I’m flashing on an old episode of South Park but I’m too lazy today to Google the exact one.
I’ll second and add some bias from the press against the Church of Rome (or whatever the technical term is). I knew a priest who was accused; mostly in the press. The actual situation was that he came from a wealthy family and had access to a lodge at a nearby resort area. Another priest borrowed the lodge and did indeed molest children. No one following the story, reporters and the like, could believe “Father P” was so stupid and blind to not know what was going on. I could believe it; Father P really was that much of an idiot. But his future as any form of parish priest was over and his vocation destroyed. I am sure there are examples from other denominations but to me it looks like cases like that are more common in the RCs because of the tighter and more strict “chain of command”.
I’ve recently had this thought, about other denominations doing it to. Unfortunately the Catholic church takes the brunt of the heat for some reason. Not saying they don’t do it, they just tend to get caught the most.
I’ve given up on trying to convince people that “hate Catholics” for that reason that other denominations and religions do it.
It’s Red Hot Catholic Love, the one where people shove food up their butt and crap out their mouth.
Not really. It was seen as a serious crime so long as it wasn’t commited by someone in a position of authority. A beggar? Believable. The major? Oh, stop crapping lies! If it was done by a relative, teacher, doctor, husband… anybody claiming assault would have been told either to stop lying, stop exaggerating, stop saying things that might make the family look bad or in the case of husbands “well, it’s his right”.
And sometimes, the “shuffling the offender to a different location” worked. In the case of the new teacher who “overstepped boundaries” with me (and as of last check, I’ve never been a boy) and five of my classmates, it worked because 1) the different location chosen was one whose children were known to have steel spines and 2) the parents of the majority of those children did, too. Students who had that same teacher in the following 20 years angrily defend him any time the subject of that assault comes up. To them, he’s the sweetest old man.
Not true.
Here in Minneapolis, 2 bishops (including the Archbishop) have resigned for covering up these crimes, and doing the classic shuffle-them-around response. And these were incidents that happened in 2012-2015.
Enough of them have come to light, with the abused children filing lawsuits, that the archdioceses has already filed for bankruptcy (apparantely they think they are likely to lose these lawsuits), and is busy trying to conceal church assets.
The news today said Pope Francis says, “The bishops responsible should be arrested”, referring to the recent transfer of 10 molesting kids to South American communities.
Please note the lack of words in that statement from Frankie. He may as well have said, “Someone should do something to stop this, but not me. Just because I’m in charge doesn’t mean it has to be me.” :rolleyes:
He was referring to the bishops covering it up in the quote I took. Bishop being naïve to believe, say, a priest who said " I messed up really big time, I was weak, but I’m really sorry and it won’t happen again." Then sweeping it under the rug, which was par for the course when they were growing up and still was when they did the cover-up… then 20 years later, shit hits the fan, church says “thank you for 50 years of service, but that one priest you forgave and transferred. You’re fired, go find your own way in the secular world with no money, no family, no support.”
Do you find that fair?
(The “I’m sorry” bit - one thing some sociopath predators are really good at is faking penitence when caught).
You’ll hear plenty of stories, some not that old, of people in positions of authority who committed child molestation, rape, some unspeakable crime. Same thing happens if a family member is accused of the act. Even the victim’s parents would likely accuse the victim of making stuff up - as much out of fear of forcing the issue and taking on the establishment, general denial that bad things are happening, disbelief that these things happen, etc. Nobody wants to scream the priest is a child molester when the clergy, the bishop and his buddies the city council and chief of police, members of congress, etc. can threaten the family with slander charges, creating a disturbance, making a false report, and anything else necessary to shut them up (up to and including “we can take away your other children since you are obviously unfit if you persist in these claims, and this trouble-maker will end up in the reform school run by the Jesuits…”)
the amazing thing is that the truth eventually came out.
I’m paraphrasing something a comedian (Dave Attell?) has said. I’m an atheist who leans a little more toward the hard-atheist end of the spectrum each day.
We’ve all heard altar-boy jokes for our entire lives. The amazing thing to *me *is that we took so long to take them seriously. An organization’s perceived need for its members to protect each other taking precedence over the actual needs of outsiders? That does not amaze me at all.
If you actually read the New Testament, a lot of Jesus’s message was about screw-ups and how people ought to be given a second chance. This even applied to sexual sins - see John 8. Given that, it’s not actually that surprising that someone would want to give a molester a second chance because they believe that it’s what Jesus would have done.
I think everyone knows or at least suspects that there isn’t any such thing as an afterlife, or divine judgment, or god. Some people are very good at squashing this feeling down and burying it in layers of religious study and prayer and overcompensation. I’m guessing the pedo priests have convinced themselves (at least superficially) that god will forgive them, while simultaneously in their heart also doubting that a god knows or cares about their crimes. They’re probably more torn up about their own feelings of guilt and shame than they are actually worried about comeuppance.
If I may hitch on to your post, I also don’t care if a Bishop who let a priest (or priests) fuck little boys in the ass is out of a job when he is an old man. The fact that he got away with enabling child rape for decades doesn’t make him less deserving of punishment.
It’s not like when they finally caught Whitey Bulger we decided to let him go because he’s old.
They’re fucking bishops. They manage huge numbers of personnel, large amounts of money, and substantial diocesan holdings. Not to mention that they’re the heirs of the Apostles, according to the church.
There are not supposed to be issues that are above their pay grades, and if they swept things under the rug and allowed them to happen again they should feel lucky if all they suffer is job loss.
The scandal wasn’t that a bishop would transfer a priest exactly once, and everything was fine after that. The scandal was that bishops would transfer priests again, and again, and again, getting them “treatment” each time, and neglecting to warn the pastor of the new parish of that particular priest’s history. How many times do you have to transfer a child molester who keeps molesting, before deciding, “Hey, this isn’t fucking working?”
This is why Bernie Law belongs in a jail cell, or at least should be panhandling on subway stations, instead of living a cozy retirement in Rome.
Priests are people and there are some bad ones and mostly good ones ( I hope ). They are just like cops,or firemen or lawyers ( well, maybe not lawyers or politicians ).
They were caught at one bad thing, so, why would we assume that that’s all they did. Maybe they did and maybe they did not. One thing is for sure, the church did all they could to keep it low-key. The first thing they did was circle the wagons and call out the lawyers.
I think the victims deserve a lot of credit for having the guts to speak up.
