Defendind the Catholic priest

[Advocatus_Fidei]

What do you suggest doing for the other 1 out of 5?

WE are already taking action to do all we can to prevent all abuse of children.

The causes have already been investigated by an independent body and are documented in the previous study which I published link to earlier in the thread, the John Jay study carried out by the University of New York at our request and expense.

To be admitted to a seminary for training as a priest a candidate must undergo psychological screening to try and prevent those who fit the profile of an abuser from ever becoming a priest in the first place.

Background checks are now done on al Church employees including all clergy.

Any priest accused of abuse is now immediately suspended and removed from ministry.

Any diocese made aware of abuse must now immediately alert the authorities rather than trying to deal with it themselves as has happened in the past.

The process to remove priests accused of these offences have been simplified and streamlined.

The measures to prevent abuse within the Church are now on a par and possibly even stricter than those employed by other institutions that deal with children such as schools and youth groups etc.

Do you do anymore in the Unitarian community?

 

[Major_Tom]

WE are already taking action to do all we can to prevent all abuse of children.

The causes have already been investigated by an independent body and are documented in the previous study which I published link to earlier in the thread, the John Jay study carried out by the University of New York at our request and expense.

To be admitted to a seminary for training as a priest a candidate must undergo psychological screening to try and prevent those who fit the profile of an abuser from ever becoming a priest in the first place.

Background checks are now done on al Church employees including all clergy.

Any priest accused of abuse is now immediately suspended and removed from ministry.

Any diocese made aware of abuse must now immediately alert the authorities rather than trying to deal with it themselves as has happened in the past.

The process to remove priests accused of these offences have been simplified and streamlined.

The measures to prevent abuse within the Church are now on a par and possibly even stricter than those employed by other institutions that deal with children such as schools and youth groups etc.

Do you do anymore in the Unitarian community?

Actually, I couldn’t tell you what the fail-safes are.

 

[Joe_5859]

Personally, I prefer not to quibble over whether or not this is a problem of homosexuality. The fact is, regardless of whether it is or not, it is a horrible tragedy and a great scandal.

However, the Church has done an enormous amount of work in the past ten years to make ammends and ensure that these abuses are not repeated. Just call your diocesan office and ask them about their Safe Environment program. Any employee or volunteer that works with young people in a Catholic setting gets a background check and fingerprinted. There are stringent rules in place over how interactions with young people are to take place. As far as I have seen, this always entails having at least two adults present.

This is why there are not very many new abuse cases that are happening. They are almost always from decades ago.

 

[JimG]

It seems that the majority of the sex abuse cases among Catholic clergy were cases of pederasty.

The other remarkable thing is that the actual abuse predates the publicity by about 30 to 40 years. When viewed as a whole, the sexual abuse crisis is something that peaked about 30 years ago.

If you read the John Jay study, it also appears that ordinands coming from particular seminaries and particular ordination years had the largest numbers of subsequent abusers. There was a certain amount of sexual laxity both in the culture and in those seminaries at the time.

 

[Advocatus_Fidei]

It seems that the majority of the sex abuse cases among Catholic clergy were cases of pederasty.

The other remarkable thing is that the actual abuse predates the publicity by about 30 to 40 years. When viewed as a whole, the sexual abuse crisis is something that peaked about 30 years ago.

Yup right around the time certain parts of society in the form of men like Dr. Alfred Kinsey where saying that having sex with children was actually ok and that children enjoy that kind of thing.

That depends on what definition you are working with, psychologists do not consider attraction to post pubescent boys to be part of the pathology of a pederast, the law however lumps everything together, it is the psychologists who hold the answers as far as how to spot men likely to engage in this behaviour not the law so we use their terms to allow us to identify the sources of the problem scientifically and put together the most effective program we can to prevent it from happening in the future based on that science.