Catholic priest Pennsylvania scandal

[ConstantLearner]

You’re going to let the work of Satan drive you out of Christ’s Church? That is sad – it makes me feel like Satan used this very well.

No. of course not. As I said before, I’ve been thinking of it for several years now due to doctrine I find I cannot agree with. This scandal just makes me sick and ashamed to admit I was baptized a Catholic.

Actually, no, I don’t see any good coming out of the Church now, and I don’t mean this scandal. Look at the deplorable way Catholics on this forum treat one another, for starters. That is bad fruit, too.

 

[phil19034]

spockrates:

I mean, this is a reason I struggle with returning to Catholicism. I don’t see such wide-spread sin of this kind in Christian denominations I’ve considered (just isolated incidents) so…

I think it happens in all denominations, but is more widespread in the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, I think of that biblical passage, and I’m about ready to leave the Church. Not over this alone. I’ve been thinking of it for some time. This is just the last straw…I think.

I’m very sad you think this.

1). The Church is much better today at keeping those bad priests out of the priesthood. The vast majority of the child abusers are Baby Boomers or older.

2). While there are still some issues in some seminaries, most have been cleaned up thanks to lay faculty members and the simple fact that gay men no longer feel the societal pressure to hide - which led many to the priesthood in decades past.

Finally, sex abuse is just as bad in Protestant camps and some strongly beleive it is worse.

Here are a few sources, you can google them and read them for a while

Sex abuse in Protestant life: Is Rachael Denhollander the tip of a newsworthy iceberg? — GetReligion

When former gymnast Rachael Denhollander stood up in court at the end of January and stunned the country with her speech to her abuser, Larry Nasser, she was a media star. Here she was the first woman to publicly accuse Nasser and the last -- after a long string of some of America’s best-known gymna

www.getreligion.org

The larger problem of sexual abuse in evangelical circles

We need to talk about the segment of American culture that probably doesn’t think the allegations against Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore are particularly damning, the segment that will…

www.chicagotribune.com

The Silence of the Lambs

Are Protestants concealing a Catholic-size sexual abuse scandal?

newrepublic.com

Sexual Abuse Lawyer in Columbus | Free Consultations

A compassionate Columbus sexual abuse lawyer can help victims navigate the legal process and fight for justice and compensation.

www.thefitchlawfirm.com

Is there more sexual abuse in the Protestant Churches than the Catholic Church?

Protestants can no longer dismiss abuse as a ‘Catholic problem’ | Symon Hill

The Methodist church deserves credit for conducting such an open review of historical abuse, but the real test is whether attitudes can change

www.theguardian.com

 

[ConstantLearner]

I wouldn’t leave for a Protestant denomination, and I wouldn’t leave over this scandal alone. I’m leaving because I cannot agree with Catholic doctrine, even though I’ve always been Catholic.

Sure, I believe this happens in all Protestant denominations, too.

 

[rose321]

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.

Respectfully opinion only pondering >> Whom am I to judge, but we are to question, as written through out Jesus preaching, teaching, us to Test all Spirits and written in Holy Scripture also>>>>>You will know them by their Fruits, is this correct?

Theses 300 when first reported, but is now being reported>> up to 350 now in the news. ( 500) is only reporting >>>what took place in just >> 1 Dioceses>> how many Dioceses are there around the world and throughout and within all Nations are there?

Just trying to understand is all. Agree all are human, we are all in need of mercy. Peace

 

[phil19034]

I wouldn’t leave for a Protestant denomination, and I wouldn’t leave over this scandal alone. I’m leaving because I cannot agree with Catholic doctrine, even though I’ve always been Catholic.

Sure, I believe this happens in all Protestant denominations, too.

Ok, what Doctrine do you reject? And where would you go? To the Old Catholics, Orthodox, agnosticism, etc?

 

[Yeoman]

While it is not a reply, what I’d note is that this sort of behavior is much more widespread and not isolated to the Church in any fashion. At least according to some statistics I read awhile back, the frequency of this sort of thing is at least as common in other Faiths and denominations, and in our society, its highest amongst teachers.

The reason that it is so shocking is that we hold the Church to be the the true Faith, so a scandal of this type necessarily creates an enormous scandal. Our society doesn’t react this way with other denominations as we instinctively don’t regard them as the True Faith and we don’t hold them to the same standard. And we treach teacher failings as individual ones, rather than a larger demographic failing, as we don’t really hold the teaching profession to any moral standard at all. Indeed, in the Professions now there’s widespread debate if any such misconduct is sanctionable at all, if it only involves adults. Moreover, the fact that the Church failed to react and that there is now an American Cardinal associated with it creates a scandal of enormous magnitude.

Ironically, this wouldn’t be the case most likely if we weren’t the True Faith. Instinctively, people are holding us to the standard which we claim applies, and which does apply, whether they acknowledge it or not.

None of which excuses what’s happened. At this point, enough is enough. Its time for an Inquisition.

 

[angfran]

I just don’t understand
How am I to defend my faith with this terrible situation?

 

[Loud-living-dogma]

This is not an aspect of your faith. It is a crime against your faith. This is not a teaching of the Church. This is not what Catholics profess.

 

[pensmama87]

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.

 

[Wannano]

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

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.

 

[CatholicGirl1]

Last semester at college, some friends who have always been nice but wonder why I wouldn’t leave (part of parishes where if they don’t like something- they just leave the pastor and go to a different one), anywhere in the news and media.

I try to deal with it, but it is sad all the same.

But no so much personal matters- just the general gist everyone has against us and the church.

 

[ConstantLearner]

Ok, what Doctrine do you reject? And where would you go? To the Old Catholics, Orthodox, agnosticism, etc?

No, my mother was an observant Jew, so I am already Jewish I was raised in a Jewish household. My father was Catholic, which is how I came to be baptized in a Catholic church.

This scandal does not make me dislike the Catholic church; it makes me very sad for it.

 

[halogirl]

Dear Lord strengthen our clergy and deliver us from evil. amen

 

[Limoncello4021]

A couple of things to meditate on:
Peter asked Jesus, when Jesus’ way became tough and Jesus questioned whether his disciples wanted to leave Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” The question resonates in all generations.

Also, one of the 12 disciples betrayed Jesus and handed him over to torture and death. 1 in 12! It seems to me that we can expect this in our lives as well. Some priests are bad; they continue to betray Jesus. Perhaps even as many as 1 in 12.

Tough times have hit the Church but no tougher than previous history has demonstrated. Remember St. John Bosco’s dream of the ship of the Church in rough waters navigating between the twin, protective pillars of the Virgin Mary and the Eucharist. Cling to these things and keep your eyes on the breaking dawn.

 

[CatholicGirl1]

Thanks, I don’t want to sling mud at other churches, but I do think that this is good to show it is not only the CC even though it is shown in the news more (which any case like this should be)

 

[CelticWarlord]

This, from Bishop Robert Barron;
How could one possibly declare as holy a church that has been implicated in so many atrocities and outrages over the centuries? How could a holy church have supported the Crusades, the Inquisition, the persecution of Galileo [etc etc] …And to bring this litany of crimes up to date, how could a holy church have permitted the sexual abuse of children by some priests and the covering up of that outrage by some bishops? The resolution of this problem hangs on a key distinction between the church and the church in its mystical integrity and all of those sinners who are members of that church. To say that the Body of Christ is holy is not to deny for a minute that that body is composed of sinful people- sometimes of the highest ecclesiastical rank- who have done cruel, stupid, and wicked things.
-from **_Catholicism_**, page 162

 

[Yeoman]

The scandals aren’t the Faith.

Keep in mind that we’re always under attack from the Enemy. And the Enemy attacks where he can, including attacking the weak in the clergy, or where where the clergy can be made weak.

Also keep in mind that a large number of the problematic heresies and other doctrines that the Church faced in the past came from inside the clergy. Arius was a Priest. Nestorius was the Archbishop of Constantinople. Luther was a Priest. The Church was seriously challenged by all of them and found itself having to confront its own problems, but it did.

Recently, I’m also keeping in mind that when the Church did confront its problems in the past, they tended to be pretty far gone, but laymen played a major role in the corrections. St. Constantine caused Arianism to be taken on. He was a layman, albeit a powerful one. In England, the struggle to restore Catholicism, which admittedly failed, was championed by Mary, who was also a layman. It’d be easy to point out that these people were monarchs, but in the modern world, most people live in democratic regimes where the people are the real sovereigns.

The Faith can be defended. And in this era, I think its the people who are in no small part going to have to go to those who have failed here and demand accountability. We may be the Constantine’s and Mary’s of our own era.

 

[ConstantLearner]

Trying to “defend the faith” with words right now is just going to look like dismissing the real pain that people have experienced.

I think that’s true. I think it would be good if the Vatican issued a formal apology to the boys and girls who were abused. It won’t make up for the wrong done to them, but it’s owed to them.

 

[ConstantLearner]

Keep in mind that we’re always under attack from the Enemy. And the Enemy attacks where he can, including attacking the weak in the clergy, or where where the clergy can be made weak.

That is true, but I think the clergy did this to themselves by freely choosing evil and not repenting.

Not to say that makes the entire church bad, just the ones involved in this. They have no excuse, no defense.

 

[13pollitos]

At least where I am, no priest has even acknowledged what is occurring. I am waiting to see when someone decides to mention it AT ALL. Continuing to bury heads or, even worse, obscure from others is what is causing my faith to slowly die. I am seriously considering stepping away from the ministries I volunteer with (altar servers, CCD, Youth Group), but I am also afraid to do so. I don’t want to hand off the kids (especially altar servers) to someone else because if they are under my care, I feel their safety is somewhat ensured. And if something horrible happened I would NEVER participate in a hush-hush campaign. But I am so sick to my stomach and almost dread the idea of continuing to volunteer in an institution with this mindset of hide, hide, hide. Praying and fasting and hoping others are as well.