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Perhaps the Roman Catholic Church finally is living up to its own teachings by protecting children from predator priests. Events last week may be evidence of that.
Pope Francis met with a group of U.S. bishops to discuss the situation. And the church revealed it is investigating just-retired Bishop Michael J. Bransfield of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston -- though he is accused of sexual harassment of adults, not sexual assault of children.
Each and every priest guilty of harming children or, for that matter, adults, should be punished. So should any church official who aided and abetted them.
But what of those outside the church who could have prevented some of the crimes and refused to do so?
What happens when you tell a police officer or prosecutor you're the victim of a crime and he sides with the predator?
A few weeks ago, a long-anticipated Pennsylvania grand jury report detailing a pattern of sexual abuse by priests was released. About 300 "predator-priests" were identified. At least 1,000 people, most children, were victimized.
In some cases, police and prosecutors knew.
Overlooked by some in their anger at the predators and church officials who protected them is the horrifying -- and that is the word for it -- complicity of law enforcement.
According to the report:
n In 1964, a Beaver County district attorney stopped investigations of sexual assault by priests. He sent a bishop in Pittsburgh a letter stating he had done so "to prevent unfavorable publicity …"
n In 1995, the Diocese of Harrisburg did do the right thing. It sent "photographic negatives and videotape cassettes" showing a priest abusing children to the local prosecutor. No charges were filed.
n In 1980, a Catholic monsignor found pictures of a priest engaging in sex with a "young boy." Somehow, the local prosecutor became aware of the situation. According to the monsignor, a church attorney "informed me that the prosecutor had assured him if the parents would not make an issue of the matter, he would not prosecute." The priest was moved out of that county.
There are other accounts of prosecutors being given evidence of priests assaulting children and not prosecuting them. Interestingly enough, the vast majority of the accounts I read involved prosecutors -- not police -- letting predators walk away from their crimes.
I've known a fair number of police officers and sheriff's deputies. Each and every one has considered protecting children to be his or her top priority.
I suspect some of my acquaintances wearing blue, gray and green would like to have a few minutes in private with the prosecutors cited above.
So this is far from a sweeping indictment of everyone involved in law enforcement. Clearly, the church bears far, far more responsibility.
Every profession has a few bad apples, however.
What happens to them? Statutes of limitations may preclude arresting some of the justice system officials who helped cover up abuses by priests. I suspect there are no such time limits on kicking them out of the practice of law, however.
By all means, let's cleanse the church of predators. At the same time, though, a focused campaign of bringing to justice any complicit cops and prosecutors needs to be launched.
Myer can be reached at: mmyer@theintelligencer.net.