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defrosttoday at 11:48 AM3 repliesview on HN

In the US, sure.

In Australia we established a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, looked at all the schools and institutions regardless of creed (and, it turned out, the Christian Brothers were the clear worst of the worst - although few came away unscathed) and then put a senior Vatican Cardinal on trial.

TBH it's been a lot harder to get the worst carbon offenders under close scrutiny in a very public eye.


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jordanbtoday at 12:29 PM

Check out the timing. The sex abuse scandal broke in the US in the late 90s/early 2000s and the fight went on here for many years before it spread to the rest of the church.

The church in Rome was blowing it off as an American problem for many years.

That Australian commission was established in 2012. The battle had already been going on for well over a decade in the US.

If you want to see how things were going early on you can look at things like Sinéad O'Connor stuff from 1992:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin%C3%A9ad_O'Connor_on_Saturd...

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HWR_14today at 1:39 PM

Is that better than the US response? By the time the Royal Commission started, the total amount the Catholic Church in the US had paid out was approaching a billion dollars (back when a billion dollars could buy you instagram). Dioceses have continued to pay since then and many had to file for bankruptcy protection in the US.

That seems like a more severe response than a single cardinal getting arrested.

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SiempreViernestoday at 12:32 PM

As a leading exporter of coal Australia isn't really a good example of a serious climate actor.

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