Priest Scandel

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t68ware

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My church is in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and I just watched the news that a Monsignor was indicted for covering up sexual abuse of priests. This is a very sad day, and this has the potential to go very high up the ladder. I have been in the Church for almost 2 years, after 40 years as a Protestant, and I have never seen anything like this in my former church. I am deeply saddened by this. I am even more angry that the higher ups who knew about this allowed it to go on. Lord have mercy.
 
I’m praying that this scourge does not visit my area in Detroit.
 
Look, I’m a teenager and my priest has been accused a couple of times. I’ve had my own crisis of faith over this. And this is what I’ve realized, why should I let my faith be dependent on the acts of these men? My faith should depend on me, not on any other person.

This is what I’ve found, that I can’t have what my faith is be affected by others. I know the Catholic Church is the One True Church founded by Jesus, and my experiences in the Church have given me so much, that at this point, even if i’m just 18, nothing and no one can change that in my.

However, I do believe that we need a revival, and we need an honest discussion on this subject. Personally, we need our Church leaders to be tough on the issues. Honestly, I’m seriously considering being a priest because there is a need for honest discussions and a revival (especially among youth) and I would love to be a part of it.

Don’t let the sins of others effect your faith in the Church.
 
SalesianSDB said:
Look, I’m a teenager and my priest has been accused a couple of times. I’ve had my own crisis of faith over this. And this is what I’ve realized, why should I let my faith be dependent on the acts of these men? My faith should depend on me, not on any other person.

This is what I’ve found, that I can’t have what my faith is be affected by others. I know the Catholic Church is the One True Church founded by Jesus, and my experiences in the Church have given me so much, that at this point, even if i’m just 18, nothing and no one can change that in my.

However, I do believe that we need a revival, and we need an honest discussion on this subject. Personally, we need our Church leaders to be tough on the issues. Honestly, I’m seriously considering being a priest because there is a need for honest discussions and a revival (especially among youth) and I would love to be a part of it.

Don’t let the sins of others effect your faith in the Church.
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I’m glad to see your passion and commitment, good for you!
 
I think it’s always very upsetting when you realize that you trusted a person and they betrayed that trust beyond measure.

Start with small comparisons.

You trust your parents. And perhaps they beat you. Is parenthood bad or wrong?
You trust your spouse. Your spouse cheats on you. Is marriage bad and wrong?
You trust a friend to watch you house. They steal from you. Friendship is bad and wrong?

You trust in God and his teachings. God has not turned his back and allowed anyone to hurt you/others. However, God has given us each the free will to follow him. And sadly. some, who claim to practice what they preach, in fact do not.

Oh, this is a very hard pill to swallow. I’ve had personal interaction with an abusing priest. I was not abused. But it was amazing to learn of his behavior, and how betrayed I felt. By the people of the church who did not protect us, by this man, by my own judgement for not picking up on his behavior, which in hind site was odd to say the least.

Priests are men… they are human. Many will make mistakes. Some perhaps are just evil working their way into a system.

We know the Church will be attacked.

May I recommend some reading on Padre Pio. He dealt with, IMO, some men who where very high up in the chain of command that lied to the Pope about his stigmata. They prevented him from preaching for a while is my understanding. Yet, he knew, regardless of these men’s misdeeds who he was suffering for. These men certainly caused him more pain. And it must have felt like a knife in the back from his “own” people so to speak… but he did not let them waver his faith.

God’s greatness can never go away because someone else CHOOSES not to follow his plan.
 
SalesianSDB said:
Look, I’m a teenager and my priest has been accused a couple of times. I’ve had my own crisis of faith over this. And this is what I’ve realized, why should I let my faith be dependent on the acts of these men? My faith should depend on me, not on any other person.

This is what I’ve found, that I can’t have what my faith is be affected by others. I know the Catholic Church is the One True Church founded by Jesus, and my experiences in the Church have given me so much, that at this point, even if i’m just 18, nothing and no one can change that in my.

However, I do believe that we need a revival, and we need an honest discussion on this subject. Personally, we need our Church leaders to be tough on the issues. Honestly, I’m seriously considering being a priest because there is a need for honest discussions and a revival (especially among youth) and I would love to be a part of it.

Don’t let the sins of others effect your faith in the Church.
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I agree with everything you have said. The diocese of Philadelphia borders my own and I just read that the bishop there permanently suspended 21 priests. I don’t know the details but most of the actions took place quite a few years ago. It’s unfortunate that the bishops back then accepted the view of the mental health professionals who believed that men who did such things could go through a course of treatment and be rehabilitated. It seems that isn’t usually true.

The American bishops are indeed tough on these issues and have set in place very stringent guidelines to protect our young people now and in the future. The problem is what to do about what happened in the past.

A church in my diocese has been successfully sued for several million dollars because of what a priest who was stationed there did many years ago. The penalty is being paid by the parish members and diocesan officials who had nothing at all to do with what happened.

Although the percentage of priests who do such things is much less than protestant ministers or school teachers, even one would be too many. The harm those men did to their victims and to the Church is enormous. Satan must be pleased.
 
Prayers for the Church in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The grand jury report is indeed deeply disturbing. This is agonizing for all involved, not the least those faithful priests who suffer in the wake of the grave failures of their brothers.

Pray also for the Archdiocese of Dublin which is currently facing the failure of the Church there to protect the faithful.

Kýrie, eléison!
 
t68ware said:
My church is in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and I just watched the news that a Monsignor was indicted for covering up sexual abuse of priests. This is a very sad day, and this has the potential to go very high up the ladder. I have been in the Church for almost 2 years, after 40 years as a Protestant, and I have never seen anything like this in my former church.
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Oh, it happens, it’s just not as well publicized.

See www.reformation.com and www.stopbaptistpredators.org.
I am deeply saddened by this. I am even more angry that the higher ups who knew about this allowed it to go on. Lord have mercy.
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O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, and lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy.

Amen.
 
t68ware said:
My church is in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and I just watched the news that a Monsignor was indicted for covering up sexual abuse of priests. This is a very sad day, and this has the potential to go very high up the ladder. I have been in the Church for almost 2 years, after 40 years as a Protestant, and I have never seen anything like this in my former church. I am deeply saddened by this. I am even more angry that the higher ups who knew about this allowed it to go on. Lord have mercy.
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The Government is responsible to prevent crimes, this is significant part why we pay taxes. This responsibility cannot transferred to others, like your Monsignor.

The ‘covering up’ charge is abuse. The responsibility for the sexual crimes belongs to the government, and to those who
  • removed God and the morality from the schools and the public life
  • allowed the sin to be rampant in the media
Things will improve only if we start to search the real reasons.
 
t68ware said:
I have been in the Church for almost 2 years, after 40 years as a Protestant, and I have never seen anything like this in my former church.
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I recall seeing a report that showed there are far more Protestant pastors accused of these mis-deeds. See this report. These numbers in no way make things any better but show it is not a Catholic problem.

I pray for your parish!
 
Thank you for your prayers! My priest is a very Godly man and he is agonizing over this, for some of the priests charged are friends of his. We will not let the Evil One have this victory!
 
SalesianSDB said:
Look, I’m a teenager and my priest has been accused a couple of times. I’ve had my own crisis of faith over this. And this is what I’ve realized, why should I let my faith be dependent on the acts of these men? My faith should depend on me, not on any other person.

This is what I’ve found, that I can’t have what my faith is be affected by others. I know the Catholic Church is the One True Church founded by Jesus, and my experiences in the Church have given me so much, that at this point, even if i’m just 18, nothing and no one can change that in my.

However, I do believe that we need a revival, and we need an honest discussion on this subject. Personally, we need our Church leaders to be tough on the issues. Honestly, I’m seriously considering being a priest because there is a need for honest discussions and a revival (especially among youth) and I would love to be a part of it.

Don’t let the sins of others effect your faith in the Church.
Click to expand...
I agree. When I decided to convert I was browsing the Archdiocese of Chicago’s website to find RCIA classes, and my heart sank as I saw a “Report sexual abuse” link on the front page. All I could think was “Is this really the church I’m going to be joining?” However I realized that you cannot judge an entire institution on what a few people do. I also realized that it’s easy to point fingers and blame the priests; but what am I doing? Now to be fair, their sin is theirs and theirs alone. At the time of judgment, God’s not going to ask me “Why did so-n-so do this?” What He might ask me however is, “What did you do to help them?” Am I praying for these people with sincere faith and love? Am I paying attention to things going on in the church? The shepherd takes care of the flock, but the flock supports the shepherd too. The priest is a human being just like any one else, and I would imagine that the devil gets tripple bonus points for corrupting a priest because it doesn’t just rock the faith of the church, it also scandalizes the unbeliever. Lord have Mercy indeed.
 
This is very sad, and there is no excuse for the behaviour…

As for having never “seen” anything like this, it is there. In protestantism, many churches are rocked by similar scandal, it’s just not as widly reported. The Jewish Orthodox church has been, similarly, rocked for years. It’s just not been reported outside of jewish orthodox press.

Whenever this kind of sin happens, it is not excusable. I can only pray that the purging will be complete soon.
 
faithfully said:
You trust your parents. And perhaps they beat you. Is parenthood bad or wrong?
You trust your spouse. Your spouse cheats on you. Is marriage bad and wrong?
You trust a friend to watch you house. They steal from you. Friendship is bad and wrong?
Click to expand...
This was very well put and I will be sharing this with a friend who has recently left the Church.
 
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