I don’t want to go off thread, but I will quickly answer this by explaining what I mean when I say “over-protective.” I don’t see things the way your mom does. “Over-protective” to me means doing what the some of these bishops did wrongly, by not acknowledging the truth of the evil that was occurring. It’s important to acknowledge evil and teach what it is to children, in an appropriate manner, so that they will recognize it when they see it.In my case my mother was what one would call ‘over protective’, but this came only after her three children were molested in a variety of ways. Before we were hurt, she trusted other adults with us and had the same attitude you do. None of her kids will make the same mistake.
This is so true.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.
I don’t think it was a gay clerical culture. I think it was the same “culture” that leads women to cover up sexual abuse committed by their husbands, sons, and grandfathers–which, considering that it was abuse against their grandchildren, nieces and nephews and even their own children is practically impossible to believe. Yet we know that also happens. I think some of us here are old enough to remember when we found out how prevalent child sexual abuse was in the domestic church and within extended families in the world at large. It is a gut-punch every time one hears about it, but at some point it stops being a surprise. People do not want to admit their family (or their priests) aren’t exemplars of normalcy or even virtue. They don’t want people to think what people will think when these things become known. They go into denial, they cover for the perpetrator instead of defending the victim and future would-be victims, and in doing so they re-abuse the trust of the victim, sometimes on a worse level than the first offense.I doubt that the two diocese in PA are isolated incidents.
Reading that report (I haven’t) is like seeing a slaughterhouse for the first time. Or seeing a mangled dead body for the first time. Bishops are probably well aware of the crimes due to the nature of their job. Just as other professionals are aware of not so nice things because of their jobs.
Now we get a peak behind the curtain and everyone is gasping for breath. For me it’s not the crimes that are shocking, but it’s the cover ups, the reassignments, and the hypocrisy of the gay clerical culture that are somewhat surprising.