Hooray For Hollywood?

Woody Allen has not been convicted of anything.

However, the sexual abuse of children in Hollywood has been its very open secret throughout its existence.

Corey Feldman's recent autobiography detailed acts of exactly the kind that, during the same period, were later to bring such shame on the Catholic Church.

But there was none of the Church's cack-handed, yet well-meaning, attempt to deal with what was recognised as a problem.

Rather, there was no recognition that a problem existed. There never has been. The endemic behaviour has been, and remains, acknowledged. The harm that it causes has been, and remains, either denied outright, or never even thought about.

Yes, the Church could have done a lot better in dealing with grown men who participated in the sexual experimentation of adolescent boys at a time when such participation, although illegal, was socially and culturally respectable.

However, She never subscribed to that respectability. She accepted that a  problem existed, however imperfectly She might have dealt with it.

There are those who would still deny that such things were problematic, even now. The most powerful cultural force in the world, for a start.

Oh, and those who blame the Church for the failure to enforce the law at the time, which other aspects of ordinary law enforcement do they believe ought to be handed over to Her? Or do they see priests as subject to Her in these matters, rather than to the State?

Still, sooner that, if the choice had to be made, than leaving such things to Hollywood.