Reminder

[Kromovaracun]

So, the past few weeks have been pretty busy for news - there's at least 3 very big stories that are ongoing (the News International scandal [which admittedly is starting to calm for the moment], the tragedy in Norway, and of course the death of Amy Winehouse).

What with that degree of activity, it's perfectly understandable that people will have their attention diverted a little.

But when I saw this link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/...world-europe-14272988

I was just grateful to be reminded that possibly the most atrocious scandal of the decade - the apparently global child sex abuse in the Catholic church - is still ongoing and still fully deserving of public attention.

What with having some time to reflect on it, and on the nature of scandals generally, do people think this particular one has 'run its course'? Can its impact go any further? Or is it 'old news', slowly slipping away into the history books? Personally, I hope it can continue to command attention and have impact - quite frankly, I hope it never goes away until the institutions and factors that allowed it to happen are changed beyond recognition. But I think at the back of my head, I'm starting to lean in the latter direction...

What do you guys think?

[albaqwerty]

I heard the Vatican had recalled their envoy to Eire (possibly) because of the comments made by the Taisoch (sorry for spelling)

Also there was some news yesterday about 2 bullet trains in China in a head-on collision with at least 33 dead and a massacre in Texas, 8 dead and the perpetrator turned the gun on himself.

Majority of news is Amy Winehouse.

[ummmm]

I think that while there are still living victims....it will never go away.

Nor should it....

It's not just sex abuse though....someone I know recently got compensated 90k for the physical abuse he received while in the care of 'The Christian Brothers'

Too little....too late.

[venator]

True, krom & alba - also there are calls for fiscal union in Europe as the only way to make the Euro project work, and we're blindly marching into the United states of Europe.

[albaqwerty]

One of my great-aunts had a 'typing exercise book' printed circa 1920/1930 and one of the typing exercises was about 'The United States of Europe'. personally I thought to hang with that for an exercise, it made for much more interesting reading.

I have googled to no avail for no other reason than to prove I didn't imagine it.

When the Euro became the currency of choice, that stirred my memory.

[New Judge]

The Euro is not a “currency of choice” for the majority of the citizens of the countries that now use it, albaqwerty. Given the choice the vast majority of them (certainly in the less prosperous countries) would have preferred to have kept their individual currencies – along with control of their economies.

The single currency was a project with the potential for disastrous consequences on an epic scale. Those risks were well voiced prior to its introduction and have now come to haunt the stupid politicians who endorsed it (well those who have not either died or moved to greener pastures, that is). It was a project devised to satisfy political vanity and had no basis in economics or finance. It was doomed not to work and is only being sustained by the stubbornness of politicians who are too vain to admit that a mistake was made. Meanwhile the damage to the Global economy is immense.

[plautus]

All my French friends would revert to the franc like a shot, if for no other reason than the significant cost of living caused by the introduction of the euro.

[andy-hughes]

From my experience, a cornerstone of the Catholic faith is the ability not to see what it doesn't wish to see.

Child abuse falls squarely into this catagory.

You have to remember that the hierarchy consist of old celibate men who have already proved that they agree with the 'system' the way it is, and that they have no intention of changing it. They have no concept of the damage that abuse does - only the reverence in which priests are held, which encourages them in the notion that they can do exactly as they please - which they then proceed to do.

My mother-in-law is a lovely woman, an Irish Catholic in her seventies, and i swear that if the priest came round and took a dump on the lounge carpet, she would say it is good for the pile!

[emmie]

I wouldn't say it's old news, and if you were a victim suggest that this story has not run its course. Cover up of wide scale abuse, and would suggest its not just in the last few years, but many, and the people who suffered at the hands of these vile people should get recompense, not sure how, but if that were me, i would want to make them pay.

[Kromovaracun]

Oh, it's definitely been going on for a long time (there are cases that emerged back in the '80s). But to me at least the scandal really seems to have broken out majorly about a year or so ago. Plus the -constant- stream of reports confirming widespread existence from multiple parts of multiple countries is surely new.

Maybe it's just because I'm not old enough to remember the ones from a longer time ago, I don't know.