Try not to think Catholic thoughts today, if you can help it

I know, it's Thanksgiving in America, and I've already been curmudgeonly enough for you—but I have to do you the favor now of ruining your appetite with this tale of institutionalized child abuse in Ireland. It involves the Catholic Church, of course (and isn't that unsurprising ennui just another indication of Catholicism unsavory reputation?).

Authorities enjoyed a cosy relationship with the Church and did not enforce the law as four archbishops, obsessed with secrecy and avoiding scandal, protected abusers and reputations at all costs, the report said..

Hundreds of crimes against children from the 1960s to the 1990s were not reported while police treated clergy as though they were above the law.
 

In a three-year inquiry, the Commission to Inquire into the Dublin Archdiocese uncovered a sickening tactic of ''don't ask, don't tell'' throughout the Church.

''The Commission has no doubt that clerical child sexual abuse was covered up by the Archdiocese of Dublin and other Church authorities,'' it said.

''The structures and rules of the Catholic Church facilitated that cover-up.

There is one bright spot of common sense.

The inquiry, headed by Judge Yvonne Murphy, said the hierarchy cannot claim they did not know that child sex abuse was a crime.

That's good to hear. The spectacle of a gang of gruesome old sanctimonious virgins looking befuddled and trying to claim, "We had no idea that buggering children was a bad idea, your honor" would be a bit much to take.