Church Sign of the Week 20

This sign went up on Monday morning. If you can cast your mind back that far you will remember that there were all sorts of calls for a Royal Commission. We just added our voice to the growing clamour.

Not long after the sign went up our Prime Minister announced the Commission. As someone said - the Welsh Church talks and Julia listens!

I should say a few things here - we, at the Melbourne Welsh Church are not anti-Catholic we are just anti child abuse. There have been far too many cover ups, denials and evaded questions from people at the top of the Roman Catholic Church and the public perception is if you are not condemning it you are condoning it. I know the Roman Church does not condone child abuse, it has been very forthright in its condemnation but it does seem a little slower to condemn those found guilty of it from within its clergy.

So well call, as the sign says, for protection for the children and not the priests. If what is being said in the newspapers and reported on our TV's and radios has a grain of truth in it the Roman Catholic Church is being less than helpful in the search for information on peadophile priests. A few weeks ago, in this blog, we asked for the Catholic Church to be more open in its dealings with the police and Victorian Parliament, now they will have to be!

A witch hunt is not what is needed, only a small minority of priests are evil, child abusing predators but they that are do need to be uncovered. I'm glad that the scope of this Commission is not being limited to the Church, it's remit will be far greater than just religious institutions. Good, all these predators should be found and brought before the Courts from wherever they try to hide, the children of our society are too precious for us not to do everything we can to protect them.

And the Church, what should we do? In this, as in all things, we should look to Jesus. Christ himself saw the children as important and pointed to them as models of faith, he called them to himself, he blessed them, and we are given a great trust when we have children in our care. Let us then, as Christ did, value them, teach them and protect them for they are the future, not just of our churches but of our world.