Religious orders can hide abuse by priests

Chicago Tribune ^ | April 7, 2002 | Julia Lieblich and Todd Lighty

[heyheyhey]

As Roman Catholic dioceses across the nation struggle with allegations of sexual abuse by their priests, some are finding that independent religious orders have allowed priests with histories of misconduct to work in parishes where neither parishioners nor church officials knew of their past.

More than 15,000 of the 46,000 priests in the United States belong to religious orders whose members answer not to a diocese but to their own superiors. The order priests seek permission of dioceses to live and work in their parishes.

[heyheyhey]

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The article appeared on the front page of the Sunday edition of the Chicago Tribune. I decided to post it as a clear evidence of an anti-Catholic bias in the media. The highlighted is the part of the text detailing the priest's "pedophilia."

[Brian Kopp DPM]

OK, I did not get much sleep, so maybe I'm missing something here. Was the priest molesting the kid, or searching for more stink bombs? If he was molesting the kid, throw him in jail. If the kids were hiding stink bombs and he was searching each kid for the culprit, he's guilty of being stupid for going about it wrong, but certainly not guilty of molestation.

[heyheyhey]

I believe this front-page Sunday paper article is nothing more than an attack against the moral authority of the Catholic Church.

[COBOL2Java]

I agree. You have to read through the whole story before you discover that the "molestation" which occurred appears to have been a search for hidden stink bombs. Yet the story is painted in the worst possible way.

This is an anti-Catholic attack on Order priests. To alledge that Religious Orders are somehow autonomous units operating in a Diocese is patently ludicrous. All individuals who minister within a Diocese are under the authority of the Bishop. Religious (priests, brothers and nuns) are also under their Order's authority, but the Bishop has the ultimate say.

[ibme]

I decided to post it as a clear evidence of an anti-Catholic bias in the media</>

Just about the whole world is biased against child molesters.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Just about the whole world is biased against child molesters.

Including these Protestant molesters. But you meant to include them, didn't you? In your eagerness to post, I'm sure they just slipped your mind.

[nofriendofbills]

Checked out the website you linked to...

They're about as unbiased (and probably as reliable) as Bob Jones University.

[heyheyhey]

I do not see the "world" being biased against child molesters in this particular example. You probably read it exactly the way it was intended by the anti-Catholic journalists. The bias is rather against a good priest and of course against the whole Catholic Church.

Lk 6:22-23 Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.