9 priests in my diocese have sexually abused a minor/minors since 1968

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Welcome to my world.
Dont let the devil chase you from the church
 
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I don’t want to sound jaded, but there were already dozens of abuser priests (some of whom were convicted or laicized) up on bishop-accountability.org for years before this report came out, from every diocese in the USA pretty much.

I’m sorry you feel bad for just finding out about this now, but this stuff has been known for years. I used to read stories about certain abusers from certain localities in the local newspapers, back when I still read newspapers. If we had been one parish over from where we were or I had been more organized, we might have had Fr. Maskell from “The Keepers” doing our wedding. (One of my work mates was actually married by him.) A priest from a church I go to regularly was just prosecuted and thrown in prison a couple years ago.

Yet you were being a faithful Catholic all the time these priests were sinning.
What has changed now except you got around to reading about it? Nothing.
What has changed between you yourself and Jesus Christ? Nothing.
 
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What changed is I lost my innocence. I looked up to priests as a bastion of hope. And something in me died the other day. And @Tis_Bearself, I knew of sexual abuse in the past, but what was coming out of the pulpit was that the church is now currently doing all she can to ensure it won’t happen again. I’m sorry, but she hasn’t. It’s still been covered up and people are still being duped into putting their money in the collection basket so that the diocese can pay off millions in settlements. Priests take vacations to Rome and elsewhere meanwhile the old widow who gives her pennies never traveled her whole life. I’m just sick to my stomach.
 
I lost mine when I read that in my Parish, every child in one class at a school run by Christian brothers was raped at age 6 to 9 or 10. Every child in that class.
And that one of my parish Priests was raping little girls on a sanctified altar used for Mass.

How do you get past that, and still worship at the same altar.

But then my son, in a public school had a principal go to jail for 5 years for raping children in the park, while he was working at the school.

You need strong leadership , and a clergy committed to pastoral care of its wounded community and wounded survivors. And a Bishop who runs a tight ship on it.
 
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are you still a practicing catholic? do you go to mass on sundays and do you support your parish financially?
 
Eh…most of the priests I know who “vacation in Rome” are going on a freebie ticket in return for taking 2 dozen of us unruly parishioners on a pilgrimage. And believe me, that can be a very tough job.

Most priests are not living the high life.

And yes, the church IS doing all that it can to see that it doesn’t happen again. Aren’t you a lawyer, SHB? If so, I would think you would be able to read about crimes without getting too emotional, and also understand the purposes of this type of “grand jury report” and see that the cases in it are old and that the current cases are being quickly prosecuted. Or did I get you mixed up with one of the dozen other lawyers on here?

I’ll tell you what I did this evening…went to Mass (which turned out to be somebody’s funeral that I didn’t know was scheduled, but it was very nice, I prayed for the deceased) and said my Novena for Our Nation rosary and prayers (which are directed to this very situation).

And here’s what I did yesterday evening…the same thing (only no funeral)

And here’s what I did the evening before that…the same thing (only it was a High EF Mass for the Assumption)

And here’s what I hope to do tomorrow…the same thing (maybe with some time for Adoration which I didn’t get to do this week because of work and because the Holy Day caused the regular parish Adoration day to be cancelled)

You might try doing some of the same
It makes one feel much more peaceful and also is a positive action we can take, as I pray for everyone involved in the situation and for our country and our Church and our priests etc.
 
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Me? Yes. I sit with survivors, parents of those who suicided, parents in denial about what happened. I explain the loud fence to visiting clergy and laity alike. Even visiting clergy get very apprehensive when posted here for whatever reason. But they soon see we are just like any other Parish. Our Bishop is a living Saint. He is charged with fixing this mess. It will not rest until after the Pell trial, and then no doubt, more clergy will be gone after for covering up abuse.

This is how we cope,
Yes it happened, no denying it, very grave sin and damage so many. And never deny or make little of it. But it’s a chance to show just what faith is. And how we practice it. Priests and clergy are in jail locally. People visit and minister to them.

Hate th sin and not the sinner. We are all sinners.

Love and support the survivors and fsmilies, listen and compensate and care for them.

We are also kept up to date weekly on what’s going on. And we have learnt to spot reporters a mile off!
 
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they’re not living the poor life either. they have it pretty cushy. free room/board, transportation, healthcare, food…not bad if you ask me. many catholics I know don’t have such nice jobs

just took the bar, @Tis_Bearself. I do understand the context of the grand jury report, but what bothers me is that this is coming out now. all this could’ve been avoided if every single abuser was ousted from the onset. the systematic coverup is as bothersome as the abuse IMO
 
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If the devil can get you leave the Church, he will have killed two birds with one stone. Don’t let him win.

The actions of the Clergy are not that of the holy Church founded by Christ. They are (bad) members of the Church, not the Church itself. We have had popes in the past who were murderers. The Church pulled through. And it will again.
 
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Yes, I agree they fumbled it badly. I saw this coming decades ago (I’ve posted that before). I knew the Church was going to be in for a bad time of it. There is nothing any of us could have done about it, unless we knew of some abuse and didn’t report it, which never happened in my case.

This is the time to remind ourselves why we are in the Church. It is for Jesus, especially His Real Presence in the Eucharist, and no one else. We don’t hang around because of the priests.
 
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SacredHeartBassist said:
the systematic coverup is as bothersome as the abuse IMO
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That’s being addressed legally here. I fear we will lose half the clergy over 40. But police and teachers and others who did not believe or listen to children , and helped cover it up, are also just as responsible .
We have an Anglican Archbishop who will be charged with coverupshortly, if the public has its way, too.
 
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I’m just embarrassed to be catholic. It was already extremely hard to spread the gospel prior to this, now it’s next to impossible. I love Jesus. I hate rapists.
 
Why should you be embarrassed? You didn’t do anything bad.

Just tell anybody who asks that you love Jesus and hate rapists and that all the other Catholics you know feel the same way and that the Church authorities have taken a lot of steps already to address this and will take more, partly because all the Catholics want them to.

If they still keep harping on it, they probably just hate the Church anyway and it’s pointless to discuss with them. I have friends who would hate the Church if all it did was hand out free ice cream to orphans.
 
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I am so sorry for you. I will pray for you and your parish/diocese. Focus on Christ, don’t give Satan any satisfaction. Prayers.
 
About 10 years ago I was visiting family in Oregon and was asking about a local Catholic Church I thought I might go to for Mass; it had a great view and was little and cute. My cousin tells me the priest there had just been caught abusing little boys - it shut me up and I did not go to Mass there. You can never get away from this stuff; speaking of which if Cardinal Wuerl thinks this will go away he is nuts. No one will ever forget this even if he does survive. I am not just picking on him. I think this is the tip of an iceberg that may or may not emerge. Probably emerge. He is not alone. This stuff needs to come out. It is like lancing a boil. They used to call it sin.
 
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I just think the church is being pretty hypocritical right now. I mean so many priests are so quick to call out MARRIED couples from using condoms when they’re even quicker to defend the church when it comes to this
 
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