Some Catholic clergy. The abuses, and they were horrible, were committed by a small minority of priests, statistically fewer than in other organizations and religious groups. To falsely portray this as a widespread problem among Catholic priests and unique to the Catholic Church is to betray a bias and hate filled anti-Catholic agenda.
i don’t think it was the crime so much as the cover up.
You have a pervert priest get caught, so instead of punishing him, you just send him to another parish.
who thinks like that? Unless keeping him away from his “kid of choice” was supposed to be the punishment? I really do not understand this. Shame on them!
Unfortunately, media bias does not explain the appalling misconduct of Catholic clergy.
Some Catholic clergy. The abuses, and they were horrible, were committed by a small minority of priests, statistically fewer than in other organizations and religious groups. To falsely portray this as a widespread problem among Catholic priests and unique to the Catholic Church is to betray a bias and hate filled anti-Catholic agenda.
It isn’t so much that the pedophile priests were abusing minors and in cases adults as well, the issue that indicts the entire Church is that the higher-ups including Bishops, Cardinals, and likely Rome itself that continued the cover-up. Priests were transferred from the location where they committed such offenses and placed in other parishes and schools where new victims were available. Some were sent for “therapy” and then reassigned only to reoffend. It’s no wonder former Catholics have abandoned the formal Catholic Church. An immoral hierarchy preaching morality is not sustainable.
Based simply on those caught and reports. The only one who actually knows the true number is God.
And honestly, making claims about statistics can lead to false representations. If a smaller sized group of say, 10 (an extreme example to be sure) had one member who does that, then the rate of abuse is 10%. A very misleading representation and it cannot be honestly extrapolated to presume that if the group were larger that that 10% number would hold true.
To falsely portray this as a widespread problem among Catholic priests and unique to the Catholic Church is to betray a bias and hate filled anti-Catholic agenda.
Nobody ever presented it as a Catholic only problem and as far as how widespread it is, well again, only God knows but considering the rates of reported homosexuality within the Catholic priesthood, it does leave Catholicism open a great deal of speculation.
And as has been stated MANY times before, people know that abusers will find ways to abuse. The issue isn't as much as some abusers infiltrated the priesthood to abuse, as much as the mishandling of it over the years.
The big issue is the protection racket that protected and enabled abusive priests for so long. If the Catholic hierarchy had clamped down immediately and dealt with it appropriately when it first came to light, there would be far fewer victims because of recidivism at the very least.
—> The abuses, and they were horrible, were committed by a small minority of priests,
• that have been revealed so far
• that occurred under the previous 5 popes - at least
• that were covered up by the majority and continued as priests despite their horrific abuse
• that are a subset of the 20-45% o priests who are gay perverts
• that will be celebrated this Saturday night at the Vatican drug and gay sex orgy, as reported in Italian newspapers
• as has existed and been approved by multiple popes and almost all the hierarchy.
God’s church isn’t a gay church.
The end result was a large contingent of victims, which eventually led to devastating publicity and law suits that wrecked the reputation, moral authority, and finances of the Catholic Church in the US and much of the developed world.
As a cradle Catholic with a K-12 Catholic education, I have no doubt that firm application of Catholic doctrines against homosexuality and for the protection of the innocence of children would have averted much of this tragedy.
As for sexual misconduct in other denominations and professions, I do not see how this excuses such failings in the modern Catholic Church, especially in the way they stem from its unwillingness to be resolutely Catholic.