Funny, I signed up for this forum to help me deal with my feelings around sexual abuse being hidden and rampid in the Catholic Church, one case in an abortion clinic was all I could find. Makes me worry more. Doesn’t anyone want to discuss the issue of sex abuse and child abuse in our Church? I am still looking for the ability to trust in my Church leaders. Is there any one who knows of a forum on this site that discusses the issue?
Contact a mod or search for some threads.
There are a few things to keep in mind/help you in your search:
Please note that there will be people in “power” that will abuse their positions. This is not only true for the Catholic Church, but also Planned Parenthood, as the article points out. No doubt it also happens with lawyers, police officers and doctors.
With 2 minutes of Googling, I found this story:
13wham.com/news/local/story/Woman-to-File-Against-Pignato-Police-Alleging/egTLlUFW40qw9_A47PQ18A.cspx
Does it mean that all police officers are crooked and I shouldn’t trust them?
You can find stories of this type of things happening in smaller Protestant churches, but they generally are small, and don’t have the clout/history of the Catholic Church. Also, a lot of Protestant clergy are not bound by celibacy, so it makes the stories less sensational.
The Catholic Church is an especially easy target to pick on. In a media where sensationalism rules and sex sells, having stories of “Celibate men of the cloth have sex with teenage boys” is an easy sell.
If you look at studies, and alleged (that’s the key word here) cases, Priests are no worse than the general population, if not better, at committing these crimes. The problem is that several of these cases are alleged, not all of them led to a conviction. In the US, we operate under “innocent until proven guilty.”
Lastly, most all of the dioscese have enacted several programs in order to reduce any allegations.
One thing to consider - listen to what Fr. Corapi has to say about the priest scandal.