Posted on 07/16/2007 9:50:41 PM PDT by BigJohn44
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay over $600 million to settle claims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in that diocese. This is the latest in a string of multi-million dollar payouts by Catholic diocese throughout the country.
Perhaps it is time to take another look at the most comprehensive study of Catholic priest sexual abuse ever conducted. In 2002, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops commissioned a national study of sexual abuse by Catholic priests.
The study, conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, found that nationwide, approximately 4400 Catholic priests were credibly accused of sexual abuse incidents occurring between 1950 and 2002, and that 81 percent of their victims were male. Some 78 percent of the males allegedly abused were adolescent males between the ages of 11 and 17.
Pertinent excerpts of the executive summary of the John Jay study are quoted below. See http://www.usccb.org/nrb/johnjaystudy/exec.pdf
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The information contained in this report is based upon surveys provided by 195 dioceses, representing 98% all diocesan priests in the United States, and 140 religious communities, representing approximately 60% of religious communities and 80% of all religious priests.
* * *
The mandate for the study was to: 1. Examine the number and nature of allegations of sexual abuse of minors under the age of 18 by Catholic priests between 1950 and 2002.
* * *
The total number of priests with allegations of abuse in our survey is 4,392.
* * *
The largest group of alleged victims (50.9%) was between the ages of 11 and 14, 27.3% were 15-17 . . . . Overall, 81% of victims were male . . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at usccb.org ...
The sexual abuse by Catholic priests which has given rise to the recent scandals and lawsuits is overwhelmingly homosexual in nature.
81 percent of the victims were male. And most of the male victims were adolescents between the ages of 11 and 17. The offenses were committed almost entirely by gay men who had been ordained as priests.
So the following questions can be asked: Was it primarily the Catholic Church, or the Homosexual Community, that committed the abuse? Which was a more significant factor leading to the abuse: the abusers' homosexuality, or their Catholicism? And, fundamentally,
WHEN IS THE HOMOSEXUAL COMMUNITY GOING TO ACKNOWLEDGE MORAL AND FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ITS CONTRIBUTION TO THE SEXUAL ABUSE OF THE VICTIMS IN QUESTION?
Again, the overwhelming majority (81%) of the abuse was gay sexual advances on male adolescents. This is more a gay scandal than a Catholic scandal. It is time to treat it as such.
bookmark for later.
It looks like it wasn’t a good idea to send young teenage boys into an all male environment for seminary school.
This was where many of the abusers came from.
They had homosexual experiences at these schools - sometimes in the form of abuse from teachers or priests - but also experimentation with each other.
When they became adults and were ordained - the roaring 60’s gave them all the “excuses” they needed to justify their treatment of altar boys.
Is this a catholic problem? No - not in the sense it has anything to do with Church teaching.
But - it was catholics who set up this arrangement and unwittingly contributed to the problem.
Is it a gay problem? Sure...but it also points to that mysterious origin of same sex attraction....if these men had not been placed in that situation - would they have developed normal heterosexual feelings?
Unfortunately, few in the Church at a level to be influential would ever answer the question because they wouldn’t want to “offend” either side.
The Catholic Church knowingly allowed homosexuals to be priests and to have ready access to innocent children fully understanding their tendency towards abuse of children. There's no getting away from this.
A Marxist named Gramsci (See Keyword) came up with some of the key elements of this evil strategy 80 years ago.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a “religious crutch.”
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
Communist Goals (1963)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1803116/posts
Way back in 1980 a shipmate of mine was back in active duty after taking time out to join a Roman Catholic Seminary. When he returned he said the homosexual activity in the Seminary was nauseating. This is a direct violation of the Church’s own laws, or Canons. A known homosexual cannot be ordained as a priest - that is the Church’s own laws - but it appears that the male heirarchy is riddled with homosexuals. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that even American Bishops are homosexuals. Mahoney has been hiding perps in monasteries across the western U.S., keeping them out of the clutches of the secular justice system. I personally find his behavior suspect.
As far as I am concerned it is a homosexual problem. not a celibacy problem.
BTW, the seminaries are on the way to being cleaned out. The striaght guys will no longer put up with it.
What the Catechism of the Catholic Church says about homosexuality
no one ever calls it a homosexual scandal which is what it is because it runs exactly to the same vein as homosexual chickenhawking which is hardly an unusual proclivity for fags whether priests or not
very few Catholic clergy have touched on this either but I think Ratzinger may have(?)...if so...to his credit
they need to clean house...but can they?
Thank you for laying the blame where it really belongs, with the Communists!
Well, the English public schools had such problems, but the seminaries were better monitored. The main malefactors were the seminaries that during the ‘70s dropped anl effeort to weed out students who were too “friendly.” in large part because they needed to keep their numbers up.
The Church should turn around and sue the gays.
The Survivors Network of Abuse by Priests (SNAP.net) has also issued a release citing sexual abuse of minors by Baptist ministers.
One of the biggest problems is pedophiles look to the clergy as a way to conceal their depradations. In other words, a sexual predator wants to become a minister, because it is a position, in which he assumes that nobody will suspect him.
Even more importantly, the younger Bishops are refusing to send their priest candidates to the seminaries that were lax in upholding Church teachings, or were notorious for being overrun with homosexuals in authority. This will help the formation of this new generation of priests, and those to follow.
Well, if I have to use the study’s terms:
The “Homosexual Community” (in this case, Roman Catholic homosexual priests) committed the abuses.
The Catholic Church (in this case, bishops, other priests) aided and abetted, and hid these abuses. They fostered an atmosphere where it could continue under everyone’s radar.
as I understand it (wish I could find the article I read this in....I read it about 2 yrs ago)
The worst offenders went into seminary in the 40’s & 50’s.
Most of the abuse occurred during the 70s & 80s.
**The Survivors Network of Abuse by Priests (SNAP.net) has also issued a release citing sexual abuse of minors by Baptist ministers.**
Tell me when they get to the NEA and all the teachers, OK!
Most of the victims were teenage boys. I don’t consider this to be pedophilia per se, although legally it probably is.
I do agree that gays found the priesthood to be a convenient framework in which to practice homosexuality and feel respected and loved.
But are they purging queers from their clergy?
that they consider by doctrine and the Bible (thank God) that homosexuality is a sin and un-natural should go without saying but their record of first not paying much attention to this for decades except to move pederast queer clergy around and then paying out under pressure and trying to seal records, refusing to call it a queer problem etc is embarrassing...to anyone
I get no pleasure in seeing any Christian leaders misbehave so...it defames us all and gives our foes such ammo.
It is plainly the work of the dark prince and he’s still winning it looks like to me. When I see probably at least 25%% of Catholic US clergy resign in shame like they should then we can celebrate. (based on samples I’ve seen on the percentage queer)
It must be really weird being a queer priest ....what a conflicted double life.
I’m not Catholic. What percentage of nuns are lesbian? Does anyone have a guess.
If I were Catholic...this would really steam me. Christianity and Cathlolicsim in particular is about shame...where is it. Guilt...the selfish emotion of contrition is for others....not Christians.
You cannot violate the Laws of God, or the Market, or of the Jungle, you can only trespass them to your own peril.
The RCC tunred a blind eye, when they are needed the most, and yet they will ignore this enormity as an institution.
The RCC hierarchy has brought shame to the Body of Christ.
Crack a Bible, see what it has to instruct, and follow what the Bible has to say...seems a bit difficult for my Catholic Brothers....
Being a disgusting pedophile is to blame.
I would beg to differ on two grounds: first, the Catholic Church acts only through its officials, many of whom were gay themselves or sympathetic to gays. The rationale for keeping offenders in place was, they are just gay, everything will be okay.
Second, many times offenders were cleared by psychiatrists who were hired to evaluate and treat these priests. The church followed psychiatric recommendations in many instances in which abusers were kept in positions of authority.
Yes and they were very much in the closet until the ‘70s. What gave them their opportunity was the emptying of the seminaries and the defection of so many priests. Needing priests, the bishops allowed the seminaries to relax the rules and take in many candidates who in the early fifties would have been rejected. Some seminaries were so totally controled by gays that normal men were rejected. But straight men were rejected for another reason: they tended to be conventionally devout and theologically orthodox, while the gay priests were more like those that infest the Episcopalian Church, theologically liberal. One reason why confession has declined so radically is that men especially are turned off by the thought of gay priests.
The bishops bought into the psychological theory that the behavior of these guys was merely a lapse, to be treated the same way as alcoholism —a perenial scourge of the priesthood—removed from the scene, dried out and then inserted elsewhere after the psychologists had pronounced them “cured.” They couldn’t see the diabolical nature of these indiscretions.
Your Catholic brothers, and sisters, are not confused about the dangers of homosexuality and neither is the Catholic Church (see cite at post 9). The problem is (was) with the hierarchy, the bureaucratic leaders who followed the easiest path instead of the teachings of the Church. Many American Catholic Bishops have let their liberal "compassion" obscure the clear path the teachings of the Church lights for them.
Predators will also try to hide from the prey animals trying to blend in to the background.
Natural hunting grounds for pedophiles are schools and children’s organizations like Scouting and church youth groups. (YMCA, CYO)
Camouflage easy to come by is as a volunteer; scout master, instructor or if one wants to get paid and has no interest in adults at all Priest.
What does not often get much press typically is that the protestant denominations have had same sort of problems in similar numbers. But because the Catholic Church is the favorite boggy man of the Left because of its uncompromising stance on abortion and its stead fast refusal to ordain women the Catholic Priest get the most press coverage. I will also point out the Catholic victims are also favored by the Tort Lawyers because of the Catholic Church’s deep pockets.
The public schools also have the problem. They, of course, are protected by the doctrine of sovereign immunity.
I would agree on all counts.
The church’s view of these incidents was largely canonical: prayer, forgiveness, and reconciliation were all that mattered.
Criminal justice was shunned as a kind of vengeance, an expression of anger to be avoided.
In the end, they simply couldn’t practice their faith AND take the needed steps to protect children - let alone compensate those already abused.
If not for legal rulings and general public outrage, the church to this day would be protecting abusive priests, and telling victims to go pray.
“Natural hunting grounds for pedophiles are schools and children’s organizations like Scouting and church youth groups. (YMCA, CYO)” - very true.
In response, these groups, as far as my experience goes, do heavy screening now, including fingerprinting. Scouts have strongly enforced rules about “two deep” adult supervision camping, and so forth - no man is to be alone with a scout.
The church needs to do the same or similar. Then I’d believe the apology!
that’s a pretty bizarre take Steve...if true
God bless Yuri Bezmenov.
Well put. Gays were the offenders; the Catholic church was the enabler. Most people would put the lions share of the blame on the offenders.
What you have to remember is that hiding sexual abuse (especially against children) was the traditional way of handling it up until the late 1970’s.
My second grade teach molested one of my fellow students and was permitted to resign and move on with his teaching certificate intact. That was 1967.
You must also remember that the Catholic Church is like any old bureaucracy in that it is slow to change ways of doing things that has been successful for a long time with out good reason.
Transferring a Priest that has been caught violating their vow of celibacy worked for many decades if not centuries.
You can also think of Priest like any other society of professionals that police themselves (think of lawyers and Judges) they are not usually going to severely punish one of their own unless they are forced to do so.
Priest and Bishops (who are Priest don’t forget) are humans and can be expected to act like other humans in similar situations.
Those who insist that gays should be allowed to be Scoutmasters in the Boy Scouts of America always like to say that studies show that there is no correlation between homosexuality and pedophilia.
They are correct.
However, the definition of pedophilia is the sexual attraction to prepubescent children.
The sexual attraction to adolescent boys is pederasty and there has been a very strong and well known correlation between homosexuality and pederasty for thousands of years.
Please see my post 37
Not likely to happen.
Here in the Cleveland Diocese the shortage of Priest is already forcing the Bishop to make plans to have only a part time Priest in smaller parishes.
You can not have a Mass with out a Priest. So for the foreseeable future the US Catholic Church can not afford to ask any ordained Priest to resign without asking a great many thousands of Catholics to give up their local parish and drive many miles to attend Mass (this is already happening some places in the US because Churches are being sold for cash to pay for settlements against the Church).
I’m getting depressed hearing this stuff...i figured there might be a shortage
in this highly sexed world we live in....it takes a special heterosexual to give all that up
are all seminaries feeling such a crunch I wonder?
And thats the ones "they" know about or will admit to..
RAPE(in its variations) has always been way under reported...
Statutory rape may be and probably is, even worse..
Canada and Central and South America must have similar or worse statistics.. Child abuse is barely recorded in other than the United States..
bumping
I don’t know really.
But I suspect that they are.
I understand the Churches reasons for the vows of Celibacy but think the only solution to these problems is to permit Priest to wed.
Had it not been for those vows I may have been a Priest myself.
I have not read anything official but I have heard rumors that the Church will not ordain anyone over the age of forty. That to me seems short sighted given the reality the Church now faces.
It's kind of like the way some bullies are attracted to police work and nutcases to psychiatry. Good jobs often are a magnet for bad apples.
Very interesting analysis!
thread bump
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Communist Goals (1963)
Antonio Gramsci died in 1937. The list of "Communist Goals" comes from a book written by Cleon Skousen in 1963. It's not clear to me how many of these "goals" could come from Gramsci's writings if any. Obviously a lot of them don't make sense as the statements of an Italian citizen from the early 20th century. The fact that Gramsci was married and had two kids indicates that he may not have been homosexual.
Acceptance of homosexuality plus lower age of consent equals the pervert's dream. We need to weed out and expose the priests who are wolves in sheeps clothing.
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