The gay friend was born in the early 70s. I’d guess he was out looking for a priest around 1980 give or take a year or two. Catholics my age (children in the 60s and 70s) have attested to knowing, when they were kids, that there were pedophile priests.
That would make him around 10 years old. If he was looking to have sex at that age he was picking the right venue.
Just tell me that it isn’t some 10 year old altar boy bent over a bench with his cassok rolled up past his waist screaming through tears for the priest to stop.
Oh yeah, sorry, I’m off by a decade. 1990 give or take a couple of years. I’d like to claim that was a typo, but it was a brain fart.
From your linked post
This doesn’t sound like very many, but if you look at the number of priests, nuns and monks in France you find that there were around 60,000 back in 1996 out of a population of about 60 million, so about 1 in 1,000. So based on these numbers someone is about 40 times more likely to be molested by members of the clergy than they are by an average member of the public.
Now there are a lot of caveats about these numbers. Its not clear what was meant by “Clerics” in the post which may include others minor clergy who are not included in my numbers from wikipedia. The number of priests have been declining over the years so the proportion of the population that are clergy was probably significantly higher than 1/1000 over the years of the study. The 60 million includes children who probably shouldn’t be counted in the abuse statistics. However in the opposite direction, most of the people counted as clergy in my stats are nuns, who, although they also have allegations against them, are probably less likely to molest than the male members of the clergy.
But none of the caveats are likely to overcome the 40 fold over representation of my original statistics.
But how did they compare to other people with that kind of access to kids? Like ministers in other denominations, and teachers, and scout leaders?
I grew up in the 60s and 70s as well and had no idea at that time - and to be honest, I’d be a bit surprised if it was common knowledge back then. I mean, it definitely happened , there’s no doubt about that and it’s possible that I just happened to grow up in a parish where it didn’t happen - but it would really surprise me if a kid who was victimized or his/her parents spread the word. Both because doesn’t sound like something that would happen in the culture of that time - and also because it’s hard to believe that parents knew it was going on and still allowed their kids to be in certain situations . I remember reading articles about kids who were abused when the priest took them camping or had a sleepover at the rectory - and it is just unimaginable to me that parents would allow their child to spend the night at the rectory or go camping in the company of a single priest if it was well-known that some number of priests molested kids.
My cousin was repeatedly abused by a priest. My uncle (by marriage) beat the shit out of him (the boy) for complaining about it. The offending priest was from a high status family (cousin of a bishop). Being on good social terms with him was very important. My aunt still hasn’t forgiven her son for causing all that trouble more than 40 years ago.
Then when I was in Kansas City in 1992-95 a guy in his twenties used to stand outside the cathedral holding a sign accusing a priest of molesting him as a teenager. He was beaten up by parishioners on more than one occasion. Of course he was vindicated more than a decade later, but he was generally (even by the local media) treated as delusional. The church and the police in KC were very tight. Many of the police were Irish and extremely defensive of the church.
My mother can tell you many many stories of Pakistan in the 1970s and 1980s and the US in 1980s and 1990s when she worked in a Catholic school in the DC area. The nuns running the school had a protocol around certain priests. My mother resigned in 2003 when it seemed like Spotlight triggered a bunch of paper policies that only seemed to be aimed at putting lay employees in legal jeopardy.
What’s more likely is that it happened, but wasn’t well known. Think about the culture of the time - little Jonny gets buggered - he’s going to be ashamed and not tell anyone. Yes, it’s possible that you grew up in a parish with no abuse. AFAIK, I grew up in a parish with no priest abuse. Heck, I know all of the priests that have been at that parish since the late 70s, and would be surprised if any of them had allegations against them. Nope, I take that back. There’s two that I can think of that AFAIK never abused any kids, but I wouldn’t be shocked if something came out about them.
I went to a small catholic college, early 80s. There were plenty of stories there about the priests in the rectory.
That’s exactly what I’m trying to get at , that I don’t think it was well-known at the time. That Jonny wouldn’t tell anyone except maybe his parents and even if they did believe him , they would be unlikely to tell anyone else.
I’m sorry for what happened to your cousin - but I’m going to use this anecdote to try to make my point clearer. First , it seems to be more likely that his parents’ treatment of him was because they didn’t believe him rather than because they expected him to tolerate the abuse without complaint. But even if they did believe him , I doubt very much they spread the word around town so that the other parents knew what was going on.
The Catholic Archbishop whose remit is the US military, says troops should be allowed to opt out from being vaccinated.
Update:
Of course the bishops still think they have the authority to block people from receiving God, even if they aren’t choosing to exercise it now.
But diddling kids is is still OK?
I think they’re wrong for threatening politicians with it, but within the Church they do indeed have that authority, as does IIRC any priest (bishops can order their subordinate priests, an individual priest can refuse communion to a particular person).
I know; I am denying that their self-proclaimed authority is effective.
As long as you say you repent.
And then the “punishment” is to be sent to a new place with a fresh crop of unsuspecting victims.
Our local and universally beloved parish priest was found to be diddling little girls (what a rebel!) about a decade after Spotlight. Of course he was not criminally prosecuted but was “removed from ministry” and I’m sure oodles of money was paid out in undisclosed settlements.
The priest was never replaced. Instead the parish was merged into a regional collaborative, with basically one mass a week. This is definitely in a very Irish-American area where the majority of the population is at least nominally Catholic. But church attendance has plummeted over the last twenty years.
The Archdiocese has been teasing the town for years that when the church is inevitably closed they will hand the property over at a very favorable price to either a local nonprofit or the town to build a community/recreation center.
Now that they are actually selling they are selling to the highest bidder. Are people outraged by this head fake? Hell no. The outcry is against the “[misogynistic slur]s who got a free ride in life on the back of a mistake by the priest, bankrupted the Church and is forcing them to sell property at commercial prices”
They are saying this in front of parents of the girls who were (allegedly?) molested under age 10 and to their parents. And probably the girls themselves (now high school or college age).
It’s not the precipitous drop in church attendance and presumably collections from the same nominal Catholics. It’s not the priests who abuse children. It’s the conniving 8 year old Daisy Scout who entrapped a Man of God who is to blame for this.
Another dumbass MFer in robe
Abortion BAD, Fucking kids…kinda bad??? If you are caught??? Not enough to tell a reporter or a cop, but…
Fuck the Catholic Church.