How has the Pennsylvania scandal affected you personally?

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We went through revelations like these here in L.A. some years ago. Of course my heart goes out to those who were victims, whose trust was betrayed and lives were often irreparably damaged. Now, as then, I can’t help feeling a sense of relief that this kind of abuse never touched my life, personally. I was an altar boy for years, and often just I and one of the priests from my parish would be alone together preparing for early weekday Mass. When the clergy sex abuse files were released here, I learned that there was a predator priest in a parish about a mile from mine. It could just as easily have been mine. So I am grateful for all the good priests I have been blessed to know, and saddened over this current crisis.
 
I don’t live in PA, but I know a lot of people who do. I suppose it has affected me “personally” in that I have felt a mixture of anger and sadness. Anger at the people responsible, and sadness about the lives this affects and the people that will lose their faith over this. But I suppose it goes to show that Satan is having a field day with the world and especially the Church, because the Church has the fullness of truth and all are saved through her – so not surprisingly the Church is where the war is at its worst. My own parish priest was removed when I was a child for sexual abuse and eventually defrocked, so this filth has existed at my own doorstep.

I suppose I also feel somewhat distressed and depressed about the state of the Church because of this and other reasons, but I’ll carry on and keep praying.
 
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A word or two from a Pennsylvania Catholic. About two months ago, a letter was read at all masses in the diocese. A priest had been accused, credibly it was stated, that he had engaged in such activity and was removed one day later from his ministry. Publicly humiliated. Terrible, right?
Well, this incident (the molestation) occurred 51 years ago. BEFORE the priest in question had ever entered the seminary - forget about being ordained. That means he was probably in his teens/early 20’s when this incident occurred.
Now I have to ask myself, was this a one time thing and has he been a faithful priest for 40 years or so. Or is there more to the story. That’s the rub, nothing else has been publicly stated. Is this guy a victim of juvenile indiscretion or is he a hard core abuser. Doubt we will ever know.
That is the problem. Should an serial abuser be removed. Of course. Is this guy victim of a witch hunt because of one time incident (or several incidents as a teen)? I don’t know.
This is the problem for so many Catholics. We don’t know the extent of the problem, so we can only react on emotion. Things need to be clearer.
 
geewiz said:
I knew a number of chrildren who were violated.
We were told to “get over it”
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I can’t remember if I posted this before, but in one of those John R. Powers “Catholic schoolboy” fiction novels from the 1970s - he wrote “Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?” and others, about his experiences in Catholic school a couple decades before - there is a scene where a priest tries to abuse some little boy, and the kid’s older brother beats up the priest in front of the entire school class and calls him out as an abuser, and the priest gets transferred. I don’t remember anybody raising an eyebrow at this scene in the book when it came out.
 
Other than being disgusted by the details and have to pray these images out of my head, I haven’t been affected.

I don’t know what the state of things is in 2018! All I know is of the 300 only 2 are facing charges.

If reforms have been effective in stemming the tide of this stuff, our outrage needs to reflect that important bit of information!!!
 
It is incredibly sad and disappointing. It doesn’t shake my faith a bit, but whenever a priest or pastor abuses the trust and authority that is placed in them, it does a tremendous amount of damage to the Church. It confirms to me that we need to continue to pray for the Church and for the Holy Spirit to be present in our lives and conform us to the likeness of Jesus Christ. I also hope that all church bodies would take seriously the need to do a better job of discerning who is worthy of being called into a position of authority within the Church. Seminaries especially need to be able to identify high risk behaviors. And we need to be able to react quickly and decisively when these kinds of incidents occur.
 
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it’s not just about the sex abuse, it’s the fact that the sex abuse was covered up systematically
 
SacredHeartBassist said:
Is anyone making any changes? How are you dealing with it
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It’s opened my eyes to how serious this corruption is that has infiltrated the church! All these years I’ve heard many within the laity saying that things aren’t that bad, it’s only a small percentage, God is in control, Who are we to question the clergy, they are holy men of God, etc etc.

Well after decades and decades of complacency and demoralization, the truth is coming out. The Catholic Church and more directly the USCCB, is in dire straits. They have abused their power and destroyed the faith and trust that we as the laity have given them. It’s truly disturbing just how deep this rabbit hole goes and how widespread and cancerous this corruption is.

I for one have become more inspired to fight for our faith and to help remove this cancer from our midst and to show everyone exactly who the wolves are amongst the sheep!
 
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I feel that if there were at least three instances where ArchBishop Wuerl decided to move a priest and did so knowingly and without coercion should be removed by Pope Francis. I don’t think moving a priest and/or have their faculties removed so the church’s reputation would remain without blemish is a sufficient reason to not prevent others from harm. I think Pope Benedict did the correct thing to resign and it’s not a cowardly act - it’s an act that should occur more often when one’s time is up or when someone is unable to perform the functions of bishop, cardinal, or pope.

It doesn’t shake my faith in God or even the Catholic Church but I wish the Catholic Church had a procedure for administrative removal of a bishop, cardinal, or even pope if there was an inability in their judgment to fulfill their duties. I think we do suffer from an appeal to authority that may lead us to suspend judgment.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
It actually is a relatively small percentage of the total. A small percentage can still do a lot of really bad things, of course.
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Agreed, it’s a small percentage of priests. However, since there are fewer bishops, it’s not a small percentage of bishops that were involved in the shifting.
 
That’s a fair point. However, the bishops named are even less likely to be alive now than the priests, since they were older when all this was going on.
 
I think many of us are growing tired of waiting for those good bishops and priests to come together and publicly denounce these men by name and if not that, then at the very least come forward to help spread the word about what they know and what they’ve heard regarding these allegations and any of the hierarchy who have actively worked to cover up the abuse.

Instead, what we’ve been seeing and hearing are those members of the clergy who are simply trying to dissociate themselves from the accused and trying to downplay what they knew and heard!
 
Tis_Bearself said:
It actually is a relatively small percentage of the total. A small percentage can still do a lot of really bad things, of course.
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True, but even 4% of 100,000 is still 4,000 men who have prayed upon young children and young adults for decades!! Left unchecked and allowed to go about their daily routines while being protected by those who simply turned a blind eye and imposed some meaningless act of penance. When we’re talking about these evil and deplorable acts it doesn’t matter one bit if it’s a small percentage, what matters most is that members of the laity looked to our bishops and cardinals for help! They pleaded and begged for some sense of support and protection, but what they got was silence and complacency.

So shame on those who were involved and it’s time that they are held accountable both publicly and in the confessional.
 
It saddens and sickens me. The only thing I can do is ramp up my prayers for the victims, families, parishes, dioceses, holy orders and the Pope. In today’s world, much darkness is coming to light and it’s a wake up call to all of us. Numbers 23 - “be sure your sins will find you out.”
 
SacredHeartBassist said:
Is anyone making any changes? How are you dealing with it
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Not much for me personally to change. I find it very very sad though and I’m praying for both clergy and the victims. Praying for clergy who are guilty, accused but not guilty, and not accused and not guilty because of the backlash they will feel over their fallen brethren.

The program “Protecting God’s Children” has been in place in the ArchDiocese of St. Louis for a couple of decades at least, and it’s a good program which I support.
 
Crusader13 said:
I for one have become more inspired to fight for our faith and to help remove this cancer from our midst and to show everyone exactly who the wolves are amongst the sheep!
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I am similar. I want to be an even better Catholic and fight for the faith. I guess the one thought that keeps going through my head is when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemani and they came and took him away, the sheep fled. Everyone ran. I just keep thinking, as I have learned more about my faith and I know now positively that Christ is in the Eucharist, I don’t want to leave him. I don’t want to be one who flees. I thought about it last night. I want to be like the women who were at the feet of the cross and did not leave His side.

It may be a rough and hard time ahead but my plan is to hang on tight and fight for the faith, with the help and grace of God, of course.
 
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