Saints fight to avoid disclosing emails in Catholic abuse crisis (MERGED)

While I don’t deny there are good people in the service of the Catholic Church, lets be real. The tax-avoiding frauds at the top of the organisation have always been concerned with the accrual of wealth, property and influence at the expense of the actual morals and ethics they purport to teach. The leadership of the organisation is as close to God as I am to the sun.

For generations they have hidden behind complex legal structures devoid of any assets that have made it almost impossible for victims of abuse to sue and get any meaningful compensation for their suffering, all the while moving known pedophiles around the church network rather than assisting to bring them to justice.

The former Archbishop of Melbourne down here in Australia, who rose through the ranks to become the third most senior person in the Vatican, was last year jailed for pedophilia. This is the same person who oversaw the “Melbourne Response” which was a tepid inquiry that uncovered very little and resulted in the payment of meagre settlement sums to victims on the condition of confidentiality and a full release (unfortunately for most this was preferable to suing a corporate shell with no money).

So my personal issue is not whether or not the Saints gave the Archdiocese ethical or unethical advice, or told them to disclose or withhold certain names, or frame public statements in a particular way. My issue is with the team having any ongoing formal or informal relationship with this institution, the leadership of which has made a really good fist of ruining the lives of countless innocent children and protecting those who have been responsible.

I’ve always been uncomfortable with the relationship between the top brass at the Saints and the leadership of the Church but something like this elicits full-blown anger. They will get past it in due course, and nothing of note will happen to Mrs Benson, but I am hopeful someone has her ear and can persuade her how bad this looks for a professional football team.