Pa. bishops hid sex abuse of hundreds of children, grand jury finds

[Lormar]

I just spoke to my mother and she is heartsick about this, worrying that her church could collapse. It’s such a betrayal to those faithful immigrant people who built these Catholic communities. Most of the young people have left to join the non-denom church run by a female pastor in town.

I also just read that Fr. Maurizio was sentenced to 17 years for sex tourism disguised as missionary work in the Honduras.

Bishop Adamec closed a bunch of churches a decade ago, probably to pay off victims, and gutted the Catholic community in Cambria county. I really don’t know how they will survive this.

What do you mean “gutted the Catholic community” in Cambria?

 

[Modern_Revert]

Gutted - closed churches, ridiculed those who protested, half Catholic population ceased doing to church. Gutted.

 

[7_Sorrows]

Gutted - closed churches, ridiculed those who protested, half Catholic population ceased doing to church. Gutted.

maybe the poster means financially or families stopped going to church.

 

[rose_kelly]

I just spoke to my mother and she is heartsick about this, worrying that her church could collapse. It’s such a betrayal to those faithful immigrant people who built these Catholic communities. Most of the young people have left to join the non-denom church run by a female pastor in town.

I also just read that Fr. Maurizio was sentenced to 17 years for sex tourism disguised as missionary work in the Honduras.

Bishop Adamec closed a bunch of churches a decade ago, probably to pay off victims, and gutted the Catholic community in Cambria county. I really don’t know how they will survive this.

Your mother is understandably upset, as are all of us who care so much about the church.
But though some Catholics have left the church and will continue to do so either temporary or permanently, while ever we have good prayerful Catholics with holy dedicated clergy (which I feel the vast majority are) the church will survive, as it always has through historical periods of crisis.

By saying that I am in no way minimising the damaging effects on the abused victims, the natural reaction is intense anger that abuses committed by the most trusted could ever have happened.

 

[InSearchofGrace]

What many in this thread may not realize, or fail to point out, much has been done by the Catholic Church since the John Jay Report came out. Admittedly, more needs to be done.

The Catholic Church has done more to protect children than almost any other organization in the United States. Consider:

•   Safe Environment training is taking place in 194 dioceses/eparchies of the country. Over 2 million adults have been trained to recognize the behavior of offenders and what to do about it. 


•   Over 5 million children are being equipped with the skills to help them protect themselves from abuse. 


•   Background checks are conducted on Church personnel who have contact with children. That is over 2.3 million volunteers, employees, candidates for ordination and clerics. 


•    All dioceses/eparchies have Codes of Conduct spelling out what is acceptable behavior. This serves to let people know what can and cannot be done as well as letting others know what behavior can be expected. It encourages the reporting of suspicious behavior. 


•   All dioceses/eparchies have Victim Assistance Coordinators, assuring victims that they will be heard. In 2012, $8,015,842 was spent on therapy for the victims of clergy sexual abuse. 


•   All dioceses/eparchies have Safe Environment Coordinators who assure the ongoing compliance to the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. 


•   Bishops are meeting with victims. 


•   Dioceses/eparchies have Healing Masses, retreats for victim/survivors and other reconciliation events. 


•   There is a Zero Tolerance policy on abusers since 2002. When even a single act of sexual abuse by a priest or deacon is admitted or is established after an appropriate process in accord with canon law, the offending priest or deacon will be removed permanently from ecclesiastical ministry, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state, if the case so warrants (CIC, c. 1395 §2; CCEO, c. 1453 §1).


•   Dioceses/eparchies require intensive background screening as well as psychological testing for those wishing to enter the seminary.

Do you in the Catholic laity have teaching skills and time? Do you wish to be part of the mission of protecting our children and contribute to the containment if not eradication of child abuse in our society?

Volunteer to be a facilitator under the Virtus program created by the National Catholic Retention Group. I have.

Check out this link.

virtusonline.org

ISoG

 

[otjm]

Gutted - closed churches, ridiculed those who protested, half Catholic population ceased doing to church. Gutted.

If half the population stopped going to Mass, then one has to ask what had them going before?

Obviously not the Eucharist.

 

[otjm]

What many in this thread may not realize, or fail to point out, much has been done by the Catholic Church since the John Jay Report came out. Admittedly, more needs to be done.

The Catholic Church has done more to protect children than almost any other organization in the United States. Consider:

•   Safe Environment training is taking place in 194 dioceses/eparchies of the country. Over 2 million adults have been trained to recognize the behavior of offenders and what to do about it. 


•   Over 5 million children are being equipped with the skills to help them protect themselves from abuse. 


•   Background checks are conducted on Church personnel who have contact with children. That is over 2.3 million volunteers, employees, candidates for ordination and clerics. 


•    All dioceses/eparchies have Codes of Conduct spelling out what is acceptable behavior. This serves to let people know what can and cannot be done as well as letting others know what behavior can be expected. It encourages the reporting of suspicious behavior. 


•   All dioceses/eparchies have Victim Assistance Coordinators, assuring victims that they will be heard. In 2012, $8,015,842 was spent on therapy for the victims of clergy sexual abuse. 


•   All dioceses/eparchies have Safe Environment Coordinators who assure the ongoing compliance to the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. 


•   Bishops are meeting with victims. 


•   Dioceses/eparchies have Healing Masses, retreats for victim/survivors and other reconciliation events. 


•   There is a Zero Tolerance policy on abusers since 2002. When even a single act of sexual abuse by a priest or deacon is admitted or is established after an appropriate process in accord with canon law, the offending priest or deacon will be removed permanently from ecclesiastical ministry, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state, if the case so warrants (CIC, c. 1395 §2; CCEO, c. 1453 §1).


•   Dioceses/eparchies require intensive background screening as well as psychological testing for those wishing to enter the seminary.

Do you in the Catholic laity have teaching skills and time? Do you wish to be part of the mission of protecting our children and contribute to the containment if not eradication of child abuse in our society?

Volunteer to be a facilitator under the Virtus program created by the National Catholic Retention Group. I have.

Check out this link.

virtusonline.org

ISoG

A great post, and well laid out.

On the other hand, call me a cynic, but we were saying this a year ago; and then this most recent round of revelations has occurred.

Which leaves me, cynic that I am, to ask: What else have we not yet heard?

And when will we have to deal with it?

I would think that most of the bishops have figured this out by now. All? Do we have someone else going through the motions, but only because there appears no other choice? Are there any more file cabinets?

 

[JPUSC]

If half the population stopped going to Mass, then one has to ask what had them going before?

Obviously not the Eucharist.

That’s not fair to say.

“What sorrow awaits the leaders of my people–the shepherds of my sheep–for they have destroyed and scattered the very ones they were expected to care for,” says the LORD.

Jeremiah 23:1

 

[JPUSC]

Also, why isn’t abuse from public school teachers and high school coaches national news?

But, if it happens in the Catholic Church, it’s national or world news.

It’s the hypocrisy that is the issue here.

It’s world news when it happens in the Catholic Church because it is very hypocritical for an institution which claims itself to be the leading moral authority on earth as the ‘one true Church’ established by Christ himself, to do something so evil and appalling, and to cover it up to protect itself, on top of that.

 

[InSearchofGrace]

A great post, and well laid out.

On the other hand, call me a cynic, but we were saying this a year ago; and then this most recent round of revelations has occurred.

Which leaves me, cynic that I am, to ask: What else have we not yet heard?

And when will we have to deal with it?

I would think that most of the bishops have figured this out by now. All? Do we have someone else going through the motions, but only because there appears no other choice? Are there any more file cabinets?

Very likely, there are cases buried or forgotten in some filing cabinet of any given diocese. If it is the wish of any living victim of clergy sex abuse to now pursue a claim, he or she has a right to do so, to reach some reparation or settlement. Since Catholic clergy abuse has been blown wide open, and in this current climate where the Church is the favored whipping post, indeed it is difficult to comprehend if / when any priest remaining in the present ranks with pedophile tendency would even be caught near a child.

You can call me a cynic, as well, in that I am not quick to give full credence to any media report on clergy abuse, old or new. Nor do I believe that public officials like Pennsylvania attorney general Kathleen Kane is just motivated to right committed wrongs.

The discovery of archived cases in the Altoona diocese (summer of 2015) by the attorney general with a search warrant happens to coincide around the time when she was charged with criminal perjury and cover up of a leak of grand jury material. In fact, it is public knowledge her license to practice law is suspended and she still faces trial for said charges, although she can continue in her duty as attorney general through end of her term.
,

 

[7_Sorrows]

It’s world news when it happens in the Catholic Church because it is very hypocritical for an institution which claims itself to be the leading moral authority on earth as the ‘one true Church’ established by Christ himself, to do something so evil and appalling, and to cover it up to protect itself, on top of that.

I wrote a post on a thread earlier which was removed simply asking why? why did this happen?

 

[rose_kelly]

I’ve been reading an article from the Catholic Answers Magazine. It may not have been written recently, but it raises some interesting points, and is quite relevant to what has been addressed on this thread discussion.

For any one interested- Three Great Lessons of the Abuse Scandal. catholic.com/magazine/articles/three-great-lessons-of-the-abuse-scandal

 

[Lormar]

It’s world news when it happens in the Catholic Church because it is very hypocritical for an institution which claims itself to be the leading moral authority on earth as the ‘one true Church’ established by Christ himself, to do something so evil and appalling, and to cover it up to protect itself, on top of that.

I was going to post something similar yesterday but didn’t quite know how to word it. Thank you for saying it for me.

I hope this isn’t one of the things that is pushing you out the door of the Church.

 

[otjm]

Very likely, there are cases buried or forgotten in some filing cabinet of any given diocese. If it is the wish of any living victim of clergy sex abuse to now pursue a claim, he or she has a right to do so, to reach some reparation or settlement. Since Catholic clergy abuse has been blown wide open, and in this current climate where the Church is the favored whipping post, indeed it is difficult to comprehend if / when any priest remaining in the present ranks with pedophile tendency would even be caught near a child.

You can call me a cynic, as well, in that I am not quick to give full credence to any media report on clergy abuse, old or new. Nor do I believe that public officials like Pennsylvania attorney general Kathleen Kane is just motivated to right committed wrongs.

The discovery of archived cases in the Altoona diocese (summer of 2015) by the attorney general with a search warrant happens to coincide around the time when she was charged with criminal perjury and cover up of a leak of grand jury material. In fact, it is public knowledge her license to practice law is suspended and she still faces trial for said charges, although she can continue in her duty as attorney general through end of her term.
,

It would be an exceedingly unwise attorney representing a diocese, who did not go through every possible storage place and shake it upside down until the last “sticky” fell out. Then, again, passing the Bar is not a grant of wisdom, or of control of the client.

Thanks for the update on the AG. Hatred of the Catholic Church may have morphed since I was a youngster, but it is no less prevalent, and no less vitriolic. However, if one reads scripture, especially the OT, one finds God using “interesting” instruments by which to purify His people. It seems that the personal opinions of the “instruments” are far less important than the cleansing needed.

 

[JPUSC]

I was going to post something similar yesterday but didn’t quite know how to word it. Thank you for saying it for me.

I hope this isn’t one of the things that is pushing you out the door of the Church.

Thanks. This, among other scandals, as well as the new attitudes currently developing in the Church towards seemingly unchangeable moral values and doctrines are seriously taking a toll on the credibility I felt towards the Church.

 

[JPUSC]

I wrote a post on a thread earlier which was removed simply asking why? why did this happen?

 

[InSearchofGrace]

It’s world news when it happens in the Catholic Church because it is very hypocritical for an institution which claims itself to be the leading moral authority on earth as the ‘one true Church’ established by Christ himself, to do something so evil and appalling, and to cover it up to protect itself, on top of that.

I understand why you would say that because the Church is considered a moral leader and teacher. At least you did not state that the Church puts herself out as the having “a monopoly on morality” as one poster did. Only our Lord Jesus was perfect in holiness in His earthly Life, and He was also tempted. His followers and many of those canonized as saints were sinners before their conversions. The fact is Catholic priests do get tempted and some fall into sin and immorality, even habitually. Else, we would not hear of Catholic priests who died of AIDS.

Satan considers a priest’s downfall his best victory, in this battle of powers and principalities. A laicized priest is one less Persona Christi who administers the Eucharist and other sacraments. That there are sinful priests who commit(ted) the dastardly sin of child sex abuse does not mean the Catholic religion is not the one true faith. But it is conceded and very understandable that clergy sex abuse of children erodes the moral authority and standing of the Church.

A poster correctly mentioned the role of bad psychology and psychiatry, professions to which the Church turned for decades, in an effort to rehabilitate wayward pedophile priests. Professionals in said fields in effect became enablers, believing rehabilitation was possible, a thought which they later disowned. The prevailing school of thought now is that the affliction of pedophilia can not be cured. Or need be. The mental health profession is de-stigmatizing the condition, only a problem if the afflicted is uncomfortable with having the desire, and if he acts on it, the only reason being it is considered a crime under existing laws. Note, that victims of child sexual abuse are “damaged goods” forever is considered to be a myth by current practitioners in psychiatry. That’s psychiatry for you. No wonder, many think it does not deserve to be called a science.

Pedophilia, in the same way deep seated homosexuality, an “orientation” that seeks sexual expression with a member of the same sex, can not be helped. While pedophilia and homosexuality may be different “orientations” but when acted on, (especially repeatedly), the bottom line is that said behaviors are incompatible with Catholic priesthood. Mastery of self is required in living out the vocation. Cover up of these serious transgressions or abuses in an effort to save face is certainly wrong, deserving condemnation.

As one tries to understand how such evil could have continued, there is something at play that is not raised much. Our Church believes in redemption and forgiveness. Could the teaching be one of the reasons homosexuals and pedophiles flocked to the seminary prior to the mid-70’s? When a priest who confesses and acts he is sorry and promises to make amends, never to do the deed again against a child, or a teen, should his confessor not forgive him? Jesus taught us to forgive seventy times seven.

In retrospect, Church hierarchy was too naive (repeat priest offenders can be forgiven but they should have been removed from ministry involving children). It is possible some bishops not having a perfect record as priests (who-am-I-to-judge mind set) tended to look the other way, becoming negligent, in effect, and crossing moral lines by moving repeat priest offenders to other parishes or dioceses. Realization and meaningful corrections were made too late. We learned the bitter sad truth that our moral leaders are not exempted from exercising very bad bad judgment, translating to guilt of commission of the worse sin of cover up.
,

 

[InSearchofGrace]

It would be an exceedingly unwise attorney representing a diocese, who did not go through every possible storage place and shake it upside down until the last “sticky” fell out. Then, again, passing the Bar is not a grant of wisdom, or of control of the client.

Thanks for the update on the AG. Hatred of the Catholic Church may have morphed since I was a youngster, but it is no less prevalent, and no less vitriolic. However, if one reads scripture, especially the OT, one finds God using “interesting” instruments by which to purify His people. It seems that the personal opinions of the “instruments” are far less important than the cleansing needed.

I agree.
,

 

[7_Sorrows]

I wrote a post on a thread earlier which was removed simply asking why? why did this happen?

I actually found my post on another thread so it wasn’t deleted.

 

[mdef303]

there is no way to God but through Jesus Christ… I’m a convert from the Bahai faith, and Jesus is the way to the lord, his gospels are perfect and pure… may you see passed the scandal and move forward to promote the truth in Christs church.