Theres a scale of influence, with a big difference between foolproof and entirely unenforceable.

In this case, it’s effectively unenforceable, so what’s the point in wasting time and effort drafting something that won’t actually make any difference?

A few years ago the Australian government spent an enormous amount of money on a proposed firewall to protect the children. After years of development they were ready to pilot test their white elephant, and discovered that, on average, the Australian 12 year old could bypass it in ten minutes.

It’s unlikely that the government could even enforce an obstacle as robust as the “are you 18+” checkbox that porn sites opt in to. This new law will not have any influence on under 16s online presence.

The court found him guilty, and then in a super sketchy, never before seen, closed door jury free appeal, a federal judge overturned it. Regardless, throughout Francis maintained support for Pell, including the period between his conviction and his incredibly sketchy appeal. There’s no lense where I can accept anybody as moral, Catholic or otherwise, when they have publically supported a convicted abuser of children.

This is also only a a single example, there have been numerous cases of the vatican, under Francis, offering insultingly low settlements to silence victims based on their inability to afford to pursue what’s fair (the average is $268,000). There’s a clear pattern of the vatican, including during Francis’ leadership, of shirking the victims of their organization. This suggests is what little progress they actually do (very publically) achieve is more about marketing than justice.

There are lots of ways the Pope behaves that make it seem like anything he’s doing to address child rape by clergy is theatre.

Pope Francis stood by George Pell and even let him have his funeral at the vatican. Standing by someone who’s been credibly accused of sexual assault of a child (and has definitely facilitated it by others) isn’t, in my view, something that can be done in parallel with an honest and good faith attempt at fixing the problem. It looks even more shady if you look at the conditions of Pella conviction being overturned (definitely special treatment because of his connections).

Children should be raped, but not killed

-Pope Francis (probably)