Parishes Asked to Raise $10M For Abuse Victims

[Maranatha]

I just can’t dig any deeper inot my funds to pay for something I was not responsible for. I already tithe. This should be used for charities not to be paying legal expenses. It may be far too late to rescue the Church financially. Maybe those who have more should cough up more. I am quite frustrated that somehow I will be held responsible on judgement day for not supporting a coverup of abuse cases.

I don’t think people who are tithing need to give any more. They are already doing their part. The fact is many Catholic don’t come near to tithing.

 

[Maranatha]

We can’t go on like this.

So should we give up? Let the Catholic Church in America fold? Perhaps Spokane will just become a mission territory becasue it can’t keep enough churchs open.

We didn’t ask for this burden. We’re not responsible or the cause.

Jesus didn’t ask for his burden either. He was not responsible or the cause either. He didn’t complain. He picked up his cross and did what needed to be done out of love.

 

[goofyjim]

So should we give up? Let the Catholic Church in America fold? Perhaps Spokane will just become a mission territory becasue it can’t keep enough churchs open.

We didn’t ask for this burden. We’re not responsible or the cause.

Jesus didn’t ask for his burden either. He was not responsible or the cause either. He didn’t complain. He picked up his cross and did what needed to be done out of love.

But if we keep on sending the weekly collections towards these settlements there won’t be anything to run the parishes anyhow so what’s the difference. It may be a sad consequence of what the bishops kept covered up for so long that we do return to mission territory. Or they could move out of their mansions and drive their own cars like the rest of us do. There are ways for them to save some expenses.

 

[BAIRBRE]

Instead of posting what we feeel in here. We need to write letter to the Pope. Or the Monsignor who is a US diplomat fromthe Vatican. The info is in previous post down below.

WE really need to do something. This is an emergency. The bishops knew about this years ago…the mergers, cluster planning is probably the same plan that they all got together and decided on. How many more parishes are going to end up like Spokane???

We need to take action. Already, some people in my parish are talking about leaving the church for good. They are tallking about joining the Epicopal church. I won’t do that. I will leave diocesan Catholic church and join the Catholic orthodox. The only reason I am staying because we should stand up for what is right and support the good priests in our dioceses.

We already lost alot of good catholics due to changes that were made in the 60’s.

 

[otjm]

It was the Hierarcy and priests who committed both sins: deed and cover-up. From what I’ve read, it was the Bishops who took a secret oath to the pope to deny, cover up or dodge what may cause harm to the church. Deceipt!

You might be a bit more discerning in what you read.

The people in the pews were the ones abused. Now, the other people in the pews are being abused.

You appear to not know or understand how deeply damaged the true vicitms of sexual abuse are, or you would not so glibly use the term “abused” for parishoners. I haven’t heard of any parishoners committing suicide over their “abuse” as you call it; but there has been a terrible toll upon the sexual abuse victims which in numerous circumstances has ended in suicide. The depth of their pain and suffering is far greater than most people have any clue. You might want to look a little further into the issue.

Where is the NCCB? Why don’t they bail out their own bishops?
I don’t think the cover-ups were on a diocessan by diocessan basis, it was by the whole U.S. hierarchy.

Again, you seem to be only vaguely familiar with the issues. The bishops currently are having to deal with issues created by bishops 20 to 50 years ago, many of whom are dead or retired. Most of the bishops now are simply the ones who head up the clean up issues. There has been no showing anywhere of any wide conspiracy to cover up, and with all the attorneys who have investigated these issues, if there was a conspiracy, it would be well known. Again, your assertions seem to be based on only a vague knowledge of the issues.

Is there a strong, organized, professional lay organization in the U.S. Catholic church that can put pressure on the hierarchy?

The organization is the local state Bar Association, and it is not part of the Catholic Church. The issues have been public since the 1980’s; that means for the last 20+ years. The bishops have had the pressure and they have responded with implimentation of policies to protect children; whether those policies are effective, and sufficient or over-reaching is the subject of other threads. The incidence of abuse fell off dramatically in the 1990’s and appears to be further reduced in the time since. Because people are sinners, and because there is no fool-proof way of eliminating absolutely all abuse by priests short of doing away with priests, there will probably be an isolated incident on occasion, just as there will be an isolated incident of a priest killing someone on occasion (both will be rare).

 

[Mickey_Jackson]

I don’t know about this specific abuse issue, but I do know that any bishop who covered up sexual abuse is going to have a lot of explaining to do before God. If you have a strong constitution, check out www.bishopaccountability.org. It’s amazing how cynical and, well, just overall evil it is possible for Christ’s apostles to be. Certainly, most bishops are good men; but anyone who says that we have no Judases among us is deceiving themselves.

 

[Julianna]

Of course that is why the schools, parishes are closing. Settlement money. It’s not rocket science. All over these boards I hear vocations are up, closings are up… what??

And yet there are those who want to adorn their parishes with gold and silver and ornate wood carvings, marble statues with geniune tuscan marble…and then ask, “oh by the way, help the church out with an extra donation towards the settlement fund”.

When is enough, enough. yeah, the Episcopal church (aka Catholic-lite) is looking mighty good…

 

[Mickey_Jackson]

I know exactly how you feel, Julianna. Never in my life have I been so disgusted with the Church hierarchy. After all, why should we grant any moral authority whatsoever in men who, in their zeal to protect the institutional Church from scandal, spared no expense in screwing over innocent abuse victims?

The answer is that we shouldn’t. Christ never promised that everyone wearing a mitre would be an indisputable moral authority; after all, the bishops are the successors of the group of Apostles that included Judas, a thief and a traitor. Rather, what He did promise us was that the gates of Hell would not prevail against the Church. In our times especially, what this means is that, no matter the character of her leaders, the Church (not the institutional Church, but rather the invisible, divine Church, the mystical Body of Christ) will never cease to hold the One True Faith, or to offer the sacraments by which we are saved. Basically, no bishop or priest, no matter how awful a person he may be, can destroy the Church, can affect the validity of her sacraments or the purity of her teachings.

And this is why I have remained Catholic, as nauseating as the hierarchy often is. Don’t let a few bad men in mitres destroy Christ’s great gift of faith, or deprive you of the graces contained in His sacraments. Doing so would only grant victory to men like Cardinal Law.

 

[Teelynn]

The thing with Spokane is that it is not a rich diocese, it is very rural, so 10M is a staggering amount. But the people in general seem willing to pay it, at least some of the people are. In fact it is the types who pay oodles to put their names on buildings that are the most vocal opponents of the bailout.

Thse who say the hierarchy and priests whould pay, WITH WHAT? the Church is supported by donations, so either the money gets paid directly by the people (most priests donate too yuou know) or it gets funnelled through the system, distributred, and then given away. Either way the parishoners will be paying for this.

Also, the up end of all this is that the parishes are not paying in vain, they get the title to their parish campus out of the deal. Which would allow them a lot of freedom that is supposed to be affored to them under canon law but is impossible at present because civilly the bishop holds all the titles at the moment. this payout will bring the civil status more in line with cannonical status.

I know it is painful, past present and future, this abuse scandal keeps coming back. And I know this is infinitely more shocking than some piddily little financial scandal. But scandals will come and go, some more horrific and disturbing than others. But I will stand by the Church. I will pray for those who have caused all this pain, not out of some self righteous condesention, but because objectively they probably need it. I will pray for the victims and their healing from these inexcusable wounds. I will support the bishops who are dealing with this scandal head-on and trying to move on, and I will try to remain respectful and chraitable towards those who are still trying to avoid accountability.

The internet is not all that good at displaying emotion, or I am not a great writer, but I am not saying this in any arrogance at all. This is just the way it is, I am as disgusted and mad as everyone else. But to modify St Peter; Where else can we go? The Church has the words of eternal life.

You hit the nail on the head. This is the Church of Jesus Christ. How many times have I felt like St. Peter. “And where are we then to go Lord?”