Catholic priest Pennsylvania scandal

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jack63 said:
How many of these priests had only 1 single accuser?
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I don’t know. But one priest raped five little girls–all from the same family. And some victims actually told their parents and then were beaten because their parents didn’t believe them. I’m afraid I can’t imagine anything worse. And I don’t really care if there is 1 accuser or 1,000.
 
Erikaspirit16 said:
I don’t know. But one priest raped five little girls–all from the same family. And some victims actually told their parents and then were beaten because their parents didn’t believe them. I’m afraid I can’t imagine anything worse. And I don’t really care if there is 1 accuser or 1,000.
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In cases like that, you should clearly defrock and jail the priest. This is not why I ask the question. I hate to destroy a person based on a single accuser without clear evidence…we need to make an effort for innocent until proven guilty.
 
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joeybaggz said:
A child is 8 times more likely to be molested by a public school teacher than by a Catholic Priest. Should we then close all the public schools?
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How do you know this as exactly 8 times more likely? What is the source? It happens, but the principal and superintendents are prosecuting immediately and not hiding the facts. Unfortunately, you hear more about this with priests and it almost always results in a hidden scandal for years.
 
Os2Hugh said:
I’m already sick and tired of all the evangelicals gloating about this on twitter and facebook.
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No one should be gloating - Satan attacks where he can do the most damage. The evangelicals have been going through this the last 20 years or so - but with adults. Pray for our Church and her leaders.
 
Statistic I read a couple years ago in a secular newspaper. Public schools are limited in most states to $150,000.00 in liability. Not enough for the lawyers to go after. The CC on the other hand is an open target. You don’t hear about it because it is hidden too. Public school teachers who are complicit are gone and no public school teacher is going to openly admit to such behavior. It is a question of moving on and keeping it as quiet as possible.

Edited to add. If most of these transgressions of catholic priests have occurred over 15 to 40 years, ask yourself, in that time, how many public school teachers nationwide have lost their jobs for such offenses. It is certainly more that 300 to 500.
 
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BlueMaxx said:
Wow…just…wow…:confused:
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I’m trying to understand the responses too!
jack63 said:
I read about this, but there are things that didn’t make sense to me. If any could shed some light on this…
  1. How many of these cases actually involved pedophilia…that is a situation with pre-pubescent children. I think I read about 1 case out of 300…not that a relationship with a 15 year old is acceptable, it is just that it is a different beast.
  2. How many of these priests had only 1 single accuser?
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Does it really matter? Pedophilia, molesting a child under 18, or raping an adult, one time or 1000 times. It’s still not in the job description of anyone. For me, the biggest issue is that the church tries very hard to hide it.
 
joeybaggz said:
You don’t hear about it because it is hidden too. Public school teachers who are complicit are gone and no public school teacher is going to openly admit to such behavior. It is a question of moving on and keeping it as quiet as possible.
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I respectfully disagree. A pubic school teacher belongs to a public system and they are prosecuted and not hidden. Besides that, we are comparing apples to oranges here. A priest is held to a much higher standard, especially if they are considered ordained as disciples of Christ.
 
This article says it better than I can…it is dated, but I don’t think the conclusions are any different today than back in the 2000s when it was published. If they are different or if some new information is becoming apparent, I would like to understand that too…

"The Myth of the Pedophile Priest" - ZENIT - English

A Researcher Puts Scandals in Context
zenit.org zenit.org

No, the Catholic Church should not try to hide these terrible things, but I’d like to see them fix the problem too. Understanding the problem will allow it to be fixed.
 
jack63 said:
This article says it better than I can…it is dated, but I don’t think the conclusions are any different today than back in the 2000s when it was published. If they are different or if some new information is becoming apparent, I would like to understand that too…
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Jack, since the early 2000s, the church is trying to do better. Like I said earlier in this thread, all in ministry and volunteers of the church are background checked periodically and those in entering deaconate and priestly formation go through a battery of psych evaluations. The ones we hear about today have squeezed by the more rigid tests of today.
 
CatholicGirl1 said:
Recently, 300 catholic priests in PA have been found hiding child abuse
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found hiding child abuse is different to perpetrating child abuse,`
first these 300 alleged hiders need to go before the courts individually.
In Australia we have one archbishop, convicted of covering up child abuse, he is serving an prison sentence with home detention.
we can not have a blanket, oh they are all guilty , they all did this.

in reply, i would say that, people are innocent until proven guilty, and then I would ask about how many in non catholic institutes are also guilty of the same thing.
 
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Why end the Church rather than clean up (or clean out) some of the leaders of the Church? When there’s a problem with something, you usually don’t just end whatever it is, but you do try to make it better. And BTW, this kind of problem is not limited to the institution of the Catholic Church; that’s for sure. Nor does it involve the vast majority of priests.
 
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There are a few very interesting articles out there that demonstrate that Protestant churches are experiencing similar if not worse problems than the Catholic Church with these problems. There numbers are harder to track as they are less centralized. Here is a good article that shows what occurs in the Protestant churches. Keep in mind this is just 3 of the insurance companies reporting this data and that not all Protestant churches utilize these insurance companies.

www.insurancejournal.com

Report: Protestant Church Insurers Handle 260 Sex Abuse Cases a Year

The three companies that insure the majority of Protestant churches in America say they typically receive upward of 260 reports each year of young people
www.insurancejournal.com www.insurancejournal.com
 
Is it just me or does anyone else get the sense that the world in general has changed for the worse, especially within the last 10-15 years, in our political discourse, the intolerance for people’s differences, the morphing of socialism and communism into atheism and relativism, and the devaluation of life itself.

As the sexual abuse scandal comes to light, did a eureka moment hit where you now understand why things are this bad, that there may be a direct relationship between what is happening in the church and what is happening in society, and the cause of which was triggered by the scandals with roots steming from the top of the Catholic hierarchy.

This is exactly what our Holy Mother Mary warned about, why she has shed so many tears in recent history. We are all sad and angry and disheartened and disillusioned, but I ask of myself and all Catholics to heed Mary’s request and pray the rosary every day.
 
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You know, this kind of thing does not even shock me anymore. What does shock me is the responses, and refusal to see the problem so many people have. People will say that we do not even know it happened, of that other institutions have problems or that it happened long ago. Etc… Heck, some on here are upset that other protestants are saying things against the Church! Not all priests are called by God, not all priests are holy men. We have a priest on trial in our diocese now who was trying to sexually harm an infant.

It’s no coincidence the Church has recently Changed the teaching on the death penalty…

We are living in times where the Church will have NO voice because of this. And as a parent. I will continue to be vigilant. Even though many run around saying that the problem has been fixed. It has not!
These scandals do not make me lose faith. They do however make it so I can never ever donate to a general fund or the collection basket. I fund the Catholic projects I wish. Not the legal defense or living expenses for these men. My tax dollars do that enough.
 
Joline said:
Its karma.
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Karma is not a Catholic belief - strictly. And what would it be karma for?

I agree child abuse is not part of Catholicism. It exists in most every group. However, I think the Church needs to do a better job of admitting men to the seminary.
 
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It’s just absolutely horrible. I’m not even going to downplay or make any excuses for it. There are none. Anybody that wants the Church to end probably didn’t have a high opinion of the Church to begin with, but it’s a humiliating time for the Church and a horrific example of how much sin hurts and destroys the entire Body of Christ. It won’t change my faith, as the sins of the clergy and bishops don’t remove the sacraments. But it’s a time for able and faithful Catholics to engage in spiritual warfare.
 
It’s partly because of the disgraceful actions of Bishops who chose to protect a reputation rather than children.
Personally I think anyone who was involved in this cover up should be thrown in prison.
 
This. When he’s done in Ireland in a few days, the Pope should head to Pennsylvania and fire a whole lot of people, then do public penance. It simply doesn’t matter how far in the past many of the incidents were. This one is on the bishops.
 
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