I was a twelve year old kid in Springfield MA in 1972. I knew what was going on. All of my friends knew what was going on.
Several of them got raped. They told their parent. They told the cops. They told the teachers.
No one did anything because the Bishop ran half the schools. The Bishop controlled the DA, and the cops. My friends were told by the church that they would go to Hell. And not today’s hell...old school Catholic scary hell.
So, if you ask me who failed, it was the entire culture in a predominately catholic community. It was the power that this religious cult had over its parishioners. It was the power to damn people to hell—and back in those days people took that stuff seriously.
I knew the feeling when I was twelve. I thought it had gone away until I “felt” it again with our new Parish Priest. The first time I shook his hand and looked into his eyes I saw the evil that had been familiar to me.
Six weeks later, the parish uncovered several complaints about his past. The parish—the richest one west of Boston, kicked him out. We had the money to tell the Bishop what to do.
The Priest “retired” to the Cape with his fag boyfriend.
Those are the people who are to blame. The Bishops and Cardinals passed these predators around. They did not want to turn on someone of their brotherhood. Their bonds with their evil brothers were greater than the lives of these kids.
“No one did anything because the Bishop ran half the schools. The Bishop controlled the DA, and the cops.”
There you go. Who was there who had the power to stand against that? And when I say power, I include knowledge and awareness.
The bishop enforced omerta. You’d have had no more success fighting that than a single speakeasy owner would have had taking on Al Capone.
I’ll tell you who else the bishop had influence with—the media. They had it locked up, and it wasn’t until Satan ordered the media to blow it wide open that there was any chance of exposing it.
“It was the power that this religious cult had over its parishioners.”
I don’t expect to have much success arguing this point with you, but the fault lies not with Catholicism.
Do you think a *faithful* Catholic priest would have abused his power in this way? The men of whom you speak were Catholic in no way. They were agents of evil, out to harm the Church and the faithful.
Those men did terrible things, but perhaps worst of all, they blamed it on the Church. They did Satan’s will, and people say, “Oh, look what the Catholic Church has done.”
“They did not want to turn on someone of their brotherhood. Their bonds with their evil brothers were greater than the lives of these kids.”
You started your post by telling us exactly why nothing could be done. Even if someone had tried to blow the whistle, the bishop and the Lavender Mafia would have destroyed them.
Only a man of the stature of Billy Graham in his prime could have begun to expose the Lavender Mafia, but what would the evilstream misleadia have said if he had tried?
When people are saying that “the Church” should have done something, what they’re really saying is that people who lacked the ability to achieve anything should have martyred themselves in a futile effort.
But maybe you’re right. Only God knows, IMO, but perhaps every priest had a duty to destroy himself in a failed effort to expose this. Perhaps every parent had a duty to suffer excommunication and persecution by employers and authorities.
Perhaps...Dexter? But no, intrinsically evil means are always prohibited.
At my age I am not too prone to hold people to standards so high that they result in destruction. How many of us are really called to martyrdom?
Then the DA belongs in prison, too. There's an infinite amount of venom available for the church, but next to none for the government officials who didn't do their jobs. Why is that?
The DA is there to prosecute lawbreakers, not protect his friends.