Sex abuse in the Eastern Churches?

[Myrrh23]

Hey!

Have the Eastern Catholics or Eastern Orthodox had any or as much trouble with pedophile priests as the Roman Catholics have? Thanks!

Myrrh23

 

[Holly3278]

I have honestly never heard of sex abuse scandals coming from the Eastern rites of the Catholic Church but that does not mean that they don’t exist.

 

[Alexius]

I am sure they do. In fact, I had heard of a Greek Orthodox priest who was accused of such behavior, but I don’t remember on what forum I read this…

Prayers and petitions,
Alexius

 

[hamburglar]

The Eastern Catholic churches are much smaller in number in the United Sates, and throughout the world. So it would make sense that if there were cases, not many people would hear about them.

Also, the sex abuse is a favorite topic for anti-Catholics. An Eastern Catholic sex abuse case would not be an ideal target for them, since most people don’t have any knowledge that there are more ways to celebrate the Catholic Faith than the Novus Ordo.

 

[GregoryPalamas]

The Eastern Catholic churches are much smaller in number in the United Sates, and throughout the world. So it would make sense that if there were cases, not many people would hear about them.

Also, the sex abuse is a favorite topic for anti-Catholics. An Eastern Catholic sex abuse case would not be an ideal target for them, since most people don’t have any knowledge that there are more ways to celebrate the Catholic Faith than the Novus Ordo.

The Atheists, Secularists, and Protestants define themselves by their unreasonable hatred for the Roman Catholic Church. The Eastern Churches are generally beneath their radar.

We sadly have had our sex scandals, but most of it is over. I know priests who suffered for their courageous stands against the few scumbags we did have.

CDL

 

[Alexius]

The sadist part of this all is the victims. They put their faith in the priest from youth and then realize he’s human just like them. Because they misplaced their faith to begin with, they tend to leave the Church and God, as they see the two as working together. They reason that “if the Church has this corruption, then why should I believe anything they say?” It is very sad indeed…

Prayers and petitions,
Alexius

 

[Irish_Melkite]

Have the Eastern Catholics or Eastern Orthodox had any or as much trouble with pedophile priests as the Roman Catholics have?

As my brother, Carson, has noted, there have been instances of sexual abuse by both EC and EO clergy (as well as OC and OO). They have been relatively few in number but, given the smaller sizes of the Churches involved, do the percentages approach those in the Latin Church - or in any other faith? I can’t say that I’ve seen any formal studies, but I don’t believe so.

Frankly, it concerns me less whether the percentages are comparable than that it happens. Rather than speculating, I’d be more inclined to suggest prayers for all involved - victims, perpetrators, and the faithful whose faith is threatened.

Many years,

Neil

 

[eric3141]

I wonder why this has happened predominantly in our Catholic church much more so than in Protestant churches or EO churches. The liberal media disdains conservative Protestant churches like the Southern Baptist Convention almost as much as it does us so if they (or other Protestants) had done any appreciable amount of this then I think it would have been reported.

Sure, Protestant churches do have other problems, but they don’t seem to have this one. Why us?

Eric

 

[kaygee]

There is at least one website dedicated to exposing sex offenders in the EO churches.

The Catholic Church, IMHO, is targeted because of her deeper pockets. A sex offender emerges in another ecclesial organization or Church, and the liability is limited to the offender himself and to the individual parish. In the Catholic Church the victim can sue all the way up the line to the diocesan level. The media and the public love large $$$$ scandals, especially if they involve the Church.

I’ve seen articles that show the % of abusers is higher at the public school level than it is anywhere else. But then taxpayers would have to foot the bill if there weren’t limitations in place and cover ups. . .

But then, what do I know?

 

[eric3141]

There is at least one website dedicated to exposing sex offenders in the EO churches.

The Catholic Church, IMHO, is targeted because of her deeper pockets. A sex offender emerges in another ecclesial organization or Church, and the liability is limited to the offender himself and to the individual parish. In the Catholic Church the victim can sue all the way up the line to the diocesan level. The media and the public love large $$$$ scandals, especially if they involve the Church.

Hmmm… you make a good point. While I know some were actually abused, IMO others probably jumped on the band wagon. From my limited perspective it appeared that the bishops pretty much agreed to pay anyone who claimed it happened even if there was no proof.

 

[Woodstock]

I wonder why this has happened predominantly in our Catholic church much more so than in Protestant churches or EO churches. The liberal media disdains conservative Protestant churches like the Southern Baptist Convention almost as much as it does us so if they (or other Protestants) had done any appreciable amount of this then I think it would have been reported.

Sure, Protestant churches do have other problems, but they don’t seem to have this one. Why us?

Eric

The Protestants have a massive problem with sex abuse and they have more cases brought against them and more cases found guilty than the Catholics. The difference is that they are all divided. This Baptist church isn’t in communion with that one, which means XYZ church has one or two known abusers while the Catholic Church includes every parish in the world.

Right before the Catholic Churches hit the news, they were tearing the Southern Baptist Convention apart for sex abuse. Then the Catholic cases became known and that’s all we’ve heard of since.

I know of an Orthodox abuse case that got one small paragraph buried in *one *paper when it was made public. They print what sells and what sells is anti-Catholicism.

 

[Hesychios]

There is at least one website dedicated to exposing sex offenders in the EO churches.

The Catholic Church, IMHO, is targeted because of her deeper pockets. A sex offender emerges in another ecclesial organization or Church, and the liability is limited to the offender himself and to the individual parish. In the Catholic Church the victim can sue all the way up the line to the diocesan level. The media and the public love large $$$$ scandals, especially if they involve the Church.

Deeper pockets? Not sure about that. Although the church has a lot of assets, RC were known to be notorious pikers at the collection plate even when I was a kid in the 1960’s. The church lacks liquid disposable assets.

Better insurance? possibly. The insurance companies complicated the situation quite a bit by insisting on cutting out of court deals to minimize their financial losses.

I am really in favor of not dwelling upon the motivation of the alleged victims anymore. The real victims are suffering people, so we should at least focus more on the healing of victims and praying for them. I shall make these few comments and that’s it.

But I am convinced the real scandal…the real reason this has hit the RC church so hard is the cover up. It was an institutional problem.

I don’t think anyone would argue the fact that the Roman Catholic church has a highly developed system of operation. Bishops have to be like business managers, asset managers and even bankers while pastors have to be administrators who delegate traditional pastoral functions like catechizing the youngsters. I am not being facetious here.

There was another scandal in Chicago recently under Cardinal George, the same bishop who authored the get tough policy. It colored his reputation just as he was being considered for president of the USCCB, and it should never have been a problem at all under his new get tough policy.

He has apologized publicly for the fiasco, but lower level staffers, fully aware of the zero-tolerance/respond quickly policy of the good Cardinal did not “see” a problem and acted like nothing at all had changed! This is exactly how state governments and other bloated institutions respond to change, they really hardly do at all until the money gets cut.

It would be a great study to see exactly how this could happen in 2003/2004/2005 and 2006 when the church had already been damaged so severely by this very kind of thing for forty years prior. (I think 2001 and 2002 was the high point in media damage, covering problems from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’'s).

Well, the bishops forgave Cardinal George and elected him anyway. They do have this softer side to them that is touching, if not just a wee bit dangerous.]

So what the heck is the problem?

I think it is this rather more complex organization (churchwise) trying to deal with a vocations shortage. People have wanted their Masses, and bishops were reluctant to have to close parishes or change administrative practices. So there was an additional subtle motivation to heal these men and give them a second chance.

Other churches simply cannot do that most of the time. The scoundrel gets fired by his congregation and cannot use them as a reference, he’s not going to be re-employed as a minister so he gets a job as a telemarketer or something. So much for the repeat offender and cover up.

The Roman Catholic scandals that hit the news really big were more than anything else repetitions of the same offenses at multiple locations across a diocese, with documented complaints at each one. I guess Boston was the worst by far, but it happened all over.

That has to be an institutional problem, it just has to be, it cannot be a churchwide conspiracy and it’s not just a coincidence.

Sure, I accept that the church is an institution, but it is more than that, it’s a real community or an extended family. When the institution carries on like this and damages the very community it rises out of it is showing signs of dysfunctionality, like a youth who steals from his parents to buy drugs.

In the USA, the Eastern churches, Orthodox and Catholic, are different in the respect that they have usually been quite a bit smaller and less complex as institutions. One suburban Chicagoland RC parish (actually, many in Chicagoland) has more laypeople, money, assets and staff than the entire Eparchy of Parma. If the Eparch had a bad priest where would he put the guy? There is no place to hide such a tragedy, everybody knows everybody and the receiving congregation would not stand for it. Likewise for most Orthodox dioceses, the scumbag would get away with it just so long in one tiny congregation, and then out forever.

Michael

 

[Aramis]

I wonder why this has happened predominantly in our Catholic church much more so than in Protestant churches or EO churches. The liberal media disdains conservative Protestant churches like the Southern Baptist Convention almost as much as it does us so if they (or other Protestants) had done any appreciable amount of this then I think it would have been reported.

Sure, Protestant churches do have other problems, but they don’t seem to have this one. Why us?

Eric

A few Episcopalian priests have been sued successfully in Alaska for sexually abusing children. Some more than 30 years after the fact.

When the local Russian Orthodox find out a cleric has been even approaching abuse, they are encouraged to get counseling, and are removed from public ministry.

More than one local “holy roller” is in jail for sexual abuse of minors within Alaska.

It’s not that it is not happening outside the Church; it is. The difference is in how the media and the lawyers look at the Church…

The problem came from an institutional protection of abusive priests for many years. It is a sad statement, but it is fairly well established that just such a conspiracy did in fact occur, especially within the Catholic Bishops of the United States.

This ability to move and hide molesting priests is most evident in the Catholic, Orthodox, and Episcopalian churches. These churches likewise also have long standing traditions of deep reserves of property donated to them, and large amounts of ceremonial items with secular material value. This perception of wealth fuels lawyers to sue the Church and offending priest, rather than the priest alone. In the case of the Roman Catholics, the lack of any material wealth of note amongst the priests makes them relatively judgement-proof (you can’t get blood from a turnip, so they say, nor can you get millions from a man living on $1500 a month). The church, however, has tangible assets which can be liquidated to come up with the settlement monies and/or judgment award monies.

And so, lawyers can pursue bigger monies from clerics of these churches. And bigger monies asked for means more likelyhood of press coverage.

The holy rollers tend not to have much of anything… they tend to get criminal prosecutions and/or lose their homes and vehicles… all below the radar of the press at large.

 

[manualman]

Michael,

I think you missed one important factor. Just as important as the “cover it up” instinct in the bishops as administrators is, I think, a crisis of faith in catholic sexual morality and reason. I think the bishops genuinely trusted the secular psychologists and pscyhiatrists more than their own discernment on the issue of whether these men could be rehabilitated and returned to ministry. Very sad.

They wouldn’t see it this way, but they essentially abdicated their responsibility as shepherds and left it to consultants to ensure that the wolves stayed out of the flock.

 

[Stathios]

I wonder why this has happened predominantly in our Catholic church much more so than in Protestant churches or EO churches. The liberal media disdains conservative Protestant churches like the Southern Baptist Convention almost as much as it does us so if they (or other Protestants) had done any appreciable amount of this then I think it would have been reported.

Sure, Protestant churches do have other problems, but they don’t seem to have this one. Why us?

Eric

I think it is because They are allowed to have a wife. Now some may say most child molesters are married but I have a hard time believing that. I also believe a Child Molester looks for the best way to approach a child without getting caught and the best case is the Priesthood. Who would ever guess that.
Now once again people will make claims that most child molesters are married.

Well my response to that is all the Eastern Catholics and Orthodx priest who where caught in molesting children or accused. NOT one that I know had a wife.

End Of Story

That shows you how much therapist know.

 

[Aramis]

I think it is because They are allowed to have a wife. Now some may say most child molesters are married but I have a hard time believing that. I also believe a Child Molester looks for the best way to approach a child without getting caught and the best case is the Priesthood. Who would ever guess that.
Now once again people will make claims that most child molesters are married.

Well my response to that is all the Eastern Catholics and Orthodx priest who where caught in molesting children or accused. NOT one that I know had a wife.

End Of Story

That shows you how much therapist know.

All the child molesters I’ve met have been married men or single women. One, a teacher, was never prosecuted despite many claims by students. He would stand in the shower bay and watch the boys take their showers, drooling all the while.

Another, a former neighbor, and friend since high school, was previously convicted of molesting his own daughter. His ex-wife is seriously mentally ill, and that conviction was the only way she could keep custody. When he got caught with a 17 yo, however… suffice it to say that a nearly 40 yo convicted sex offender should know better. (Even if the original offense was erroneous.)

Yet another convicted molester of my acquaintance is also married.

And then there is the woman who molested me. I was 14, she was 25. Friend of my parents’. I didn’t see it as molestation until I was older… in my late 20’s…

 

[Stathios]

All the child molesters I’ve met have been married men or single women. One, a teacher, was never prosecuted despite many claims by students. He would stand in the shower bay and watch the boys take their showers, drooling all the while.

Another, a former neighbor, and friend since high school, was previously convicted of molesting his own daughter. His ex-wife is seriously mentally ill, and that conviction was the only way she could keep custody. When he got caught with a 17 yo, however… suffice it to say that a nearly 40 yo convicted sex offender should know better. (Even if the original offense was erroneous.)

Yet another convicted molester of my acquaintance is also married.

And then there is the woman who molested me. I was 14, she was 25. Friend of my parents’. I didn’t see it as molestation until I was older… in my late 20’s…

First Off, I am talking about Men and Men only. Second, I never seen an Orthodox Priest nor Eastern Catholic Priest who was married and accused of molesting children.

 

[Stathios]

First Off, I am talking about Men and Men only. Second, I never seen an Orthodox Priest nor Eastern Catholic Priest who was married and accused of molesting children.

I forgot, ALL of the ones that I heard of were Unmarried Clergy.

 

[Amadeus]

Hey!

Have the Eastern Catholics or Eastern Orthodox had any or as much trouble with pedophile priests as the Roman Catholics have? Thanks!

Myrrh23

I think it is because They are allowed to have a wife. Now some may say most child molesters are married but I have a hard time believing that. I also believe a Child Molester looks for the best way to approach a child without getting caught and the best case is the Priesthood. Who would ever guess that.

Now once again people will make claims that most child molesters are married.

Well my response to that is all the Eastern Catholics and Orthodx priest who where caught in molesting children or accused. NOT one that I know had a wife.

End Of Story

That shows you how much therapist know.

Obervations made by a concerned group chronicling sex abuses in the Orthodox Churches in the U.S.:

Abuse can take place whether you are a young toddler, a child, a teenager or an adult. You can be married, single or divorced. Abuse can occur against men as well as women. Even priests, seminary students and clergy-wives can be abused. Abuse occurs anytime someone uses their power (spiritual power, political power, physical power, etc.) to trick, coerce, manipulate or force another person into submission.

pokrov.org/

It is a societal problem and no religious group is immuned from it!

 

[Mom_of_5]

I wonder why this has happened predominantly in our Catholic church much more so than in Protestant churches or EO churches. The liberal media disdains conservative Protestant churches like the Southern Baptist Convention almost as much as it does us so if they (or other Protestants) had done any appreciable amount of this then I think it would have been reported.

Sure, Protestant churches do have other problems, but they don’t seem to have this one. Why us?

Love and peace,
mom of 5

Eric

There is at least as much sexual abuse in non-Catholic churches. Read the papers,the stories are hidden on the back page and just don’t make the headlines. A few years ago I read an article in a non-Catholic paper that said according to statistics, the actual percentage of abuse was higher in the protestant churches, and at that time, insurance companies were still more willing to insure Catholic priests than any other religion.

Sadly my daughter left the CC because she wasn’t being “fed”. She was a member of a mega-church
in another city. When she told me she left that church and joined another, she finally told me that there was quite a lot of abouse and it had come to light that the youth pastor was molesting young men of the church. So, don’t assume there is no abuse, watch the papers!! (closely)