# Has "Nice" New Pope Made Media Stop Caring About Pedophile Priests? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 27, 2014, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-nice-new-pope-made-media-stop-caring-about-pedophile-priests/679837 "2014-01-27T12:15:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2014, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-nice-new-pope-made-media-stop-caring-about-pedophile-priests/679837/21 "2014-08-24T21:49:38Z")
> [@Arizona\_Mike](#): > > Have you considered the possibility that the rate of pederastic abuse has dropped to a very small amount, so there is just less to report? > > Pope Benedict laicized those who were problems. He streamlined the review process. He changed the seminary admissions criteria. He implemented mandatory training sessions for all clerical and lay members of the Catholic Church who come into contact with children, laying out the new standards. > > The annual mandated audit on abuse cases within the Catholic Church (by an independent contracted auditing firm), if the statistics are accurate, reflects hat the Catholics are dealing with the residue of cases from the fucked-up 1960s and 1970s, and most of the priests under investigation are already removed from ministry, retired, or dead. Even with those cases, in 2012 law enforcement found only six credible cases among 34 allegations of abuse of minors that were made in 2012. Credibility of 15 of the allegations was still under investigation. Law enforcement found 12 allegations to be unfounded or unable to be proven, and one a boundary violation. That’s out of about 40,000 current diocesan and religious order priests in the U.S. > > In my daily paper, I see a couple of stories each week on teachers, ministers, police officers, and correctional officers involved in sexual abuse of children - I don’t see many new instances involving Catholic priests, other than some old cases of laicized priests who came in during the 1960s that show up now and then. > > The rate of abuse in non-Catholic Christian denominations and other religions continues to be very high in comparison, and the rate of institutional cover-ups is likewise high, as seen in recent cases involving the Baptist, Buddhist, Jehovah’s Witness, and Orthodox Jewish communities. > > The revolting level of sexual abuse among teachers in non-religious institutions, and the cover-ups by colleagues and teacher’s unions (particularly in New York - [http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303393804579311142041815148](http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303393804579311142041815148)) is the subject of most media interest these days, and that’s probably appropriate. Most people have kids at risk in public schools, fewer people are church-going Catholics. A 2007 AP study found about 3 instances of sexual abuse of children happen in American schools every day. (The Washington Post, on the other hand, published an editorial saying that maybe sex between teachers and minors shouldn’t be a crime: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/sex-between-students-and-teachers-should-not-be-a-crime/2013/08/30/dbf7dcca-1107-11e3-b4cb-fd7ce041d814\_story.html?wprss=rss\_homepage](http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/sex-between-students-and-teachers-should-not-be-a-crime/2013/08/30/dbf7dcca-1107-11e3-b4cb-fd7ce041d814_story.html?wprss=rss_homepage)) > > There is less media interest in the rate of pedophilia in the entertainment industry, where sexual “indiscretions” are winked at, and convicted pedophiles like Roman Polanski are applauded and celebrated. AFAICT the above covers pretty much everything. The attitudes towards hebephilia and pedophilia were different back forty years ago, and that made it easier for priests to get away with shit (as was the case for others as well - the rate of attacks on minors is no higher AFAIK for religious than for any other profession with contact with minors). It has taken years to “process” all the cases that have come to light. There are over a billion Roman Catholics in the world - there are always going to be perverts among them. The current Pope is benefitting to some extent by the fact that the creeps are dying off or being kicked out. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2014, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-nice-new-pope-made-media-stop-caring-about-pedophile-priests/679837/22 "2014-08-24T21:59:24Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > I don’t think you can “demote” somebody from Cardinal, can you? You can fire him from your organization altogether, why can’t you demote him and stop presenting him as a leader and role model? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2014, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-nice-new-pope-made-media-stop-caring-about-pedophile-priests/679837/23 "2014-08-24T22:18:15Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > I don’t think you can “demote” somebody from Cardinal, can you? Otherwise, you would have, historically, have had popes getting in and then just purging their enemies in the Cardinalate. I believe he can be defrocked, but I don’t know if that would make him demoted. (And I’m sure there were popes who definitely did away with their enemies, although they were probably a lot more subtle about it) ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2014, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-nice-new-pope-made-media-stop-caring-about-pedophile-priests/679837/24 "2014-08-24T22:28:30Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > You can fire him from your organization altogether, why can’t you demote him and stop presenting him as a leader and role model? I don’t think you can. I mean, you can’t stop him from being a priest or a bishop, at least. Those are for life. And all being a cardinal does is let you vote for pope. I don’t think anybody thinks of a cardinals as “role models”. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2014, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-nice-new-pope-made-media-stop-caring-about-pedophile-priests/679837/25 "2014-08-24T23:25:04Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > The most recent sex abuse scandal story I remember hearing about was from a few weeks ago. [An Archbishop who is currently in the Vatican has been accused of sexual abuse while he was stationed in the Domincan Republic- and the Vatican will not extradite him.](http://news.yahoo.com/vatican-polish-prosecutor-don-39-t-extradite-132354602.html) > > The Vatican claims they’re doing their own investigation and will try him but they will not extradite him- neither to the Dominican Republic nor to Poland (he’s originally from Poland and seems there are some allegations of past abuse there as well?). > > Recent, but also the first sex abuse story I can remember hearing about since Francis first put on his dress whites. The story to which you link says: > [@](#): > > Dominican authorities subsequently opened an investigation, but haven’t charged him. So, if that’s true, any talk of extradition is a bit premature. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-nice-new-pope-made-media-stop-caring-about-pedophile-priests/679837/26 "2014-08-25T05:06:28Z")
Like what was said above, the Catholic church has done a pretty good job of cleaning up its mess and paying restitution to victims. I’m not Catholic but I do support my Catholic brothers and sisters. What I’m getting tired of is people that keep bringing it up to slam the Catholic church when it does something unpopular. I agree the media needs to start going after the pedophiles who work in the public schools. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-nice-new-pope-made-media-stop-caring-about-pedophile-priests/679837/27 "2014-08-25T08:51:36Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > The story to which you link says: > > So, if that’s true, any talk of extradition is a bit premature. And the Archbishop in question was “stationed” in the Dominican Republic as the Ambassador, as opposed to being the Ordinary of a diocese. In other words, this is different. It’s a diplomat with diplomatic immunity, as opposed to a citizen of a country. ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-nice-new-pope-made-media-stop-caring-about-pedophile-priests/679837/28 "2014-08-25T09:59:50Z")
Were there ever any proof that there were considerable more pedophiles among Catholic Priests than of Jewish rabbis, Muslim Imams, liberal male school teachers, homosexual gym teachers, or whatever group? If not, is any particular reason Catholic Priests should be singled out for especial examination and blame? ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-nice-new-pope-made-media-stop-caring-about-pedophile-priests/679837/29 "2014-08-25T11:24:40Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > Were there ever any proof that there were considerable more pedophiles among Catholic Priests than of Jewish rabbis, Muslim Imams, liberal male school teachers, homosexual gym teachers, or whatever group? If not, is any particular reason Catholic Priests should be singled out for especial examination and blame? The scandal wasn’t so much the existence of priest pedophiles (as you suggest, there weren’t wildly more then in other professions that work with children) but that the Church as an institution took steps to protect offending priests from exposure, in some cases moving them to places where they continued to have the opportunity to re-offend. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-nice-new-pope-made-media-stop-caring-about-pedophile-priests/679837/30 "2014-08-25T12:35:55Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > Were there ever any proof that there were considerable more pedophiles among Catholic Priests than of Jewish rabbis, Muslim Imams, liberal male school teachers, homosexual gym teachers, or whatever group? [No](http://www.newsweek.com/priests-commit-no-more-abuse-other-males-70625). > [@](#): > > If not, is any particular reason Catholic Priests should be singled out for especial examination and blame? Because they’re anti-abortion. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-nice-new-pope-made-media-stop-caring-about-pedophile-priests/679837/31 "2014-08-25T13:41:20Z")
It’s an organization that thought protecting the organization from embarrassment was more important than protecting the people being hurt by the organization. There’s nothing unique in this, but so what? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-nice-new-pope-made-media-stop-caring-about-pedophile-priests/679837/32 "2014-08-25T13:51:42Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > I don’t think you can. I mean, you can’t stop him from being a priest or a bishop, at least. Those are for life. And all being a cardinal does is let you vote for pope. I don’t think anybody thinks of a cardinals as “role models”. The way I understand it is that you can’t de-ordain someone, but you can effectively remove their job and affiliation with the Church, which is called “laicization”. So if you were to laicize a Cardinal, he wouldn’t be a Cardinal any longer, since that’s an elected, essentially administrative position, but he’d still be a Bishop, and any sort of sacraments performed by him would be valid, if illicit in the eyes of the Church. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-nice-new-pope-made-media-stop-caring-about-pedophile-priests/679837/33 "2014-08-25T14:32:23Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > What I’m getting tired of is people that keep bringing it up to slam the Catholic church when it does something unpopular. > > I agree the media needs to start going after the pedophiles who work in the public schools. If you’ve got evidence that there was a systemic and massive cover-up in our public school system involving hush money being paid out and teachers being shuffled all over the country to avoid prosecution and publicity, by all means blow the lid off this great conspiracy! ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-nice-new-pope-made-media-stop-caring-about-pedophile-priests/679837/34 "2014-08-25T14:42:34Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > And the Archbishop in question was “stationed” in the Dominican Republic as the Ambassador, as opposed to being the Ordinary of a diocese. In other words, this is different. It’s a diplomat with diplomatic immunity, as opposed to a citizen of a country. My understanding is that the immunity actually belongs to the country the diplomat serves, who has the discretion to strip him or her of it. So a request for extradition (if and when made) would include a request to waive diplomatic immunity. It is of course a different authority in each case - the request for extradition goes to the judiciary, and the request to waive immunity goes to the government. ---
**Author:** ![Cumberdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cumberdale)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-nice-new-pope-made-media-stop-caring-about-pedophile-priests/679837/35 "2014-08-25T15:31:42Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Like what was said above, the Catholic church has done a pretty good job of cleaning up its mess and paying restitution to victims. I’m not Catholic but I do support my Catholic brothers and sisters. > > What I’m getting tired of is people that keep bringing it up to slam the Catholic church when it does something unpopular. > > I agree the media needs to start going after the pedophiles who work in the public schools. The Catholic Church has done an incredibly poor job of dealing with their child rape problem. As for bringing up the child rape crimes, it needs to be brought up more until the powers that be in the church that participated are thrown out and put behind bars or in the ground. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-nice-new-pope-made-media-stop-caring-about-pedophile-priests/679837/36 "2014-08-25T17:20:37Z")
> [@bump](#): > > The way I understand it is that you can’t de-ordain someone, but you can effectively remove their job and affiliation with the Church, which is called “laicization”. > > So if you were to laicize a Cardinal, he wouldn’t be a Cardinal any longer, since that’s an elected, essentially administrative position, but he’d still be a Bishop, and any sort of sacraments performed by him would be valid, if illicit in the eyes of the Church. They can play all the lodge-brother silly-hat incantation rituals they like, all day long, but no one else is obliged to take any of it seriously. The part about protecting their own instead of the kids they’ve hurt, now \*that \*we need to be serious about. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-nice-new-pope-made-media-stop-caring-about-pedophile-priests/679837/37 "2014-08-25T18:33:22Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Because they’re anti-abortion. Also homophobic, deeply sexist, and with a tendency to lie about preventative care to people suffering from terminal and highly contagious diseases. Oh, also, a whole bunch of kiddy fucking. But yeah, it’s probably the anti-abortion thing that really drives it all. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-nice-new-pope-made-media-stop-caring-about-pedophile-priests/679837/38 "2014-08-25T19:06:55Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Also homophobic, deeply sexist, and with a tendency to lie about preventative care to people suffering from terminal and highly contagious diseases. > > Oh, also, a whole bunch of kiddy fucking. > > But yeah, it’s probably the anti-abortion thing that really drives it all. And as long as the church was run by mean ol’ “conservative” Benedict and John Paul II, liberals were eager to make hay of the scandals (and who can blame them?). Have the scandals ceased? No- but media outrage HAS pretty much ceased. Why? I can’t say for certain, but my besty guess is that Francis is (wrongly) perceived as a liberal on sexual matters, so he gets a pass for crimes that go on under his rule. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-nice-new-pope-made-media-stop-caring-about-pedophile-priests/679837/39 "2014-08-25T20:00:32Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > And as long as the church was run by mean ol’ “conservative” Benedict and John Paul II, liberals were eager to make hay of the scandals (and who can blame them?). > > Have the scandals ceased? No- but media outrage HAS pretty much ceased. > > Why? I can’t say for certain, but my besty guess is that Francis is (wrongly) perceived as a liberal on sexual matters, so he gets a pass for crimes that go on under his rule. I think it’s got more to do with the fact that the present Pope is pretty much a glurge machine. [Pope washes poor person’s feet!](http://jimmyakin.com/wp-content/uploads/pope-francis-washing-feet.jpg)[Pope blesses guy who’s, like, _really_ ugly!](http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/131106202159-03-pope-1106-horizontal-gallery.jpg)[Pope gets hug from adorable little boy!](http://a.abcnews.com/images/International/gty_pope_francis_kid_stage_tk_ss_131118_ssh.jpg) Up next, I think he’s going to baptize a kitten, or something. Meanwhile, the sex scandals HAVE died way down - or rather, we seem to have mostly mined the supply of scandals that had accumulated over decades thanks to the Church’s constant cover-ups. At the height of the scandal, there were new revelations of horrific abuse on almost a weekly basis. New stories of abuse are not nearly as frequent these days, and the Church is no longer able (if not willing) to prevent them from being prosecuted. The Church abuses were an important story, but they were also a very lurid story, and that sells a lot of ad space. Absent an ongoing bounty of really juicy stories in that vein, the media has found that stories about the Pope acting like your adorable grandpa sell almost as well, so that’s what they’re going with for now, despite the small drawback of it not actually being news. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-nice-new-pope-made-media-stop-caring-about-pedophile-priests/679837/40 "2014-08-25T21:05:12Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > They can play all the lodge-brother silly-hat incantation rituals they like, all day long, but no one else is obliged to take any of it seriously. \*\*The part about protecting their own instead of the kids they’ve hurt, now _that we need to be serious about_. (my bolding) Do you believe that the Catholic Church has “protected their own instead of the kids” more tan public schools, gyms, protestant churches, etc.? The RCC is an easy target. Small individual churches, a no-name school district, Joe’s Gym simply don’t get headlines nor do they sell as much. The unified nature of the RCC makes it easy to lump numbers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-nice-new-pope-made-media-stop-caring-about-pedophile-priests/679837.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-nice-new-pope-made-media-stop-caring-about-pedophile-priests/679837.md?page=3)