Sexual Abuse in SOcial Context: Catholic Clergy and Other Professionals

Catholic League Website ^ | February 2004 | Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights

[Salvation]

**“Family friends and acquaintances compose the largest group of perpetrators (28 percent), followed by such relatives as uncles and cousins (18 percent), stepfathers (12 percent), male siblings (10 percent), biological fathers (10 percent), boyfriends of the child’s mother (9 percent), grandfathers and stepgrandfathers (7 percent), and strangers (4 percent).” Horn was struck by the fact that 10 percent were biological fathers and only 4 percent were strangers. “Which means,” he said, “86 percent of the perpetrators were known to the family, but were someone other than the child’s father.”[ii]**

Startling data!

[Salvation]

**3. the celibate Catholic clergy, as a group, have fewer abusers present in their ranks than other "helping professions".**

And also very revealing!

[Salvation]

**"It was reported in 1991 that 17.7 percent of males who graduated from high school, and 82.2 percent of females, reported sexual harassment by faculty or staff during their years in school. Fully 13.5 percent said they had sexual intercourse with their teacher."**

One of the reasons homeschooling is booming??

Also parochial schools with long, long waiting lists??

[Salvation]

Welcome to the Catholic Church.

[Salvation]

Catholic Discussion Ping!

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[Maeve]

Bump

[tiki]

You could be right about powerful people wanting to lessen the influence of the Church.

[Antoninus]

Bookmarked. Thank you!

[GirlShortstop]

I'm still convinced the Boston Globe spent so much ink on this to try to reduce the Church's influence in matters of morality in this state. Already the media and legislators have made statements to the effect that the Church shouldn't say anything about the homosexual marriage issue because it has no credibility.

Dead on SuziQ!  When I think of the adage "shoot the messenger" and use that as a template over top of the chain of events in Boston I am faced with a rather unsettling possible conclusion:  the shooting is happening thanks to Satan.  Why Massachusettes, of all places for the homo marriage issue, why not California, San Fran!?  hmmmmm.  
Please know that I acknowledge, and am saddened by the fact that there were victims. Thank God there were courageous individuals, who did the right thing in bringing to light the scandalous events in an effort to stop the abuse.

God's Word ALWAYS has credibility. All humans are imperfect, but Christians are called to spread God's Word to those who need to hear it.

We, the faithful, have an obligation to actively demonstrate our support for the true shepherds in The Church who bring God's Word to the upside-down in the world, to muster the courage to say "PC, smee-shee,... what GOD SAYS is wrong, is WRONG!", and of course, try and live by Christ's example.  (if I omitted something here, I'm sorry, I've gotten a little riled up)  ;-)  FReegards.

[dsc]

"You could be right about powerful people wanting to lessen the influence of the Church."

What about Satan wanting to lessen the influence of the Church?

[PFKEY]

However, this scandalous behavior is complicated by the fact that the bishops were taking the advice of the psychiatric community regarding the possibility of rehabilitating abusive priests.

Child abuse is a crime. To let these crimes go unpunished and unreported to the proper authorities is unbelievable.

If you knew a person was abusing children what would you do?

[.45MAN]

Again another insightful article that the populous will never read or know about.

The Truth is out There but one must want the knowledge, and once it is known is must be spread!

[AAABEST]

Morning bump

[sitetest]

Dear PFKEY,

When I was in grad school in the early '80s, folks were just coming to the conclusion that child molestors could not be readily cured.

It was a RECENT innovation at the time that therapists would have to report self-confessed child abusers to the authorities. I remember arguments in class where some folks argued AGAINST these new provisions of law.

There were folks who still argued that exposing the victim to the formal process of the law would further injure the victim, and that the best thing was to minimize the abuse, and move past it as quietly as possible.

A lot has happened since then. All the verities once known with assurance have been overturned, replaced by a whole new set of verities known with assurance.

Prelates like Cardinal Law, who saw the theories of the psychotherapists overthrown in reality time after time after time certainly must bear significant culpability. But most dioceses saw, typically, one case a year or so of abuser-priests, or even less. Detroit reported 60 in 50 years. For bishops who saw these things only occasionally, it's inappropriate to hold them to the standards we hold to today.


sitetest

[Aquinasfan]

Child abuse is a crime. To let these crimes go unpunished and unreported to the proper authorities is unbelievable.

Right. That was the "man bites dog" aspect of the story.

[sneakers]

LOL! Read your page. Word of advice - embrace the caffeine. I have given up fighting it and have become a much happier, satisfied person for it. If my dr. tells me to lose the caffeine, maybe I'll try. Until then, give me my FULLY LEADED cup of coffee in the morning! And, as someone said earlier - "Welcome to the Catholic Church!"

:-)

[sneakers]

"You could be right about powerful people wanting to lessen the influence of the Church."

"What about Satan wanting to lessen the influence of the Church?"

What about Satan using powerful people to lessen the influence of the Church?

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

It is the belief of the Catholic League that no meaningful conversation can take place on this issue without having some baseline data regarding the incidence of abuse that occurs outside the Catholic Church. That was the sole intent of this special report, and if it contributes to that end, then it will have been a success.

This is 100% BS and nothing more then then the Catholic Church trying to get the monkey off it's back.

I doubt you will find any denomination that doesn't have it's bad apples. But to say "without having some baseline data regarding the incidence of abuse that occurs outside the Catholic Church." is like any of us saying "I'm a good person because I'm not as bad as the guy next door"

The baseline is God's choice, and He has set it a little higher then the RCC is setting it if it's going to use this criteria to set their baseline.

This is one of the most ludicrious articles I have seen yet on this issue. I'd LOL, if it wasn't so sad.

Becky