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

[mdef303]

they knew what they were doing and should be criminalized… phycological they were messed up and knew it… no sort of crazy thing came over them… they knew what they were doing, its not the churches fault, really… they were deceptive evil men… nothing came over them or possesed them they… they obviously didn’t care about the church or the Jesus teachings, one could consider they entered vocation just to prey… Im glad the pope is doing something to clean this up, because if they were men of God, they would have never have done this… they were no men of god…period… they were liers, and decievers that could care less about the teachings of Christ, and focused only on their evil desires… you… Christ saves people, not put good men in harms way… they obviously ignored Christ and continued their ways of thier own evil desires… its funny how the people can blame the church… these were decievers, evil men that had nothing to do with Christs teaching and knew their evil ways, way before entering vocation… God does indeed have Wrath, as we all should fear the lord… these priests were never Christs followers from the beginning… period… Im glad the Pope is doing things from preventing these evil decievers into the churches doors… do not blame the religion of Christ… Blame the evil decievers who came into vocation to not to follow Christ, but to be evil, period… May God bless, and take care the ones and abused, and do Just with the ones who have done the evilness… We should trust in Christ always, and be a true follower… Cheers.

 

[pristine2]

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

Well my entire thread, in which I explained precisely what happened here in the Altoona-Johnstown diocese, was indeed deleted by the forum monitors, as if I had somehow broken the rules by posting the truth.

In it I explained that the speculation and allegations that the investigation sas somehow motivated by hatred for the church were dead wrong, as are the assertions that the abuse scandal is something from the distant past. The investigation was prompted by devout Catholics struggling to save our church, not tear it down.

Fine, don’t take my word for it. The following two articles do a pretty decent job explaining how George Foster, and those who support him, work tirelessly to purge the diocese of the corruption that overwhelmed it.:

post-gazette.com/local/region/2016/03/02/Altoona-businessman-s-crusade-exposes-conspiracy-of-silence/stories/201603020096

altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/631441/Local-man-probed-abuse.html?nav=742

 

[pristine2]

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:

I believed all of this until a few months before the grand jury report was released, when our diocese (Altoona Johnstown) began summarily announcing school closures and offering reasons that did not bear scrutiny. The diocese behaved in a shockingly peremptory and disingenuous fashion, seemingly without any regard for the parishioners whose time, labor and money built their churches and schools. Had they gone crazy?

Now I know the cause. The diocese had continued to protect abusers, pedophiles and pederasts from prosecution, and continued to give them access to children, over four decades, well past 2002. Even our current Bishop did this: nytimes.com/2014/09/27/us/priest-in-sexual-abuse-case-was-reported-to-diocese-5-years-ago-records-show.html

The looming civil consequences has sent the diocese into panic mode. That’s why our schools are closing.

And if you think it was all due to some evil conspiracy to tear down the church, you are wrong. The corruption was deep. There was a large cohort of homosexual priests with a prurient interest in adolescent boys. Not “3%”, but nearly 50 priests, deacons and others with diocesan authority in a single generation. FIFTY.

A 2003 letter sent to the diocese purporting to be from 26 gay priests demanded that the Bishop "“cease and desist any and all harassment of homosexual clergy and instead work to protect the reputation and well-being of clergy of all sexual orientations.”

I’m sorry, but to state that there was a zero tolerance policy in our diocese after 2002 is simply false. It continued to ignore George Foster’s pleas to investigate the problem until 2014. There is STILL denial going on. It’s going to take a great deal more than perfunctory professions of regret to set all this right.

Thank God for the lay Catholics who took the issue to the secular authorities when the diocese failed to act.

 

[JPUSC]

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.

1. The covenant that God has offered Israel is irrevocable. “God is not man, that he should lie” (Num 23:19; cf. 2 Tim 2:13). The permanent elective fidelity of God expressed in earlier covenants is never repudiated (cf. Rom 9:4; 11:1–2). The New Covenant does not revoke the earlier covenants, but it brings them to fulfilment. Through the Christ event Christians have understood that all that had gone before was to be interpreted anew. For Christians the New Covenant has acquired a quality of its own, even though the orientation for both consists in a unique relationship with God (cf. for example, the covenant formula in Lev 26:12, “I will be your God and you will be my people”). For Christians, the New Covenant in Christ is the culminating point of the promises of salvation of the Old Covenant, and is to that extent never independent of it. The New Covenant is grounded in and based on the Old, because it is ultimately the God of Israel who concludes the Old Covenant with his people Israel and enables the New Covenant in Jesus Christ. Jesus lives during the period of the Old Covenant, but in his work of salvation in the New Covenant confirms and perfects the dimensions of the Old. The term covenant, therefore, means a relationship with God that takes effect in different ways for Jews and Christians. The New Covenant can never replace the Old but presupposes it and gives it a new dimension of meaning, by reinforcing the personal nature of God as revealed in the Old Covenant and establishing it as openness for all who respond faithfully from all the nations (cf. Zech 8:20-23; Psalm 87).

1. Since God has never revoked his covenant with his people Israel, there cannot be different paths or approaches to God’s salvation. The theory that there may be two different paths to salvation, the Jewish path without Christ and the path with the Christ, whom Christians believe is Jesus of Nazareth, would in fact endanger the foundations of Christian faith. Confessing the universal and therefore also exclusive mediation of salvation through Jesus Christ belongs to the core of Christian faith. So too does the confession of the one God, the God of Israel, who through his revelation in Jesus Christ has become totally manifest as the God of all peoples, insofar as in him the promise has been fulfilled that all peoples will pray to the God of Israel as the one God (cf. Is 56:1-8). The document “Notes on the correct way to present the Jews and Judaism in preaching and catechesis in the Roman Catholic Church” published by the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews in 1985 therefore maintained that the Church and Judaism cannot be represented as “two parallel ways to salvation”, but that the Church must “witness to Christ as the Redeemer for all” (No.I, 7). The Christian faith confesses that God wants to lead all people to salvation, that Jesus Christ is the universal mediator of salvation, and that there is no “other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved” (Acts 4:12).

1. From the Christian confession that there can be only one path to salvation, however, it does not in any way follow that the Jews are excluded from God’s salvation because they do not believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah of Israel and the Son of God. Such a claim would find no support in the soteriological understanding of Saint Paul, who in the Letter to the Romans not only gives expression to his conviction that there can be no breach in the history of salvation, but that salvation comes from the Jews (cf. also Jn 4:22). God entrusted Israel with a unique mission, and He does not bring his mysterious plan of salvation for all peoples (cf. 1 Tim 2:4) to fulfilment without drawing into it his “first-born son” (Ex 4:22). From this it is self-evident that Paul in the Letter to the Romans definitively negates the question he himself has posed, whether God has repudiated his own people. Just as decisively he asserts: “For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (Rom 11:29). That the Jews are participants in God’s salvation is theologically unquestionable, but how that can be possible without confessing Christ explicitly, is and remains an unfathomable divine mystery. It is therefore no accident that Paul’s soteriological reflections in Romans 9-11 on the irrevocable redemption of Israel against the background of the Christ-mystery culminate in a magnificent doxology: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways” (Rom 11:33). Bernard of Clairvaux (De cons. III/I,3) says that for the Jews “a determined point in time has been fixed which cannot be anticipated”.

vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/relations-jews-docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_20151210_ebraismo-nostra-aetate_en.html

 

[mdef303]

Christ is the truth. Jesus saved us. And one cannot choose to be Jewish. According to the writings they are born Jewish and not all people but Jews can have salvation. Lol. Please. Like the Jews are the chosen ones. Like Muslims. Whoever believes and comes to Christ can have salvation. Thier is a reason why the New Testament was revealed. Salvation for all through Christ. Not only “the chosen” so I guess if ur decendents weren’t Jewish, lol, your out of luck.

 

[ringil]

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.

How does one consider converting to Judaism OR Eastern Orthodoxy.

They are, well, kind of fundamentally different.

I just had to put that out there. Sorry

 

[mdef303]

I thought this was the Jews thought. That they are the chosen ones. So they basically ignore Christ in the New Testament

 

[mdef303]

So… Christ is written throughout the New Testament but they completely ignore him? Hmmm ok… Who do they think Christ is? Do they ignore the scriptures pertaining that he is the son of the living God?

 

[mdef303]

But what do the Jews believe Christ was?

 

[mdef303]

Whatever they want to believe in is fine by me.

 

[unafraid]

I am at an utter loss to comprehend the rationale of responding to the clerical sex abuse scandal within the church by considering a conversion to Judaism. How did this scandal change one Word of the Gospel, disavow the Communion of Saints, rescind salvation, nullify the promise of eternal life, etc.,etc…

To reject Jesus Christ Himself, which is the de facto consequence of a conversion to Judaism, is such an extreme reaction that it calls into question the validity of that person’s genuine faithfulness in the Lord.

For me, these scandals drew me deeper into the fullness, richness and depth of our Roman Catholic religion. Initially, I felt the shock and deep pain which most practicing Catholics felt, and naturally sorrow and empathy for the victims, but then I began to realize just how much I loved this “Bride of Christ” which these vile “wolves in sheeps clothing” had so greatly scandalized. I was moved to no longer take for granted the many splendid gifts the Holy Church had to offer, and I drew nearer to the heart of my religion than I ever had before.

Our church is in the world, but it is not of the world. Evil is at the root of the clerical sex abuse scandal, and Satan is its director, but this evil penetrated the hearts of corrupt men, yet it did not penetrate the true heart of the church : which is the true living presence of Jesus Christ in all the tabernacles in every church throughout the entire world. It is that truth that compels the faithful to remain true to our religion.

 

[mdef303]

I am at an utter loss to comprehend the rationale of responding to the clerical sex abuse scandal within the church by considering a conversion to Judaism. How did this scandal change one Word of the Gospel, disavow the Communion of Saints, rescind salvation, nullify the promise of eternal life, etc.,etc…

To reject Jesus Christ Himself, which is the de facto consequence of a conversion to Judaism, is such an extreme reaction that it calls into question the validity of that person’s genuine faithfulness in the Lord.

For me, these scandals drew me deeper into the fullness, richness and depth of our Roman Catholic religion. Initially, I felt the shock and deep pain which most practicing Catholics felt, and naturally sorrow and empathy for the victims, but then I began to realize just how much I loved this “Bride of Christ” which these vile “wolves in sheeps clothing” had so greatly scandalized. I was moved to no longer take for granted the many splendid gifts the Holy Church had to offer, and I drew nearer to the heart of my religion than I ever had before.

Our church is in the world, but it is not of the world. Evil is at the root of the clerical sex abuse scandal, and Satan is its director, but this evil penetrated the hearts of corrupt men, yet it did not penetrate the true heart of the church : which is the true living presence of Jesus Christ in all the tabernacles in every church throughout the entire world. It is that truth that compels the faithful to remain true to our religion.

Beautiful.

 

[AnneElizabeth]

So you want to ignore this so that outsiders can’t disparage the church? Since when is an abuser’s reputation, or the reputation of the institution they represent, more important than justice for those harmed?

These aren’t “legal niceties”. How on earth can a church that claims to have a monopoly on morality place their own reputation above something like this? Disgusting.

I’m so incredibly WITH you on that statement.

The SOLE purpose of a shepherd is to take care of the flock -food, water, shelter- that they are healthy and to make sure they are safe from harm. (P.s. the shepherd doesn’t own the sheep but the one who is paying them- their master and he doesn’t want even one to perish or harm to come to it.)

I can’t think of anything that is more of a “silent” slow “killer” for the victims than sexual abuse. Its soul poison. I think most of society would agree its one of the worst offenses anyone could commit against another. To do it to innocents is extreme heinousness. Same with abusing trust. Trust is sacred.

 

[7_Sorrows]

How does one consider converting to Judaism OR Eastern Orthodoxy.

They are, well, kind of fundamentally different.

I just had to put that out there. Sorry

I wondered the same thing.

 

[JPUSC]

How does one consider converting to Judaism OR Eastern Orthodoxy.

They are, well, kind of fundamentally different.

I just had to put that out there. Sorry

They are the two religions recognized by the Catholic Church as clearly having a path to salvation. “Since God has never revoked his covenant with his people Israel, there cannot be different paths or approaches to God’s salvation.” (vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/relations-jews-docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_20151210_ebraismo-nostra-aetate_en.html)

The Orthodox Church, on the other hand, is recognized as a ‘Church’ (versus an ‘ecclesial community’) with Apostolic Succession.

 

[otjm]

I wondered the same thing.

Having worked with Catholics Coming Home, and having been around as long as I have and seen as many people as I ahve leave the Church, and after finding out that a Catholic priest became a Mormon (he later recanted and came back to the Church), I no longer wonder.

I might be amazed, from time to time, but wonder? I think that has been beat out of me.

 

[mdef303]

I’m so incredibly WITH you on that statement.

The SOLE purpose of a shepherd is to take care of the flock -food, water, shelter- that they are healthy and to make sure they are safe from harm. (P.s. the shepherd doesn’t own the sheep but the one who is paying them- their master and he doesn’t want even one to perish or harm to come to it.)

I can’t think of anything that is more of a “silent” slow “killer” for the victims than sexual abuse. Its soul poison. I think most of society would agree its one of the worst offenses anyone could commit against another. To do it to innocents is extreme heinousness. Same with abusing trust. Trust is sacred.

Agreed. It is upsurd. But that doesn’t change the foundation of Christs Church. The key he handed over to St Peter. The Gospels and the word of the lord are the foundation of the church. These evil men had no intention on following the lord. Wolves in Sheeps clothing. And the ones moving them around are at fault as well. They were scared. I’m glad the pope and the Roman Catholic Church is reviving. And has set high standards to prevent these wolves ever entering. The word of the lord has not changed. And will never change. Peace be with you.

 

[unafraid]

So you want to ignore this so that outsiders can’t disparage the church? Since when is an abuser’s reputation, or the reputation of the institution they represent, more important than justice for those harmed?

These aren’t “legal niceties”. How on earth can a church that claims to have a monopoly on morality place their own reputation above something like this? Disgusting.

Having observed and analyzed the “New Atheist” phenomenon since its inception, there are two common denominators which accompany its charges regarding debate, and rhetorical polemics : They are always shrill, and they are always angry.

I find it insulting when an atheist, by insinuation, presupposes that the Catholic lay faithful somehow are unsympathetic to the victims of these heinous crimes. Let me make this perfectly clear: the victims of clerical sex abuse have been, and are, fellow Catholics…our brothers and sisters in the faith. And since we Roman Catholics are “One Body” as a church, it is we, all of us, who grieve and lament most personally, and intensely for the victims of clerical sexual abuse.

I assure you, not a soul on this site condoned or defends what happened, at any level, or in any way. To insinuate the contrary is offensive, and defamatory.

 

[mdef303]

Having observed and analyzed the “New Atheist” phenomenon since its inception, there are two common denominators which accompany its charges regarding debate, and rhetorical polemics : They are always shrill, and they are always angry.

I find it insulting when an atheist, by insinuation, presupposes that the Catholic lay faithful somehow are unsympathetic to the victims of these heinous crimes. Let me make this perfectly clear: the victims of clerical sex abuse have been, and are, fellow Catholics…our brothers and sisters in the faith. And since we Roman Catholics are “One Body” as a church, it is we, all of us, who grieve and lament most personally, and intensely for the victims of clerical sexual abuse.

I assure you, not a soul on this site condoned or defends what happened, at any level, or in any way. To insinuate the contrary is offensive, and defamatory.

Agreed. Glad the pope is cleaning it up. Cheers

 

[estesbob]

Having observed and analyzed the “New Atheist” phenomenon since its inception, there are two common denominators which accompany its charges regarding debate, and rhetorical polemics : They are always shrill, and they are always angry.

I find it insulting when an atheist, by insinuation, presupposes that the Catholic lay faithful somehow are unsympathetic to the victims of these heinous crimes. Let me make this perfectly clear: the victims of clerical sex abuse have been, and are, fellow Catholics…our brothers and sisters in the faith. And since we Roman Catholics are “One Body” as a church, it is we, all of us, who grieve and lament most personally, and intensely for the victims of clerical sexual abuse.

I assure you, not a soul on this site condoned or defends what happened, at any level, or in any way. To insinuate the contrary is offensive, and defamatory.

Well said.