Baah-aaah!

It is a sad time, when trust in well established institutions has to be revisited.  

The Catholic church has probably done some of the worst damage to its own reputation and in many places now only a few die-hards and other desperados continue to fill the pews week after week.  

As for those who have shown the courage to sacrifice old certitudes for moral rectitude, the trust in that institution has eroded, especially since those who committed the crimes were protected by the church's hierarchy.  

A closing of ranks against a bleeding flock hardly stirs feelings of renewed belief.  

It is a well-know and keenly repressed fact, that sexual abuse cripples many institutions.  

Mostly it is men at the top who commit the crimes and it is mostly women and children who suffer.  Whether within the revered institutions such as the BBC or schools, orphanages, and care institutions where children supposedly are to feel save from harm, male abuse (and all too often female complicity) has a history of corrupting what has taken long to establish.

The strange thing is that these scandals often become material of denial or simply dissipate with passing of time.  Interest in the deeply troubling matters of human interaction is usually short lived, probably because it would be too disturbing.  

And so these events are eventually swept under the carpet in the hopes that everyone will forget - too absorbed by the upcoming Olympics or discount event - and with time will return to the trough.  

Generally they do.  Like a flock of dull-eyed sheep.  Whether it is the way we consume, worship, or live...old habits die hard.

Baaah!