Posted on 01/14/2004 6:32:48 AM PST by american colleen
Edited on 07/12/2004 3:41:04 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
The Arlington Catholic diocese's efforts to prevent sexual abuse of children in Catholic schools and religious programs backfired Monday night when angry parents filled a Manassas church to demand that a proposed "Good Touch, Bad Touch" program be canceled.
In a four-hour hearing ending at 11 p.m., a majority of the 230 people at All Saints Catholic Church hooted, booed and hurled catcalls at a handful of diocesan employees, who defended the program.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
The program "Good Touch, Bad Touch" is similar (although not nearly as explicit) as the program "Talk about Touching" which is to be implemented in the Archdiocese of Boston with the help of the psuedo Catholic "Voice of the Faithful."
Hooray for the Catholics of the Arlington Diocese! I hope we can muster the same here in Boston when parents actually find out what exactly their children are being taught in Catholic grammar school religion class and CCD classes.
Yes. OTOH, these compliance measures are now being largely driven by attorneys who are trying to protect these dioceses from further legal liability when the inevitable child abuse accusation arises again.
This is obviously not the right program, but if you think the diocese is not going to institute SOMETHING for grade school children, think again.
They are being made to, by insurance companies.
Nothing is coming from Rome. If the Boston Globe hadn't blown the extent of the problem wide open two years ago, nothing would STILL be coming from Rome. Rome wants this to go away, get off the radar, vanish, vamonos.
Trusting the parents didn't work for twenty years, as the parents were complicit with the dioceses in taking hush money, thus enabling abusive priests to move to new and fertile grounds for their perversions!
Dioceses can't take the risk of leaving things up to mom and dad, any longer, since many of them proved they're not up to the task.
Insurance companies are driving this, as well.
The problem is, so much of the response of the bishops has been, "what do we do to cover our butts legally and in terms of PR?" So they endorse any stupid policy that makes it look like they're taking action, whether the policy actually would help or not.
At one point, the crowd began chanting the rosary to drown out Catherine Nolan
ROFL! I love it!
For a slick new church that nothing sticks to.
I agree with some of your statement HOWEVER, only *some* of the parents took "hush money" - along with the attorneys, insurance companies, with the knowledge of some DA offices, many protecting brother priests and bishops.
Why not have the US government institute a mandatory television channel or state/city sponsored program forcing every (legal) US citizen to be taught "Good Touch, Bad Touch" or "Talk about Touching" programs?
It's for our own good.
Very scary talk.
I thank God that no one I know was touched by this scandal directly (we all are affected indirectly) but you have to keep in mind that some parents, if not all of the parents who took the money, did not want their child to have to testify in a court of law for a possibly long trial - names would be made public and the child and the family would have had to deal with family, friends, neighbors, knowing that the child had been sexually abused. They opted for the best way that they knew to put the horrible incident(s) behind them. In retrospect, now knowing the extent of the scandal, many of them may have taken a different road - but they had no idea that they were only a little piece of a puzzle and not the whole picture.
to invoke procedures as a substitute for holiness.
The rationale for the GTBT program is flawed, deceitful, and manipulative. If the children didn't do anything wrong, why are the dioceses installing a "solution" addressing the children? Why should their innocence and sense of security be tampered with if the real problem is elsewhere? I ask only for information.
Freedom and natural law are far too risky for our complex modern times. When will someone (perhaps "the insurance companies", God bless 'em) put an end to this madness? Don't people understand how much money is at stake?
Absolutely. I could not, in good conscience (formed according to the mind of the Church), put my 10 year old son in this program - and the one in Boston does not allow parents to be present for the classes, review the materials or opt out (unless you do not want your child to be eligible for the sacraments).
"Sex education, which is a basic right and duty of parents, must always be carried out under their attentive guidance, whether at home or in educational centers chosen and controlled by them. In this regard, the Church reaffirms the law of subsidiarity, which the school is bound to observe when it cooperates in sex education, by entering into the same spirit that animates the parents." (Apostolic Exhortation, Familiaris Consortio, nos. 36, 37)"Such assistance never means taking from parents or diminishing their formative right and duty, because they remain ‘original and primary’, ‘irreplaceable and inalienable’. Therefore, the role which others can carry out in helping parents is always (a) subsidiary, because the formative role of the family is always preferable, and (b) subordinate, that is, subject to the parents’ attentive guidance and control. Everyone must observe the right order of cooperation and collaboration between parents and those who can help them in their task. It is clear that the assistance of others must be given first and foremost to parents rather than to their children." (Vatican Pontifical Council for the Family, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality: Guidelines for Education Within the Family, 1995 no. 145)
The dioceses have opened themselves up to be instructed by Insurance companies who have trumped the Vatican.
The sins of the fathers...
I don't know why - if the dioceses have to implement something - it isn't required that all parents of children in Catholic grammar schools and CCD programs be "taught" this (these) programs and then have the parents instruct their own children. I would also think that seminaries should have this program implemented...
I did both things - found the VIRTUS program to be a rehash of what we all know about child abuse (common sense stuff) but not offensive or explicit. The class lasted 3 hours - talks and tapes. One thing though... if you take the program you are automatically a "mandated reporter" - as in you now know enough about child abuse to recognize the possibility of it and you must report your suspicions to the local law authorities.
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