Church should have heeded lesson of history on child abuse

THE Catholic Church might appear to be facing its gravest and most desperate hour. Not so.

Historian JF Loughlin of Catholic Encyclopaedia fame wrote of the challenges that confronted Pope Adrian VI upon his investiture in 1522: “His Holiness had to reform a court that thrived on corruption, and detested the name of reform.”

In his first major address to his Christian flock, Pope Adrian launched a scathing attack on the Church, which was rocked by scandals of all sorts. He declared: “So much has vice become the accepted norm that those who are polluted are no longer aware of the stench. I ask you, my brethren, where will it end?”