Roots of Catholic Anger

[JimG]

Quoted in the Catholic World Report:

“…the way Pennsylvania attorney general Josh Shapiro presented the report — and the way it was often described in the press — made it easy to assume that the grand jury had unearthed three hundred new clerical abusers, when in fact most of the abuse covered in the report occurred in the last century and roughly eight out of ten of the alleged abusers are dead. It was easy to overlook the good news in an otherwise disheartening report — namely, that since the U.S. bishops established stringent new procedures for handling allegations of sexual abuse in 2003, only two priests from the seven dioceses studied have been accused.”

https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2018/11/07/roots-of-catholic-anger/

 

[jeeter]

Quoted in the Catholic World Report:

“…the way Pennsylvania attorney general Josh Shapiro presented the report — and the way it was often described in the press — made it easy to assume that the grand jury had unearthed three hundred new clerical abusers,

Wait… You mean the press may have an agenda and often misrepresents or distorts the truth?

From the article:

But as one state attorney general after another finds political hay to be made by investigating the Catholic past…

This is the source of my anger. I want any abuse and corruption rooted out and dealt with, but when AGs appear to be investigating old cases for political brownie points, while avoiding other institutions, that seems a tad discriminatory imho.

 

[Crusader13]

His article seems like he’s talking out of both sides of his mouth. It sounds like Cdl. Wuerl’s “this isn’t some massive massive crisis…” statement. Unfortunately investigating the past is what needs to happen. I feel too many people are trying to downplay the grand jury report by focusing on the fact that many of the cases are decades old and some of the priests in question are now dead, so basically they take a “well, I’m glad that’s over.” attitude.

What’s at focus isn’t simply the accusations made against these predators, but the system which was in place that allowed these men to remain within in the Church and avoid prosecution. That’s where the RICO move comes into play and why it’s so important in how they began dismantling this corruption.

Imagine if they were investigating a “mafia” style crime syndicate and they started looking at decades old homicide cases; some solved, some unsolved, others ruled as suicides or accidental deaths, so on and so forth. Now, imagine if they began to see a pattern of corruption and coverups directly tied to how these cases were handled. Everything from cops on the payroll, to crooked personnel within the DA’s office, payoff’s to the coroners, bribery of judges and witnesses, etc etc. So if the number of cases had began to drop, the next logical question is, are the incidents truly on the decline because of good men and women fighting this evil or is the same corrupt system that allowed this to flourish still in power and have they only gotten better at covering their tracks?

That’s where we are now and it appears that the same level of corruption is still in place. To what level is the next question and how widespread is this cancer? It appears they have barely scratched the surface and only time will tell how deep this rabbit hole goes!

 

[Ardent_Fire]

I don’t doubt that anger is rooted in more than just the actual abuse, and I certainly can acknowledge that some elements of the federal investigations probably don’t have the best intentions in mind.

That said, it’s pretty insulting when anyone downplays the damage that’s been done by pointing out that these things happened a long time ago, or that the priests that have done this are dead. That may be so, but a lot of those victims are still alive. “In the last century” makes it sound much longer ago than it really is. What’s more, abuse that happens to someone as a child or an adolescent causes pain and dysfunction that they will carry with them for the rest of their life. What happened “a long time ago” to everyone else still haunts victims like it was yesterday. A lot of this is getting “dug up” because those victims never got their day in court, justice was never served, and their pain was never acknowledged. Maybe it doesn’t seem important to most people, but it’s important to them.

Just because “things are much better now!” doesn’t mean that past sins shouldn’t be acknowledged and atoned for. Public displays of disappointment and speeches of sorrow for a brief period of time is not going to cut it. “Things are much better now” is not much solace to someone whose life has been broken by the very men that were supposed to be guardians of their very souls. And the Church is going to get more of the focus despite other institutions because the bar is supposed to be higher for us. If the Church is supposed to have higher moral standards than everyone else and be the supreme authority on these morals, then the Church is going to be held to that and face severe backlash when those standards aren’t even close to being met.

I know a lot of people want to go back to “business as usual” and see the temperature dailed back down, but there is a hard lesson that is having to be learned here.

 

[ZMystiCat]

I think that, given the lack of transparency on the part of the Church, it’s still indirectly responsible for the narrative coming out as it has. There were sixteen years for the Church to expose these men and seek to help the victims, but it didn’t. Dioceses that are revealing names now should have done so years ago. The Dallas Charter should have only been the beginning of the Church’s response.

Now this isn’t to dismiss shoddy reporting, but I think the Church needs to take a good look at itself and ask, “How did we let others create this narrative?” This also isn’t to dismiss the good those dioceses did by finally coming clean. But the Church had many years to show itself to care and take the necessary steps to show that it is more transparent and show that it cares about the victims. It is now reaping the problems it sowed by not doing so.

 

[ZMystiCat]

That said, it’s pretty insulting when anyone downplays the damage that’s been done by pointing out that these things happened a long time ago, or that the priests that have done this are dead.

I think there is some merit to bringing up that the acts of abuse are mostly passed, provided we frame it right. My priest has brought it up a couple times because he wants to assure parents that their children are safe. That’s really important for our parish, because it is very family-oriented with lots of families who have of all ages.

 

[otrrl]

there are 4 billion reasons for Catholic anger. Nearly $4 billion spent on paying off and SILENCING victims of clerical abuse. WE are ALSO the victims of clerical sex abuse, along with those directly injured. We are supposed to LOVE a church which uses silence to cover up its crimes.

All the rules are stacked against faithful Catholics. We have been sent into SPIRITUAL exile, just like the Jews were taken into physical and spiritual exile into Babylon (book of Baruch). Only THIS time, Babylon has come to us and we are longing for the Lord of Mercy.

can you spell A-L-I-E-N-A-T-I-O-N ?

 

[Annie]

Too much mercy for perpetrators, not enough for victims.