Posted on 04/09/2010 6:16:37 AM PDT by NYer
The Catholic sex-abuse stories emerging every day suggest that Catholics have a much bigger problem with child molestation than other denominations and the general population. Many point to peculiarities of the Catholic Church (its celibacy rules for priests, its insular hierarchy, its exclusion of women) to infer that there's something particularly pernicious about Catholic clerics that predisposes them to these horrific acts. It's no wonder that, back in 2002—when the last Catholic sex-abuse scandal was making headlines—a Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll found that 64 percent of those queried thought Catholic priests "frequently'' abused children.
Yet experts say there's simply no data to support the claim at all. No formal comparative study has ever broken down child sexual abuse by denomination, and only the Catholic Church has released detailed data about its own. But based on the surveys and studies conducted by different denominations over the past 30 years, experts who study child abuse say they see little reason to conclude that sexual abuse is mostly a Catholic issue. "We don't see the Catholic Church as a hotbed of this or a place that has a bigger problem than anyone else," said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "I can tell you without hesitation that we have seen cases in many religious settings, from traveling evangelists to mainstream ministers to rabbis and others."
Since the mid-1980s, insurance companies have offered sexual misconduct coverage as a rider on liability insurance, and their own studies indicate that Catholic churches are not higher risk than other congregations. Insurance companies that cover all denominations, such as Guide One Center for Risk Management, with more than 40,000 church clients, does not charge Catholic churches higher premiums.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
I pray and I expect it will be harder to hide from now on.
See post #10.
My pet theory has always been that Catholic mothers, who can surely sense when they have a son who does not seem interested in girls, push these boys into the priesthood with the hope that it will protect them from falling into the gay lifestyle. Of course, not being interested in girls does not automatically make you a pedophile, but once you are a Priest, your are not exactly in a position to meet people and have sex in any manner that resembles a normal way, even for homosexuals. It is the only outlet left to them. Just a theory, and I don't mean to offend or judge, but it does explain why little boys make up the overwhelming majority of victims in these cases.
I am a Christian and I was molested by a priest.
We don’t need a circular firing squad among Christian denominations, but we also don’t need the Catholics’ official, covered-up, hair-splitting, nuanced, secretive, illegal, conspiratorial response to creditable accusation of past child molestations, either. We don’t need to shuffle and hide the guilty priests in some kind of round-robin rotation.
Well if we’re going to make comparisons, I’ll say that it hush hush coverups never happen in my church.
1- there is no extra church leadership to do the cover-up so
2- abusers are no longer ministers once discovered. period. They do not get reassigned, they get fired. Every time.
Best case scenario is that it’s a firing on the down low with no explanation, but it’s still a firing.
Of course, your site does nothing for people like me that abhor sexual abuse from any clergy irrespective of denomination.
If it makes Catholics feel better that their clergy molests at no greater rate than any other denomination, and indeed the general population at large, then great.
If Catholics are no worse than other denominations, then you can not claim to be any better with a straight face, can you?
It sort of makes a further farce of Christianity beyond the tragedy of the molestation itself.
“Go to church XYZ - NOW with 30% fewer reported molestations than those other guys” hardly seems like an effective line for spreading the Gospel.
“When some guy says he was abused 30 years ago by a priest...
The media scream bloody murder and ONCE AGAIN attack the Church.”
Is it your position that the accuser is not telling the truth?
As I pointed out on another thread, it seems to me that the “religion” that in its own Koran as well in its practices promotes and indulges in official child molestation should be the main target of these accusations.
I wonder if there will be story after story about Muslim atrocities against little boys and little “married” girls right around “Ramadan.”
My understanding is that single men are not usually allowed in nudists resorts. Something to consider.
Let’s all learn a new word - ephebophilia — sex with post-pubescent young people, almost always males — priests are rarely guilty of pedophilia except in the subset - ephebophilia -
Which may point to a dominant “gay subculture“ in the celibate Catholic Priesthood, which just might be a good argument for the return to active ministry of heterosexual married priests.
LOL -— I have no plans!
Public schools are much better.
Say, who did that?
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