Pontification...

More than twenty years after the Catholic Church was first engulfed in the scandal of clerical child abuse, the Vatican has finally decided to abolish the rule of pontifical secrecy.

The Catholic Church has traditionally seen itself as above the law, protected by a wall of silence. Because of the secrecy rule, church officials were not obliged to share information with either state authorities or the victims of sexual abuse. Instead of being reported to the police, abusive priests were more likely to be moved from one parish to another, where, of course, their offending behaviour could continue unchecked (and, worse, with new victims). Those who suffered at the hands of paedophile priests were treated by the church more like perpetrators than victims. The church imposed on them the obligation of silence, in the hope that the problem would just go away.

I can’t bring myself to celebrate this apparent change of heart by the Catholic Church; the Pope only abandoned the rule of secrecy because no other course of action was available. The church has consistently put its own reputation before the welfare of victims. Instead of abandoning the rules on pontifical secrecy, the Pope should be begging for forgiveness.

Questions remain. Predatory priests seem remarkably unconcerned about the posthumous destinations of their own immortal souls. Don’t they believe in heaven and hell… and, if not, why not? Or do they know that their entire religious project is nothing more than a cynical sham?

Another twilight shot: The Sun Inn, in Kirkby Lonsdale, taken exactly five years ago and licensed today...