Catholic priest Pennsylvania scandal

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It’s not fair to compare Protestant churches to the Catholic Church since these Protestant churches all act independently. What seems like an ‘isolated’ incident can be as widespread.

The stats actually show that Protestant ministers have just as large an abuse problem as the Catholic Church. You know why? Because they’re human.

But, all that said, have you not looked into the Fundamentalist Mormons? Because if I recall there seems to be quite a large scandal going on there too. And I would daresay it’s as large, if not larger, than the Catholic abuse scandal.

I say none of this to attack Protestants, but to make the point that this abuse happens anywhere, including outside religious organizations. It even happens in other religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, etc). It is not isolated to Catholicism.

PS: This wasn’t aimed at you Dizzy. For some reason it didn’t tag the right person and I’m not savvy enough to fix.

PPS: By larger problem I don’t mean in numbers, I meant that their leader is the one who seems to have been the worst abuser. It would be the equivalent of the Pope being outed as a child molester.
 
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I’ve only read the first 100 posts, but so far it’s the usual–a lot of opinion, mostly wrong, and a shortage of facts.

As we all know from X Files, the truth is out there. You just have to use Google. Here is a report–on the USCCB web site–of a 2004 report covering sexual abuse 1950-2002 written by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in NY. It was written FOR the USCCB.


Here is an updated report by the same group, 2010:

 
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The 70s to late 80s were a dark time. Not just in the Church but across all fields. It really is bizarre how prevalent such abuse was in a multitude of professions.

I haven’t read all the study but it seems to insinuate that abuse dropped off when abusers started being properly punished. Perhaps true… perhaps not.

Interesting report nonetheless and just gave a source for stats I was already aware of, so that’s convenient.
 
KevinK said:
Do you suggest media ignore such stunning findings?
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No, but the media will gleefully hash it out for as long as they can, in as distorted a fashion as they can. “1000 victims” is definitely a high number (obviously any number is too high!), but it’s a different story if that is over 7 or 8 decades. All these headlines imply that the 1000 victims are from the recent past, whereas what is the real breakdown by decade? Probably this is not yet analyzed anywhere (yet).

If these accusations go back to the 1940s, is all of this “new” news? What part is new - - the names of the priests? Is all of this “new” news? Was none of this part of the 2001 news story?
 
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I am sickened this is all over the news on this holy day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
As for answers…there are no suitable answers. Don’t blame celibacy. It enables people to be closer to God and is easier with time. Blame the ‘gates of hell’…which won’t prevail against the Church. Blame the enemy. Then there’s the parable about those who do harm to ‘these little ones’ and how it ‘would be better for them had they not been born.’
Just when I thought things were on the mend. I’m keeping my faith to myself. God help the Church.
 
CatholicGirl1 said:
Recently, 300 catholic priests in PA have been found hiding child abuse for decades and everywhere I turn people are saying to end the church because of these nonstop scandals. I know I’m going to be questioned about my faith- and I sometimes waiver why this would happen to God’s church. I know man is full of fault, but why so much in his church? What can I possibly say in reply?

Please, anyone who replies- be kind 🙂
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Other questions that arise as a result of these scandals

and defrocking a priest
 
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Growing up there was a priest everyone knew to avoid. All of us in the Catholic schools knew and our parents knew and even the local police knew. Nothing was ever done and eventually he disappeared. I was very young, about 7, so many details were forgotten until the initial scandal broke and there he was, arrested and tried and convicted. The bishop of our diocese was outed as a practicing homosexual, his lover was a priest, and several other priests were also involved. The bishop resigned and has disappeared. The bishop who took over made a sweeping overhaul and many Catholics hated him for doing so. Many of the rest loved him for “fixing what was so broken and healing our Church.” He cleaned up the Catholic high school and made other changes. I do wonder how much is still being hidden because it was never really talked about. Instead things would be implemented and it was played off as having always been that way. I believe that bishop that instituted the changes is a good, holy man. He upset many people, but he seemed wonderful to me and many others. I haven’t lived there in so many years (before the scandal broke) and he was never my bishop so I can not be positive. I did see that he is now a bishop in PA and released many of the documents. Praying he can clean up there as well.

Maybe my experience of seeing first hand the way it was known but hidden or ignored by everyone who could have possibly spoken out is why I am so sickened. I am tired of the lies and cover ups. I am tired of hearing that it isn’t as much a pediphile problem since most are teens. That doesn’t make it any less severe! Who cares about the terminology? Most people don’t know the difference, or even care to know, in terms because it is all still disgusting and evil. And the fact that many were adults still is no better! This has rocked me to my core, but the continuous not speaking about it to us in the pews has done the greatest harm. I hope at least some priests are speaking about this but I am not sure. Most Catholics I know outside of this website have no idea what is going on in our Church.
 
Blockquote Do you suggest media ignore such stunning findings?
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No but they should tell the whole truth with as little bias as possible.
 
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Here’s a contrarian thought!

I don’t see any other organizations opening up their abuse files! Where are the public schools or other religious organizations doing this - - opening up personnel files as far back as the 1940s?
If you can believe this report (maybe you can’t, it’s from the Bar Association) - - there was a HELL of a lot of abuse of children going on. I don’t see anyone else owning up to it!

This is from p. 13 of this report:
https://www.americanbar.org/content...ciety/ChildProtectionHistory.authcheckdam.pdf

"…A decade after De Francis’s groundbreaking research, David Finkelhor published Sexually
Victimized Children.

Much had changed since 1969, when De Francis complained that society ignored sexual
abuse. In 1979, Finkelhor wrote:
Child protection workers from all over the country say they are inundated with cases of sexual abuse …

Public outrage, which has for several years focused on stories of bruised and tortured
children, is shifting to a concern with sexual exploitation.
Between 1977 and 1978 almost every national magazine had run a story highlighting
the horrors of children’s sexual abuse.

Finkelhor surveyed 796 college students and found that "19.2 percent of the women and 8.6 percent of the men had been sexually victimized as children.""
°Most of the sexual abuse was committed by someone the child knew, and most was not reported. …Russell studied 930 women and found that 16% were sexually abused during childhood by a family member. Thirty-one percent of the women reported sexual abuse by a nonrelative."
 
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pensmama87 said:
Honestly, I think at this point you can’t “defend the faith,” at least not with apologetics and arguments. You just have to listen to people express their hurt, and pray with them and for them. You can practice penance and fasting (I’m doing that), and try to live what our faith teaches, even though those who lead us have not been doing that.

Trying to “defend the faith” with words right now is just going to look like dismissing the real pain that people have experienced.
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I would like to remind everyone too that what’s coming out right now is NOT new stuff that has happened, but rather part of the same scandal that started in with Boston.

The only difference, is now we have proof of at least one Cardinal who was 100% involved.
 
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All valid points, none of which get to the heart of the problem within the Church. The Church, claiming to be the highest spiritual authority, needs to be held to a higher standard than the rest of society (the exact words of Archbishop Joseph Naumann to the Kansas City Star- a publication that has the torches and pitchforks out for the Church). Citing other organizations with the same problem is dismissive whataboutism.
 
The fact that this has spanned so many decades and affected so many lives is what enfuriates me the most! It proves this has become the culture of our church, just as it was the culture in the Indian schools, in orphanages, and in Hollywood. The thing is, WE should be way above that, setting the example for others to follow. WE should not be following secular institutions.
 
I bring up what happens in other organizations because I think people act as if it’s a problem ONLY in the Church, but it’s not. It’s a universal human problem.

And yes, it’s unacceptable when it happens in the Church but the Church isn’t the only place it happens.
 
WE should not be following secular institutions.
Therein is the problem. The American Church, in particular, went from standing in defiance to anti-Catholic Know-Nothings and fundamentalists to getting comfy with the WASP ruling elites around the time of JFK. Couple that with the Modernist hijacking of Vatican 2, and you have a perfect storm for scandal.
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The church leadship from Vatican down to parish priests for decades have done nothing to stop this horrible human behavior. Based on the number of clergy vial acts it is not a troubled soul, it is a systemic problem and once and for all needs to be dealt with as such. God has told most of us what needs to be done. We finally just need to do it. The Pope, cardinals, bishops, priests and administrators (shepards?) need to be held accountable by the faithful (sheep). Anyone who stands by and says or does nothing is a big part of the problem. I have stood by too long waiting for others to get involved. I am stepping in now. This is my church. What has and I’m sure still is happening is not God’s plan. Join me and do everything you can to right the boat and clean house. Write letters, call your priests and bishops, make you feelings known. We can all make a difference. This new news of PA sickens me. It should sicken you too.
 
BoomBoomMancini said:
To be totally honest, I’ve even had thoughts of Rod Dreher-ing.
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You’re not alone. I’m a convert to the Church and during my conversion I struggled a lot over the Great Schism, ultimately taking a leap of faith on Rome. My doubts are at an all time high now. And I’ll tell you what, the same useful idiots at CAF and other places regurgitating the same apologetic points from 2005 are most certainly not helping!
 
Wannano said:
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phil19034:
  1. this is really just a continuation of what happened in the early 2000s. Enemies of the Church deliberately did not launch investigations into all Diocese at the same time because they wanted this to go on for a long time.
  2. you will notice that Philadelphia was not part of this. Why? Because Philly already had their day in court.
  3. if people would spend the time to investigate the public school system for the same time periods, I wonder what they would find? But no one wants to turn over that stone.
  4. this is a “perfect storm” if you will. We have the coverup of mistakes committed in the past by bishops who screwed up, we had an environment of lay people (back in the 1950s & 1960s) who never believe such an action by a priest would happen, we have pro-abortion lobbyists seeing this as a way to since the Church, we have anti-Catholics seeing this as a way to end the Church, we have Catholics who are angry & pissed, and we have victims who are right to speak out.
All of these factors are coming together.

But you know what it proves? That the Church has ALWAYS had Judases

When Christ was alive, 1 out of 12 Apostles were croupt. And a few others had a shaky background or simply failed.

As of today, there are 5498 bishops around the world. If we stick to the 1/12 unfaithful ratio, that means we have 458 bishops around the world who are truely unfaithful- which is way too many. And if we look at Peter’s denial and Thomas’ doubt, that adds another 916 who have make huge mistakes.

So right there alone, by looking at the actions of the Apostles, we can be assured that at least 1374 Bishops are screwing up on a regular basis.

And that doesn’t include how the rest of the apostles all had their moments of being gullible or weak.

The Catholic Church does not protect us from bad priests and bad bishops. We will always have Judases. But she does give us a standard to know the truth and to be able to recognize when our leaders fail.

God Bless
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I found it intriguing that there are 5500 bishops in the world. That means there are approximately 365,000 Catholics per bishop. I am not making any point, I just found it an interesting statistic.
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It shows that in the beginning, Judas, 1/12 of the apostles, or (8%) of those Jesus chose personally, was bad. Point being, one could say, the Church as a whole, in terms of individuals behavior in the Church, was never impeccable going back to the beginning. Not intended to make excuses for any misbehavior by anyone. Seeking impeccability is good, but Judases are out there.
 
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