Posted on 09/16/2010 4:54:58 PM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg
"...Britain’s Channel 4 News reported that an investigation had found that 14 of 22 Catholic priests convicted of serious sexual offenses since 2001 in England and Wales, and sentenced to more than one year in jail, have still not been defrocked and remain members of the clergy..."
(Excerpt) Read more at thelede.blogs.nytimes.com ...
“Either this story is true, or it’s not.”
No. It’s half-true and half-truths are the most damnable of lies.
Twice as many Roman Catholic priests are sexual abusers as are Protestant pastors. You’ve been given those statistics countless times.
Also, the statistics on the Protestant side include church office staff, janitors and volunteers while the RC numbers only include priests.
Further, the RC numbers are nearly always homosexual offenses while the Protestant offenses are overwhelmingly heterosexual and usually involve an affair between a minister and a female congregant.
Also, when Protestant ministers are accused of wrong-doing, they are immediately removed from the pulpit and police authorities are notified, if the event involves children.
Not so in Roman Catholic churches where pedophile priests are shuffled around from one parish to the next where they can continue to exploit and destroy unsuspecting children and their families.
So you can see, the problem is vastly different in Rome. Sadly.
Did you even read what I wrote?
The true half is that these 14 remain unlaicized priests.
The false half is omitting the fact that they cannot function as priests and cannot engage in public ministry where they have contact with men, women, adolescents and children.
Moreover, even laicized (defrocked)priests are still priests before God. Laicization (defrocking) removes him from the ecclesial status of clergy and hence from the bishop’s authority, sets him free upon society. The priestly character can not be removed but he can be kicked out of the clergy. So then he can become a public school teacher or psychotherapist and molest your kids.
The goofs that write about “defrocking” don’t have the faintest idea what “defrocking” means.
And when they focus on “they are still priests” they still don’t get it right. What they mean to say is that they remain undefrocked, hence remain clergy, hence remain under the bishop’s authority. “Being priest” is not at issue. Being active in ministry, being suspended from ministry, being kicked out of the clergy—those are the categories.
But the people who write this stuff are too ill-informed even to know what language to use.
It’s not half true.
22 priests were convicted of pedophilia. 14 of them remain clothed in the robes of Rome.
Shame on Rome.
Oh come on Doc, we should just be thankful for all that Rome has done and quit bashing them. < sarc>
Why would Rome keep a known and convicted pedophile in priestly robes?
He belongs in jail, not decked out in religious garb.
The truth is that as we have been told by Roman Catholics on this forum, once a Roman Catholic priest, always a Roman Catholic priest. They live and die as an "alter Christus," another Christ no matter what crimes and perversions they have committed.
Why? Because "another Christ" is not like the rest of us. The RCC says the priest is greater than the rest of us, more holy, closer to God, and therefore entitled to whatever pleasurable larks he might feel the need to experience.
Generations of young children have been corrupted by these men. We look around and wonder why there are so many homosexuals these days. Well, we have one reason. Rome breeds them in-house.
For whatever reason the rules on the religion forum are different from the rules of Free Republic as a whole. I’m not sure I understand them and at least once a day I find myself wondering why there’s one standard of conduct in religious threads and another everywhere else.
Nevertheless, that’s the way it is. Are we having fun yet?
Hi, GC! Ping to 29.
On the news forum, posters can call another poster a liar. They can't here. Here we're permitted to argue about doctrine, faiths and practices but not about FReepers individually, unlike on the news forum which is much more lax.
Count your blessings. 8~)
I'm reasonably certain that if the civil authorities had ordered incarceration the guilty party would in fact be... incarcerated. I know you're not suggesting that the Catholic Church should take the law into its own hands and take over the courts... I mean... well no, that would be a bad idea probably... maybe. I mean I'm all for jailing unrepentant heretics but no...
As it happens I'd support making the Church pay the costs incurred in confining a priest convicted of a crime like the sort that are the subject of this thread (huh... I'll go all over the place to avoid writing it out)
Don't forget potty language... I think that's a mistake, we could use a good fart joke every now and again. For crying out loud the religion forum IS a fart joke some days.
/I probably can't say "fart joke" in here can I?
Did you read the article? It would answer your questions.
Amen.
2001?
That’s nine years. “Defrocking” can take years and years. There’s just no story here.
The inference is, yes.
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