Posted on 03/26/2010 5:32:30 PM PDT by Biggirl
And I’m not Father Z either. Nice try though. ;)
Why was it so low in Jan. isn't this a breaking scandal?
Why weren't these criminals turned into the police?
From JAIL or PRISON!
We are talking about CRIMES that harm the victim for the rest of their life. The knee jerk defense of their church ignores the one fact that won't go away. Crimes were committed and the perpetrators were not turned over to the authorities.
"I'm Not Jesus" is a song by the band Apocalyptica - it thematizes sexual abuse through priests. It's from the perspective of a man who was abused by a priest when he was a youth and now confronts his torturer. Great song - a fav on my iPod.
You wrote:
“Why weren’t these criminals turned into the police?”
Enforcing civil laws is not the role of the Church. Even the civil authorities know this and that’s why not a single bishop has been charged with a crime in that regard in all of those cases. I know there were newspaper stories that said police were notified and chose to do nothing in some cases. Any victim can go to the police.
You wrote:
“and strict exclusion policies were enacted to keep homos about of the priesthood.”
Already exist. At least since 1962.
You wrote:
“This is coming as quite a shock to many of the southern Germans.”
The faith and knowledge of Southern German Catholics stinks these days and has for decades. Anything, whether true or not, damages their faith because it is so weak. Quite frankly in Germany the faith is only cultural. I’ve been there many times and literally know dozens of people there. Almost no one takes the faith seriously. They all say they’re Catholics, but they do not attend Mass, all of them co-habitate before marriage, all of them have kids out of wedlock, think there’s nothing wrong with same sex marriage, pronography, etc. They’re just not Christians in their thoughts, attitudes, actions, beliefs or practices.
What liberal, terribly sinful people who pretend (on occasion) to be Catholics think about the pope simply doesn’t matter. The faith in most of Europe has been dead for decades!
There is something to these reports, and saying it is all the media gunning for the Pope is putting on blinders. Yes they are, but that doesn’t mean the reports are all made up.
Thanks for being to the point.
The cover up is what makes this worse and it's bad enough to begin with. It really is a big difference between our churches. We call the authorities immediately.
You wrote:
“I’ll take a blubbering Jimmy Swaggart, on his knees and in tears, admitting his failure and sin any day, over arrogant denials and attempts to paint everyone else as being just as sinful in order to protect a particular church.”
Yeah. . . except there’s no reason to believe Jimmy’s blubbering was anything other than a put on job. That’s what the Assembly of God thoght! He was trying desperately to save his “particular church”. He was faking it. That was in 1988. You apparently forgot that he was again caught with a prostitute in 1991. This time - already booted out of his sect by the governing board and on his own - he refused to apologize and said to his congregation, “The Lord told me it’s flat none of your business.” http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,974120,00.html
You apparently have no idea of what you’re talking about.
You wrote:
“We call the authorities immediately.”
Some Protestants do. Some Protestants don’t.
I wonder if St. Paul turned people into the police.
You wrote:
“The problem is that many here on FR assume that any allegations of abuse are false and are only an attack.”
That’s a flat out lie. I have not seen anyonehere question the allegations of sexual abuse in question. What people are questioning is how on earth someone could say these allegations of sexual abuse some how mean Pope Benedict (who is not accused of sexual abuse by ANYONE) could be in the wrong. The press has deliberately DISTORTED what is known about the case at hand. That’s what Freepers are complaining about: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2480925/posts
I dont know why pedaphiles in any sector of life back then did not go to jail.
In some of these cases being wrongly portrayed by the MSM you can go to Zenit.com (maybe net) and get the truth to each and every case.
Al Capone pretty much figured the same way...
And that means what?
So, PP12, your page says you "accept every council up to Vatican II". Is that exclusive or inclusive ... ;-)
Just for the record, I am not Fr. Z either, although I am now only 2 degrees removed since I discovered the other day that my confessor had been mentioned by name on his blog.
In the Wisconsin case, apparently the victims went to the police (not clear if it was while the abuse was ongoing or long afterwards), and the police wouldn't do anything about it.
You may (or may not) recall that one of my favorite bishops, Bp. Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska, told parents in his diocese outright, [paraphrasing] "if any of my priests does anything like this, go straight to the police, get them put in jail, and then come to me".
As far as the church going to police, there are cases where she can't (because it becomes known in the confessional, for example). If the victim won't cooperate, it's probably not going to accomplish much. Victims and their parents should be taking it to the police, before even bringing to the bishop's attention, IMO.
You'd prefer to have the Catholic Church enforcing civil laws? Putting people in prison, etc.?
Whoda thunk it?
You won't get any argument from me. It is a crime of the worse order. The damage can not be fixed. The cover up of criminal acts only makes something already bad worse.
That probably makes you as mad as I am about the whole thing.
You may (or may not) recall that one of my favorite bishops, Bp. Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska, told parents in his diocese outright, [paraphrasing] "if any of my priests does anything like this, go straight to the police, get them put in jail, and then come to me".
Good for him. I wasn't aware of that.
As far as the church going to police, there are cases where she can't (because it becomes known in the confessional, for example). If the victim won't cooperate, it's probably not going to accomplish much. Victims and their parents should be taking it to the police, before even bringing to the bishop's attention, IMO.
The confessional does explain some of the cases, but wouldn't the priest tell the criminal for his confession to be true he needs to turn himself in?
I agree that victims need to go right to the police.
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