Double Standard: a new perspective on the sex-abuse scandal

Now in a book-length study, entitled simply Double Standard, Pierre lays out the argument that the media coverage of the sex-abuse scandal has provided ample evidence of this imbalance. For anyone who wants to defend the Church against unfair attacks—or simply to separate the unfair attacks from those that are on target—this book is a useful resource.

Understand this at the outset: Pierre does not attempt to defend the indefensible. He does not deny that some priests were guilty of unspeakable crimes, or that many bishops were guilty of covering up the evidence and giving known predators more opportunities to molest children. He does not attempt to squelch the discussion of clerical abuse by blaming the messenger, as so many ordinarily sensible Catholics tried to do when the scandal first hit the headlines. He recognizes that in many respects the media did a service to the Church by exposing corruption.

At the same time, Pierre is equally clear in saying that if the media helped the Church, they did not do so out of love for Catholicism. Although the scandal they were investigating was genuine enough, secular reporters pursued the story with unusual zeal, often tinged with overt hostility toward the Church. The result was a series of reports that offered a great deal of information, but not much perspective. The standard media coverage thoroughly exposed the sex-abuse scandal within the Catholic Church, but left the public unaware of how other institutions have handled the same problem.