How to react to/deal with media coverage re: clergy sexual abuse stuff

[legaleagle]

First off I want to say that I pray for our priests and I am so grateful that Godly men have given their lives to God to become priests.

Recently, the news media (in Canada) is reporting that a bishop is charged with possessing child pornography on his computer. Regardless of this particular case and the fact that he is innocent until proven guilty, there have been bad priests in the past. Of course, the media is covering this case and people are using this to bash the Church. They are making all kinds of denouncements, as you can imagine.

My concern is: I am seeking to convert and lately have been very enthusiastic and could almost say with exact certainty that I am ready to become Catholic. Then something like this happens and I don’t want this to shatter my faith in the Church, but the media brings up stuff like in the past, the bad priests were sent to other parishes even though they knew them to be abusers. Etc, etc. These little comments have been nagging at me.

Is there anything/words of wisdom, etc, that someone can offer me to help me sort this out and ‘keep the faith’, so to speak?

Thanks.

 

[KindredSoul]

First off I want to say that I pray for our priests and I am so grateful that Godly men have given their lives to God to become priests.

Recently, the news media (in Canada) is reporting that a bishop is charged with possessing child pornography on his computer. Regardless of this particular case and the fact that he is innocent until proven guilty, there have been bad priests in the past. Of course, the media is covering this case and people are using this to bash the Church. They are making all kinds of denouncements, as you can imagine.

My concern is: I am seeking to convert and lately have been very enthusiastic and could almost say with exact certainty that I am ready to become Catholic. Then something like this happens and I don’t want this to shatter my faith in the Church, but the media brings up stuff like in the past, the bad priests were sent to other parishes even though they knew them to be abusers. Etc, etc. These little comments have been nagging at me.

Is there anything/words of wisdom, etc, that someone can offer me to help me sort this out and ‘keep the faith’, so to speak?

Thanks.

I do not know if my words will help, but for me I take note of the fact that there are examples of this in every faith and in every walk of non-religious life. I also simply reflect on the simple truth that, even if the grand majority of priests were doing this (which is far from true) their actions do not mean that the religion they have failed to adequately represent isn’t true, anymore than a Protestant minister, by molesting someone, would disprove the Bible’s adequacy. Likewise, if a President and the majority of politicians were molesters, it doesn’t prove that our ideals (democracy and all that) are bad, so much as we are simply in a bad way as far as who is currently filling those offices, even though the offices in themselves have not been proven bad by the actions of those individuals.

As for being in a tough and embarrassing situation, the Church has faced it before (our current issue is just particularly jarring on a deeply emotional level), and devout men and women throughout the ages, many of them saints, have taken courage in realizing that, though priests and clergy are an indispensable part of the Catholic Faith and Church, they are not synonymous, and the sins of the clergy are not the sins of Catholicism itself, anymore than a Sola Scriptura minister’s sins are the sins of the Bible itself.

I hope this is of some comfort and encouragement.

Blessings in Christ,
KindredSoul

 

[fabricdragon]

i converted right after the lawsuits …

i can tell you that the proportion of priests involved with this is very low. the REAL issue was with non abusive priests and Bishops not dealing with this well. shuffling abusers about and trying to hide things.

part of this i understand, you dont want to believe its an actual problem. especially when a “fellow priest” is telling you its not true. you know there are false accusations. you know people have sued for money… you simply dont want to believe the man is guilty…
then if another case comes up… you start feeling panicky “oh my God… maybe he did do something… and i contributed” and rather than face his own guilt of complicity… its shuffled off for someone else to deal with.
is that right? no
it is certainly sinful, bad behavior… but its also easily understood to be a fairly typical problem, in ANY large heirarchical concern.

sadly there will always be people who do the wrong things… and some who feel that out of (wrong headed) loyalty to their group they musnt let the “public” know about the problem in “our” group.

you have the very same problem with police… with corporations… etc.

its sad.
but
the number of high profile ministers from pentacostal and “born again” churches, including those that in the Catholic church would be Bishops or Cardinals… is frighteningly high. much higher in proportion than any problem in the Catholic church.

and i wont even begin to go into the Episcopalian situation…
(the local Episcopalian Bishop, for instance, is accused of stealing mission money, misappropriation of funds, concealing his brothers child abuse, and more)

any time you have people who have authority. you have people who will abuse that authority. we are not sinless, we are not perfect… and in Christs own parables he states that the "Tares " must be left in with the Wheat so we do not uproot the good wheat… and they will be with us until the harvest.

 

[DOShea]

Don’t let it discourage you. As the above poster noted, this kind of circumstance is everywhere now - schools, corporations, politics… there is virtually nothing immune. If one can’t go where this stuff happens, it means one can’t go to any schools, can’t work, can’t do virtually anything. So don’t let it diminish your faith and your calling.

Not to darken your day, but be prepared to have this shoved in your face from time to time. This is the latest crutch de jour for those who choose not to participate at all in any religious faith and are uncomfortable around anyone who does. They will offer this as “the reason why,” but it’s bogus. They simply aren’t brave enough to say they decided to reject God, but will lean on this as some sort of justification for their actions. When you show them a news report of some professor arrested for sexual escapades with a minor, you’ll never see them denounce the university system and withdraw from classes. No, then it will be okay because it wasn’t their professor.

It is sad, but do your best to shrug it off. Know who you are and what you are about, and have confidence God is not pulling you into sin.

 

[CalCatholic]

Unfortunately this problem of sexual abuse is in every segment of our society, it is not something we are able to walk away from. If you knew the full extent of abuse in the schools, you probably would home school your kids. I was reading an article years ago(and unfortunately I don’t remember the Newspaper) but it was reporting on the three major insurance companies that insured a majority of the Protestant Churches in the USA. It was discussing how many cases of sexual abuse (that were actually filed) that were being reported each year against these Churches. When I took that number and multiplied it by 50 (for the 50 year period that the Catholic Church scandals took place), the number was very similiar to those in the Priest scandals over a 50 year reporting period. Now I am not trying to legitimize what took place in the Catholic Church! But to somehow think that this is just a Catholic problem is a mistake. The Catholic Church is an easy target for the news media. Jesus’ Church is perfect, but not the people in it. Sexual abuse is a human sin. If you don’t believe me check the sexual predator listing websites, and see how many are living in your neigbhorhood.

 

[legaleagle]

Thanks everyone. I feel a bit better. As fabricdragon said, I guess most of my concern was with the people in charge shuffling suspected abusers around.

Sigh, it’s disheartening and yes, people do shove this in my face. Does anyone have any solid statistics that we can quote about the % of abusers in other places, etc?

I continue to pray for our priests. May God watch over them and protect them from all evil.

 

[fabricdragon]

sadly, the human tendancy to not want those “outside” our group… to know about problems “inside” our group is very strong.

it almost doesnt matter what group, or what problem.

combined with the desire to believe the best about people in your family/friends/group…well… thats why large groups have to have guidelines about how to respond to accusations. because the natural tendency is to go “no, not in MY group…” and forget that all have sinned and fall short… and yes its possible, especially when you dont perhaps know the person as well as you may think.

     *what to do*

i would suggest you do some research about sexual predators in general… there are many cases in boy scouts, school teachers, etc… a predator will go to where the prey is.
period
its why you often find real scum haunting the “widow support groups” “abuse survivor groups” and such. because they know there will be vulnerable women there.

does that mean all people in authority/positions to abuse are abusers? no. but the real abusers will often seek out opportunities… and the Catholic church is not immune to that… but its not really any worse, either.

as to the cover ups… my two cents…

the problem as i see it is really two fold

1. abusers will cover for each other
2. most people are NOT abusers and cannot imagine that a “fellow _____” would be an abuser.

and from an outside perspective, how do you tell? how can you tell the difference between someone who is sympathetic to an abuser AS an abuser… someone who is sympathetic to an abuser because they dont think they are guilty, and someone who is a “not in my backyard” type who is just trying to keep any blame or responsibility off themselves?

look at the parable of the talents /coins. many of the people who passed the buck are the same as the person who hid the coins because he thought taking any risk, and possibly having any responsibility, was a bad thing.
sad
but all too human

ah well… sorry i am rambling a bit