I just realized some of you like this Vatican statement and are not bothered by it at all.
As an American it does bug me to see American Jews and Protestants dragged into this thing between the UN and the Vatican.
Saying that child abuse is “common” in American Jewish Synagogues is really even more disgusting.
As a Catholic, I was bitterly disappointed and outraged at some of the shenanigans of some of our bishops. That there will be priests who commit grevious sins is a given. That many of the cases of abuse would be settled quietly was appropriate. But that some bishops just played musical chairs with some of the worst offenders was without excuse. And that while some bishops were playing musical chairs with the most awful priests, many other bishops and priests averted their gaze makes our blood boil.
However, as the scandal unfolded, we Catholics were barraged by ignorami (especially here at Free Republic) who claimed either that the problem traced to priestly celibacy or worse, to the evil “system” of the “Roman Catholic edifice” or garbage like that, or some combination thereof. We Catholics have had to put up with a lot of holier-than-thou self-righteous ignorant non-Catholics who supposed that this was exclusively or mostly a Catholic problem, related to our “wrong” theology and “evil” disciplines.
Thus, we have taken pains to show that sexual misconduct among clergy has not been an exclusively or predominantly Catholic problem. Not to say that somehow, non-Catholics are worse than Catholics, but rather to say, it seems to be a problem that crosses religions, and is not a “Catholic problem,” and thus, is not tied to our practices or theology.
Of course, when we make this argument, ignorami (often the same ignormai who blamed the problem on our disiplines and/or theology) then said that we were “keeeping score,” or trying to deflect attention from the sins of our clergy, or trying to say that non-Catholics are worse than Catholics. This sort of thing is of the variety “damned if you do and damned if you don't.”
What we see in this article is the Church making the argument that this is not a problem that arises from Catholicism, but rather is a problem that is universal to all religions, in fact, to all social institutions (and yes, in some social institutions, it is far worse than it has been in the Catholic Church, or any other Christian community, for that matter).
An in fact, the Church is correct. The clergy from non-Catholic Christian denominations commit inappropriate sexual improprieties at rates which appear to exceed that of Catholic priests. I saw one study that showed that 38% of Protestant clergy had inappropriate sexual relations with their congregants, and fully 12% of these relationships had been consummated in sexual intercourse. This study was of self-reporting Protestant clergy. In other words, the researcher surveyed Protestant clergy, and this is what they admitted to the researcher.
I haven't seen break-outs of homosexual vs. heterosexual, or sexual abuse of minors vs. sexual predation of adult congregants.
But studies like this one indicate that sexual predation is certainly not the exclusive, or even predominant territory of Catholicism.
As well, the rate of abuse in certain public institutions far exceeds anything found in our churches. One study showed that roughly 7 out of every 400 female congregants in Protestant ecclesial communities had been taken advantage of sexually by a Protestant clergy person. I don't know how they're counting congregants. Everyone who claims to be a Protestant Christian? Or just folks who are registered in Protestant communities? Or just folks who actually show up on Sundays? In any event, based on the percentages we've already discussed, that suggests that somewhere between a couple of hundred thousand and a million Protestant congregants have been sexually taken advantage of by a member of their clergy. Yikes!
But that's nothing. I've seen studies that suggest that 1 out of every EIGHT public school children will be molested by a public school teacher before graduating 12th grade.
“Saying that child abuse is ‘common’ in American Jewish Synagogues is really even more disgusting.”
That wasn't what was actually said. Here is the quote:
“He also quoted statistics from the Christian Scientist Monitor newspaper to show that most US churches being hit by child sex abuse allegations were Protestant and that sexual abuse within Jewish communities was common.”
What was alleged about Jewish communities was that “sexual abuse” was common, not “child sex abuse.” I have seen research that suggests that this statement is by-and-large true. The percentage of Jewish religious personnel who confess to improper sexual activities with other persons is in double digits. Although that doesn't mean that all rabbis commit sexual sins with others, it does mean that more than 1 out of 10 apparently do. That's unfortunately more common than anyone would like.
Another reason why we Catholics want to talk about this sort of thing is because for many of us, seeing what happened in our own Church has opened our eyes, and we see the problem doesn't only exist in our own Church, but in other religions, too, and most especially, in the broader secular society. And we wish to see something done in these other communities and institutions.
We have gone through it. We've learned some things. Now, we're sounding the alarm - the problem exists elsewhere, and needs to be addressed elsewhere. We are very cautious in our Church now. I don't let my sons alone with priests or other parish personnel, whether volunteer or paid. I, myself, as a leader in my parish, have had to submit to a criminal background check conducted by the FBI. I have been finger-printed and my fingerprints are now on permanent record with the FBI, because sometimes I occasionally lead activities in my parish for the benefit of children. Paid workers in our parishes must undergo annual renewal of their criminal background checks.
But I read that in many public school jurisdictions (including ones local to me), thousands of workers have never had criminal background checks, and are only discovered to have unsavory records after they're caught harming a child.
So, having seen the devastation in our own Church, we turn to the wider society with newly-opened eyes, and realize how much worse the problem is within the wider society, and how much work needs to be done.
We HAVE done the work, and we HAVE addressed our problems. Sin will always happen, but the number of cases of child abuse in the United States in the Catholic Church has dropped from its peak in the 1980s of hundreds of cases per year to a handful each year. And these cases are quickly, and publicly dealt with.
Other religious communities, and social institutions broadly, could learn much from us and our bitter experiences.
sitetest