Posted on 01/18/2014 8:57:41 PM PST by narses
Last week, I suggested that having comprehensively and repeatedly apologised for the small number of priests who have in some way sexually abused children and young people, it was time we moved on to the offensive against those who (often with an undeclared anti-Catholic agenda) continually assert that the Church is in some way particularly prone to this disgusting crime. I referred to a Newsweek article which said that “priests seem to abuse children at the same rate as everyone else”.
The fact is, however, that not only is the Catholic Church NOT an endemically paedophile organisation, the evidence is now emerging that, in fact, even Newsweek is exaggerating: it’s not that “priests… abuse children at the same rate as everyone else”: actually, according to Dr Thomas Plante of Stanford University and Santa Clara University, “available research suggests that approximately two to five per cent of priests have had a sexual experience with a minor” which “is lower than the general adult male population” – in which the percentage of those who have interfered with minors “is best estimated to be closer to eight per cent”. In other words, children who have anything to do with priests are between 1.6 and four times LESS likely to be abused by them than by anyone else.
“When,” asks the blog La Salette Journey, giving these and other details, “will the media acknowledge that the sexual abuse of children is not a ‘Catholic problem’?” The fact is, suggests the writer, Paul Anthony Melanson, that “the media are not so much concerned with the welfare of children as they are with unfairly portraying the abuse of children as a ‘crisis in the Church’ ”. For example, the state school system in the US has a considerably higher rate of sexual abuse than the Catholic Church: according to a report prepared for the US Department of Education entitled Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature, “9.6 per cent of all students in grades 8 to 11 report… educator sexual misconduct that was unwanted.” This report has been virtually ignored by the media.
But the penny is just beginning to drop. An article by Jim Dwyer in the New York Times reported (April 27) that the New York State legislature is now addressing the fact that child abuse is not only a problem for the Church, but for the whole of society. “Should it be possible,” asks Dwyer “… to sue the city of New York for sexual abuse by public school teachers that happened decades ago? How about doctors or hospital attendants? Police officers? Welfare workers? Playground attendants? … To date, New York City has been publicly silent…. but sees the possibility of enormous expenses.”
Well, join the club, New York City. As Dwyer’s article points out: “Since 2004, Catholic dioceses nationwide have paid $1.4bn to settle claims of abuse, many from acts from the 1970s or earlier… Yet [he continues] there is little evidence to show there is more sexual abuse among Catholic priests than among clergy from other denominations, or, for that matter, among people from other walks of life.”
That’s the bottom line. This is a problem we share with everyone, though actually we are less guilty of it than society as a whole and are doing a lot better in acknowledging such child abuse as does exist. We need to get that, and the evidence for it, firmly into our heads. We have a battle ahead: we all need to be prepared for it.
Just so sick and depraved.
http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2014/01/victims_reps_say_400_defrocked_priests_tip_of_iceberg
Wow now a thread on comparing the Roman Catholic church to secular institutions.
“Join our ranks, we are not as bad.”
When one compares their organization to a barrel of manure and says their barrel has less, what are you still left with? Still a barrel with manure.
Are you saying priest abuse cases were all fabricated and a giant conspiracy theory? Just ask any faculty member at Stepinac HS in NY that question.
Indeed the hush money settlements and shuffling the deck by moving pedophile and pederast priests around shows complicity.
It is a matter of using the authority which comes with being a priest as well.
Welcome to the RC ‘re-education’ camp.
(from this article: http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2014/01/victims_reps_say_400_defrocked_priests_tip_of_iceberg) ................... and look at the very disturbing wording of the ‘fact’ you posted:
FACT: You would never know it from the media’s lurid and obsessive coverage, but the vast bulk of reported cases of abuse stem only from a historical anomaly, as most allegations occurred during only a small sliver of time during the Sexual Revolution from the 1960s to the early 1980s. And despite media suggestions of dark conspiracies and cover-ups, the Church – like every other institution at the time – simply followed the then-prevailing view of experts in the field that offenders could be successfully rehabilitated and sent accused priests off for treatment, rather than reporting them to police, which resulted in a temporary spike in recidivism.
Was saying this took place during the sexual revolution supposed to make it less disturbing? Just how many blind apologists for this evil phenomenon are out there?
BINGO.
Exactly. The “one true and only holy” church displayed on the pages of FR daily should lead us to 0% incidents of clergy sodomite abuse.
Exactly.
Anytime you abuse authority (in this case influence over young parishoners) and go on to hide the effects....
I recall a Scripture concerning a millstone...
“I’m trying to point out that teachers have nothing do with Catholic Priests, how did that even get started?”
Where have you been:) The popery propaganda press is hard at work employing the tactics of the Holocaust deniers. We are now to believe all these sex abuse cases did not really happen and people made accusations to get the gold inlaid church to pay hush money. Of course this tactic is called smearing the victim.
Those rules you allude to had to be put in place for obvious reasons. All any church has to refer to is 1 Corinthians 5 to know how to handle child rapists.
I never have thought that the Catholic church is the only organization with child abuse issues. I’ve thought that it is a large organization that uses it’s bureaucracy to conceal the actions of those who molest children and that other large organizations do so also compared with smaller churches that simply can’t transfer their pedo’s out of the country or to other parts of the nation as easily.
But I don’t see celebrating the 8% versus 3-5% because I believe the 8% of the general male population tends toward a majority of female victims along with males and the priests are more likely to focus on males which are molested at lower rates than girls anyway. So I am saying it’s an apples to oranges comparison - not one I’d wave as proof etc.
Original article posted Monday, 9 August 2010. Recycling old news?
I’m trying to point out that teachers have nothing do with Catholic Priests, how did that even get started?Teachers are people. Catholic Priests are people.
Which is not the same as saying that 9.6 % of all teachers engage in sexual misconduct.
A muddying of the waters with that stat. it is irrelevant to the issue at hand, which is the fact that when allegations of abuse came up, the Church handled it wrong until forced to by the victims going public with it and the church having its hand forced by the bad publicity.
All that tells anyone is that if the secular world did not put pressure on the church to do the right thing, it would still be going on.
What is unconscionable is that these priests took vows of celibacy and deliberately flaunted them, and the ones who knew about it turned a blind eye to it, leaving those men free to destroy yet more lives.
There is simply no integrity among those who take the high moral ground and have lifted up their eucharist with those same hands, as if they were holy, that molested boys and girls.
Fine. Start posting threads about all the sexual abuse of minors by Protestant clergy who were shuffled around and protected by their denominations when it was revealed and ping us when you do.
We'll wait.
“just read an article on Drudge about a nun who got pregnant, had a baby, and named it after the Pope! Things that make you wonder what is going on....”
I’m thinking that what we need is a pic of that nun. Just saying... :)
What is not mentioned is virtually ALL these guys are homosexual. where is the outcry that massive number of homosexuals are abusing BOYS.
we dont seem to have a problem with nuns.
the headline should be boys being raped by homosexuals who happen to be priest.
they infested the priesthood. easy access to young boys.
the church is guilty of looking the other way.
Some protestant ministers support homosexual unions, some have stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some pseudo christians come on these threads to say stupid things, over and over with no proof.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.