No one wants to talk about this. We get it. And while our leaders have rightfully focused on apologies and assisting survivors of abuse, the world hasn’t heard this reality: The Catholic Church in the U.S. has a better track record in youth protection than perhaps any other institution since 2002. No one has heard that because … we don’t want to talk about it.

The lack of knowledge about the societal epidemic of child abuse and the media’s fixation on ONLY the Catholic Church have certainly impacted people’s perception of our clergy and our Church. Here’s our issue with that. If the media wants to put the spotlight on our past failings, then we need to start putting a spotlight on solutions. We need to broadcast what we’ve done – not to make excuses, or to falsely claim we are now perfect – but because we want everyone to feel the urgency we did in the early 2000’s and enact measures that better protect kids!

In our culture, topics that should be handled seriously are far too often subjected to partisan arguments that ignore facts. This issue demands more – for the sake of young people. We thank Scott and Brian for courageously introducing to the rest of us, how this conversation can be respectfully entered into.