It’s only a small minority of priests who molest children.
The much greater number are the ones who help cover up their crimes.
I believe this is true, but I have had various levels of contact (none inappropriate) with four priests who were molesters. Undoubtedly just an example of how random small chances can cluster, but it certainly makes me wonder about the actual prevalence.
Parish priest in my small town, faculty resident at my university, associate pastor at my first parish when I moved to KC, pastor at the last parish I attended.
In other religious news, so-called Christians can also suck my ass,
You know what the difference between sinners and these Christians is? Christians are smug and self-righteous. We have countless examples of Christians doing the same evil shit as sinners. When they get caught, they squeeze out a tear, say a mea culpa, say a 'public prayer, then go back about their dirty sinful business and put everyone else down for not being as ‘saved’ as them. .
Actually, these guys don’t even bother.
Is 6% small minority?
The Spotlight article that broek the wall of silence from the Church said 78 they had confirmations on. They had evidence on 87. Which was just about the 6% they were expecting. then similar stories popped up all over the freaking world.
Besides, it’s not the ones the molested that are the real evil. The real evil are the ones in power who knew and sheltered them, moved them around, dumped them on unsuspecting parishes and gave them a fresh victim supply. The ones that pressured others to keep quiet, used their clout to shield them from police action, bullied victims into submission and are morally complicit in the devastation and suicides by their victims. All the while talking about how ‘moral’ they are.
Fuck them.
If “only” 6% of youth coaches molested their athletes, there would be a fucking shitstorm. Look at the uproar when an individual case is discovered.
Mathematically speaking, yes.
Right which is why I said:
My point was that these so-called pro-lifers don’t give a shit about children once they are born. Whether they molested them themselves, or they hid the crimes of those who did, they prove that their motives are self serving and evil, based on hate and contempt, not on any sort of moral foundation.
I wasn’t in any way trying to minimize what they did, just responding to @kaylasdad99’s somewhat facetious comment about waiting ten or twelve years.
78 out of what group? Is that 6% of the priests that they suspected? It’s certainly not 6% of the priests in the country.
As mentioned in your quote, out of the Spotlight (of the Boston Globe) article (in the Boston archdiocese). Out of about 1500 priests, they had evidence on 87 and confirmation of 78.
6% of Priests in Boston.It seems you have not seen ‘Spotlight’. You really should. A psychiatrist, a former priest , they were consulting with stated that his finding were that 6 % off all priests would act out sexually with children. He told the reporters this when they thought the scandal was limited to just 13 priests, which they thought was an awful lot. They later learned the truth, that the Church knew about all of them for decades and covered them up
There have been scandals all over the world like that of Boston.
Suggested starting for reading:
Good place to start.
And you can watch Mea Maxima Culpa on HBO
Another one that will curl your hair is The Keepers, a miniseries on Netflix.I
The book In the Closet of the Vatican by Frédéric Martel may be of interest.
It was thoroughly and carefully researched and verified. Martel says that a large majority of senior clergy in the Vatican are gay, and so are a large proportion of the senior hierarchy in America and elsewhere.
Now gay does NOT mean pedophile, but Martel says it’s a factor in the cover-ups:
The gay dimension doesn’t explain everything, of course, but it is key for anyone wishing to understand the Vatican and its moral postures. …
Homosexuality is also one of the keys that explain the institutionalized cover-up of sexual crimes and misdemeanours, of which there are now tens of thousands. Why? How? Because the ‘culture of secrecy’, which was necessary to maintain silence about the huge presence of homosexuality inside the Church, has made it possible to hide sexual abuse, and for predators to benefit from this system of protection within the institution – even though paedophilia is not the subject of this book.
Seems to me the separation of church and state should be absolute. The state should stay out of the church’s business and the church stays out of the state’s business. Once the church starts to tell us who to vote for, there goes their tax-exempt status.
Nope! I’m all for the state prosecuting the hell out of pedophiles and child molesters. That seems to have been one of the church’s many business interests.
It’s probably a good thing that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefit_of_clergy is no longer a thing.
That would be a horrible idea. I think we can all agree that the state should NOT stay out of the church’s business, when it comes to things like prosecuting clergy who commit crimes. And even aside from crime, both the church and state regard everything as their business, which guarantees overlap. If a religion says “thou shalt not kill”, and a government passes laws against murder, who’s getting into whose business?
Because the ‘culture of secrecy’, which was necessary to maintain silence about the huge presence of homosexuality inside the Church, has made it possible to hide sexual abuse, and for predators to benefit from this system of protection within the institution
This was mentioned in Spotlight. The psychiatrist said his finding was the celibacy requirement was a factor. He estimated that only 50% of the Priests were celibate. Most were having sex with consenting adults, but the fact that they have to hide creates a culture of secrecy that protects and even encourages pedophiles.
How it started:
How it’s going:
The Pillar claimed it had “found evidence the priest engaged in serial sexual misconduct, while he held a critical oversight role in the Catholic Church’s response to the recent spate of sexual abuse and misconduct scandals.”
So are they going to deny Burrill communion? Of course not.
Hypocrite Christians passing judgement upon others, while they themselves commit sins.
Next you’ll be telling us that the Pacific Ocean is bit wet, or the Andromeda Galaxy is more than a short walk away.
Of course, note that for a Catholic priest, “inappropriate sexual conduct” would include any sexual conduct at all. And after all, most people, even most people out of the set of those who can’t control their sexual urges, aren’t pedophiles. So the statement that his misconduct didn’t involve minors is quite plausible.
Which is not to defend Burrill. But of his sins, I think that the politicization of his position is the graver one.