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

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I understand. I am just trying to get my mind around how this is new to people.

To me, it’s kinda “always been this way”. I do not remember any time in my life when the Catholic clergy were not suspect and regarded with a jaundiced eye even in my own home, and often misbehaving publicly. My parents never held up priests as being bastions of holiness. Maybe the Pope was thought to be holy because he was “the vicar of Christ on Earth”, maybe a tiny handful of priests (I’d say 5 or less) that my mother had known at some point in her life were thought to be models.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, priests to me have always just been human. A few are saints, a few are bad sinners, and the rest are just middling/ fumbling. They behave a lot like employees and managers in any other large organization, and I have spent my life working for large organizations. I agree that we need to clean up. I’m just not shocked, or particularly emotionally affected, nor does this do anything to my faith because if I was going to lose the faith over bad or incompetent priests, I would have departed a very long time ago.
 
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Predators have always been attracted to positions of power and authority.

Unfortunately there is now way to screen for all of them until it’s too late.

What precautions will now be implemented to prevent this from happening again?
 
Until the church is far, far, FAR more transparent than they are now…every priest is under suspicion. By “laying all the cards on the table”, the church will help clear the cloud of suspicion from those innocent priests.
 
Your Dioceses must be very different from mine or those I’ve known.

Secular priests here pay for their own food, transportation (car, insurance, gas, maintenance). Healthcare is a group policy just like any Diocesan employee where they pay the same co-pays, etc. There is a provided place to live, the basics are paid but luxuries like internet and cable come out of the Priest’s own pocket. Furniture is often provided, but, in some poor rural parishes they must buy their own bed and table and sofa.

In exchange, the priest is on call 24X7X365. People show up at his door day and night.

Parish life is not club med!
 
And choose Him despite all the abuse and naysaying we get from others…including some non-Catholics who are now coming to this very forum to tell us how messed up they think we are. :roll_eyes:

Jesus have mercy on us and on the whole world!
 
Sarcelle said:
What precautions will now be implemented to prevent this from happening again?
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Probably some of the same precautions other organizations, such as the Scouts and schools, have had to do to prevent these things from happening.

I remember back in the early 2000s when people started really noticing all the child abuse going on everywhere, I was in a protestant church and working in their Sunday school, suddenly many rules were changed. One of the biggest was there was never one adult worker allowed alone with the children. Even if you had been there a long time and knew you, they started back ground checks. You were no longer allowed to even hold a childs hand, pat them on the head, touch their shoulder or any such thing.

Similar things are in the Scouts, since they too have had their abuse scandals. Changes are going to have to be made everywhere.
 
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It’s worth noting that most if not all Catholic parishes have already implemented, some years ago, all kinds of “safe environment” policies, procedures, and trainings to protect children. As you noted, most of them started doing it in the 2000s. So it’s not a matter of “what will be implemented NOW” for child protection, because the child-protection stuff is already in place.

It may be that changes NOW need to be made to prevent or address abuse and harassment within seminaries and otherwise between adults, which is a different matter than protection of children.
 
If I was married and my wife was cheating on me and her side of the family knew and didn’t tell me for 20-40 years, I’d leave my wife and turn my back on her family. That’s kind of how I feel about the church right now. The church should’ve called out the abusers as quick as possible and made examples of them so that there was at least the appearance that the church wasn’t going to let that behavior fly.

@Tis_Bearself, I just think the church should be held to a higher standard than other entities, that’s why I can’t really get behind your analogies about if they were my client. If the church was my client, I could still defend the church but in my heart I’d feel they were culpable. Defending someone doesn’t mean you have to also believe they’re innocent
 
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If I left the church I don’t think I’d be Protestant. I’d probably just be nothing
 
Honestly defending the church right now feels like that one scene in titanic where jack and rose break a door while the titanic is sinking and that employee says “that’s white star line property!”
 
No one is claiming the Church was totally “innocent” here. They messed up, fumbled, etc. and it looks bad even if a criminal prosecution can’t be brought for whatever reason.

However, if you have a client and the client messed up or even committed a crime, you still need to advise them to do what will mitigate their risk and damages under the law. You are also not permitted to hold one client to a “higher standard”. I realize that if you feel that way about the Church, it’s perhaps understandable, and in that case you would have a conflict of interest and not represent them because you yourself couldn’t do it fairly. Another attorney might have no such conflict of interest; perhaps the other attorney isn’t even a believer, and representing a church to him is no different than representing Microsoft. I am simply pointing out that the Church behaved like a rational defendant. I’m sure you can appreciate tha logically as an attorney, even if emotionally you wish the Church had behaved to all kinds of high standards you have in your head.
 
Right but the situation is more nuanced than that. When McDonald’s was serving extremely hot coffee, many got burned. McDonald’s kept settling without lowering the temp. When the big case happened they were punished more severely by the courts because they knew of the dangers of keeping hot coffee that hot and still did it. I think the church should know the dangers of not being transparent by now. That’s all. If I were the prosecutor in the case against the church I’d argue that the church was negligent
 
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Great, maybe you can pursue that career path.

I think the Church is being punished mighty severely right now in the “court of public opinion”. Sometimes the ol’ “public check” and reputational damage, loss of goodwill etc hit harder than money damages.
 
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Tisk tisk… You’re making too much sense.
 
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