Wonder how the Catholic Church will react to this?
Reportedly all of the prison population(s) look down on child molesters, abusers, of any and all types, as well as pedophiles.
What did he expect is his new position? Respect? Reverence?
Look for much hand wringing and lamentations from many areas.
No repentance in sack cloth and ashes = no forgiveness!
you wonder how the Catholic church will react. according to [url=“http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/08/23/geoghan/index.html”]CNN link[/rul] (and yes, I noticed your link was to CNN, too, but not sure if it updated between your post and mine)
I’m glad the bastard is dead.
or maybe he just ran into someone he knew when they were young…
Death is too good for them. Wish they’d kept him nice and safe so that he could end up some big old giant dude’s “honey”.
wring, what I meant by “how will the Church react?” is:
Will they use this as justification for covering up the actions of pedophile priests? (“Oh, for Mary’s sake! He just touched a little boy! It’s not like he killed anyone!”)
Will it inspire them to come clean quickly, in order, perhaps, to lessen the chances that the next priest sent to prison won’t be killed?
Or will they continue on the same course they have been? (i.e. Cover up, and drag their feet when they’ve gotten exposed.)
Er, make that “to lessen the chances that the next priest sent to prison will be killed.”
Some kind of Fruedian slip there, I guess.
I’d like to think so. 
Here in Australia, people who are convicted of child-sex offences are put into high-security protective custody.
What’s the deal in the US? Was Geoghan in the general prison population? Basically, without detracting from the heinousness of his crimes, I find it pretty strange that he was in a situation where somebody WAS able to kill him.
Nasty stuff all round.
I hope Fred Phelps pickets his funeral.
I’m not a CHurch Apologist at all (hell I’ve only even been in a Catholic church a couple of times in my life), but it seems to me that while there’s no doubt that for years they did in fact have a pattern of cover and conceal, in recent times, they’ve done what they made new official policies etc.
So, I guess I don’t see why you think the death of this particular offender is going to have any other reaction from the church other than the one I cited.
It’s well known in prison lore that child molesters are at the absolute rock bottom of the brutal pecking order. This news is no surprise at all. Jeff Dahmer, another notorious child molester, met a similar fate in prison. In the pen it’s perpetual open season on child molesters. Nobody will take their side; everybody feels entitled to take a shot at them. No tears are shed for them, and not the least bit of sympathy can be expected from anyone. The consensus seems to be that the molesters have canceled their membership in the human race. This world can sure be one hell of a bitter, grim existence for those who bring this on themselves. Let it be a reminder to the rest of us to treat one another decently and compassionately, and help to relieve one another’s suffering.
Tucker you seem to be switching goals, then. Your original point was for the church to stop the coverup, etc. Now you seem to claim that what you want is for the victims to have a face to face w/the offender and be able to vent and get an appology. Hard to see (if the priest is defrocked and in prison) how the church can be held responsible for arranging that. In any event, it is nothing in relation to covering up future molestations.
And IMO what’s worth a “reaction of the Church” is what happened before, that led to Geoghan being in jail. I don’t see why his death should be more or less significant to the policy side of the institution. After all, already in the past we had an alleged victim shooting dead another defrocked predator-priest (in Baltimore IIRC).
Goal? What goal? I never stated that I had a “goal.” I expressed curiosity as to how the church would react to this, and that’s it.
You, came in claiming that the Church had rectified it’s problems, I posted a link which showed that the Church has been varying in it’s response since it announced new policies. The issue is far from resolved, and won’t be for some time come. The Church may have announced new policies, but how well will it adhere to them?
JRDelirious, the killing of which you speak was but a mere blip on the news. If this story stays in the news (which it will if nothing major happens for the next week), then it could have an effect on Church policy. It might not.
kambuckta–
Here in the enlightened US of A many folks think it is justice when a molestor is killed in prison. Many also think it is justice when a burgler or robber is raped (or killed) in prison.
Of course Geoghan should have been isolated for his safety.
We have a long way to go here. A long, difficult way.
Someday, I hope, such barbarianism will not be tolerated. For now though, it is usually applauded.
Oh, it’s not just in the US that people ‘applaud’ rough justice. Many here in Aus feel that protected offenders should NOT be given such privileges, and that they should be thrown into the melee to await their deserved fate.
It’s interesting how we tacitly allow the least moral members of society (prison inmates) to be the moral arbiters of ‘justice’.
Tucker in your OP you queary how the Church will react to “this” (referring to the story about the guys’ death). I answered that question.
you then posted, no, no, you meant this:
To which I then responded that as far as I could see, one individual former priests death would be likely to have little effect on church policies, that AFAIK from news reports, that the church had made quite sweeping changes in their policies wrt even accusations about priest sexual conduct. (though I admit that I didn’t specify ‘priest sexual conduct’, since that’s the topic under discussion).
you then reply w;/ “tell it to them”, wherein you cite stories where former victims, were not happy w/the church’s settlement 'cause they wanted to confront their accusers and get specific appologies etc.
to which I answered , again attempting to follow your ever changing line of issues, that if the offender is no longer a priest and in prison, it wouldn’t seem that the church would have any possability of being able to require such a thing, and in any event, it wasn’t at all related to your prior points.
Tell ya what -
I get that you’re mad about the Church’s history of cover ups. I’m with you there.
I get that you’re mad about child molesters in general. again, I’m with you.
I get that you’re not convinced that the church’s new policies will be actually used. What I don’t see is evidence that their new policies wrt: new accusations has been violated.
I also get that you may not be happy w/the church’s responses to the list of folks already identified has having been victimized. Not sure, at all, however, how you think this one particular guys death figures into any of the above.