I'm ready to stand corrected but...
there is no such thing as an institutional sin.
Sin breaks the relationship between man and God, not between organizations and God.
The only "organization" to have a relationship with God at any level is the Catholic Church which cannot "sin" because we have a promise that she will be preserved from error.
The bishops and other individuals involved in all these horrid messes have sinned. They have failed in their duties as shepards of the Church. The Church herself has not and can not sin. As for conferences and whatnot, thinking they have any supernatural character is just plain silly.
Yeah, I sort of flinched at that phrase, too, but I didn't interpret it as attacking the indefectibility of the Church. I thought it was an indictment of the clerical culture.
If the editor meant it as you say, then yeah, I leap off the bandwagon at that point.
Commenting by HaloScan
