The “thousand cuts” comes from the fact that US Catholic diocese (plural), for the most part, haven’t on their own accord released the records they have, but wait until they are forced to by courts as part of a lawsuit.
prosecutors see this as a cover up:
there** is** a right to privacy implicit in the US constitution and specific in many, if not most state constitutions (child abuse is a matter of state law). but the right to privacy does not trump the authority of the government to investigate crimes except in specific ways (e.g., 4th, 5th, 6th amendment rights).
(emphasis added)
I’m fascinated that you can enter the minds of various members of the Church decades ago and deduce what they should or should not have known, done or felt.
I would probably call a 12 year old in Western culture a “little boy.” If most of you would not, then I will happily adjust the phrase to “adolescent boy.” Though as you said, it really doesn’t change the seriousness of the crime. Not in your view or mine, at least.
Please help me understand why the sexual abuse of a 12 year old is any less wrong (or less “filthy” if you prefer) than the sexual abuse of a child under 12 years of age. I don’t see a difference. This is a strange hair for any Christian to be splitting, IMO.
This is so true!!!
What are you saying? I am a women. I did not blame any women! I know that this nun really did this. She was in charge of who she would let into the seminary. Please do not offend me again.
The media.
They are both heinous crimes, but they are **different **in nature. There are different motives behind them.
Another example:
Where did I say that’s the worst thing about this? Would you point it out to me, please, because I simply can’t find it.
Exactly. The point to the previous poster is not to excuse the behavior but to point out that the medias use of “Pedophile Priest” was to maximize the public outrage.
It is invariably called sexual abuse rather than pedophelia although the ages of the boys abused in the priest scandal was not the under 10 set that defines the term pedophelia. Further particularly with the case of the female teachers having sex with teen student, there used to be almost a wink and a nod attitude as if this wasn’t absolutely despicable behavior.Yes, indeed, this is very true. I know personally one such case that happened in the 1950’s in my Catholic grade school. Actually with a child that the child’s family was a close friend of our family. The parents of this child, of course, once they got the child to open up and tell them what was wrong, went to the Bishop. Three guesses what happened to this Priest? Of course! He was TRANSFERED. Talk about faith shattering! I haven’t of course kept in contact with this family, it has been many years and I was a child at the time also , but something like that you never forget. It was even traumatic for our family, because we all were such close friends.
And, again, my point is that one can offer a repentant pederast priest forgiveness and absolution in the sacrament of penance without placing them back in charge of children and teenagers. That is simple prudence.
Well of course. But the point was that at least some were given psychiatric evaluations and counseling, pronounced “cured” and able to return to active Priesthood. It may sound crazy on hindsight but at the time this was considered a treatable behavior. We have Priests who are treated for substance abuse and returned to active Priesthood. Remember this was a different time and homosexuality was so off the radar that most did not understand that it was not simply a matter of repenting and promising not to offend again.
Even just a LITTLE research into the context here would have helped. These admonitions exist NOT because there was already a peculiar problem with these things within the church that needed to be addressed but because these were sins that were rampant across the entire society at the time! Christianity’s recognition of these evils and success in stomping them out within the community of christians is one of the significant factors that made pagans in the ancient world notice christians and desire to convert! “Light to the world” sound familiar from the gospels?
Lisa, take another look at that 1962 document I quoted from upthread. They were told to watch out for deviants back then.
Yes and I responded to this previously. It was a reference to seminarians, see post 66 (post 69 is by Daddy Girl not you) and also mostly with respect to concerns about a candidate’s ability to remain celibate. In 1962 the concern was Priests getting involved with women. Of course homosexuality occurred then as well as now, but it wasn’t as well understood, the pervasiveness in certain seminaries was a closely held secret, and the information about offending Priests was not shared from diocese to diocese as it is now. A lot of homosexuals “hid” within the seminary and priesthood. Perhaps their confessors knew of their proclivities but of course this could not be shared. Those engaged in the behavior kept a certain code of silence as well. When reports were made, they were to a great extent not believed. I can vouch for the skepticism in which parents take such reports. I was “fondled” by my dentist for years. I told my parents Dr D was always touching my legs and leaning across my chest. They told me I was imagining things. I eventually spoke to my sister and a friend who had the same dentist. Same experience. Yet even armed with three witnesses, our parents thought we were dreaming and just didn’t want to go to the dentist! It was a different time and place as I am sure you are aware. Authority figures were not questioned as they are now. Many boys’ reports of abuse were ignored, buried, or the families bought off with thirty pieces of silver.
