Posted on 05/25/2002 1:00:44 PM PDT by EggsAckley
16 Priests Have Committed Suicide CLEVELAND (AP) - At least 16 Catholic priests accused of sexually abusing children, including 12 priests in the United States, have killed themselves since 1986, a newspaper reported Saturday.
The numbers were found in an investigation by the Plain Dealer after the suicide April 4 of the Rev. Don Rooney, a priest in the Cleveland Roman Catholic Diocese who faced allegations that he sexually abused a child.
Suicide is rare among priests and is considered a sin by the church, though in modern times, the church has expressed more understanding for mental distress.
The Rev. Stephen J. Rossetti, director of the St. Luke Institute in Silver Spring, Md., a treatment center for abusive priests, recently sent an e-mail to every U.S. bishop urging care in investigations involving priests and saying he feared more priests would kill themselves as additional accusations were made.
After the e-mail was sent, a priest accused of molesting two boys in Connecticut hanged himself at the center, where he was being treated. It was the first suicide at the institution in its 25-year-history.
``Imagine you're a priest,'' said Kalman Kaplan, a psychology professor at Wayne State University in Detroit who studies suicide. ``People see you as a teacher, an educator, someone carrying on the moral tradition from one generation to the next. Now it's being publicly exposed that you have abused children.
``Where do you go from here? Your whole identity is shattered. The shame can be overwhelming, the options few.''
After Rooney killed himself, Cleveland Bishop Anthony Pilla preached a message of forgiveness at Rooney's funeral Mass.
``The meaning of Father Rooney's death is hidden from our eyes,'' Pilla said. ``Yet, we cannot conclude that his life and death had no meaning or were rejected by God.''
A fitting end, and it saves us the cost and hassle of prosecuting these degenerates. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.
Naturally, something to be considered prior to one's action(s), eh?
Although seeing how the RCC views suicide?
I'm skeptical these people were doing what they were for the right reasons, anyway.
Having said that?
Who's to say these 16 "priests" -- one per year since 1986 -- were not people suffering various degrees of mental illness which would account for at least some of these suicides?
Aside from the mental illness a.ka, Pedophilia?
Consider the source of this story, The Associated Press.
...& then consider their position on religion (of any kind) & pro-homosexual agenda, eh?
Very possible that there were other emotional/mental factors involved. The press is playing this issue up as if it is something new, but these allegations have been out there, to the best of my memory, since the '70's. Somehow they always WENT AWAY.
One does have to wonder why it has now become such a huge scandal--did the house of cards tumble under it's own weight, or is there another agenda?
BTW, I am not in any way trying to absolve or excuse those clerics of responsibility for their heinous behavior. IMO there is no punishment extreme enough for those who abuse children.
You cannot, and you should not. Neither you, nor any of the other rednecks on this disgusting thread, can see into the hearts and minds of other men, nor do you know how God deals with them.
It never ceases to amaze me how many cretins on this forum can delight in the possible eternal damnation of another human being.
Instead of praying for them, you're dancing on their graves.
Pitiful.
The chancery bureaucrats,the contracted catechists and the ruling clique of priests espouse the social gospel,marxism,Jesus was a man,homosexuality is a "gift from god",communion is supper with us "friends" of Jesus,there is no sin except judgementalism,the Pope is a bishop just like our own bishop,we are all priests and women have been suppressed,all join forces to make the lives of good Catholic priests unbearable. Isolation,transfers and reprogamming sabbaticals are all techniques used to discourage orthodox Catholic priests. I have said it before on these threads and I will say it again,we are afraid to speak their name out loud for fear of getting them sent off to "school".
As I said in the beginning of this post,we cannot be sure that it was their involvement in "abuse" that caused them to kill themselves,it could have been a despair and confusion caused by the machinations of the "topsy-turvy"teachings presented as Catholic in the diocese they were in. Not that suicide is ever right but it may be caused by constant battering from the enemy,both here and the supernatural one.
What judgement ye mete . . .
Best be careful how we judge others, even on an internet forum. Judge the actions, possibly, but not the persons.
Now I'd better listen to myself.
What a great question and what do you think? What does anybody think about that important question?
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