Abusive Priests

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Margo1325

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With so many priests, dioceses, bishops and nuns recognized by the church of sexual abuse, how is it possible to trust the representatives of Christ and believe their words? And a general question to all: As sexual abuse accusations are being acknowledged in the church, would you allow your child to be alone in a room with a priest?
 
Margo1325 said:
With so many priests, dioceses, bishops and nuns recognized by the church of sexual abuse, how is it possible to trust the representatives of Christ and believe their words?
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Let me rephrase that.

With so many men, women, children and clergy recognized by the church as sinners, how is it possible to trust these Images of Christ and believe their words?

My point: why are you singling out priests for sinful shameful actions when your neighbors are just as likely to have commited sinful, shameful actions?
 
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Seeing that you joined one hour ago, you may want to look up this question in the search engine, because it’s been answered many many many times
 
ChristMyLife said:
why are you singling out priests for sinful shameful actions when your neighbors are just as likely to have commited sinful, shameful actions?
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Because a priest is another Christ and as another Christ, he should be held to a higher standard.
 
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Because my neighbors etc are not leaders of the faith. The words and actions of our Faith are and should be held to higher God filled actions. Don’t digress from my issue - Im not speaking of abuse in other sectors of society - this topic is about the Catholic Church.
 
Odds are you’re not going to have to trust your neighbor in the same way as one would trust their priest.

Bokbok
 
And your answer to my rhetorical question: would you allow your child to be alone with a Catholic priest?
 
Hmm… should I look for “would you allow your child alone in a room with a priest?”
 
I don’t know all priests, I know one and I would trust him alone with anyone, old, young or my parrot if I had one.

He’s a good shepherd. As for the thousands of others I can’t say.

I get your point of course but Oscarlet is absolutely right, the subject has been done to death!
 
Margo1325 said:
As sexual abuse accusations are being acknowledged in the church, would you allow your child to be alone in a room with a priest?
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I just wanted to point out that any parent that allows their child to be alone in a room with a priest is most likely breaking the rules of their diocese. No adult individual is allowed to be alone with a child within the Church. We also have rigorous back ground checks at our church. I have had to pass local and state police background checks as well as FBI checks in order to be in the same room with a group of children. I have had to take courses on how to recognize the signs of abuse and the signs of recognizing an abuser.

I understand this isn’t what you are asking with this question, you want to know if I trust my priest enough to allow him to be alone with my child. The problem is the answer is not that simple.

Do I trust my priests? Of course I do. However, we also have to ask do I love my priest?

If the answer is yes then I should love him enough to not even put him in this position in the first place.

So basically do I trust my priest yes. Would I allow my child to be alone in a room with him. No because if I do I am placing him in a position that he should not be in and therefore the sin is mine for I did not love my neighbor.

Hope this helps,

God Bless
 
Honestly, I gave the answer I originally did because I sensed the OP was done in an anti-catholic spirit of priest bashing.

If it wasn’t, I’ll delete the comment I made.

I get suspicious when an account which was just created comes on here and creates a thread asking about abusive priests and if we’d leave our children alone with priests.
 
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Margo1325 said:
And your answer to my rhetorical question: would you allow your child to be alone with a Catholic priest?
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Today, when processes are in place at seminaries to identify potential abusers and avoid ordaining them in the first place? Today, when clergy, staff, and lay volunteers are vetted by virtue of a variety of checks from law enforcement and other agencies? Today, when the incidence has fallen off dramatically as compared to 1980 or earlier?

Yeah.

Now for you: would you trust your child with a teacher? An athletic coach? A Boy Scout leader? A family friend?

It’s the same question… isn’t it?
 
With so many teachers making the news for sexual abuse of students on a regular basis, how is it possible to trust the teachers when you send your child to school? With so many abusive day-care workers, sports coaches, doctors, police officers, babysitters and neighbors, how do you trust anyone?

The answer in each case, including that of priests (and ministers, rabbis and clergy of other faiths), is that the great majority of people in the profession are not abusers, and you keep your eyes open and take appropriate precautions, including reporting, against those who raise any red flags. Also, organizations and professions that work with children and teens generally now have some level of heightened standards and procedures for abuse prevention.

As for allowing my child to be alone in a room with a priest, priests nowadays are generally forbidden under safety policies from being alone with minors, therefore I would not expect any such alone time to happen and if it did it would be a red flag.
 
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Nobody ever said priests were sinless. Would I leave a kid alone with a priest? Would I leave a kid alone in a dark alley? Would I leave a kid alone with a known rapist? Just because the person is a priest doesn’t mean they are a pedofile. The media shows plenty of examples of abusive priests but they don’t show the thousands of wonderful priests. Don’t write off every priest because of the actions of the bad ones. That said, we can’t assume priests won’t be absusers or for that matter, we can’t assume they won’t do anything just like every other human alive. Priests have the free will to sin just as much as anyone else
 
When I come to mass I come to be united with Jesus Christ, my lord, the creator of the universe. I’ve heard priests talk about all kinds of stuff not having to do with the Gospel of the day, or priests that have such a heavy accent that I can’t understand what they are saying. Jesus still comes into my heart in the blessed sacrament.

I understand that imposters have come in to fleece the sheep of Christ. God is not fooled by them and they will give an account for their life, just as I will. I leave them to God and make sure I take care of what’s mine to take care of.
 
Well firstly the abuse is worldwide not just church… but I do see your point as they are trusted with God’s word. So lets look at them and see them as they are… sinners… Like Jesus said, let anyone who is without sin cast the first stone…anyone? nope well… then ok so they listened to Satan and did such terrible deeds and deserve our prayers and forgiveness and they should be stooped from doing it again as is deemed necessary; being locked up or however they are punished in the relevant areas. If and when etc. they did the evil sin, this is to be judged by God and will be as we know. They do not cease to be representatives of Christ in and amongst that mess and nor does all they say cease to be true. If it is in line with the Church it is true if not it is not. We never align ourselves with particular priests or nuns or any people anyway, always with the Church, therefor this is never an issue. We humans are broken and fallen people and we always will be but the Church as a whole is Christs body so the head at the very least is not.
I would say that people should look into the policies in their local parish and their priest and consider leaving their child alone with the priest. You cannot stop trusting all priests because of some and you cannot ignore what has gone on either. You must strike a middle ground. You yourself cannot listen to Satan who wishes, no doubt, for us all to fear every priest and stop going to mass and fall into sin out of fear. But we cannot also ignore it all, which is also no doubt a plan of his and become a victim and cause worse fear, so we must trust in God and proceed carefully and prayerfully and ask openly when we have any doubt and consult with each other. I would trust my priest completely as I volunteer and work alongside him on a few projects and know his character. It takes time to get to know priests though, so make time or ask around. Our confessional has a glass door so you can see the person (from inside the church) or the person can sit behind a screen and be no where near the priest if they prefer.
 
Margo1325 said:
As sexual abuse accusations are being acknowledged in the church, would you allow your child to be alone in a room with a priest?
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It would depend on how well I knew the priest. My parish priest, whom I’ve known for decades – yes. A complete stranger – probably not.
 
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