My own experience with the clergy in my Catholic school days is a bit different than as described here. And maybe it really is the same thing, I don't know, but it seems to me that the operating principle was one of both loyalty and the path of least resistance.
In the mid-sixties, if you hit a nun or a priest you were expelled, immediately. That nun or priest could have done whatever he or she wanted to you, and the presumption of guilt was always directed away from them and on to you.
And, so, it would inevitably devolve into a situation where it was the word of the laity, or the child of a member of the laity against the nun or priest. That was not a contest a lower-class kid was going to win. I would imagine if you had a fat wallet and some influence and went to the bishop and said, either you act against this beastliness or I'm withdrawing endowments, etc. you might get some satisfaction. And the money thing is probably a problem in many a church outside the Catholic church too, I should think.
I do think the pederasty scandal brought out people who probably had no legitimate claim, and the Catholic church certainly can't be blamed for trying to ferret out which allegations were true and which were false. I've some experience w/being touched and dealt with in an inappropriate manner, still and all, if someone were accusing any member of my family of same, I'd want more than just their word.
The pederasty problem of the RCC wasn't so much that pederasts were in its midst, but that they really hadn't a clue as to how to deal with it.
Don't know if you remember or not, but when the zero tolerance thing was convened in Texas, governor Keating of Oklahoma was on some panel to help oversee and/or navigate the conference. He resigned after about a week or so. I would imagine that he did so because he didn't want his name linked with efforts that were so manifestly lacking.
Rod Dreher, columnist for one of the Dallas papers, chronicled this whole thing, and ended up converting to Eastern Orthodoxy. And I think the reason that he did is that he realized that if it had been on of his own kids who suffered at the hands of these priests, he would have not been able to resolve a thing.
The Catholic laity, supine as it, by design, seemed more concerned about how this made the churuch look, than the lifelong damage the actions of these priests caused. It's like the Reparations thread you saw here during Lent that showed such a bunker mentality. The Reparation thread was like going to confession and confessing someone else's sins: 'don't bless them Father, for they have sinned.' It's been never since their last confession and since then they've disagreed with me 6 times, with pluck, mind you, and they just really got under my skin.' Was a Reparation thread posted during the pederasty scandal? I can't say for certain, but I think not.
You would think that amidst such anguish and horror, that JPII or even the current Pope might just want to call these kids to Rome, so that he could put his arounds them and suffer with them, as any Good Shepherd should want to.
Keating is shown on the DVD. His report was issued and ignored. No surprise there.
The documentary does an excellent job of showing that the RCC protects the priestly class because the RCC believes the priestly class to be closer to God than the laity, a privileged group of men who can do just about anything they want and get away with it under the guise of the cloth.
But God will not be mocked, and each will answer for his sins, just like the rest of us.
I hope you see the DVD. It is devastatingly specific.
Fact check. Keating was the chairman of the national committee. He was on it for a year, not a week. He resigned after he made a comment comparing some bishops' obfuscatory behavior to that of Mafiosi (I'm paraphrasing) and one bishop complained publicly.
That bishop's name would be ... Mahony.
I think one of the main issues that many people have with the RCC is not that they are not perfect, but that they appear so hypocritical. They claim that they are the only true church, the representative of Christ on earth via the pope guy, yet they don't follow the very clear and very basic teachings of God's Word on what to do when someone in their midst blantantly sins (and a most disgusting and vile sin) much less one who is supposed to be a shepherd of the sheep. And it wasn't just one instance, but occured mulitples of multiples of times over many years. The fact that they have never repented nor confessed that how they handled this evil person must be addressed before they can be taken as ones who can be trusted to speak for God.
And you shall know them by there fruits.
I think one of the main issues that many people have with the RCC is not that they are not perfect, but that they appear so hypocritical. They claim that they are the only true church, the representative of Christ on earth via the pope guy, yet they don't follow the very clear and very basic teachings of God's Word on what to do when someone in their midst blantantly sins (and a most disgusting and vile sin) much less one who is supposed to be a shepherd of the sheep. And it wasn't just one instance, but occured mulitples of multiples of times over many years. The fact that they have never repented nor confessed that how they handled this evil person must be addressed before they can be taken as ones who can be trusted to speak for God.
And you shall know them by there fruits.
I asked my pastor about it once, and he just sadly said that they felt they had to leave to protect the kids.
My basic problem is going after actions forty years ago rather than within reliable memory. It violates basic notions of due process. It aims at an unpopular institution and leaves untouched the greatest offenders, the public schools. But what grinds me more than anything is that no one even notices
the real offense, the great blunder, which was to allow the priesthood to fill up with sexually perverted homosexuals who are allowed to fill the ranks of the Church probably all the way up to Cardinal, who conceal the sins of others because in so doing they are concealing their own.