Abusive Priests Live Unmonitored in Communities Across the Nation

[Abyssinia]

Carl Sutphin was a problem priest who left ministry in the Roman Catholic Church just before being charged nearly a decade ago with 14 counts of molestation for sexually abusing six children.

He was never convicted of the charges, and he now lives in a doublewide mobile home in a quiet neighborhood within two miles of a youth sports complex, a library, two day care centers and at least two elementary schools. Sutphin admits he molested children as a priest, but his name doesn’t show up in a sex offender database because the charges were dismissed because too much time had elapsed.

cnsnews.com/news/article/abusive-priests-live-unmonitored-communi

 

[NewEnglandPriest]

If they’re no longer active priests then the Church has no authority over them.

 

[Dale_M]

The headline is terrible. It should say formerly abusive priests. The article talks about men who may have molested, but decades ago. And they are elderly now.

I think this article smacks of being a witch hunt.

 

[SeaShoreGirl]

This is where civil authorities are COMPETELY to blame. Becuase the church handled things wrong 40 to 60 years ago, dosn’t mean that the goverment is off the hook. Infact, they should be more willing to prosecute. Thing is, they can’t, because then it’d put so much strain on the court system, bringing in not only the errant priests but the protestant ministers, teachers, troop leaders, etc. So long as the media can portray this as a Catholic problem the criminal justice system won’t act.

Truth is that if you take a scope of the general public, they’re somewhere near 3x to offend than priests. If you take teachers vs priests they’re nearly 5x more likely, though I’ve heard as much as 10x more likely to offend as priests.

Should the Catholic church create an excommunication? YES YES AND YES. But that’s about all they can do at this point without being held liable for definmation of character in a court, since the statute of limitations has elapsed.

 

[piejesu]

Probably if you looked into the roots of this article you would find SNAP basking in the limelight. I am convinced that organization comes to us most uncourteously on behalf of the one who has sought to destroy the Church from the beginning.

Hail Mary full of grace…

 

[Scoobyshme]

Probably if you looked into the roots of this article you would find SNAP basking in the limelight. I am convinced that organization comes to us most uncourteously on behalf of the one who has sought to destroy the Church from the beginning.

Hail Mary full of grace…

Clearly, you are correct. And the one who is at the bottom of that organization has been trying to destroy it from the very beginning. He has never gone away. It’s just that in our time, his leash has been lengthened!

 

[Catholic1954]

This is an attempt by defense attorneys to squeeze even more money out of the diocese. The California State Legislature extended the statute of limitations just for sexual abuse victims of Catholic priests. Just because the abuser escaped criminal prosecution, didn’t mean the diocese was off the hook in setteling the case in civil court. They all had plenty of time to hire a lawyer and get their situation resolved. I noticed that no victims were quoted in this article claiming that their case was not heard, only attorneys anxious to get their get hands on even more easy money.