Posted on 07/16/2007 9:50:41 PM PDT by BigJohn44
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay over $600 million to settle claims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in that diocese. This is the latest in a string of multi-million dollar payouts by Catholic diocese throughout the country.
Perhaps it is time to take another look at the most comprehensive study of Catholic priest sexual abuse ever conducted. In 2002, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops commissioned a national study of sexual abuse by Catholic priests.
The study, conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, found that nationwide, approximately 4400 Catholic priests were credibly accused of sexual abuse incidents occurring between 1950 and 2002, and that 81 percent of their victims were male. Some 78 percent of the males allegedly abused were adolescent males between the ages of 11 and 17.
Pertinent excerpts of the executive summary of the John Jay study are quoted below. See http://www.usccb.org/nrb/johnjaystudy/exec.pdf
-------------------
The information contained in this report is based upon surveys provided by 195 dioceses, representing 98% all diocesan priests in the United States, and 140 religious communities, representing approximately 60% of religious communities and 80% of all religious priests.
* * *
The mandate for the study was to: 1. Examine the number and nature of allegations of sexual abuse of minors under the age of 18 by Catholic priests between 1950 and 2002.
* * *
The total number of priests with allegations of abuse in our survey is 4,392.
* * *
The largest group of alleged victims (50.9%) was between the ages of 11 and 14, 27.3% were 15-17 . . . . Overall, 81% of victims were male . . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at usccb.org ...
I’m getting depressed hearing this stuff...i figured there might be a shortage
in this highly sexed world we live in....it takes a special heterosexual to give all that up
are all seminaries feeling such a crunch I wonder?
And thats the ones "they" know about or will admit to..
RAPE(in its variations) has always been way under reported...
Statutory rape may be and probably is, even worse..
Canada and Central and South America must have similar or worse statistics.. Child abuse is barely recorded in other than the United States..
bumping
I don’t know really.
But I suspect that they are.
I understand the Churches reasons for the vows of Celibacy but think the only solution to these problems is to permit Priest to wed.
Had it not been for those vows I may have been a Priest myself.
I have not read anything official but I have heard rumors that the Church will not ordain anyone over the age of forty. That to me seems short sighted given the reality the Church now faces.
It's kind of like the way some bullies are attracted to police work and nutcases to psychiatry. Good jobs often are a magnet for bad apples.
Very interesting analysis!
thread bump
...
Communist Goals (1963)
Antonio Gramsci died in 1937. The list of "Communist Goals" comes from a book written by Cleon Skousen in 1963. It's not clear to me how many of these "goals" could come from Gramsci's writings if any. Obviously a lot of them don't make sense as the statements of an Italian citizen from the early 20th century. The fact that Gramsci was married and had two kids indicates that he may not have been homosexual.
Acceptance of homosexuality plus lower age of consent equals the pervert's dream. We need to weed out and expose the priests who are wolves in sheeps clothing.
Now, granting that 2% is 2% too many, that some of our bishops are as guilty as are their homoperv sins, that some of our priests and bishops who are not themselves homopervs as well as many who are homopervs have covered up for homoperv priests, none of that requires punishing the innocent as though they were guilty.
Trust me that Catholics feel even more strongly about these perverts than do non-Catholics. After all, it is our Church. The Catholic Church will not be harmed by purging the perverts who refuse to be penitent and celibate. It will be purified.
Conservatism will be harmed by gratuitous harming of the largest Church in our country which has faithfully opposed abortion and other forms of social revolution and evils in our nation and in our world.
My other comment is that while the shuffling and hiding of abusive clergy was a bad thing, it's also true that it was what the shrinks they consulted were advising.
The correct term is ephebophilia.
A specious argument at best. The "let them marry and this won't happen" argument is disproved by the facts:
Sexual Abuse of Children by Protestant Ministers
have not read anything official but I have heard rumors that the Church will not ordain anyone over the age of forty.
Incorrect.
I’m glad to know that I never left any money in the plate to pay for these priests indiscretions. I’d feel like I was abetting a pedophile through the church if I had.
Why does the church seem to shield the priests, and appear to allow the practice to continue? Why cover it up? Why not put the molesters on the stand for prosecution and seriously deal with this seemingly systemic problem?
Ungodly Rage is very depressing, but important. I suggest you keep a bible next to you, and read some scripture in between chapters. It takes some of the weight off.
To the others who have offered good info. here:
Homosexuality is to blame for the abuse of most of these boys, obviously.
There have always been, and still are, many good, faithful, and celibate priests.
Unfortunately, many American bishops, along with other church leaders, and leaders of many other organizations, have covered up and/or enabled perversion, much to the horror of faithful Catholics, including priests.
Bishops enabled these homosexual abusers for some of the reasons mentioned above, but some of them were naive enough to believe the psychologists who minimized it (and still do-except during interviews).
For a better understanding of the root causes of the disorder, look up NARTH- National Association for Reorientation Therapy. The APA keeps issuing statements and directives aimed at silencing them and their work.
By the way, I saw an interview with the attorney for an Alabama pastor/stepfather the other night. It doesn’t matter what denomination his church was. Apparently he sodomized his three stepchildren repeatedly over several years. He will serve no time!
In his defense, the attorney assured Hannity that as a former prosecutor, he knows for a fact that CHILDREN FORGET THESE THINGS. He knows this because, as a former prosecutor, he had the benefit of a psychologist’s guidance, and the psychologist assured him that the children will forget.
Apparently, the experts believe that it is in everyone’s interest to let the guy walk free. Very twisted.
The celibacy rule of Catholic priests simply gives cover to the homosexual who wants to avoid societal questioning of single men about sexual preference who avoid hetero relationships.
Therefore the priesthood becomes a refuge for homosexuals without sufficient screening by the Church.
Coupled with the powerful religious authority that the priesthood confers, the position becomes a trap for children.
I noticed that, on the news stories, they interviewed a female who had been abused. I suspected that this was a deliberate attempt to downplay the queer angle.
Indeed....they have coming out orgies even. Think for a minute if heterosexual men had coming out orgies for 13-17 year old girls. The deserved outcry.
I don’t believe homosexuals should be clergy of any stripe. It is a sin and contrary to natural law as your own doctrine which was just illustrated to me says. I believe it is supposed to be impossible for a known homosexual to be clergy(?)
The surveys I have seen estimate that Catholic clergy is up from 20 to 50% homosexual in the US....those who answer surveys....which is anyone’s guess but I would bet low.
Those who abetted them should resign as well......all the way to the top.
It’s simply not acceptable for any church to dance around such scandal for so long....even in this latest settlement which unfortunately the lawyers get 40%, the church fought as hard as they could to seal records.
That is simply wrong. Let the sun shine on child molesters.
I know there are high ranking clergy there who have fought for a hard line on this but they still don’t even acknowledge this as a homosexual problem at it’s core. The church is kind of caught between admitting it’s a homosexual problem and then having to admit they have a lot of homosexuals. Not easy to fix in short order admittedly. Think thousands of Jimmy Swaggarts in the Pentecostal community...
I blame the nature of homosexuality for the core of this....but some in the church hierarchy sinned demonstrably covering this up or treating it like a sin-forgiveness issue rather than a crime.
Good luck......this scandal has done far more harm already to Christians everywhere and has tainted the reputations of all priests for more generations than I care to consider.
It gives our enemies a lot of “I told you so” power for years to come.
Would I leave my little boys alone with a priest? I’d be wary admittedly but before I would have thought it safe.
There are other groups that raise eyebrows too.... adult child counselors at my protestant church or camps...one always wonders why someone...usually a male wishes to be around little boys so much...most are well intentioned but when they are not then there you are and it’s too late.
Homosexuals have no place in moral authority or with male children especially early teen boys alone...
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