I find this question rather similar to that earlier one about criticizing Israel and being accused of anti-Semitism. Is it possible to criticize Roman Catholicism and not be accused of anti-Catholicism?

The criticism I have in mind is extremely serious. When any organization—political or religious—finds itself involved in a crime, it may intensify that original crime by cover-up and obstruction of justice. When that happens, it reveals a deeper and more long-lasting structural flaw in the organization itself.

In that situation, the first test of any organization’s integrity is whether it reveals the crime by itself—before discovery forces it out into the open. If it did not reveal it by itself—did it not know about it (therefore, incompetence) or not care about it (therefore, indifference)?

The second test concerns cover-up and obstruction of justice. And those terms can be moral as well as legal. If, for example, one pays off a pedarast, it may not be legal obstruction of justice but it is surely a moral obstruction of justice. Under this second test, religious organizations are held—I would imagine—to a maximum moral and not just a minimal legal standard.

The third, final, and most important test is whether the organization undertakes a serious structural analysis of its cultural system to see how the problem arose, continued, and was (mis)handled.

In the last decade, the most serious charge I would make and have heard from others against Roman Catholicism is that it is deeply involved in a profound abuse of power both hierarchically and sacramentally This involves, for example, a refusal to accept the divinely-given vocation of priesthood for those women or those married men who have received it and would accept it if allowed. Also, since pederasty is an abuse of power (sexually), that is the criminal tip of this immoral iceberg.

It may well be that some criticize Roman Catholicism for discriminatory reasons. But it must also be acknowledged that there are valid reasons for the most serious criticism of its failure to conduct a serious structural review of its hierarchical procedures or, if you prefer, for the hierarchy to conduct a public examination of corporate conscience.