Posted on 02/21/2006 7:45:34 AM PST by NYer
I've lost count ... how many does this make since Ratzinger was elected pope? Heads are rolling.
Bump for later. Going to Bible Study.
My only complaint about thsi Pope I s he is not younger, I would like to see 25+ years of him in charge.
IMO, all child murderers and molesters should be executed. Zero recividism.
Seattle Times article re: abuser Moffat
Perhaps someone can explain the defrocked vs non-defrocked status. This particular case was particularly tragic for a victim (Jeff Alfieri) of this pervert priest Moffat and the hierarchy who allowed him to continue in ministry years after "problems" surfaced. Alfieri killed himself in a church parking lot three years ago. Our prayers for the repose of his soul and for his family.
Good. Faster please.
Those heads can't roll fast enough. Pope Benedict is giving the Church a long overdue housecleaning.
God has blessed His Church with the right man at the right time. Thank You Holy Spirit.
More word games from Rome.
How difficult is it for the RC church to get rid of this disease which appears to be systemic?
A celibate clergy is at the root of the problem. It attracts these perverts and protects them.
God's children deserve better.
I believe that is something called suspension "a divinis," meaning they can't celebrate Mass or do any priestly activities, nor can they even present themselves publicly as priests. Probably if they totally defrocked him and kicked him out, he wouldn't be able to receive his pension or live on Church property. And we wouldn't want that to happen, would we?
Until these guys know that it's all over for them, they're not going to give up. What does somebody like that care about whether or not he gets to say Mass? Obviously, other things were more important to him in the past...but his pension, on the other hand - now that might get his attention. That's one thing that really annoys me, is that we the parishioners are still paying for these bums to live in a rectory or retirement home somewhere, get their auto allowance, etc.
Bring back the Inquisition! They really knew how to deal with guys like this. Not only no comfy chairs, but no pensions, to put it mildly. Incidentally,I have read that most of the people severely punished and/or put to death by the Inquisition in Mexico were clergy; in fact, the main initial objective of the Spanish Inquisition, despite popular ideas on the subject, was to quash heresy and immorality among the clergy. But even I admit that maybe their methods might have been a little extreme...
Still. A little public flogging on the cathedral steps would go a long way, IMHO.
Agreed. If we can't cut off their pensions, the least we could do is flog them...LOL!
Wonder how you'd explain the behavior of all these protestants or public school employees who aren't bound by the discipline of celibacy, Doc.
The root of sexual disorder is deeper. We could marry them all off tomorrow and sexual disorders would only change their appearance. It remains for all of us to be vigilant.
April 05, 2002 edition -
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0405/p01s01-ussc.html
Sex abuse spans spectrum of churches
By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Despite headlines focusing on the priest pedophile problem in the Roman Catholic Church, most American churches being hit with child sexual-abuse allegations are Protestant, and most of the alleged abusers are not clergy or staff, but church volunteers.
These are findings from national surveys by Christian Ministry Resources (CMR), a tax and legal-advice publisher serving more than 75,000 congregations and 1,000 denominational agencies nationwide.
CMR's annual surveys of about 1,000 churches nationwide have asked about sexual abuse since 1993. They're a remarkable window on a problem that lurked largely in the shadows of public awareness until the Catholic scandals arose.
The surveys suggest that over the past decade, the pace of child-abuse allegations against American churches has averaged 70 a week. The surveys registered a slight downward trend in reported abuse starting in 1997, possibly a result of the introduction of preventive measures by churches.
"I think the CMR numbers are striking, yet quite reasonable," says Anson Shupe, anIndiana University professor who's written books about church abuse. "To me it says Protestants are less reluctant to come forward because they don't put their clergy on as high a pedestal as Catholics do with their priests."
At least 70 incidents a week
Dr. Shupe suggests the 70 allegations-per-week figure actually could be higher, because underreporting is common. He discovered this in 1998 while going door to door in Dallas-Ft. Worth communities where he asked 1,607 families if they'd experienced abuse from those within their church. Nearly 4 percent said they had been victims of sexual abuse by clergy. Child sexual abuse was part of that, but not broken out, he says.
James Cobble, executive director of CMR, who oversees the survey, says the data show that child sex-abuse happens broadly across all denominations and that clergy aren't the major offenders.
"The Catholics have gotten all the attention from the media, but this problem is even greater with the Protestant churches simply because of their far larger numbers," he says.
Of the 350,000 churches in the US, 19,500 5 percent are Roman Catholic. Catholic churches represent a slightly smaller minority of churches in the CMR surveys which aren't scientifically random, but "representative" demographic samples of churches, Dr. Cobble explains.
Since 1993, on average about 1 percent of the surveyed churches reported abuse allegations annually. That means on average, about 3,500 allegations annually, or nearly 70 per among the predominantly Protestant group, Cobble says.
The CMR findings also reveal:
Most church child-sexual-abuse cases involve a single victim.
Law suits or out-of-court settlements were a result in 21 percent of the allegations reported in the 2000 survey.
Volunteers are more likely than clergy or paid staff to be abusers. Perhaps more startling, children at churches are accused of sexual abuse as often as are clergy and staff. In 1999, for example, 42 percent of alleged child abusers were volunteers about 25 percent were paid staff members (including clergy) and 25 percent were other children.
Still, it is the reduction of reported allegations over nine years that seems to indicate that some churches are learning how to slow abuse allegations with tough new prevention measures, say insurance company officials and church officials themselves.
The peak year for allegations was 1994, with 3 percent of churches reporting an allegation of sexual misconduct compared with just 0.1 percent in 2000. But 2001 data, indicates a swing back to the 1 percent level, still significantly less than the 1993 figures, Cobble says.
Child sexual-abuse insurance claims have slowed, too, industry sources say.
Hugh White, vice president of marketing for Brotherhood Mutual Insurance, in Ft. Wayne, Ind., suggests that the amount of abuse reported in the CMR 2001 data is reasonable though "at the higher end" of the scale.
Mr. White's company insures 30,000 churches about 0.2 percent to 0.3 percent of which annually report an "incident" of child sexual abuse. But he says that his churches are more highly educated on child abuse prevention procedures than most, which may account for a lower rate of reported abuse than the CMR surveys.
What all the data show is a settling that followed "a large spike" in the frequency and severity of church sexual misconduct claims from the mid-1980s, White says.
"Church insurance carriers implemented educational programs and policies that have helped decrease and then stabilize the trend," agrees Jan Beckstrom, chief operating officer for the church insurer GuideOne Insurance in West Des Moines, Iowa.
CMR surveys also show many smaller churches have lagged in starting such programs, while larger churches with more resources and management controls have led the way. And for good reason: They have more to lose, and a larger abuse problem.
{Excerpt of article}
If the requirement was not there, heterosexual men would come forth to serve.
The RC church can make all the excuses it wants and point fingers at everyone else. But the reality is that sexual perversion is an aberration among heterosexual clergy and sadly, not so aberrant among a celibate clergy.
When other non-Catholic religious/organizations are finally held accountable for their crimes, the precedents of payments for the victims/surviving family members will bankrupt anti-Catholic organizations.
The Church is surviving...no, the Church is THRIVING in spite of the settlments.
Thanks for your post. Informative and I agree!
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