The Catholic Church has a decades long   and likely even longer than that   history of covering up child sexual abuse. They even looked the other way when child pornography was found within the walls of the Vatican itself. And now, despite Pope Francis s declarations that he would put a stop to this, recent actions and statements by the Church strongly contradict that.Times Live reports that a set of guidelines drawn up to train newly ordained bishops says the following: According to the state of civil laws of each country where reporting is obligatory, it is not necessarily the duty of the bishop to report suspects to authorities, the police or state prosecutors in the moment when they are made aware of crimes or sinful deeds. So, in other words, these people are telling their new bishops that they don t have to go to the cops if they find out someone in their charge is molesting kids. That is in sharp contrast to Pope Francis s earlier statement, which said: Everything possible must be done to rid the church of the scourge of the sexual abuse. Well, your words are high-minded, Pope Francis, but the guidelines regarding this issue are not. Nothing has changed. You people might be pretending to be concerned about the continued victimization of the children within your parishes and under the charge of your priests and bishops, but you aren t, really. All you care about is the church s image, and getting butts in the pews and cash in the collection plates.There is absolutely no defending this one. They are, essentially, grooming new bishops to continue covering up these heinous crimes, and hiding behind religious freedom and privileged communication to do so.Word to the wise, parents: the LAST people you should ever trust your children with without question are these priests and bishops. There s no telling what will happen to them.Featured image from Donkey Hotey on Flickr