I’m sorry. Shame on me.
Witch hunt is the first thought that comes to my mind. Anyone who has some old grudge against a priest feels he will get an audience now. Sadly, these priests are being treated as guilty until proven innocent. A Diocese now needs to take appropriate measures, just as a school district does when similar allegations are made against one of its teachers. Unfortunately, even when accusations are proven to be unfounded, too often, the publicity given to the initial accusations outweigh any future disclaimers that those accusations were false, and reputations are forever ruined.
Often the victims of sexual abuse are too embarrassed, confused, afraid, and/or ashamed to come forward until years later. Some children think it’s their fault that bad things happen to them, and they don’t tell anyone. It isn’t until years later that they are ready to deal with the emotional turmoil. It’s much easier for a child to try and forget and try to bury the whole ordeal. In addition, it has to be humiliating to be subjected to scrutiny, interrogations and face people who may not believe them. Remember the priest is considered innocent until proven guilty, so the victim is often turned inside out. Years later, they can muster enough strength to come forward and try to deal with these issues, and of course, living the ordeal again.
Amen to that, been there
“Remember the priest is considered innocent until proven guilty” I disagree. That is how it should be, but, not how he is treated. I know of a priest who was removed from his parish because of an accusation that was later proven to be unfounded. Meanwhile, the priest was required to undergo ‘treatment’ as if he were, indeed, an offender needing ‘rehabilitation’. The secular media has also slapped on these priests a ‘guilty’ label that retractions can never fully compensate them for when priests named are found later to be innocent.
Thanks for your post. It makes sense. And yes I will keep my eyes on things and if there is no evidence that supports the claim, will personally write a letter to the editorial section of the newspaper.
I personally know of 2 different teachers in my area that were falsely accused of sexual misconduct with a minor. In both instances, the “victim” recanted their accusation and of course the teachers were absolved of all wrong doing. BUT, with one of these teachers it was a quite a period of time before the child finally came clean. (the other one did in fairly short order) ** In both cases these teachers’ lives were completely ruined because of this**. Neither of them counter sued but, let me tell you, given the circumstances, I think I would have. If only as a deterrent to future kids who just want revenge. Revenge for a bad grade and perceived unfair treatment were the motivating factor in both of these cases.
My stepdaughter, a very troubled young girl when I first met her, also made such an accusation against a junior highschool teacher who was and is a very dedicated teacher, a wonderful family man, good father to his own children and a leader in the community. She recanted after only a few weeks, but meanwhile, his life and the lives of countless others were very dramatically and negatively affected. People who jumped on the bandwagon to villify him were never able to rebuild trust and many, to this day still view the teacher as guilty. My stepdaughter, only 12 years old and having a “crush” on this man, made up the story to pay him back for what she deemed as his rejection of her. Having seen this play out in my own family, I can tell you that the tongue is the most dangerous weapon of all time, killing faith, destroying hope and crushing love. Prayer, fasting, and speaking the truth in love are the best weapons against evil.
It is an unusual day when I have to admit that I agree with an atheist. Actually, Lynx, I think you make some very good points.Reading some of these posts are blowing my mind. Are people seriously complaining about witch hunts (ironic), media bias, and sue happy victims? The church bishop says the claim has merit. Why is that not good enough for an investigation? Why are some people complaining about things that don’t even matter? I’ll tell you what, the quickest way to not have people complain about you and charge you with rape is to not have repeated instances of rape. Once the matter is said and done with then give your spin on why person x did y, but until then you don’t know so why attack the media and victim(s)? Is it that you want to feel better about the church? Maybe the church should start turning away victims who come forward because they only want money. Maybe all forms of non-catholic media should be done away with because it only has bad things to say about Catholics when they do bad things. Come on