Keeping the faith in church leadership among scandals

[CilladeRoma]

I don’t disagree that all those things that @joeybaggz talks about are important. It is the same way in my diocese.
My problem with it is it seems the we, the laity, have many more hoops to jump through than clerics do, and they are the ones who started the problem!

 

[SeriousQuestion]

I guess putting a quick end to it will lessen the damage done to victims, but the media will probably amplify things. I don’t know what the laity is supposed to do, I guess report them if there is enough evidence, but aside from that I don’t really know.

 

[somecanadian]

You should question it.

A few years back a member of my family falsely accused a priest of molesting him. I won’t go into all the details but I guarantee it is untrue (he was never once left alone with said priest). When the police got a hold of the story they questioned the boy improperly (and the video of this exchange is bizarre. FULL of the officer leading the child and finishing with the child happily asking for ice cream). It went to court and I attended the trial as it involved my family member and we knew the priest was not guilty.

The press widely reported the accusation that he had molested the child. He was on the front page of every newspaper around here.

When he was named not guilty by the court the press coverage was a tiny blurb on the 8th page of the newspaper.

Not every claim is true. Not every claim is false. But I do believe the numbers aren’t as accurate as we’re led to believe just based on my own experience.

As to why this child lied… his mother led him to it. I don’t doubt there are more cases of this kind.