Posted on 04/05/2002 8:45:54 PM PST by Brian Kopp DPM
Crisis has done a good job following this story.
One troubling fact about priestly pedophilia - that ranking
members of the hierarchy continued to shuffle offending clergy
from parish to parish even after paying out high-end settlements.
One might have thought the insurance risk alone would have clued them in.
I think it's good all this is coming out ---I know a lot of Catholics who aren't giving the Church any more money until this gets cleaned up, including myself ---except the local parish for electricity etc. The bishops will learn that the gay priests must be gone, the Church has had to clean up it's act in the past and survived. Then we need to clean up the rest of society from the gays ----it's hardly only gay priests who are preying on boys, it's the teachers, scout leaders, Hollywood, Congress.... It's time we all understand that gays and kids aren't a good mix.
Wow! Such a comprehensive rebuttal...then again blanket denials is the modus operandi of those defending the indefensible
Actually, Dr. Kopps article contained a more reasoned and factual approach to the topic than your rebuttal. Therefore, I would say his positions are more defensible than yours.
I know of many heterosexual men who wanted to enter the priesthood and were willing to forgo a wife and kids who could not make it through the seminary because they were deemed TOO conservative. Most of these men then did not pursue becoming a priest. A handful of them either entered a more conservative diocesean seminary or entered a conservative order. The priesthood is not a job that you might find on a job board some where. The priesthood is a dedicated calling which requires the Church to come first, not after the wife and kids, not after soccer, not after deer hunting season.
This also facilitates a pile on of phony claims to be mixed in with the real ones.
Some of this problem is that the hierarchy of the church trusted psychologists to counsel these sexual predators back to a healthy mind. That trust in the science of psychology is also what has the church in this position. As I said earlier, this speaks volumes about the lack of effectiveness of the science of psychology to help people with mental problems. Much of what they do is NOTHING.
They opted out of the SS system for priests in America as well and those priests have to now work until 80+ and have no retirement.
This homosexuality issue isn't the first issue the church blundered!
In the end this will work out for the best. The Church will realize that homosexuality is not normal, and it cannot have these kind of men near children. Also like you said ---modern psychology and liberalism does not work. It's an expensive lesson but long overdue ---a cleaned up Church (and now it has no choice) will be a much better church.
I also hope the lawsuits will be something that catches on and spreads to secular institutions so that schools and everything else will be held accountable for having lax standards and allowing homosexuals access to the kids. It's a serious problem, kids' are ruined by these homosexual recruiters and finally the media is helping to make that clear. Inadvertantly because what it wants is to destroy the Church but the message is clear anyhow that these men are predators whether they'd be priests or something else.
Me too. Catholics have a lot to be proud of right now. People are standing up and not making excuses. A breath of fresh air in America. The ADL, the NAACP, GLAAD, GLSEN and the entire Democratic Party never do that. The Catholic League does, the League is out everyday making no excuses and calling for action.
The Church will no doubt emerge stronger than ever because of the principled stand rank and file Catholics are taking right now.
I also agree that a liberal attitute on this issue has hurt the church.
The lawsuits will not be something that catches on and spreads to secular institutions because it is only NOT bigotry if you attack Christians in this country. Others will play the tollerance card at you in court and there are enough OJ jurors to buy it. Unless you can PROVE without a doubt that they attacked a victim.
Your ideals that the same rules the Church suffers by will spread to the public sector is a PIPE DREAM! But one can always dream.
Ah. There's your real agenda. Fascinating.
Then you won't have any problem with the "Heavenly Catholic Church," will you?
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