Religion & Law

Herewith excerpts from this column in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (the full column is here:

In 2004, a groundbreaking report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education found that 6 to 10 percent of children in public schools have been sexually abused or harassed by teachers or school employees. Hofstra University Prof. Charol Shakeshaft, the report's author, estimated that about 290,000 students were victimized between 1991 and 2000. "So we think the Catholic Church has a problem?" Shakeshaft told Education Week. "The physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests."

How did the media respond to these shocking revelations? With a giant collective yawn. News reports could be counted on one hand, according to NewsMax.com, which contrasted the media's ho-hum reaction with its "wall-to-wall" coverage of Catholic scandals.

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Since 2002, the Catholic Church has labored mightily to clean up what Benedict has called "the filth" of priestly sexual abuse. In 2009, the U.S. Catholic bishops' annual audit included only six new allegations of clerical abuse of children younger than 18 -- in a church of some 65 million members. Abuse escalated between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s, but now seems largely to have vanished.

So why does the Catholic Church continue to get all the headlines?

The church draws the mainstream media's ire because, in a world increasingly characterized by moral relativism, it continues to teach enduring moral rules that don't shift with cultural fashions. It dares to challenge the doctrine preached by America's new priestly class -- our opinionmaking elite -- on social issues ranging from abortion and embryonic stem cell research to same-sex marriage.