# Meanwhile back in the world of faith-based child molestation **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 20, 2012, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meanwhile-back-in-the-world-of-faith-based-child-molestation/616313 "2012-03-20T14:14:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meanwhile-back-in-the-world-of-faith-based-child-molestation/616313/21 "2012-03-21T17:18:14Z")
> [@Autolycus](#): > > Not all Catholic priests castrate little boys. > > Seriously though, you’re right. This was appallingly evil. But large entities, religions and governments, sometimes do amazingly evil things. The US government gave people syphilis without their knowledge or consent as an experiment. Should the entire government have resigned? I don’t intend on debating the issue over this shockingly shocking shocker, but I’d say the organizations are still around because they are A) powerful, B)long-lasting, and C) Do a service that is viewed as more good than harm. With regards to the Catholic Church and its giant, world-stretching catalogue of past crimes and the ongoing crimes of its attitude to homosexuality, contraception and AIDS alongside its never-ending attempts to avoid blame or punishment for past crimes I’m finding Point C very hard to credit. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meanwhile-back-in-the-world-of-faith-based-child-molestation/616313/22 "2012-03-21T17:47:34Z")
> [@spooje](#): > > So…he is molested by pedophiles in the church…then castrated by the church to cure his homosexuality? And to shut him up? And the government knew about it and was even there when it was being discussed?? > > :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:😕😕:mad: It is true. I saw leading headlines and an extensive background article in Dutch national newspapers last weekend. Except the part about the government knowing; it was just church officials who knew. When one victim stepped forward about twenty years ago, a legal case was prepared, but the victim died in an sudden car crash before the case went to trial and the case was dropped. ---
**Author:** ![Scholar\_Beardpig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@Scholar\_Beardpig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scholar_Beardpig)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meanwhile-back-in-the-world-of-faith-based-child-molestation/616313/23 "2012-03-21T18:22:02Z")
One day, one of the world’s nations will have the courage to round up all their priests and monks and nuns, whoever they are and whatever they’ve done, frog-march them onto a ship, and send them back to Rome, and outlaw that fell organization as the criminal syndicate that it really is. If they really want to make me happy, then once it gets over the horizon, they can send a submarine after it… ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meanwhile-back-in-the-world-of-faith-based-child-molestation/616313/24 "2012-03-21T20:46:30Z")
I had [to look up](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frog-march)frog-march. More ignorance-fighting! (Is it a regionalism?) ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meanwhile-back-in-the-world-of-faith-based-child-molestation/616313/25 "2012-03-21T20:50:45Z")
Well, America would then be devoid of Billy Talen and Father Berrigan. On the other hand if the loyalists got their way in Spain there would be no requiem masses for Hitler there every year… Hrmm. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meanwhile-back-in-the-world-of-faith-based-child-molestation/616313/26 "2012-03-21T20:56:23Z")
> [@Scholar\_Beardpig](#): > > One day, one of the world’s nations will have the courage to round up all their priests and monks and nuns, whoever they are and whatever they’ve done, frog-march them onto a ship, and send them back to Rome, and outlaw that fell organization as the criminal syndicate that it really is. > > If they really want to make me happy, then once it gets over the horizon, they can send a submarine after it… I grew up around catholic nuns, and the ones I knew were hardworking, honest, women with impeccable ethics. They were nurses, not teachers (the other big profession for nuns). Even the teaches I knew were good human beings however, although often of a different era where smacking fingers with a ruler was appropriate. Please don’t paint everyone in catholic orders with that very wide brush. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meanwhile-back-in-the-world-of-faith-based-child-molestation/616313/27 "2012-03-21T21:20:55Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > I grew up around catholic nuns, and the ones I knew were hardworking, honest, women with impeccable ethics. They were nurses, not teachers (the other big profession for nuns). Even the teaches I knew were good human beings however, although often of a different era where smacking fingers with a ruler was appropriate. Please don’t paint everyone in catholic orders with that very wide brush. This matches the experience my wife has with certain Nun orders. The church would be a whole lot different (better) if the nuns were in charge. ---
**Author:** ![Scholar\_Beardpig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@Scholar\_Beardpig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scholar_Beardpig)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meanwhile-back-in-the-world-of-faith-based-child-molestation/616313/28 "2012-03-21T21:36:04Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > I grew up around catholic nuns, and the ones I knew were hardworking, honest, women with impeccable ethics. They were nurses, not teachers (the other big profession for nuns). Even the teaches I knew were good human beings however, although often of a different era where smacking fingers with a ruler was appropriate. Please don’t paint everyone in catholic orders with that very wide brush. Complicity in the guilt of others is guilt in itself. When someone does evil, you sever ties with them. Continued membership in such an organization, even despite its very public sins, should be enough to cast a pall over anyone’s character. When the police raid a whorehouse, the janitors get booked, too - even though the janitors are doing the same thing there as they do anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meanwhile-back-in-the-world-of-faith-based-child-molestation/616313/29 "2012-03-21T23:58:07Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > The church would be a whole lot different (better) if the nuns were in charge. Are you fucking kidding? Read about the Madelene asylums sometime. Nuns routinely and repeatedly raped, sexually abused, tortured and starved girls. At least 150 girls died and were buried in unmarked graves, some literally in the basement. We will never know how they died, but it’s safe to assume that since the deaths were hidden from authorities at great effort, that it was not pleasant. Yeah, the world would be much better is run by nuns. Compared to the Magdelene nuns, who appear to have killed hundreds of the girls they were abusing, the priests only castrated a dozen boys that they were abusing and the priests didn’t kill any that we know of. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meanwhile-back-in-the-world-of-faith-based-child-molestation/616313/30 "2012-03-22T00:35:14Z")
Y’know, I get the feeling that if Jesus does show up again, he’s gonna tell everyone else to just sit there awaiting judgment while he heads for the institutions that claimed to represent him and administers some heavy-ass smiting, while telling the rest of us “relax, you’re getting nothing like this…” ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meanwhile-back-in-the-world-of-faith-based-child-molestation/616313/31 "2012-03-22T00:59:15Z")
> [@Scholar\_Beardpig](#): > > Complicity in the guilt of others is guilt in itself. When someone does evil, you sever ties with them. “Complicity” does not mean what you think it means. > [@](#): > > Continued membership in such an organization, even despite its very public sins, should be enough to cast a pall over anyone’s character. What country are you a citizen of, and do you pay taxes? ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meanwhile-back-in-the-world-of-faith-based-child-molestation/616313/32 "2012-03-22T01:14:54Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > What country are you a citizen of, and do you pay taxes? In your country, are those things voluntary? Because in my country, we don’t get a say about citizenship, it’s foisted on us the moment we are born and can only be renounced when you gain another citizenship, which is not possible for the vast majority of people. Paying taxes is also not voluntary. Or perhaps you are arguing that nuns would be imprisoned if they left the church? It’s little hard to make out what your argument is, but neither one makes any sense. ---
**Author:** ![Condescending\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Condescending\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Condescending_Robot)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meanwhile-back-in-the-world-of-faith-based-child-molestation/616313/33 "2012-03-22T02:49:45Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > I grew up around catholic nuns, and the ones I knew were hardworking, honest, women with impeccable ethics. They were nurses, not teachers (the other big profession for nuns). Even the teaches I knew were good human beings however, although often of a different era where smacking fingers with a ruler was appropriate. Please don’t paint everyone in catholic orders with that very wide brush. Pretty much the entire Catholic hierarchy is complicit in enabling and protecting child molestors. The fact that not all of them actually did the diddling doesn’t reduce their guilt as a criminal conspiracy. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meanwhile-back-in-the-world-of-faith-based-child-molestation/616313/34 "2012-03-22T03:25:16Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > In your country, are those things voluntary? > > Because in my country, we don’t get a say about citizenship, it’s foisted on us the moment we are born and can only be renounced when you gain another citizenship, which is not possible for the vast majority of people. > > Paying taxes is also not voluntary. Depending on what country you live in, you can always leave. “Complicity” requires a lot more association than just “happens to belong to the same global organization.” If we were to find out Steve Jobs was a mass murderer, the guy at the Apple Store who sold me my kid’s iPod Touch is not “complicit” in that crime. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meanwhile-back-in-the-world-of-faith-based-child-molestation/616313/35 "2012-03-22T03:37:53Z")
> [@Scholar\_Beardpig](#): > > Complicity in the guilt of others is guilt in itself. When someone does evil, you sever ties with them. Continued membership in such an organization, even despite its very public sins, should be enough to cast a pall over anyone’s character. When the police raid a whorehouse, the janitors get booked, too - even though the janitors are doing the same thing there as they do anywhere. Those who broadbrush this stuff, condemning every member or official of the church - no matter if not actually complicit - along with the guilty, don’t in my mind exhibit any sense of justice. I’m as anti religion as anyone, but I don’t think that headway is made by such vicious generalisations. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meanwhile-back-in-the-world-of-faith-based-child-molestation/616313/36 "2012-03-22T03:59:01Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Those who broadbrush this stuff, condemning every member or official of the church - no matter if not actually complicit - along with the guilty, don’t in my mind exhibit any sense of justice. Why does this religion deserve such special treatment? If some other non-religious organization was guilty of the same things (some company or political party for example), I can pretty much guarantee than most people would condemn every person who remained a member of it or supported it in any way. ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meanwhile-back-in-the-world-of-faith-based-child-molestation/616313/37 "2012-03-22T05:22:06Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > Are you fucking kidding? > > Read about the Madelene asylums sometime. Nuns routinely and repeatedly raped, sexually abused, tortured and starved girls. At least 150 girls died and were buried in unmarked graves, some literally in the basement. We will never know how they died, but it’s safe to assume that since the deaths were hidden from authorities at great effort, that it was not pleasant. > > Yeah, the world would be much better is run by nuns. > > Compared to the Magdelene nuns, who appear to have killed hundreds of the girls they were abusing, the priests only castrated a dozen boys that they were abusing and the priests didn’t kill any that we know of. Please note this was not a strictly Catholic thing and also plenty of priests and lay people were involved. These disgusting events were allowed to happen even though he government at the time were aware of the issues. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meanwhile-back-in-the-world-of-faith-based-child-molestation/616313/38 "2012-03-22T05:56:21Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Why does this religion deserve such special treatment? If some other non-religious organization was guilty of the same things (some company or political party for example), I can pretty much guarantee than most people would condemn every person who remained a member of it or supported it in any way. As to your first sentence, it doesn’t. As to your second sentence, if people think that way then my opinion of them is the same. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meanwhile-back-in-the-world-of-faith-based-child-molestation/616313/39 "2012-03-22T06:02:22Z")
I should add: … assuming the organisation they are broad brushing is one as enormous and disparate as the RCC. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meanwhile-back-in-the-world-of-faith-based-child-molestation/616313/40 "2012-03-22T06:42:43Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > I should add: … assuming the organisation they are broad brushing is one as enormous and disparate as the RCC. Size is irrelevant. And it doesn’t matter how “disparate” it is; if someone pays into the institution and supports it, they are enabling its unethical activities like shielding child molesters regardless of whether or not they personally approve. In fact given that it isn’t remotely democratic, regardless of whether they mean to or not they are effectively expressing their approval of the Church’s actions in the only way that matters to it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meanwhile-back-in-the-world-of-faith-based-child-molestation/616313.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meanwhile-back-in-the-world-of-faith-based-child-molestation/616313.md?page=3)