THE stand of the Catholic Church on various moral issues related to human sexuality and marriage, like opposing the use of condoms and other artificial methods of contraception, research on human embryos, homosexual marriages, etc., etc., has irked the forces that control the mass media since it affects their businesses and other vested interests. No wonder they have chosen to launch an all-out attack on the Church in an area connected with sexuality (like child sex-abuse), even if it means digging up or fabricating isolated cases from the relatively remote past. Any social worker will tell you that the maximum number of cases of child sex-abuse occur within the family all over the world. It is rampant in several institutions and organisations completely unrelated to the Catholic Church. So why single out the Catholic Church as if it is the only institution in which such cases have happened? Why do the media not equally vociferously condemn pornography, especially on the internet, which is the main cause of many sexual evils? Just last week, an article in the supplement to a Mumbai magazine (which I have with me) claimed that child-abuse is widespread, to a shocking degree, among families in the city of Mumbai and made a strong plea that we do something urgently to protect our children. It did not mention the Catholic Church at all. Child-abuse is not a problem of the Catholic Church alone. It is probably much worse outside the Catholic Church in most societies worldwide.