I watched a HBO documentary last night call Mea Culpa about the sex abuse scandals in the catholic church, and it was extremely depressing. Not about the stories; I’ve read about and seen specials before on what happened. No, the shocking part was about the massive cover-up of all that occurred by people all the way at the top of the vatican food chain, including and especially our just-retired pope.
It is a prime example of adults not taking responsibility for their actions, and another lousy example for our children of adults behaving badly. Cover-ups, lies, blaming others, arrogance…it’s all there in spades. It’s also an example of abusing power, and the cost of giving people too much power and adultation; putting people on pedestals.
Opening up all the records and coming clean would be one way to teach our kids about integrity and owning up to our mistakes. No matter what the church does, use this as another teaching lesson for your children. Use it as a great conversation about life, integrity, consequences, etc.
And also use it as a conversation starter about the good and bad of organized religions. I like kids to have the opportunity to have open discussions about EVERYTHING, so have at it!