What the Watchtower does not publish and what Jehovah's Witnesses apparently are being very selective about reading are all the reports of how the problems with sexual child abuse came to the fore in the Catholic Church, how the Church has been handling it since, and why this isn't causing the Catholic Church to fall. It's numbers are growing now.
While we are all aware that if it were not for outside sources like brave news media reporters and law officials, much would not have changed, but what the Witnesses don't talk about are the Catholic parishioners, priests, nuns, bishops and others associated with the Church who have been pressing the issue and succeeding at changing things. There are people in that Church fighting as well.
The stubborn members of Catholic clergy who sat on the problem are no different from the elders and Governing Body members who are in denial and who even persecute victims and their families. One can find very common earmarks in cases where there was an organizational attempt of "sweeping things under the rug." This may be because predators seem to have certain traits in common, including the way they hide things from the public. Evil is the same, regardless of what religion it joins.
What is vastly different is how the two religions deal with things. Jehovah's Witnesses smother their members and threaten them with disfellowshipping if they don't remain quiet. Catholics, on the other hand, refused to remain quiet, saw the problem as something ruining their Church that they had to root out, and members themselves were the ones doing the threatening to clergy.
There was a film (based on an award-winning play) entitled "Doubt" about a strict, no-nonsense nun who confronted a priest who was obviously a child predator. It is more than fiction. The story is more of a mirror. It has been very difficult for faithful Catholics to fight with clergy to set things right. It has taken decades, in fact, to get as far as they have come. Many, like the nun in the film played artfully by Meryl Streep) have had their strength, stamina, and very faith in God pushed to horrible limits in order to get justice. Like the protagonist in this story, there are many unsung heroes who have said: "Not in my Church you don't! Get the hell out!" But we often don't hear about these, especially not in Watchtower articles.
Witnesses who want to be "good" often won't push the issue and will believe whatever the elders and Governing Body tells them, and they become persecutors of victims too by their silence and failure to do anything but demonize those who have truly suffered. Whereas the authorities in the Catholic Church should have done more, done it faster, and still have a long way to go, Catholic parishioners and faithful priests and other religious won't be silent. As they see things, this is their Church, there are more of them than there are unfaithful predatory priests in the midst, and they'll be damned if they let anyone get away with things. These Catholics fight for the victims, the victim's families, and their Church. They are not going to let their religion get ruined by faithless priests.
The Church is also powerless to excommunicate them, unlike the JWs. Standing up for justice is not an offense in the Catholic Church. The Church has already admitted to a dark history where it learned its lesson due to persecuting its own members in the past for speaking up, like they did with St. Joan of Arc. They don't do that these days. They readily admit that they can be subject to unspeakable evil if left unchecked.
The push from the inside and the response from outside the Church has moved it to make drastic changes. The election of Pope Francis is one example of how the Church is not merely run by the hierarchy. He was chosen partially to satisfy the demand for change in the Church from members. The problems Francis faces are with stale, old clergy who still want their Church to remain in the Dark Ages and exercise the type of power the Governing Body does over the Witnesses. But, as Francis has explained, those days are past. There are no metaphoric "moth balls" to preserve the old ways. Shape up or ship out. And, this new Pope has made it very clear, the Church will now go after its own in addition to alleged predators facing criminal charges from secular sources.
I'm not advocating becoming a member of the Catholic Church or here claim that it is doing the best that can be expected. There is no excuse for what happened. There's a long way to go to set things right (can they ever?), and more needs to happen sooner, more quickly and efficiently.
But what I am saying is that the Jehovah's Witnesses are not a brave lot. There are no St. Joan's of Arc who face the pale as she did, no "nuns" willing to undergo shipwreck of their faith into doubt to see justice done for other Witnesses, no one smart enough to say: "Wait a minute! There are more of us then there are them! They have to do what we. the membership say, not the other way around!" Most are too selfish to rock the Organizational boat because they want to survive the ever-imminent Armageddon. They can't do this if elders find them problematic or are considering disfellowshipping them for refusing to shut up, and for calling the news media and police on them. I am sure there are a few, but for the most part the membership proudly wear blinders. They are proverbial chickens compared to Catholics, and this is something the Watchtower never tells you in its columns that are oh-so-ready to judge the Roman Catholic Church.
People in glass houses should not throw stones. But the Governing Body and those who follow them by blinding themselves to the problem are too stupid and unjust and cowardly to notice that they have shattered all their windows, walls, and ceiling. Real change can't come merely from without. There has to be some force from within as well.
But heroes are a commodity the Jehovah's Witnesses don't produce. A religion without saints is a religion without bravery.