Catholic priest Pennsylvania scandal

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somecanadian said:
Why would Benedict’s brother tell him that he was abusing children? I don’t think it’s a given that Benedict knew because his brother did.
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No one ever accused Georg Ratzinger of abuse, although he has admitted he slapped a “few” students. Hey, it’s Germany, we must have discipline, right? But as head of the choir for 30 years, it’s beyond belief he wouldn’t have heard or seen something.

OK, let’s switch this up. Let’s imagine that I’m the CEO of a major world-wide corporation. My brother was the manager of a major branch in that corporation for 30 years. It turns out that there was a huge scandal at the branch where my brother was manager. I am close to my brother and I see my brother all the time. You wouldn’t expect me to say “Hey, bro, what’s up with that scandal?” or the brother wouldn’t step up and say “Hey bro, you’ve got to take care of this problem.” Really? Possible, but anything is possible. Aliens disguised as cats is possible. I think if you asked 100 people on the street, almost all would say, “Yeah, he told his brother.”
 
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DENNYINMI said:
but My God…you never hear of anyone asking for forgiveness or admitting the sin.
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Exactly. Even when they are PROVEN guilty and ADMIT it, there doesn’t seem to be any remorse. Just one example, Bishop Weakland of Milwaukee–paid off his homosexual lover for years with church money. Proven. Admitted. I’m waiting for the “I’m sorry.” Maybe I missed it.
 
I"m sorry but Geoff KNOWING of the abuse does NOT mean he would have told his brother. We don’t know if he saw it as wrong, or if he harbored guilt for not having stopped it himself and thus kept silent. It is an unfair presumption not an absolute truth that because Geoff ‘should’ have known, that Benedict must have known.
 
somecanadian said:
I"m sorry but Geoff KNOWING of the abuse does NOT mean he would have told his brother.
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No. Of course there is no “proof.” There’s almost never any “proof” of any of this. I think you have to go with logic and probability. You could be right. I could be right. Only Benedict and his brother Georg know for sure.

However, I will say that if I were Pope (!) and I had a brother in a relatively high position in the church, I would be pumping him for information every chance I got. One of the problems of anyone in power is that people suck up to them and only tell them what they want to hear. Your brother might be expected to tell you the truth.
 
7_Sorrows said:
How do our parishes help parishoners deal with these scandals? Shouldn’t there be some types of meetings to explain, to help us understand why this has happened?

It seems like we are not allowed to bring it
up. I doubt a priest will do a homily about
it.
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I couldn’t agree more. I’ve posted the same thing multiple times. I’ve also discussed it with the parish priest. I’ve also discussed it with our deacon, who explained the priest is pre-occupied with money to pay the mortgage. Which is why I think the only REAL power any of us have is to withhold money, and to explain WHY we are withholding money.
 
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According to the John Jay Report in 2004, 81% of victims were male.

Yes, girls are at risk; but from reported cases (in the thousands), they re in the minority.

We are discussing abuse by priests, not abuse across the world. And when discussing priests, about 4% were abusers, and 81% of their victims were male.
 
All this hair-splitting on whether is was pedophilia or homosexual ephebephilia is beside the point. The point is, priests are violating their vow of chastity and committing degenerate acts at a rate of above 0%, and that is not acceptable. Even more heinous is that violence is being done to children, the law is being broken, and the shepherds are brushing it under the rug.

There needs to be more than just making the offenders live a life of prayer and penance away from children, or slaps on the wrist for the accomplices. Lashes need to be given. Heads need to roll. Action has to be taken.
 
one of the “pennsylvania priests (monsters)” (perhaps one of worst) had a residence in NJ.

we will see if my pastor says one word about it in sunday’s homily; sadly, i doubt that will happen
 
I doubt anything will change. We’ve been through this before sixteen years ago. We have short memories. Our outrage will be forgotten by Thanksgiving. In another fifteen or so years, something worse will come out.

This current one though is an absolute disgrace. Even I was sickened by what I read in that Grand Jury Report. My “favorite” is the priest who was defrocked and then asked for and got a letter of recommendation from the diocese so he could apply for a job at Disney World.

Only God can straighten this out. It is too deeply rooted.
 
When the Boston Globe broke the first scandal in 2002, we had meetings in our diocese if you felt the need to discuss these things.
 
anon1212376 said:
All this hair-splitting on whether is was pedophilia or homosexual ephebephilia is beside the point. The point is, priests are violating their vow of chastity and committing degenerate acts at a rate of above 0%, and that is not acceptable. Even more heinous is that violence is being done to children, the law is being broken, and the shepherds are brushing it under the rug.

There needs to be more than just making the offenders live a life of prayer and penance away from children, or slaps on the wrist for the accomplices. Lashes need to be given. Heads need to roll. Action has to be taken.
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Preach it, brother!!!
 
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No, it is not beside the point. Words have meaning, and when the wrong word is used, one fails to correctly convey information.

And there can be significant differences, due to age, in how the victim is damaged.

Yes, it all needs to be rooted out. Having represented children in sexual abuse cases when I was practicing law, I can guarantee that it makes a difference in a number of ways - to the victims, and to the abusers.

Yes; action is important; but I have some serious reservations over extending statutes of limitation - that is a whole 'nother topic.

What is one to do (meaning, in part, the bishop, or Rome)? Defrock the priest, and he slips away into society to do… what?

Send him to prison’ most sentences will not be life incarceration; and most that are not life are not 4o years straight time (which would put most offenders in their late 60’s, if not older); generally sexual impulse godes down as one ages so 40 years hard time to a 30 year old is in itself going to work to reduce the likelihood of further abuse. But 20 years? 10?

the problem has more far-reaching issues than most people want to even consider, let alone find an adequate answer. Instead, what we hear is a lot of anger and vituperation; and 2, 3, 5 or so years later, all is generally forgotten unless something new dredges it up again.

I am all for the Church (meaning, the hierarchy) transparently dealing with this. Except, the McCarrick case makes it clear that there well may be other bishops who are the proverbial wold in sheep clothing. And I have a problem believing that no other bishops knew anything about McCarrick. Call me a cynic if you wish.

It would be my suggestion that laity also be involved in cleaning up this mess, if for no other reason than as noted above.
 
Yes, that’s what I’m talking about. It’s a common practice, based on my conversations with diocesan priests, that priests do not confess to superiors. They go to other priests not part of that “chain of command.” This is supposed to avoid conflicts of interest and potential abuse of confidentiality. If a priest confesses abuse of a minor to his superior, that superior may not absolve him, but he still cannot tell or act on that information, and that priest can cry foul if the superior finds out another way.
 
KevinK said:
The Inquisition was worse.
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Nothing in my mind could be worse than sexual abuse on childen; nothing!
KevinK said:
There are many millions more children tended by teachers than priests. Your statement is absurd.
What is your source?
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So what? Again, priests are held to a higher standard as disciples of Christ.

You seem to keep on validating these priest’s actions.
 
pensmama87 said:
Yes, that’s what I’m talking about. It’s a common practice, based on my conversations with diocesan priests, that priests do not confess to superiors. They go to other priests not part of that “chain of command.” This is supposed to avoid conflicts of interest and potential abuse of confidentiality. If a priest confesses abuse of a minor to his superior, that superior may not absolve him, but he still cannot tell or act on that information, and that priest can cry foul if the superior finds out another way.
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Plenty of priests in my father’s family. Yes, a priest confesses to another priest, the same one each time. That priest becomes his confessor. You are also correct. A priest’s confessor would never break the seal of the confessional, not even for child abuse or any other crime. He can’t.
 
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Entwhistler said:
But the Church has been through much worse. Heck, we’ve even had a Pope who exhumed his predecessor, put his corpse on trail, and then threw it into the river.
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This is not worse than raping children. No one was harmed.
 
otjm said:
We are discussing abuse by priests, not abuse across the world. And when discussing priests, about 4% were abusers, and 81% of their victims were male.
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The best study on incidence, by the Australian Royal Commission, put the %age at 7%.One order had 40%.
 
In the dossier, there was a case of the man who said that he was molested by the priest. However, a nun was aware of the abuse and did not do anything about it. Moreover, the nun also allegedly sexually abused him. It was appalling.

So you are correct that most of the abusers wers men, but they were also women.
 
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