Pope's outreach to Anglicans overshadowed by clerical sexual abuse

Across the pope’s outreach to conservative Anglicans this past week falls the shadow of 25 years of sex abuse scandals, writes E.E. Evans at GerReligion, most of which "involve mostly pederasts — clergy abusing children."

Add to that "Catholic clergy who have affairs with [adult] women" - a subject which Get Religion suggests deserves more coverage:

Why hasn’t the media, particularly the Roman Catholic press, spent more time on this issue, if it is indeed more common that we’d like to think? On the other hand, when Protestant figures are caught with their pants down, the media seems to dwell on the particulars of the acts rather than trying to examine the surrounding culture of the parish or the denomination. That doesn’t serve much of a purpose beyond titillation.

One recent survey by Baylor University does say clerical abuse of adult parishioners is commonplace. There is data on the psychological profiles of sexually abusive clergy and the techniques they apply. There are research findings that predators consider church members "easy to fool" and the church's propensity for forgiveness convenient.

All of which, we join GetReligion in suggesting, deserves more coverage.