CHILD ABUSE by PRIESTS

[gnomon]

Well, for the record, I have no respect at all for the RCC. I find it amazing that on a religious forum such as this Scientologists are pretty much universally reviled but the RCC is supposed to be respected for sake of not offending Catholics. I know very few Catholics in my country that respect the RCC.

edit: But yes, it should be noted that the incidence of abusive priests is not really significantly different from the general population. But that is not the point.

 

[Engyo]

Would you allow your son to be alone with a Roman Catholic Preist...for example would you permit your son to attend a weekend religious learning centre with a Priest...what say ye?

p.s. If you can please try to be honest and not allow your religious affiliation to interfere with your decision making process.

No more and no less than I would with a Protestant Minister, or a Jewish Rabbi, or a Buddhist monk either.

 

[Wombat]

You want people to consider that the Catholic clergy's abuse of minors is worse than Protestant clergy's abuse of minors, or secular authority figures' abuse of minors; all of them seem happen at about the same frequency against the total population, which suggests that this is a problem endemic to humans, rather than to any specific religious organization.?

I agree. The statistics on child abuse within the Catholic clergy is no greater than that of the general population. (A fact which, on other Boards, you can get howled down for pointing out when the predominant theme is to bag religion.)

I'm curious why you believe that the problem is worse or somehow more sinister in the Roman Catholic Church than it is elsewhere?

I cannot answer for the OP but from my perspective it is "more sinister in the Roman Catholic Church than it is elsewhere".

I'm a Welfare Worker...I deal with the victims of child abuse every day...sometimes the family...sometimes even the perp. When dealing with the perp I am obliged to be a detatched professional, no matter what they have done to a child. Sometimes, when you know the child and have read the case notes, it is not easy to remain detatched. Knowing that there is a high probability that the perp himself was probably abused can help...the individual can be seen/understood (but not excused) as 'sick'.

While an unballanced individual may be seen in the light of their background/illness an institution, such as the Church, cannot....and must not. When a group of men sit down together and >know< they have a child abusing clergyman within the organization and then consciously and deliberately move that abusive clergyman to another area to cover up and protect the reputation of the Church.......

NO........that is not just the sick abuse of an unbalanced individual....that is cold, calculated, collective willfull ignorance = Evil.
The coverup conducted by the churches was and remains abhorrent.

 

[Yukon]

No more and no less than I would with a Protestant Minister, or a Jewish Rabbi, or a Buddhist monk either.

You dodge my question.......why ?

 

[Onkara]

My children,
Please understand that two wrongs do not make it right.

I'm not asking about Protestant or secular organizations.

Trying to compare the RC Church with those groups is apples and oranges.

Please stick to the topic.

Thank you,
Yukon

The problem is that if we limit a problem to a paticular profession or religion, don't we risk turning a blind eye to crimes by those who don't fall into that category?

How do we explain this quote (idea) in context to the accusation?

John 8:7 However, when they persisted with their question, He raised Himself up and said, Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.

 

[Yukon]

Actually by not answered he has provided me with a lot of useful information.

 

[gnomon]

Numerous Roman Catholic clergymen have been arrested, charged, tried in court, and convicted of heinous acts of homosexuality against young boys. Many too have been arrested and convicted for possessing child pornography.

I do not understand how any independant logical, rational, thinking person, could attend this Church. More shocking still is that they send their children to this Church knowing that the Priest may be "one of them".

What is your opinion ?

That one cannot predict that a priest is abusive because the incidence of abuse is no more common or uncommon than that of other population groups including teachers, therapists, the general public, other religions, etc.

Your ire would be better directed at the RCC itself which stands out because of their failure to do anything about it and their arrogance as well.

 

[Engyo]

Actually by not answered he has provided me with a lot of useful information.

Judge away, and do not protest at being judged in turn.......

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

Sexual abuse tends to be an individual crime.

The problem comes when it is known about by church authorities and then covered up.
The catholic Church were found out in this regard .
Most other churches have a rather looser organisation and cover ups are more difficult to organise.

I suspect that because they might have felt some what protected, it could be slightly more prevalent in the Catholic Church. But this has not been proved.

 

[ninerbuff]

Numerous Roman Catholic clergymen have been arrested, charged, tried in court, and convicted of heinous acts of homosexuality against young boys. Many too have been arrested and convicted for possessing child pornography.

I do not understand how any independant logical, rational, thinking person, could attend this Church. More shocking still is that they send their children to this Church knowing that the Priest may be "one of them".

What is your opinion ?

That's part of why I left it. But then there are all kinds of heinous acts done by many churches and they still have followers.

 

[Oneatatime]

Numerous Roman Catholic clergymen have been arrested, charged, tried in court, and convicted of heinous acts of homosexuality against young boys. Many too have been arrested and convicted for possessing child pornography.

I do not understand how any independant logical, rational, thinking person, could attend this Church. More shocking still is that they send their children to this Church knowing that the Priest may be "one of them".

What is your opinion ?

It's to be expected that within any organisation there will be some paedophiles. The main problem that arose with the Catholic Church is their failures to properly address the issue when it came to light that a member of the clergy was abusing children, and by this I mean involving the relevent authorities and work towards a prosecution. This though represents a failure of organised religion which is inherently politicalised and therefore likely to close ranks and attempt to protect its reputation rather than accept that there is a problem and address it openly.

That doesn't mean that every child in the care of the Catholic Church is at risk and its unfair to to judge individual clergymen on the actions of others.

 

[ninerbuff]

Would you allow your son to be alone with a Roman Catholic Preist...for example would you permit your son to attend a weekend religious learning centre with a Priest...what say ye?

p.s. If you can please try to be honest and not allow your religious affiliation to interfere with your decision making process.

Dude, that's just uncalled for. While I am no longer catholic, I served as an altar boy for 5 years and was alone and changed all the time near the priests and was NEVER once approached sexually.
You're tossing ALL priests into one category......predators. There are many, many good priests out there that devote their lives to helping their congregation.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

I wouldn't leave my children alone with priests, but then again, I wouldn't leave them alone with any religious, delusional whackos.

 

[Skwim]

Here is an interesting remark taken from the same article tumbleweed41 cited

"Patrick Moreland, vice president of marketing for Church Mutual, said churches are particularly susceptible to abusers.

"By their nature, congregations are the most trusting of organizations, so that makes them attractive targets for predators," he said. "If you're a predator, where do you go? You go to a congregation that will welcome you."
​

HERE is a link to the article (tumbleweed41's is broken).

 

[Onkara]

I wouldn't leave my children alone with priests, but then again, I wouldn't leave them alone with any religious, delusional whackos.

Is the emphasis on religious or delusional?

 

[beenie]

I don't have sons, but I certainly wouldn't leave any children alone with anyone I don't know extremely well...and even then...probably not.

Heck, there are some family members I'd think twice about.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Is the emphasis on religious or delusional?

No emphasis.

 

[idav]

I don't have sons, but I certainly wouldn't leave any children alone with anyone I don't know extremely well...and even then...probably not.

Heck, there are some family members I'd think twice about.

I agree with this. Some people you should be able to trust like priests, teachers, cops but authority gets abused as usual. I guess we never really know short of strapping nanny-cams to the kids.

 

[McBell]

Are you serious....is it your position that the RC Church is no worse than any other church ?

Is it your position that the Catholic Church is worse?

 

[McBell]

My children,
Please understand that two wrongs do not make it right.

I'm not asking about Protestant or secular organizations.

Trying to compare the RC Church with those groups is apples and oranges.

Please stick to the topic.

Thank you,
Yukon

What exactly is the topic?