Monday, April 3, 2006

Child Abuse or Religious Rights?

We sometimes forget that the world is made up of customs and religions different from our own region. Every once in a while someone comes along and reminds you there are differences, sometimes, huge differences.

The other night I met some people that reminded me of one of those differences. At first it was mild amusement, and then shock. I happened across two girls that were raised in Catholic schools. The scandals of the church has reached every one of us. We know of the wide spread abuse of boys in the church, but what of the girls?

The church, it seems, has a different idea for the punishment of girls and boys. Boys are often whipped or expelled, while girls seem to have only one punishment, kneeling. You might think kneeling is a light punishment. One example of which I know, a girl was forced to kneel for three days in front of the Virgin Mary statue. A day in this instance was from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM, with only the usual school breaks, dinner etc…