Bishops: Over 1,000 New Sex Abuse Claims (priests, Earth, America, preaching)

[Rex]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,148074,00.html

Bishops: Over 1,000 New Sex Abuse Claims

Friday, February 18, 2005

BALTIMORE — The nation's Roman Catholic (search) bishops said Friday that over the last year they received 1,092 new allegations of sexual abuse against at least 756 Catholic priests and deacons.

Half of the accused priests over the past year had been previously accused of abuse, said Kathleen McChesney, executive director of the bishops' Office of Child and Youth Protection (search).

Most of the alleged incidents occurred decades ago: 72 percent of the priests were either dead, defrocked or removed from public ministry before the newest allegations were received, McChesney said.

The information came as the bishops released a new national audit of U.S. dioceses to determine how well they've complied with the child protection policy American prelates instituted more than three years ago at the height of the clergy molestation crisis. Teams of auditors, comprised mainly of former FBI agents, compiled data in visits to dioceses across the country.

The auditors found that more than 95 percent of dioceses have taken the required steps to keep children safe.

But the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (search) said the audits were "minimal and misleading," contending bishops had too much control over who participated in the review.

[Sunstone]

I shudder to think of how many people have not yet come forward.

[linwood]

My mother died a lost Catholic but still with faith in her religion.

All my arguments were put off as "God works in mysterious ways".

When this scandal first broke I had a fleeting wish she were alive to see it because it would have broken her faith considering it was one topic about her religion she absolutely refused to discuss or entertain, it didn`t exist, she was in denial over it.
Her love for children and her belief that they were to be protected at any cost would have destroyed her faith once she could no longer deny this.

Now, I`m very happy she isn`t here to see it.

[Fluffy]

I shudder to think of how many people have not yet come forward.

I am firmly of the belief that there are countless thousands. I am not exaggerating either. Its surprisingly easy to get away with this, especially if you are in the position of priest in a small rural community. I knew a priest who abused many children. When one victim came forward he was transferred to a new area by the Church and allowed to continue preaching. He was never brought to justice and now never can because he died last year.

What on earth goes through these people's minds? 756 priests!! Its just sick that it is so widespread. 72% of which are going to get away with it at least.

[robtex]

I had a debate with a few catholics maybe 18 months ago about this issue. I was asking them why pre-auditing was not being done to screen for this behavior and what the Catholic church was doing about it. At that time none of them seem to know .....and the guys I was debating with seemed to know the church history and functions pretty well which leads me to believe that the church doens't do much at all about it. But with some of the really educated catholics on here maybe we could all be enlightened.

Does anybody have any information as to the Catholic Churches response to these allegations at this time or any previous time and what do they do internally to address this issue and incurrances?

[michel]

This is sad;unfortunately I can hardly pretend to be surprised - Robtex, have a look at:-
http://www.sweenytod.com/rno/modules...rticle&sid=726
Chastity is a hard concept to 'take on board' - it goes against the laws of nature; in the Church of England there are as many problems with allegations of molestation, and that is with priests not being required to be chaste.
A very good friend of mine, who worked for the same charity as I told me of one incident.
It was a dark winter evening (9.00pm or so), and he was driving two girls home after they had finished at the club he helped run. They both lived on the same road, but about 2k's apart from each other. He told me how upset they were when he dropped both girls off half way between their two houses; they had to walk home in the rain. What else could he have done?
And please, let us try not to be so naive as to accept every accusation prima facea.

[Rex]

With the outbreak of this I can only imagine that the Catholics aren't the only ones.