Bigotry

[paulsp8]

Has the recent news re ‘Catholic Sex Scandal’ reek of hatred of the Catholic church, or is it possible that all faiths are facing this same problem today? Have we in the Catholic Church confused what we would normally refer to in our confession as a serious sin, but not a civil crime? Is there a bad sexual activity that is sinful but not punishable in the civil realm? Where do we draw the line? Why does a financial payment need to be made? I have many questions about this action. If one of my Catholic teachers(nuns) had spanked me, was that serious? My parents would say no, that I deserved it. I do not intend to minimize the terrible activity of some priests, but where do you draw the line?

 

[lynx]

Has the recent news re ‘Catholic Sex Scandal’ reek of hatred of the Catholic church, or is it possible that all faiths are facing this same problem today?

The latter.

Have we in the Catholic Church confused what we would normally refer to in our confession as a serious sin, but not a civil crime?

It’s a crime and sin. A “double-whammy” if you will.

Is there a bad sexual activity that is sinful but not punishable in the civil realm?

Generally same gender sex is looked upon in this light. However, the act itself is relative to the religion.

Where do we draw the line?

Where society places it.

Why does a financial payment need to be made?

For large corporations and organizations one of the best punishments is a blow to their pocket book.

If one of my Catholic teachers(nuns) had spanked me, was that serious?

Pants on, maybe; pants off, maybe not.

My parents would say no, that I deserved it. I do not intend to minimize the terrible activity of some priests, but where do you draw the line?

Depends on a case by case basis. There is no easy answer to this.

 

[Holly3278]

The recent attacks on the Church by such media outlets as the New York Times is pure bigotry and hatred against the Church. Did you know that such abuse is actually slightly more common in Protestant churches and yet the New York Times has never once attacked them to my knowledge. As the old saying goes, “Anti-Catholicism is the last acceptable form of prejudice/bigotry.”

 

[Langdell]

Has the recent news re ‘Catholic Sex Scandal’ reek of hatred of the Catholic church, or is it possible that all faiths are facing this same problem today?

Both. It’s a problem for all faiths, and the fact that the media focuses exclusively on the Church is a sign of their bigotry.

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[Holly3278]

Both. It’s a problem for all faiths, and the fact that the media focuses exclusively on the Church is a sign of their bigotry.

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Exactly! Thanks be to God that not all media outlets participate in such outright bigotry and hatred.

 

[Just_Lurking]

Is there even a single instance of a Protestant church making the victims of statutory rape sign a legal agreement to keep the rape secret?

 

[Holly3278]

Is there even a single instance of a Protestant church making the victims of statutory rape sign a legal agreement to keep the rape secret?

More than likely there are far too many of these types of incidents that have occurred.

 

[curlycool89]

Is there even a single instance of a Protestant church making the victims of statutory rape sign a legal agreement to keep the rape secret?

Just a sanity check here. You want us to talk about possible agreements that are secret and therefore unknown by us?

Would you also like for us to conjure up the latest version of the ACTA? Maybe the full text of Connan O’Brien’s severance agreement with NBC while we’re at it too? Heck, we mine as well get the source code for the Windows NT Kernel while we’re at it.

 

[Just_Lurking]

Just a sanity check here. You want us to talk about possible agreements that are secret and therefore unknown by us?

Would you also like for us to conjure up the latest version of the ACTA? Maybe the full text of Connan O’Brien’s severance agreement with NBC while we’re at it too? Heck, we mine as well get the source code for the Windows NT Kernel while we’re at it.

Well, the media doesn’t seem to have any trouble getting a hold of Catholic agreements:

Cardinal Brady will not resign over abuse ‘cover-up’ (see here)

Cardinal Sean Brady was at meetings in the 1970s where two abused teenagers signed vows of silence over their complaints against Fr Brendan Smyth. …

 

[Jermosh]

The recent attacks on the Church by such media outlets as the New York Times is pure bigotry and hatred against the Church. Did you know that such abuse is actually slightly more common in Protestant churches and yet the New York Times has never once attacked them to my knowledge. As the old saying goes, “Anti-Catholicism is the last acceptable form of prejudice/bigotry.”

No its not, the media and general population do not care about the actual offenders themselves, or if there are more or less with other groups. Where the issue is how it was handled, that is the issue.

Pedophiles are just an unfortunate fact, they happen in all ethnic, cultural, and economic groups. But the issue is when the acts are covered up and even shuffled around, even if at the recommendation of Drs or whatever, the point is they were moved around, the “buck” needs to stop somewhere. The Church is the beacon of justness and light of the world, its normal reason to keep the ones running her accountable.

 

[curlycool89]

Well, the media doesn’t seem to have any trouble getting a hold of Catholic agreements:

So they found some immoral agreements. I don’t deny it or that it’s wrong. But we can’t exactly prove that this doesn’t go on in other places.

Let me give you a non-religion related example. Water. When a city’s water supply gets contaminated, people sue. It’s all over the news, there’s regulatory bodies and water acts and environmental acts and commissions to go through. Somebody gets sick from bottled water? Nothing. Most likely they settle out of court, and that’s the end of it. Nobody talks about it again. It’s bad for business. That’s why tap water is safer to drink

Technically, most bottled water is just city water that’s goes through maybe 1 more filtering step. In Canada we have Aquafina and Dasani. Aquafina is just Ontario water (I believe, I can’t remember where it comes from), and Dasani is just Calgary water.

 

[Just_Lurking]

So they found some immoral agreements. I don’t deny it or that it’s wrong. But we can’t exactly prove that this doesn’t go on in other places.

Cardinal Brady doesn’t seem to have figured out yet that it’s wrong. Interestingly enough, there is still plenty of waffling on the key issue - were such agreements “standard operating procedure” in the Catholic Church? If they were, then Brady would have a better reason that it wasn’t his fault alone, but it would also show that the Catholic Church had institutionalized the cover-up. If they weren’t, and it was Brady’s own idea for the agreement, then even he would see he doesn’t have a leg to stand on.

Let me give you a non-religion related example. Water. When a city’s water supply gets contaminated, people sue. It’s all over the news, there’s regulatory bodies and water acts and environmental acts and commissions to go through. Somebody gets sick from bottled water? Nothing. Most likely they settle out of court, and that’s the end of it. Nobody talks about it again. It’s bad for business. That’s why tap water is safer to drink

Unless you are claiming that the media is bigoted against tap water, your analogy here would seem to disprove the entire point of this thread.

 

[curlycool89]

Unless you are claiming that the media is bigoted against tap water, your analogy here would seem to disprove the entire point of this thread.

The point was the secret agreements happen a lot. We can’t prove that they’ve happened because they’re secret. So asking us whether other denominations made secret agreements is a stupid question because we can’t prove it because they’re secret.