Posted on 06/21/2011 7:24:28 PM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg
The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops on Thursday resisted calls for major changes in their child sex abuse policy despite recent cases involving priests in Kansas City and Philadelphia.
Critics say those cases raise questions about whether some bishops are even following the policy, which was crafted nine years ago to address the sex abuse crisis that was rocking the church.
The critics reacted swiftly after Thursday’s 187-5 vote, which approved a few revisions, including listing child pornography as a violation of church law.
“We are dismayed that the new policy is almost identical to the current policy, despite horrifying recent evidence in Kansas City and Philadelphia that the church’s current policies are dangerously lenient and full of loopholes,” said Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, a group that operates an online database of accused priests.
“The policy needs to be overhauled. This is a squandered opportunity and a disaster for children, not only in the United States but worldwide,” he said.
Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/06/16/2955810/catholic-bishops-resist-calls.html#ixzz1PxzrhOa3
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
The more things try to change in Rome, the more they stay the same.
You would think RC parents would raise up and demand these changes be implemented; that police be notified of pederast priests; amd that there be some kind of enforcement mechanisms in place.
Apparently many Roman Catholics misunderstand the meaning of “sheep.”
ALL the Christian churches need to “clean house” over something. In the case of the Catholic Church, its homophilic pedophiles and those who protect them. In the case of the “mainstream” Protestant Churches, its the abandonment of Christian Orthodoxy on matters of theology.
And the Muslims stand in the wings, LAUGHING at all of us.
I don't quite know what to call these guys. They are like ambulance chasers who go after the Catholic Church instead of medical practitioners and hospitals. Sort of the John Edwardses of anti-Catholicism.
And they suck enough money out of the Church to feather their nests very nicely. Money that ought to be going into running hospitals and charities and making repairs to aging parish churches.
Everybody’s out of step but Rome.
Your church is making the news.
Others are only commenting on it.
I particularly like the burning at the stake suggestion. The Catholic church most purge the sodomites that are destroying it.
Actually, one retired bishop at the meeting suggested a more “compassionate” policy for dealing with accused priests, and this was immediately rejected, with one bishop reminding the retired bishop that these priests had done horrible things and the only one they should ask for compassion should be God. So just the opposite of this article happened.
However, it’s much better to pick up some distortion by a self-interested group of ambulance chasers, I guess, as long as they’re foaming-at-the-mouth anti-Catholics.
What news? The only specific news here is that a legal parasite who sucks blood from the Catholic Church doesn't like the outcome of a bishops' conference. And it doesn't really even explain what he doesn't like in any detail.
As you are well aware, most of these crimes took place 30 or more years ago. And the Church has fewer pederasts, and fewer of these sorts of crimes, than virtually any other comparable institution. Even back then, there were fewer. But there's good money to be made sucking blood from the Church, and the left-wing media are happy to approve.
And they suck enough money out of the Church to feather their nests very nicely. Money that ought to be going into running hospitals and charities and making repairs to aging parish churches.
Distraction 101.
Do anything and accuse anyone to take the attention off the abusive priests and those who are protecting them.
Well, it would sure go a long way toward restoring my faith in the leadership of the RCC.
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Mesquite Baptist Academy unaware pastor was serial rapist: http://www.ydr.com/premium/ci_18161823
Temecula assistant pastor raped choirgirl, but most Protestants have no way to track sexual predators: http://stopbaptistpredators.org/documents/Nolawonchurchworkerchecks.pdf
Trinity Baptist man convicted after church forces rape victim to publicly confess to extramarital sex: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/05/28/2011-05-28_new_hampshire_man_ernest_willis_guilty_of_raping_teen_church_member_tina_anderso.html
Merrywood Baptist youth minister charged with molestation: http://www.insidestatesboro.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=271%3Amerrywood-youth-pastor-charged-with-milestation&catid=53%3Astate-news&Itemid=138
Christopher Settlemoir, 27, pastor of Antioch Baptist Church, MI, sentenced to prison for homosexual assault: http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/local/former-baptist-pastor-chris-settlemoir-sentenced-to-prison-20110524-mr
Oklahoma Baptist minister arrested on sex complaints: http://www.fox23.com/mostpopular/story/pastor-sex-charges-arrested-Oklahoma-crime-teen/pQvLKDdu6EWq_IIQQ9hkPg.cspx
pastor Andrew J. Bierkan (Massachusetts, indicted) First Congregational Church of Sutton
Pastor Eddie Thomas (Ringgold, LA, Charged) St. Luke Baptist Church
Rev. Gene Francis (Florida, Charged) Church of the Nazarene
Rev. David Valencia (Arizona, Charged) assistant pastor at Christ Church at Grove Farm
Youth Pastor Marty A. Hynes (Charged, 8 counts) First Assembly of God church
Louis Anguiano (JH, Charged) elder at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses
Pastor Dennis Larry Shaw (IL, charged) Baptist
Minister Sabala (Guilty) Four-Square Church
Rev. Thomas Masters (Florida, guilty) New Macedonia Church
Pastor Barasda (RI, Guilty)
Pastor Anthony Shafer (OH, convicted) non-denominational church
Rev. Joseph A. Rinaldi (VT, Guilty) Newbury Bible Church
Pastor Garry Toavs (guilty) pastor of Evergreen Alliance Church
Youth Minister Anthony Waters (Guilty)
Pastor Ilger (Guilty) Hope Chapel of the Valley
Pastor Kemp (NY, convicted) Mount Zion Baptist Church
Youth Minister Charles Richard Willits (Texas, convicted) Youth minister Kurt Danskin (WI, pleaded guilty)
Youth Minister William Bell (SC, guilty) Youth Minister Rex Jason (OK, guilty) River of Life Church
Youth Minister Spain (TN, guilty) First Assembly of God Church *********************************************************
Pastor Barasda (resigned from Rhode Island to Maryland)
Pastor Kerry Clyde Martin (CA, molested children at three other churches before being caught)
dozen church elders decided unanimously that pastor Rev. Lawrence French, who says he is innocent, should remain as pastor. Convinced that the 72-year-old pastor could not have committed the alleged offenses, they also concluded that it would be unfair to French to notify other members of the church about the allegations. (The Boston Globe, November 1, 2002)
Pastor Ilger (CA, "We've lived and learned a painful lesson," the Rev. Jeff Fischer of Hope Chapel said outside court. Fischer has said he and about 30 church elders knew that Ilger had molested young girls before he was hired." (emphasis mine) )
"We would be naïve and dishonest were we to say this is a Roman Catholic problem and has nothing to do with us because we have married and female priests in our church. Sin and abusive behavior know no ecclesial or other boundaries." Rt. Rev. William Persell, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, Good Friday Sermon, 2002.
To those who say the abuse occurred years ago it must be asked how the abusers were able to stay in place so long?
That was the second part of the abuse, the protection of the abusers and the indifference to the victims shown by the leaders, the bishops.
A “Zero Tolerance” policy may demand some eighty year old priest be defrocked but where is the Zero Tolerance for the bishops who knew and aided the abuse by active protection of the abusers?
The third horse of this ‘troika’ is the oft repeated here accusation that the victims are in the thrall of grubby lawyers seeking to justify their anti-Catholicism as justice seeking.
But since the surest way to clarify the mind of large institution’s leaders is to hit their wallets what other route was available? Appeal to the conscience of the very leaders that protected the abuse? Really.
It was not the news media, lawyers, or Protestant churches or public school teachers that produced the sexual abuse by Catholic priests and the covering up of it by numerous bishops.
Of this I am certain and NOTHING will change that.
When RC priests are accused of sexual offenses against minors, they are protected, and often promoted to keep their crimes hidden from public view.
According to Rome's Crimen Sollicitationis, all parties — victims, families, teachers, everyone — are sworn to absolute secrecy upon threat of excommunication. The “problem” is handled in-house and usually dismissed.
When Protestant ministers are suspected of sexual offenses against minors, the police are alerted and very often they are arrested and stand trial.
However, the majority of sexual improprieties among Protestant pastors involve heterosexual liaisons with adult members of the congregation, whereas in the RCC, the offenses are usually priests raping children.
I agree with you. However, the RCC is not that church and the proof of that is that it is not faithful to the word of God.
Do anything and accuse anyone to take the attention off the abusive priests and those who are protecting them.
Exactly. They must offer classes in this kind of deflection and denial.
Remember, Bill Clinton went to Georgetown.
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