Why does the Church keep failing on sexual abuse?

  • Thread starter Thread starter KevinK
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
One suspicion I have (although this hasn’t yet been substantiated) is that many good intentioned men recognized that they had unnatural and immoral sexual desires, and thus couldn’t enter into married life. Wanting to do something positive with their life, they chose the priesthood.

As a result, a sizable percentage of the priesthood was/is full of men who have unnatural desires but were trying to do the right thing. When temptation presented itself, many of them unfortunately ended up giving in and thus destroying the lives of other individuals.

Again, not something I can conclusively prove. Just a suspicion that I have based on several conversations I’ve had with others.
 
I was talking to a friend of mine (who is also Catholic) about how some priests are afraid to wear their clerical collars in public. (I know of such a priest). However, I also know a priest (not Catholic, Orthodox), that wears a collar even when he is wearing a sweater. (Seriously, he was a comparative religion professor I had, he came into class one day, it was chilly, so he was wearing a turtle neck sweater, and when he took the sweater off, collar was there). I think Satan loves that some priests don’t want people to know they’re priests.
 
These types of articles just make me think that whatever anyone from the Church tries to do in good faith to resolve this problem, it’s never going to be enough and there will always be some new wrinkle or something left over to pick at.
 
Last edited:
Tis_Bearself said:
These types of articles just make me think that whatever anyone from the Church tries to do in good faith to resolve this problem, it’s never going to be enough and there will always be some new wrinkle or something left over to pick at.
Click to expand...
That is certainly an aspect.

Other aspects I do feel that there is still a desire to sweep it under the rug and little or no desire to engage in some PR. The issue needs to be address - and I feel most parishes are doing that, but I don’t think it’s being seen to be addressed and while some people think it should not be necessary I think it is.
 
Last edited:
KevinK said:
Seán O'Malley, a Pope Francis Ally, on the Catholic Church and Sex Abuse - The Atlantic
Click to expand...
I understand the Cardinal’s lament at the intransigence of the clerical hierarchy. And at the same time real statistics show that since 2002 this problem has been handled on the ground at very high efficiency. Evidently those clerics in high places are the last to know about it.
They are also the last to admit that homosexual subculture is one of the key problems here. (but that would be very inconvenient for the progressive media narrative)

As is frequently the case, the secular article takes some truth and uses it to distort.

Oh, and when the Atlantic and her biased cohorts in the progressive “media” excoriate the NEA for the sins of teachers, who abuse children at a rate 100 times that of priests, then we can take the moral authority of the Atlantic seriously.
We are anxiously waiting for our media heroes to emerge.
 
Last edited:
At the risk of my sounding awful here, everyone involved in the older abuse cases in USA that are causing all the trouble is getting old now, and most have died off. The new cases seem to get resolved in very short order with the priest being removed, sent to the justice system, and if apparently culpable, laicized.

Soon there are not going to be any bishops and such to prosecute in USA for cover ups as they will be deceased.
 
That, and no other religion makes press as long when the minority of their ministers misbehave- the 700 Southern Baptists that stepped out of line was a headline that went out of the media as fast as it came in.
 
Sadly, I think many in church leadership default to a business model with respect to abuse as opposed to the compassionate Christian model. Many deny that there is a problem or fail to exhibit compassion to those abused. This goes right up to the highest levels of the church. There is an unwillingness to accept responsibility. In Canada this is also manifest in their relationship with First Nations People and the Residential Schools issue as well. The church comes across a heartless and cold.
 
Last edited:
The Church as a large centrally managed organization in USA has to worry about risk management and liability issues. Even settling with victims, which the Church might do out of compassion even when legally it doesn’t have to, gets spun by the media as an admission of guilt or as hush money.
The Church made a lot of bad mistakes and is now in a position where anything it does will be criticized.
 
Elf01 said:
The issue needs to be address - and I feel most parishes are doing that, but I don’t think it’s being seen to be addressed and while some people think it should not be necessary I think it is.
Click to expand...
I think you are right. I also think that the reason this is perceived as “not enough” is because most of the people who were abused are no longer in the Church. They have left. They don’t know what any one parish is doing on a parish level to correct the problems and to say “We are sorry this happened” to those who were so terribly abused and carry the pain for the rest of their lives.

I don’t know what the answer is. I can say with most certainty that whatever it is, it hasn’t been found or implemented yet.
 
Why do American, European, etc. secular institutions like schools keep failing on sexual abuse?

Why do families keep failing on sexual abuse?

Why do Baptists and other faith communities keep failing on sexual abuse?
 
Oh okay let’s go with your reasoning then why do married men have sex with children?
 
To an extent you are correct. until Jesus comes back the devil will continue to try to destroy the church since the beginning of time always has always will. But
 
There are always going to be perverts everywhere, but when you have an all-male, celibate environment that frequently operates within some level of secrecy, you just put this problem on steroids.
 
I don’t think there’s “complacency” in the US any more given that a Cardinal just got fired, an Archbishop just got thrown out, dioceses have been and continue to be publicly embarrassed on a national level, at least one bishop has been sued, a priest who was on diocesan staff just got convicted and sentenced to prison for cover-up stuff (he’s appealing).

I reckon if there’s some other country where the Church still has a lot of power so the media, the justice system and the congregation are letting priests and bishops get away with bad stuff, then there is “huge complacency” in those other countries because no real consequences.
 
If you mean further a homosexual problem, yes. If you mean that men choose to prey on children because they are in a ‘celibate’ environment, that would be no. Last I looked, back when the DSM was IV, not V, pedophiles were more likely to be married men (i.e., not celibate).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top