during confession.

Our fear is that some of those who are predisposed to defend any and all priestly behavior may, at this very moment, be already hatching sinister plots to turn the tables on the accusers, such as we have seen on many similar occasions in the past.

Or, as one education official has already been reported as doing, Christian charity is being invoked for the students to forgive the priest. It would be interesting to find out how the official would react if asked whether the priest had the same charity toward the students.

But of course the cart cannot be placed before the horse. The matter has to be thoroughly investigated. All that the public demands is for everyone to be given a fair shake and for the whole investigation to be transparent.

The public is getting uneasy with these increasing incidents of wayward priestly behavior, especially in light of a clear tendency of the Roman Catholic Church to protect priests at all cost.

Perhaps some study should be made to determine whether this tendency of the Church to instinctively protect in tight embrace all of its priests who are accused of wrongdoing is not in itself a huge contributing factor toward encouraging more priests to err.

One of the biggest mistakes that seems to continue seizing the Church in a vise-like grip is the notion that priests and the faith are the same, that questions pertaining to the integrity of a priest are a blasphemous and sacrilegious assault on the faith itself.

Nothing can be more wrong. To the overwhelming number of Roman Catholics, the Holy Mother Church remains inviolate despite the many mistakes committed by an increasing number of priests. Proof is the increasing passion of people for the faith despite plummeting confidence in priests.