Thanks, AB. I read the story this morning. Every incidence of child molestation should be reported and highlighted in order to prevent further abuse.
It just seems clear there are thousands more of these stories coming out of the RC church than from Protestant churches.
A married clergy would curtail MUCH of the demonic abuse that has gone on in the RC church.
Did you see last night's "Sins of the Father" on CNN?
"Seems" ... interesting choice of word ...
Did you see last night's "Sins of the Father" on CNN?
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away ... I learned NOT to believe anything "reported" on ABCCBSNBCCNNWashPostNYTimes. I learned to be particularly suspicious when the so-called 'reporting' tended to support my own prejudices. Whenever they report on a topic of which I have personal expert knowledge, they get it wrong. Often, they get it catastrophically wrong. Those who continue to believe them do so at their own peril.
Meanwhile, I hold out the hope that others will similarly wake up and see the lies. Bees sting. Skunks stink. MSM reporters lie. It's just the nature of the beast.
I have no wish to join in with the 'rasslin' match you and AB have going on.
Yes, it does "seem" clear.
But most of what the MSM has highlighted since 2002 is an aggregate of offenses that have taken place over the last 50 years or more. Anyone that was paying attention to the Catholic media since the mid-80's knew there was trouble brewin'. They were pointing out individual incidents here and there but nobody started to add up the numbers until later.
Seemingly, the only dispassionate academic look at the subject is by a non-Catholic, Professor Philip Jenkins of Penn State. He was working on this long before the MSM got hold of it. I'd guess they probably poached off his work since (the citations indicate) he published in 2001 and things exploded in 2002 in the MSM. This is a portion of an article (poorly written; they must use the same proofreader I use) at Answers.com:
Prof. Philip Jenkins, Professor of History and Religious Studies at Penn State University, published the book Pedophiles and Priests: Anatomy of a Contemporary Crisis in 1996. In it, he calculated that approximates 0.2 percent of Catholic priests are child molesters.[16] His 2002 article "The myth of the 'pedophile priest'"[9] expresses his views. In contrast to Louise Haggett's statement, Professor Jenkins states:
"My research of cases over the past 20 years indicates no evidence whatever that Catholic or other celibate clergy are any more likely to be involved in misconduct or abuse than clergy of any other denomination -- or indeed, than nonclergy. However determined news media may be to see this affair as a crisis of celibacy, the charge is just unsupported."
Media hype explanation
Some —including non-Catholic academics such as Philip Jenkins—have observed that the Catholic Church is being unfairly singled out by a secular media which they say fails to highlight similar sexual scandals in other religious groups, such as the Anglican Communion, various Protestant churches, and the Jewish and Islamic communities. In particular the Catholic Church may have a lower incidence of molesting priests than Churches that allow married clergy. Statistically child molestation occurs within families but Catholic priests do not have families. Similarly, the term "pedophile priests," widely used in the media, implies a distinctly higher rate of child molesters within the Roman Catholic priesthood when in reality the incidence is lower than most other segments of society"[17].
In response it has been said that irrespective of disproportionate attention lavished upon Catholic priests by the media or misrepresentations that molesting priests were involved, the media did not conjure up the examples of law breaking priests and dangerously incompetent bishops.
16 ^ Philip Jenkins, Pedophiles and Priests: Anatomy of a Contemporary Crisis (Oxford University Press, 2001). p81
9 (? Unsure if they are citing correctly) ^ George Weigel, The Courage To Be Catholic (Basic Books, 2002). ISBN 0-465-09261-6 Page 61
17 ^ Philip Jenkins, Pedophiles and Priests: Anatomy of a Contemporary Crisis (Oxford University Press, 2001). ISBN 0-19-514597-6