Lawyer Advised Silence on Sexual Abuse

No, this isn't about the Roman Catholic Church - it's about the Finnish Adventist Church. Apparently church leadership had been informed about sexual abuse of children but their lawyer advised them to keep quiet and leave the matter of reporting to the victims themselves. If they didn't, well that's their problem.

Helsingin Sanomat reports:

He regarded the incidents as being no longer legally binding, and he suggested the church should leave reporting to the victims' own discretion. None of the alleged victims, all now adults, is in any immediate danger of abuse. According to the Adventist Church's stand, the church has at the moment no legal responsibility to report any cases to the authorities, because the Adventist Church is not the state church in Finland.

And what about the church's moral responsibility to see that justice was done and those who committed heinous acts against children placed in the trusted care of the church were held accountable for their actions? I guess that the church leaders felt that they had no such moral responsibility, either to their own members or to the society around them. That suggests to me that they have lost their moral compass, gone astray as narrow legal technicalities have become more important than basic moral ideals like protecting the weak and striving for justice.

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