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.
The main reason these lawsuits are filed is because of MONEY. Did you know that clergy are the only people in the world that have no statute of limitations against filing a claim against them? Teachers, cops, firemen, all public servants, and all other segments of society have a statute of limitations, or how long you can wait before filing charges against someone.......except the clergy.
It goes something like this: A shyster lawyer runs an ad saying that if you have ever been sexually abused by a priest to come and see him, that he can help. You are broke. You go see the lawyer. He tells you that “dream” you had of being molested 40 years ago will never go away unless you get a shrink and unless you file charges against Father Tom. He lets you know there are no statute of limitations against Father Tom. You start seeing dollars signs in your head and retired 85 year old Father Tom is arrested. He has no defense. He denies it ever happened. But that’s not good enough. He’s a Catholic priest, therefore he has to be guilty. To make the story go away, because there is no way this Catholic priest can prove his innocence, the local diocese pays the ranson money. The “victim” and the shyster lawyer are happy campers. The 85 year old Catholic priest, is humiliated and labeled a sex offender and has to register as a sex offender.
If this story has involved a cop, a school teacher, a fireman, a politician, or anyone else, the judge would have thrown it out of court due the statute of limitations having ran out.
It’s all about FOLLOW THE MONEY. It’s all about destroying the moral authority of the Catholic Church. End of story.
“How did they become the equivalent to a Catholic Priest, to you”
What Catholic priest is with a child 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week?
Too often, problem teachers are allowed to leave quietly. That can mean future abuse for another student and another school district.It’s a dynamic so common it has its own nicknames—“passing the trash” or the “mobile molester.”
What is unbelievable is that many of these teachers are moved around and are still teaching your children and grandchildren.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/21/AR2007102100144.html
You need to worry about the Ted Haggards of the world and this sodomite “pastor” who’s still preaching and milking people out of money......after he was charged with sexually molesting young boys. If you want a more names of protestant clergy, just holler.
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/26/bishop-eddie-long-settles-with-accusers/
“Did you know that clergy are the only people in the world that have no statute of limitations against filing a claim against them?”
I did not know that. I know the statute of limitations was extended and dropped completely for these cases in at least one state, and is being proposed in others though as a response to adults who came forward who for reasons that seem obvious did not come forward as children when the abuse was taking place. Whether or not someone may make allegations fraudulently isn’t an argument against having laws or codes of conduct.
“Allowing married clergy ...”
A red herring. First the Church allows married clergy, always has. Second, see http://home.catholicweb.com/olguadalupeprolife/index.cfm/NewsItem?ID=275734&From=Home and understand married clergy commit crimes also. Third, why would you care what happens inside a Church you spurn?
I found it hard to believe when I first saw the numbers.
I believe I first saw the figures in a 1996-2000 FBI report on sexual assault; the FBI put the average number of victims somewhere just north of 200.
According to this site, the Sexual Assault of Young Children as Reported to Law Enforcement: Victim, Incident, and Offender Characteristics, by Howard N. Snyder, Ph.D.; National Center for Juvenile Justice, July 2000, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs reports an average of 52 victims for male molesters of girls, and 150 for male molesters of boys.
This California Report claims that the average male molester of boys has 100 victims.
This website lists several studies and states that pedophiles have an average of 250 victims.
You are probably correct.
We misuse the term "pedophile" constantly.
Chronophilia is the term for someone who has a sexual preference by appearance related to age.
Pedophiles, hebephiles and ephebophiles are all types of chronophiles.
Pedophiles are attracted to children thirteen or younger.
Hebephiles are attracted to children in their earlier pubescent period, ages 13-14.
Ephebophiles are attracted to girls ages 14-16, or boys 14-19.
The correct word to describe all child molesters is chronophile.
Seriously, what does a Catholic priest have to do with working people with all the variations under the rainbow and who work in all kinds of teaching jobs at all kinds of schools, cities, and districts?
Teachers are just people, most of us thought the religious leaders of the Catholic denomination had a different standard.
Why are the millions of teachers suddenly the same as a Catholic Priest to Catholics, is it their connection to children as you are saying? I thought the the troubling trait among Catholic leadership was homosexuality, not pedophilia so much.
Well that was really deep. This thread is sure lowering the expectations and status of the leaders of the Catholic church.
Mine is in the backyard, BTW the word you are looking for is effective.
Biblically speaking (and there is no other authority)since Catholicism was founded on false doctrine it has always been and will always be a natural shelter for every kind of evil.
So prots need to clean house but Catholics don’t?
There is something in the structure of the Catholic denomination that is different than other Christian denominations, all of man's institutions have weak and bad elements in them resulting in sexual failings of affairs and such, but the Catholic denomination is famous for church leadership that fails not as men with women, but as men seeking and desiring male flesh.
The homosexuality that the church is famous for, really blows people away.
I belong to Jesus, not a church. Churches don't save. Jesus does.
my denominational affiliation in not significant or important except for those who wish to pigeon hole people to label and condemn them.
Boy did I call it or did I call it! Thank you for again proving me correct.
You’re as wrong as wrong can be. The John Jay Report was commissioned by the Catholic Church and their findings showed around 85% of sexual crimes in the clergy as committed by homosexual priests. These are the men doing the majority of the sex abuse crimes. These are the majority of the men that have been defrocked for sexual abuse.
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