Ten years ago in Dallas, Texas, in June of 2002, the United States Catholic bishops passed their Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. It was a bold move to deal with the sexual abuse of minors by priests and prevent such abuse from happening again.
As we learn more about the sex abuse scandal at Penn State and reports of incidents involving pornography, rape, and sexual abuse at other colleges and universities, it might be wise for our society to pay attention to how the Catholic bishops have dealt with these issues.