In my former church, the Episcopal church, of the priests that I knew one was married with children and he was a pedephile who molested boys in the parish. He just moved on to another parish. This was covered up.
Another priest was having an affair with a member of the parish and his wife was ill.
Another priest was married with 5 children, he and his wife adopted a teenage girl and he ended up in a sexual relationship with her and divorced his wife and married the girl.
I also knew of 4 priests that were homosexual and two of them had their partners attend their parishes.
This sexual abuse is abundant in every denomination, although when we point this out to protestants they accuse us of trying to divert the attention away from the Catholic Church. This is not the reason for informing others that the problem is all around us. … It is not an excuse for any abuse of children.
Bernadette, ( I am replying to your entire post, but had to shorten the quote to meet the post limit)
You make very many valid points. However, there are fundamental differences between, lets say Episcopalians or Evangelicals, for that matter, and the Church.
First of all, Episcopalians place no higher burden or expectations regarding sexual orientation, abortion, contraception, etc, than society. One could argue that they are even more liberal than mainstream society in these areas. So any abuse that falls within what is considered a normal reflection of the current state of society should be expected. It is not as hypocritical.
Also, considering every other religious affiliation, be it independent Baptists, or collegial communions such as the Episcopalians. They are viewed as being subject to the processes of the state, DCFS and other secular protective angencies etc plus state laws. If there is an infraction, it is less likely to be associated with the entire organization and DCFS is just as likely to be blaimed as well as the single church or pastor. This is the result of their inherent structure.
One of the things that make the RC situation unique is its structure. The Vatican is technically its own country with its Swiss “army”. Even though the church claims it respects the laws of individual countries, there is the perception by some that they merely tolerate them and sometimes use their vast resources to circumvent them. Again, it is inherent by the very nature of the structure and reach of the Church, even if those perceptions are false, they are there.
A perfect example is the recent report of an alleged incident in 2005 in Minnesota. The priest was transferred to India! Regardless of his guilt or innocence, few religious organizations could accomplish that feat. A pedophile Evangelical will stay in the US, and has no Pope. That Evangelical will easily fall into the US justice system and will be seen as fully there in the first place.
But now a Roman Catholic priest is in an extradition battle between the US and India. Two things here. All extradition battles make the news. If the Evangelical pedophile fled of his own accord to, let’s say Peru, it would be perceived that way. But in this case, Rome transferred a priest to India. The priest did not flee. And it is the perception that Rome could order him back to the US, or take some action.
Instead, so far nothing is being done by Rome concerning this incident. As a result, it is perceived as protecting or harboring, rightly or wrongly, even if the man is completely innocent. It doesn’t matter. Because of the structure and power of the Church, the Church ends up embroiled in an extradition controversy, and appears to just sit back and let the individual nations fight it out. But Rome is the cause of this extradition battle in the first place. They moved him. They have that power. They claim that authority and right.
It is endemic of the RC structure. So the press is always going to come down harder on the Church because of this. I am not suggesting a change to the structure of the Church. I am just stating why it receives so much attention.
The solution, imo: as I stated before, Rome needs to do something. Take action. Use its power and authority. Defrocking a few priests who are directly responsible would be a good start. Yes some have happened, but it is generally a discreet affair. The solution needs to come from Rome though, whatever it is; not extraditions and slow investigations involving several countries. Of course the press will feed on this in a frenzy.
SP
