sex scandal

[031064]

can someone just tell me that the priestly sex scandal didn’t happen? I watched a program on CBC yesterday and it said that bishops tried to cover it up, and that the pope created a document to silence vitctims. It really makes me sad, and makes me feel that the holy chruchis becoming a little less holy. can someone please explain this to me.

 

[kell0618]

can someone just tell me that the priestly sex scandal didn’t happen? I watched a program on CBC yesterday and it said that bishops tried to cover it up, and that the pope created a document to silence vitctims. It really makes me sad, and makes me feel that the holy chruchis becoming a little less holy. can someone please explain this to me.

Be assured that this is and was a crisis involving humans and that the Church will prevail. Read the following articles:

A Crisis of Saints
The ‘Gay’ Priest Solution
Insurer Data Released on Protestant Sex Abuse Cases Each Year
Texas Baptists Cracking Down on Abuse

Despite headlines focusing on the priest pedophile problem in the Roman Catholic Church, most American churches being hit with child sexual-abuse allegations are Protestant, and most of the alleged abusers are not clergy or staff, but church volunteers. These are findings from national surveys by Christian Ministry Resources (CMR), a tax and legal-advice publisher serving more than 75,000 congregations and 1,000 denominational agencies nationwide.
CMR’s annual surveys of about 1,000 churches nationwide have asked about sexual abuse since 1993. They’re a remarkable window on a problem that lurked largely in the shadows of public awareness until the Catholic scandals arose. Source

In a great way, the Catholic scandals that arose made other churches to look into the closets and see what evil lurked within their houses of worship.

Peace be with you,

Kelly

 

[clmowry]

It’s fair to say that instances of sexual abuse did occur and that some Bishops did not handle it properly.

Most of what you see beyond that is sensationalism.

Once is too many, but the incidence rate is way lower than in the general population. It just gets more press.

I’ve never heard anything about the pope creating a document to silence victims.

Anybody have any info on this?

Chuck

can someone just tell me that the priestly sex scandal didn’t happen? I watched a program on CBC yesterday and it said that bishops tried to cover it up, and that the pope created a document to silence vitctims. It really makes me sad, and makes me feel that the holy chruchis becoming a little less holy. can someone please explain this to me.

 

[kell0618]

I’ve never heard anything about the pope creating a document to silence victims.

Anybody have any info on this?

Chuck

This is in reference to our Holy Father when he was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. See here for the Catholic response to such claims.

 

[ltravis]

Ironically, the more I have pondered this scandal, the deeper my faith in the church has become. I think of the holy priesthood, the men who have been called to give their lives to represent Christ and give us Christ in teaching and in the Eucharist - has had priests fall into maybe the worst of all possible sins, against our innocent children - it is beyond the worst nightmare and just doesn’t “compute”. This problem must have come from far beyond us. I can’t help but think the cause more than mere natural human weakness and institutional failures. While our priests bear personal fault to be sure - I think a tragedy of this magnatude must be from direct attack by the devil on the our church. It is bigger than we can see with our natural eyes and just goes to prove how holy and true our church must be for it to be the target of such an attack. And yet, should we live long enough, we will see our church and priesthood emerge stronger than ever.

LT

 

[1ke]

can someone just tell me that the priestly sex scandal didn’t happen?

Sorry, can’t do that.

I watched a program on CBC yesterday and it said

Don’t believe what you see on TV. It’s not a very accurate source of information on most topics, this one included.

that bishops tried to cover it up

Some specific bishops might have done so. Many did not. Many followed the advice of psychologists, who at the time espoused the position that such behaviors could be cured through therapy. Psychology and church procedures have come a long way since then. Many of these abuse cases are decades old, and tok place before the Church had extensive screening for mental instability and homosexual orientation in the seminary process.

and that the pope created a document to silence vitctims.

Which just goes to show that the TV show didn’t know what it was talking about

The document the show refers to is likely the document issued by the Vatican in the 1960s regarding solicitation in the confessional. It has nothing to do with the sexual abuse situation.

It really makes me sad, and makes me feel that the holy chruchis becoming a little less holy. can someone please explain this to me.

Don’t let your faith be shaken by a sensationalized TV show.

 

[VociMike]

If the pope really did try to silence the victims it sure didn’t work.

As for the bishops, Fr. Groeschel, who has a doctorate in psychology and who spent many years teaching and counseling, Fr. Groeschel has emphasized that in the not-too-distant past it was accepted belief that molesters could be cured. Now it is accepted belief that they in general cannot. Bishops listened to the experts who stated the former and that is part of the reason these priests were moved around.

None of this is to absolve any bishops, but only to point out that, as usual, things are rarely so black and white at the time as the way they can be portrayed after the fact.

 

[Todd_Easton]

The priestly sex scandal is old news. Why would the CBC air something about that now? Call me suspicious but this may be the CBC’s *ad hominem *attempt to discredit the Catholic Church’s (pro-life, anti-abortion, anti-destructive-embryonic-stem-cell-research, anti-euthanasia, pro-marriage, anti-gay-union, etc.) teachings by bringing up the past misdeeds of a relatively very small number of Catholic priests and the poor pastoral judgment of a few of their bishops.