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Now we have real evidence – sexual abuse is not a ‘Catholic problem’
Catholic Herald (UK) ^ | Monday, 9 August 2010 | WILLIAM ODDIE

Posted on 01/18/2014 8:57:41 PM PST by narses

Last week, I suggested that having comprehensively and repeatedly apologised for the small number of priests who have in some way sexually abused children and young people, it was time we moved on to the offensive against those who (often with an undeclared anti-Catholic agenda) continually assert that the Church is in some way particularly prone to this disgusting crime. I referred to a Newsweek article which said that “priests seem to abuse children at the same rate as everyone else”.

The fact is, however, that not only is the Catholic Church NOT an endemically paedophile organisation, the evidence is now emerging that, in fact, even Newsweek is exaggerating: it’s not that “priests… abuse children at the same rate as everyone else”: actually, according to Dr Thomas Plante of Stanford University and Santa Clara University, “available research suggests that approximately two to five per cent of priests have had a sexual experience with a minor” which “is lower than the general adult male population” – in which the percentage of those who have interfered with minors “is best estimated to be closer to eight per cent”. In other words, children who have anything to do with priests are between 1.6 and four times LESS likely to be abused by them than by anyone else.

“When,” asks the blog La Salette Journey, giving these and other details, “will the media acknowledge that the sexual abuse of children is not a ‘Catholic problem’?” The fact is, suggests the writer, Paul Anthony Melanson, that “the media are not so much concerned with the welfare of children as they are with unfairly portraying the abuse of children as a ‘crisis in the Church’ ”. For example, the state school system in the US has a considerably higher rate of sexual abuse than the Catholic Church: according to a report prepared for the US Department of Education entitled Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature, “9.6 per cent of all students in grades 8 to 11 report… educator sexual misconduct that was unwanted.” This report has been virtually ignored by the media.

But the penny is just beginning to drop. An article by Jim Dwyer in the New York Times reported (April 27) that the New York State legislature is now addressing the fact that child abuse is not only a problem for the Church, but for the whole of society. “Should it be possible,” asks Dwyer “… to sue the city of New York for sexual abuse by public school teachers that happened decades ago? How about doctors or hospital attendants? Police officers? Welfare workers? Playground attendants? … To date, New York City has been publicly silent…. but sees the possibility of enormous expenses.”

Well, join the club, New York City. As Dwyer’s article points out: “Since 2004, Catholic dioceses nationwide have paid $1.4bn to settle claims of abuse, many from acts from the 1970s or earlier… Yet [he continues] there is little evidence to show there is more sexual abuse among Catholic priests than among clergy from other denominations, or, for that matter, among people from other walks of life.”

That’s the bottom line. This is a problem we share with everyone, though actually we are less guilty of it than society as a whole and are doing a lot better in acknowledging such child abuse as does exist. We need to get that, and the evidence for it, firmly into our heads. We have a battle ahead: we all need to be prepared for it.


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Moral Issues
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To: Alex Murphy

The point I am trying to make is most Mass attending Catholics in this country are white. The hispanics that voted for Obama are not regular Mass attendees and most are totally ignorant of the teachings of the Catholic Church. They vote for whomever promises them more and is always the democrats. Blacks on the otherhand vote skin color. It does not help that 95% of blacks are liberal democrats.....thanks to free government handouts for the last 50 years.


221 posted on 01/21/2014 10:09:43 AM PST by NKP_Vet ("Rather than love, than money, than fame, then give truth" ~ Henry David Thoreau)
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To: Alex Murphy

“So even religious people vote their skin color over their morals”.

Only blacks. The 96% that voted for Obama prove it.
9 out of 10 go to church (protestant churches), say they don’t believe in abortion and homosexual “marriage”, but will turn right around and vote for the most radical pro-abortion president in American history and the biggest friend the sodomites have ever had, who openly tells all these black church goers he believes in sodomite ‘marriage”. They do not care. The color of his skin trumps the word of the Lord.


222 posted on 01/21/2014 10:14:43 AM PST by NKP_Vet ("Rather than love, than money, than fame, then give truth" ~ Henry David Thoreau)
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To: NKP_Vet

Hey. I thought there was no such thing as the Catholic vote and here you are quoting it.


223 posted on 01/21/2014 10:35:50 AM PST by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith....)
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To: ansel12
Read Goodbye Good Men by Michael Rose. He documents the perversion of the seminaries by homosexuals after Vatican II.
224 posted on 01/21/2014 11:24:16 AM PST by hinckley buzzard
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To: NKP_Vet; metmom
Only blacks. The 96% that voted for Obama prove it. 9 out of 10 go to church (protestant churches), say they don’t believe in abortion and homosexual “marriage”, but will turn right around and vote for the most radical pro-abortion president in American history and the biggest friend the sodomites have ever had, who openly tells all these black church goers he believes in sodomite ‘marriage”. They do not care. The color of his skin trumps the word of the Lord.

Why claim that 90% of black are Protestants, when according to your earlier post, there is no "Protestant vote"? And now you're claiming that only blacks vote their skin color. That's not what you said a couple of posts earlier:

There is no such thing as the “Catholic vote”, just as there is no such thing as “the protestant vote”. There is such a thing as the white vote and the white in this country voted for Mitt Romney over Obama. There is a such thing as the black vote and the hispanic vote and they all went for Obama
-- post 217

225 posted on 01/21/2014 11:30:50 AM PST by Alex Murphy ("the defacto Leader of the FR Calvinist Protestant Brigades")
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To: NKP_Vet
There is no such thing as the “Catholic vote”, just as there is no such thing as “the protestant vote”.

Sure there is, that is how we can establish that the Catholic vote is anti-GOP, and the overall Protestant vote is anti-democrat.

For instance Roosevelt could depend on the Catholic vote, but the democrats only won the Protestant vote in presidential elections, in 1932, 1936, and 1964.

Depending on the source, the GOP has only won the Catholic vote from 4 to 6 times in history.

Today, anyone who cares about life and marriage, needs to look at how different denominations vote. The Catholic denomination's vote is predictably pro-abort democrat.

226 posted on 01/21/2014 12:14:53 PM PST by ansel12 (Ben Bradlee -- JFK told me that "he was all for people's solving their problems by abortion".)
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To: Alex Murphy

* Cultural Catholics who may go to church a few times a year. This may be one of those all-important “undecided voters” depending on what’s happening with the economy, foreign policy, etc. Leans to Democrats.

* Sunday-morning American Catholics. This voter is a regular in the pew and may even play some leadership role in the parish. This is the Catholic voter that is really up for grabs, the true swing voter that the candidates are after.

* The “sweats the details” Roman Catholic who goes to confession. Is active in the full sacramental life of the parish and almost always backs the Vatican, when it comes to matters of faith and practice. This is a very small slice of the American Catholic pie.

And to the above numbers I say a big bullsh*t. Prove the numbers? What “catholics” were interviewed for these numbers. No Catholic that I know that regularly attends Mass and lives their life according to the doctrine of their church is a “swing voter”. Devout Catholics are not pro-abortion and not voting for Obama. Hypocrites vote for the SOB and no one else.


227 posted on 01/21/2014 1:20:27 PM PST by NKP_Vet ("Rather than love, than money, than fame, then give truth" ~ Henry David Thoreau)
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To: ansel12

“The Catholic denomination’s vote is predictably pro-abort democrat”.

Go away and quit showing your ignorance.


228 posted on 01/21/2014 1:21:56 PM PST by NKP_Vet ("Rather than love, than money, than fame, then give truth" ~ Henry David Thoreau)
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To: metmom

If you can read you will see where I said “catholic vote”. There is no such thing as a Catholic vote. A figment of the liberal media’s imagination.

But there is a BLACK protestant vote and they vote for Obama.


229 posted on 01/21/2014 1:24:12 PM PST by NKP_Vet ("Rather than love, than money, than fame, then give truth" ~ Henry David Thoreau)
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To: Alex Murphy

I said blacks vote the color of the skin and the numbers prove me correct.


230 posted on 01/21/2014 1:25:45 PM PST by NKP_Vet ("Rather than love, than money, than fame, then give truth" ~ Henry David Thoreau)
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To: NKP_Vet; NYer
Prove the numbers? What “catholics” were interviewed for these numbers.

Take up your arguments with the editors of the National Catholic Register, the blog GetReligion, and the OP of that thread NYer. I'm just quoting Catholics. Your argument is with them and their view of reality, not with me.

No Catholic that I know that regularly attends Mass and lives their life according to the doctrine of their church is a “swing voter”.

How many Catholics, out of 70 million, do you claim to know?

231 posted on 01/21/2014 1:28:32 PM PST by Alex Murphy ("the defacto Leader of the FR Calvinist Protestant Brigades")
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To: NKP_Vet

Ignorance would be not knowing that the members of the Catholic denomination vote majority for pro-abortion democrats, lying would be knowing that and constantly claiming the opposite.


232 posted on 01/21/2014 1:34:15 PM PST by ansel12 (Ben Bradlee -- JFK told me that "he was all for people's solving their problems by abortion".)
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To: NKP_Vet

I don’t think that anyone here belongs to the black denominations that are majority democrat voting, and no one defends them.

The only pro-abortion voting church denomination that we see defended and promoted, here, is the Catholic denomination.


233 posted on 01/21/2014 1:38:25 PM PST by ansel12 (Ben Bradlee -- JFK told me that "he was all for people's solving their problems by abortion".)
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To: ansel12

If ignorance is bliss you are one more happy camper.


234 posted on 01/21/2014 1:47:52 PM PST by NKP_Vet ("Rather than love, than money, than fame, then give truth" ~ Henry David Thoreau)
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To: ansel12

“White Catholics, by contrast, swung strongly in the Republican direction relative to 2008. Nearly six-in-ten white Catholics (59%) voted for Romney, up from 52% who voted for McCain in 2008. Three-quarters of Hispanic Catholics voted for Obama, and Catholics as a whole were evenly divided in 2012 (50% voted for Obama, while 48% backed Romney)”

Obama 50% to 48% of Catholic voters. Catholics born and raised in this country overwhelmingly supported Romney. Hispanics on the government dole enabled Obama to barely claim a majority of “catholic” voters.

You need to be quit being so misleading with numbers. Take away the Catholic in name crowd that never attends Mass, that the liberal media loves to call Catholics, and Romney takes the Catholic vote going away.

WHITE CATHOLIC VOTE FOR ROMNEY 59%

WHITE CATHOLIC VOTE FOR OBAMA 40%

By 19% percentage points Romney won the reliable Catholic vote. But you continue to insist that the “catholic vote” is reliably democrat.

That you will not admit that hispanic “catholics” on the government gravy train enabled Obama to BARELY win the Catholic vote is disingenious at best.


235 posted on 01/21/2014 1:58:48 PM PST by NKP_Vet ("Rather than love, than money, than fame, then give truth" ~ Henry David Thoreau)
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To: NKP_Vet

I don’t think you understand the pro-life concerns, we don’t care about any racial purity war you are fighting in the Catholic denomination, or that some of the elderly whites in it have become less liberal in recent elections.

The problem is how the Catholic denomination votes, and the fact that the democrats import them by the millions and hope to defeat all pro-life efforts by getting in more Catholics.


236 posted on 01/21/2014 2:04:11 PM PST by ansel12 (Ben Bradlee -- JFK told me that "he was all for people's solving their problems by abortion".)
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To: ansel12
...we don’t care about any racial purity war you are fighting in the Catholic denomination...
"We've always been a double minority,” she said. “There are so few Catholics who are black, and there are so few blacks who are Catholic”....Originally called the Portland Black Catholic Lay Caucus, the group was originally part of a national organization, the National Black Catholic Congress, with various branches throughout the country that aim to get black Catholics more involved in all aspects of church activities, including the priesthood.

We were all feeling that black Catholics were almost considered to be invisible in the Catholic Church,” Jackson said. “We didn’t feel included in the conversation with respect to Catholic activities in a lot of the parishes, locally and throughout the state.”
-- from the thread Black Catholics create a home in Oregon

Catholics have become a slightly more affluent group and the current Catholic population has a disproportionately low number of blacks, who make up one out of every seven Americans but only one out of every 25 Catholics, and high number of Hispanics, according to the Barna Group.
-- from the thread Survey: Catholics Adapt to Culture at Cost of Committed Faith


237 posted on 01/21/2014 2:14:52 PM PST by Alex Murphy ("the defacto Leader of the FR Calvinist Protestant Brigades")
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To: ansel12

Your ignorant, incoherent ramblings are pathetic. After
Roe v. Wade the Catholic Church stood alone in speaking out loud and clear about the evils of abortion. The vast majority of protestant churches could have cared less. It was Catholics that started the pro-life movement in this country and Catholics that have kept it going. Your unnatural hated of Catholics is not healthy and you need to see a professional. What you and others like you don’t need to is to keep electing RINO politicians like George W. Bush that believe it’s OK to murder babies if they don’t like who the father, as in rape, incest. It was RINOs that gave us legalized murder in this country and RINOs that have kept it going. Which I guarantee you is your official position on abortion, like the rest of the so-called “pro-lifers”.

The only coordinated opposition to abortion during the early 1970s came from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Family Life Bureau, also a Catholic organization. Mobilization of a wide-scale pro-life movement among Catholics began quickly after the Roe v. Wade decision with the creation of the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). The NRLC also organized non-Catholics, eventually becoming the largest pro-life organization in the United States. Connie Paige has been quoted as having said that, “[t]he Roman Catholic Church created the right-to-life movement. Without the church, the movement would not exist as such today.”[15]


238 posted on 01/21/2014 4:04:35 PM PST by NKP_Vet ("Rather than love, than money, than fame, then give truth" ~ Henry David Thoreau)
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To: NKP_Vet
Your ignorant, incoherent ramblings are pathetic. After Roe v. Wade the Catholic Church stood alone in speaking out loud and clear about the evils of abortion. The vast majority of protestant churches could have cared less.

Not as ignorant as your contentions. The only person I know who went to jail for protesting in the Operation Rescue protests was a Baptist pastor.

And I know him personally, not know of him.

239 posted on 01/21/2014 6:14:28 PM PST by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith....)
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To: NKP_Vet

Yeah, if only we could do something to make the majority of the members of the Catholic denomination quit voting for abortion and gay marriage.

As it is, the party of the Catholics is importing more Catholics, millions more, it is to support the left and defeat the pro-life forces.

Your post seems to indicate solidarity with the Catholic voters, they did prefer Al Gore to George W. Bush.


240 posted on 01/21/2014 6:52:59 PM PST by ansel12 (Ben Bradlee -- JFK told me that "he was all for people's solving their problems by abortion".)
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