Posted on 08/16/2018 9:46:36 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
This week a grand jury reported on documents from six Catholic Church dioceses in Pennsylvania that revealed 300 “predator priests” have been accused of sexually abusing over 1,000 children.
The grand jury report states: “We believe that the real number – of children whose records were lost, or who were afraid ever to come forward – is in the thousands. Most of the victims were boys; but there were girls too. Some were teens; many were prepubescent… But all of them were brushed aside, in every part of the state, by church leaders who preferred to protect the abusers and their institution above all.”
This report has sent shock waves through the world, akin to the 2002 Boston Globe report on a priest accused of molesting more than 80 boys who was shielded by the Catholic Church.
The grand jury rightly stated: “There have been other reports about child sex abuse within the Catholic Church. But never on this scale.”
The Catholic Church is not alone. Many churches and religious institutions have been accused of perpetuating sexual abuse, to various degrees.
In Evangelical Christian church circles, amidst the #MeToo movement, high-profile leaders have been accused of sexual assault. Leaders like Paige Patterson, the president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, was forced to retire after it was reported that he told a rape victim to forgive her attacker instead of calling the police.
Further, in 2017 an assistant pastor at Agape Bible Church in Thornton, Colo., got 13 years in prison for sexually assaulting a young girl repeatedly for 2 years. The police discovered that church leaders and the girl’s father decided to not contact the police and to simply handle the matter “internally.”
In the Mormon church, there have also been scandals, such as the recent case of Joseph L. Bishop, a retired president of the Provo Missionary Training Center, who admitted to molesting at least one female missionary. News reports state that the victim reported the incident to her local bishop, but that the local bishop ignored it because he “wasn’t going to risk sullying the reputation of someone based on that kind of a report.”
In 2017, six Mormon families tried to sue the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for allegedly covering up child sexual abuse by a church member of children as young as 4 and 6 years old. And another suit against the Mormon church claims “Native American children were sexually abused while enrolled in the church’s Indian Student Placement Program.”
There have been accusations of sexual abuse amongst Orthodox Jewish Rabbis, international Buddhist leaders, Muslim pilgrimages, and more.
The list could go on and on.
The hierarchical structures, theology, and policies vary wildly between these different institutions, and so likely will their collective responses and solutions. Each institution will handle allegations of abuse differently – but there can be no doubt that heightened media attention surrounding these issues is socially beneficial for putting churches of all faiths in the hot seat to update and enforce vigorous measures for effective, correct justice in light of abuse.
Many people are asking: why does sexual abuse happen in churches? The heartbreaking reality is wherever there are people – especially when some have greater power or authority than others or where an institution desires self-preservation – there is the possibility of sexual abuse. Sometimes the power differential is in the boardroom at work. Sometimes the institution seeking self-preservation is a Hollywood production company.
And sometimes, the scene of sexual abuse is the church.
If you are a member of a faith community, inquire with your church about the policies and procedures for reporting sexual harassment or abuse. Clarify if leaders are ever left alone with children, at what point after receiving a report the church would call the police, and talk to both fellow members and leadership about ways these policies and more could be improved. Consider asking them to adopt Keeping Children Safe’s international child protection standard, which has been adopted in more than 4,000 organizations worldwide. Ask the church to post this information publicly as well.
Let’s strive for churches to become places of reform, healing, and justice.
-- Haley Halverson (@HaleyCHalverson) is Vice President of Advocacy and Outreach at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
There was a belief that as long as you were a "celibate" sodomite that it was ok for you to be allowed to be a priest.
It was just the action that was sinful.
The problem is that the mind set leads to the sin.
I’m sure they will get over it.
How does this compare to, say, the Los Angeles School District?
“There was a belief that as long as you were a “celibate” sodomite that it was ok for you to be allowed to be a priest.”
The Lavender Mafia did spread that, but it was never part of the Catholic Church. Not canon law, not the Catechism, not dogma, not Scripture. Just part of the attack.
Are you? What does eternity mean to you?
Sorry if I misunderstood you.
It means a long time without pervert priests, mkay.
OK...so tell me. What other church has a largely gay, male unmarried clergy that rapes young boys in anything close to the numbers seen in the catholic church? What other church refuses to turn those offenders over to secular authorities?
The 300 priests mentioned in the PA grand jury's report are just the tip of the ice berg.
So we have less? That makes it better?
Its not a scene of abuse. What a silly thing to call it.
It’s a crime scene.
If the church understood that. If the police treated it that way. If the parishioners knew...the problem would have been a 1 and done.
Yes it is unfortunately, if they're not participating in the actual behavior they certainly know those who do. It is not a secret the Priesthood attracts predators of all kinds of perverted behaviors... because of the protections the leaderships is well known to offer such ones.
The Catholic Church IS alone in condoning the acts, transferring the perps, and covering up the mess.
Name another international organization that has had this type of action and they have NOT cooperated with the police and parents, and where they transferred Senior Managers to Rome (Cardinal Law) to avoid prosecution.
Name another organization where there were 99 pedos in the confined boundaries of a US city who were protected by this organization.
I would be interested in hearing these stories about repeated high level coverups.
No, you are saying—over and over that this happens everywhere. We are asking you to tell us where, and how it was systematically covered up AT THIS RATE or to this degree.
I understand defending your institutions. I understand not every priest is a perv. I just don’t understand why the hierarchy of the church continues to hide and obfuscate.
THAT is what has most people angry and disappointed. Your endless defense and deflection simply confounds people and appears that you have your eyes closed, hands on your early and singing la, la,la.
This crap was going on in the late sixties and early 70’s literally at the end of my street. The priest that molested my friends was moved to another parish. He molested kids there.
Then he was moved to another part of the country. Where he molested boys. Then they moved him back here. This time he got caught red handed.
It was around this time, when my friend was supposedly away for a retreat weekend, the 12 year old boy was found bludgeoned to death under a bridge. All leads went to the priest, but all physical evidence washed away and he DA swept it away. The DA was very close to the Bishop.
So, talking about this stuff in the context of “today” is about 40 years too late.
To any reasonable person, it is difficult to dream that the Bishops and Cardinals did not know about this. They knew. They ALL knew. What was the directive that was so strong that it kept the good men from going to the police?
This has nothing to do with current acceptance of homos. The RC Church has been run by homos for a long time.
You are serious?
How many is enough. How many homo rapists are OK per diocese? Why were they not turned over to the police? Why were they moved around?
If we were talking about 4 in a state, I imagine that might fall into “normal distribution.” If we were talking about a few arrests over 40 years, that could be explained away.
These people were monsters. And they were protected by an organized conspiracy.
You cannot seriously believe this is ALL anti catholic bigotry?
But they were passed from one place to another. They were not stopped. Why not?
Why are they above the law? It’s not the failure of men and their desires, it’s the failure of management to not stop it—and thus allow it to happen more and more.
THAT is the failure of the RC Church that is the most horrific part of this.
No. You tell me. I have made my opinion known. Your turn.
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