Expose them all!

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Chicago Public Schools, which was mentioned in this thread. But it doesnt matter. Point is the Catholic Church needs to fix this and be a leader. We should be held to a higher standard.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Public schools haven’t exactly been hush hush about the abuses going on in them. I see huge numbers of teacher cases online both in the news and in blogs which follow arrests.
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It’s in the news where there is an arrest, but public arrests are the tip of the iceberg.
If the allegations didn’t result in charges, we likely don’t know about them. I do think schools have come a long way here though in pursuing charges where appropriate.
 
Thanks. I kind of skimmed through the threads but must have missed it.

I agree the Church should be the leader in fixing this and held to a high standard, definitely. IMHO, I think they are doing that. I truly believe the Catholic Church will be the leader in fixing this, at least inside the Church. The culture is going to be a different issue.
 
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In my community it was discovered a high school coach was engaging in sexual relations with young teenaged girls from the school.

When it came to light. He packed his stuff, moved and started working in another community. So far as I know, nothing else was ever pursued.

In the same community a teenaged girl was raped. She brought charges against the young man who did it. The school never removed the young man from the school and in fact the girl had to stop going to school because she was so terrified of running into him. Eventually she dropped the charges because the entire community ostracized her. The young man in question was a popular hockey player and everyone refused to believe he could have done what she had accused him of doing (although I can’t imagine going through all the trauma she went through for a false allegation).

So I dunno. I think it’s obvious these sort of ‘cover ups’ happen in other organizations… it’s just … nobody with the power to shine a light on it has acted so it goes unnoticed and unrecognized.
 
Oh, and while I’m at it… there have been exposes and documentaries detailing the sexual abuse scandals within the psychiatric community but for some reason those haven’t received as much attention despite having the same kind of issue the Church has (where higher ups covered for those ‘beneath’ them who were committing grave sins).
 
It’s common and understandable human behavior to think that the coverage concerning your own group is harsher, bigger, badder ad more biased than similar coverage of another group. Everything is tender and feels more personal
It seems everywhere we turn we see fingers pointed, while perhaps we didn’t see the same happening to another when it was their turn in the spotlight.
Yes, this is getting big coverage, but so have lots of stories involving others. And though it may seem like it to Catholics, not everyone is focused on this. You are more sensitive to and aware of those speaking out about it, but to many outsiders it’s just another news story. They read it, and move on.

Of course it seems like everyone is focused on it to you because you are tuned into the responses, but I assure you that many people are focused on other stories and issues as well.
 
Similar things like this have been happening in our small town public school for years and years. One young girl had a very similar thing happen to her as you described and sadly her life came to an end and very little was done to the young teacher who was abusing her.
 
Calliope said:
to many outsiders it’s just another news story. They read it, and move on.

Of course it seems like everyone is focused on it to you because you are tuned into the responses, but I assure you that many people are focused on other stories and issues as well.
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I definitely agree with this. We are focusing on it here at CAF. There are so many threads going on this topic, it is a little confusing and overwhelming, but, at least in the USA, it is just another story to the media, even though, yes, it is horrendous. It is just in the USA, the news media right now has what they consider a bigger fish to fry.
 
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Unfortunately, in my experience the smaller the community the more these kind of abuses go unnoticed. And people tend to think they don’t happen but they do.

We’ve had teachers having affairs with students and it was public knowledge but nothing was done. We’ve had dentists who would molest their patients but before anyone came forward they would simply move their practice. I’ve seen it all in my little community and I guess that’s part of the reason the Church scandal didn’t scandalize me as much as some people.
 
I tend to be kind of suspicious about any recent allegation where charges are not actually brought and no other liability is found. I am less suspicious about the older allegations because I know there were a lot of reasons why charges were not brought then, including a general lack of reporting and the system not believing the victims, but anything in the last 10 years, I would want to see the person charged, even if it’s a lesser charge, before I go getting all excited.

I have seen a lot of unfounded allegations, including sexual abuse and child abuse claims, made in the context of a divorce where one spouse is trying to get revenge on the other or is just generally unreliable.
 
I think it’s regional. Like I live in a super small community. Those in ‘power’ in our town control EVERYTHING. From who gets hired to who gets slapped on the wrist.

Just 20 years back there was a young man who slammed my brothers head into a cement wall. The police resisted placing any charges (despite my mother wanting to) because the young man was the son of a well respected woman in town. In the end, they refused to press charges and the school refused to do anything and my brother’s ‘abuser’ was allowed to continue going around hitting him and beating him whenever he wanted.

When I came out about my sexual abuse, the social worker I was talking to was friends with my parents. She laughed off my accusations and told me I just ‘wanted’ attention… then didn’t report what I had told her.

I realize this is outside your 10 year parameter but I think in small towns? People protect each other and if the person responsible for reporting has some kind of social connection they want to protect I don’t put it past them not to report. Because, in the end, who’s ever going to find out?
 
For the record, yes, the Church needs to clean house, name names, and the victims deserve justice, healing and prayers! Bishops and priests and anyone complicit needs to be held accountable. Absolutely!
I just also have a sneaking suspicion that virtually all organizations who have been around “long enough” have lots of skeletons in their closets. It occurs to me that this kind of abuse of children seems to be a larger societal issue. The media seems to love to focus on the Church, which it is right to do in these cases of truly heinous abuse and cover-ups, but I wish they would also consider, “hmm, how was it that the police and prosecutors were complicit”. “Hmm, were there other cases of abuse, maybe in schools, scouts, medical situations, athletics?”
 
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Loud-living-dogma said:
For the record, yes, the Church needs to clean house, name names, and the victims deserve justice, healing and prayers! Bishops and priests and anyone complicit needs to be held accountable. Absolutely!
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Yes, this. It should go without saying but thank you for spelling it out for those people who think we’re ignoring the problem in the Church.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I tend to be kind of suspicious about any recent allegation where charges are not actually brought and no other liability is found. I am less suspicious about the older allegations because I know there were a lot of reasons why charges were not brought then, including a general lack of reporting and the system not believing the victims, but anything in the last 10 years, I would want to see the person charged, even if it’s a lesser charge, before I go getting all excited.

I have seen a lot of unfounded allegations, including sexual abuse and child abuse claims, made in the context of a divorce where one spouse is trying to get revenge on the other or is just generally unreliable.
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I work with at risk foster kids. While past abuse is real and a concern, many kids have also learned the power of making unfounded allegations. It’s very messy.
 
When I was in Junior High back in the early 90s, one of my parish priests was removed because of allegations of abuse (he was eventually convicted and is still in jail). None of the allegations had come from our parish, but from his previous assignments. He was the priest all the kids liked the most. He’d take us to Dairy Queen, or invite us to hit golf balls in the football field with him. In retrospect, that sounds a lot like grooming, but as kids, it was something fun and we weren’t accustomed to seeing priests as “fun.” After he was removed, there were “listening sessions” and the whole 9 yards. And this was 10 years before the Dallas Charter.

So I think that’s perhaps part of why I’m not as scandalized, too. I’ve known this element existed for a long time. I’ve also seen the Church deal with it appropriately during the time period when they supposedly were not dealing with it but just sweeping it under the rug. I’m sure that experience colors my views a fair bit. Not to minimize the terrible things that have been done. I certainly would never, ever want to do that.
 
I think many people are thinking what happened was universal but I tend to think it was particular dioceses that were failing not EVERY one. Just as despite my experiences I don’t think every teacher is evil, I don’t think every social worker is bad, I don’t think every father will harm his children and I don’t think every school will ignore abuse. But some do.
 
Just a couple of things.

When a man becomes a priest, he doesn’t lose his humanness, (if that is a word). It seems like a lot of cases I have read about, were youth hanging out with the priests in different activities, many times not church activities, and parents assumed the best because he was a priest. Even though a priest is and definitely should be held to a high standard, it never takes away his being human, so we as parents do need to be on our guard with everyone and take precautions with everyone, as sad as that may be.

The other thing, if we do not look and realize these things happen elsewhere, we could choose, in attempting to solve the crisis, ways that are not working elsewhere. We need to look at the world and see what and why are there issues there also and what are they also doing wrong.
 
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