Ireland Church Sex Scandal Fallout

NYT, via nc links:

Even as it remains preoccupied with its struggling economy, Ireland is in the midst of a profound transformation, as rapid as it is revolutionary: it is recalibrating its relationship to the Roman Catholic Church, an institution that has permeated almost every aspect of life here for generations. This is still a country where abortion is against the law, where divorce became legal only in 1995, where the church runs more than 90 percent of the primary schools and where 87 percent of the population identifies itself as Catholic. But the awe, respect and fear the Vatican once commanded have given way to something new — rage, disgust and defiance — after a long series of horrific revelations about decades of abuse of children entrusted to the church’s care by a reverential populace.
While similar disclosures have tarnished the Vatican’s image in other countries, perhaps nowhere have they shaken a whole society so thoroughly or so intensely as in Ireland. And so when the normally mild-mannered prime minister, Enda Kenny, unexpectedly took the floor in Parliament this summer to criticize the church, he was giving voice not just to his own pent-up feelings, but to those of a nation.

The Church's handling of sex abuse cases in the last 60 years has been horrific, but their handling of public relations as the evidence comes to light has been even worse.  They seem to believe that laws don't apply to them, and that people should grant them forgiveness.  It has been painful to watch, and as the bishops become more active in politics as well, they alienate more and more people.  There are a number of reasons that "lapsed Catholics" outnumber all other religious denominations other than Catholics, but the handling of child sex abuse cases is a big one.  Ireland is seeing the same impact.