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 ...
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).
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