Vatican’s McCarrick report says Pope John Paul II knew of misconduct allegations nearly two decades before cardinal’s removal

[christofirst]

Looking back now, I see the sexual abuse scandal as a commonly known secret. I consider it a grace that it never happened at the parish where I grew up, but I now know that it was going on at a neighboring parish. When I left the cocoon of 12 years of Catholic school and became an apprentice electrician in the early 80s, I mentioned on the job that I had been an altar boy. The jokes I got in reply were for me an eye opener. “Oh, were you Father’s special friend?” The jokes only got raunchier from there. I was pretty naive, but the fact that there were abusive priests seemed like common knowledge for many.

 

[TMC]

By the time the Boston Globe story came out I was like oh not this again.

I can bring up two cultural mentions of it, from the movie Hannah and Her Sisters from the 80s, and even a joke about moving a priest from parish to parish from Mystery Science Theater 3000 in the mid 90s.

Looking back now, I see the sexual abuse scandal as a commonly known secret.

I also remember it being sort of a “known” secret, and even the topic of crude jokes at least back to the 80s, and probably before then.

 

[StudentMI]

Another instance of it is in the French movie Murmur of the Heart from 1971. A pederast priest is a character in the film.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Looking back now, I see the sexual abuse scandal as a commonly known secret.

It was around forever. John R. Powers wrote three books of fiction about Catholic school kids set in the 60s and 70s and published between 1973 and 1977. They were all in our library Young Adults section and I read all three of them. One of them contains an episode with a priest who was a child sexual abuser and when he starts menacing a kid in his class, the kid’s older brother, now a teenager, comes to the class, beats up the priest in front of the whole class, and tells him to stay away from his little brother and reveals that the priest also abused him when he was the age of the little brother. The priest is quickly transferred and nobody ever speaks of it again.

Can’t remember which of the three Powers books this was in but like I said it was published 1977 or earlier. And honestly that was how you had to take care of that stuff. Your mother, daddy, or brother had to go down and raise Hades. Remember the kid in “The Keepers” whose mother went to the bishop’s office in person and read him the riot act and the next day the molesting priest was gone and the kid was back on the sports team and in the altar servers and everywhere else that he had been removed from because he said “no” to the priest. Us kids back then had parents who were Irish and Italian and so forth and one did NOT mess with their children. Sadly, the kids who got victimized had parents who were either too bamboozled by the priest or too weak or too out of it to see what was going on and step in.

 

[StudentMI]

Sadly, the kids who got victimized had parents who were either too bamboozled by the priest or too weak or too out of it to see what was going on and step in.

Well knowing what we know of sexual abuse it was often not mentioned even by the victim. So you can’t blame the parents in such cases.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

The parents I knew were highly alert to any adult who was not a relative who wanted to spend inordinate amounts of time with their kids.

The cases that they missed were the ones when it was a relative. People trusted their family members too much. Like Tommy’s Uncle Ernie.

But some strange priest from outside the home wanting to take a kid out alone would have gotten a fisheye from a lot of parents I knew including mine. The priests in my parish did not engage in such behavior to my knowledge (And none of them have ever showed up on the diocesan lists). There was one a couple parishes away who, when he finally self-reported, the old ethnic ladies were all like “I knew it, he did an overnight once with the Boy Scout troop and I told you something funny was going on…”

 

[StudentMI]

The parents I knew were highly alert to any adult who was not a relative who wanted to spend inordinate amounts of time with their kids.

Yes, but it’s not like all abuse happens in such a way. It can happen quickly, in ‘official’ capacity.

 

[stpurl]

Does anybody else kind of wonder why this report comes out so conveniently during this election ‘wait’?

The moral authority of the Church, in worldly eyes, has been crumbling fast. This is a very, ahem, ‘coincidental’ kind of report as it appears not just to turn a jaundiced eye on anything the Church actually teaches —“Oh look, people! These people whose SAINTS turned blind eyes on abusers are attempting to say their teachings are truthful—but to be directing the Church into a place where the ‘evil before’ are now saved by the GOOD NOW. After all, Good Pope Francis (not that I say he is not a good person), but ‘media’ crazed hyped up uberpapalism with regard to THIS Pope, has ‘already changed the wrong Church doctrine.

Therefore Joe Biden is already on the side of the New Catholic Church! Whatever he says and does, Catholics can do because he follows Francis and not the ‘old corrupt guard’.

Seriously, this is diabolical.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Does anybody else kind of wonder why this report comes out so conveniently during this election ‘wait’?

I reckon it was released on purpose right this minute knowing that the news in USA is mostly focused on the election. PR move on the part of the Vatican.

I doubt there was any motive beyond that because the report doesn’t exactly make Pope Francis look awesome.

 

[F_Marturana]

I’m slightly off topic, but have you see the film Doubt?

The dubious event happened when the child was altar serving and called to the rectory.

 

[StudentMI]

I’m slightly off topic, but have you see the film Doubt?

The dubious event happened when the child was altar serving and called to the rectory.

We have an open case alleging something similar here. I haven’t seen the movie. Find it too sad. I saw Spotlight, though.

 

[F_Marturana]

I couldn’t finish Spotlight. I need to rewatch it.

The parish I grew up in and made all my sacraments in had 2 predator priests, the were almost consecutive, just a few years or so separated them.

 

[StudentMI]

https://www.theoaklandpress.com/new...cle_b46bb57c-4900-11ea-bf66-a35ee4015e65.html

There’s the priest I mentioned.

 

[Maximian]

I’m slightly off topic, but have you see the film Doubt?

Regarding Doubt with Merrill Streep, it is a plea to return to the days when priests kept their distance from the laity.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I’m slightly off topic, but have you see the film Doubt?

The dubious event happened when the child was altar serving and called to the rectory.

I thought in “Doubt”, which is fiction (although probably similar cases happened in RL), the mother had an inkling the kid was abused by the priest, but chose to set it aside because she felt her son would somehow gain advantages by staying in the school he was in, being a friend of the priest, and also she didn’t want her homophobic husband to react badly against the son.

 

[mercyalways]

The moral authority of the Church, in worldly eyes, has been crumbling fast. This is a very, ahem, ‘coincidental’ kind of report as it appears not just to turn a jaundiced eye on anything the Church actually teaches —“Oh look, people! These people whose SAINTS turned blind eyes on abusers are attempting to say their teachings are truthful—but to be directing the Church into a place where the ‘evil before’ are now saved by the GOOD NOW. After all, Good Pope Francis (not that I say he is not a good person), but ‘media’ crazed hyped up uberpapalism with regard to THIS Pope, has ‘already changed the wrong Church doctrine.

You may want to read Rod Dreher’s take on the report. He didn’t become Catholic because of the abuse by clergy, but instead joined the Orthodox church. Here is his take:
So, the McCarrick Report blames the dead Pope and the retired Pope, but exonerates the current Pope by saying that he trusted the previous two popes. How convenient. I don’t believe it for a second. I believe this is likely a whitewash of Francis, though by no means does that put the blame entirely on him.

Nevertheless, the document paints a picture of Church corruption that is damning. We see an old boys network of churchmen who weren’t afraid to lie to the Pope to advance the career of McCarrick. McCarrick certainly wasn’t afraid to lie to the Pope about himself, and he even swore an oath that he was innocent. John Paul II’s judgment when it came to bishops was deficient — this we know. We see in this report evidence that he was blinded by deep clericalism.

You can read his entire article on the subject here:

The McCarrick Report - The American Conservative

 

[mercyalways]

Personally, I feel nothing but deep sorrow at everything in the report. St John Paul was a very great saint, but even he was fooled by lies of many of our clergy.

 

[Digitnomy]

Does anybody else kind of wonder why this report comes out so conveniently during this election ‘wait’?

…Seriously, this is diabolical.

As conspiracy theories go, this one seems quite weak.

Would it be less suspicious to you if instead they had released the report just before the election, or perhaps later when Biden is naming his cabinet?

Not everything is about the US.

 

[stpurl]

Well that would be because it is not a ‘conspiracy theory’. It is a long range view that notes, not as a ‘conspiracy’ as if there were some nefarious ‘cabal’, but a diabolical appearance to ‘the world’ that is especially ‘hot’ at certain points, of which this is one.

As a Catholic Christian we are not simply ‘existing in the world but not of the world’ with the only things we have to worry about being pure HUMAN evil. As Catholic Christians our lives include spiritual warfare against the demons, the diabolical.

 

[OraLabora]

Looking back now, I see the sexual abuse scandal as a commonly known secret.

For a very long time. My late mother told me of a priest in the 1940s, in her parish. It was a well-known secret to parents to never leave their sons alone with that priest.

Frankly, I’m just disgusted with the whole thing. There’s something fundamentally wrong with the Church’s sexual morality. Until the root cause is acknowledged, all attempts to stop abuse and coverups with zero-tolerance policies and safety practices will be no more than lipstick on a pig.

The Church needs to ask herself why so few good mature heterosexual men are attracted to the priesthood. And to ask the question is to answer it.