# Why does sexual abuse by Catholic priests appear to be a distinctly American problem? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 8, 2004, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-sexual-abuse-by-catholic-priests-appear-to-be-a-distinctly-american-problem/238885 "2004-04-08T02:51:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-sexual-abuse-by-catholic-priests-appear-to-be-a-distinctly-american-problem/238885/21 "2004-04-08T12:24:38Z")
> [@](#): > > I remember finding a site of an abuse victim descibing how she had become a nun at a young age, was shipped to a country that did not speak English and then repeatedly raped by priests because it was better they have sex with her than go to a prostitute and get AIDS. She told her tale of escaping and finally making her way back to America after years of abuse, and back to Christianity through a protestant church. She now goes around telling her tale to protestant groups about the abuses of the church and the glory that is Jesus. > > When I first found that site, I asked a Catholic friend what he thought of her tale. He read it, and said “Well, I am sure she believes her story. Sad really.” He did not think that it had really happened to her. Then the pope apologizes. Well, the pope very certainly apologized for a number of cases in which priests _did_ abuse the sisters connected to their parishes. However, I do not recall that this was a world-wide problem (although it did occur in several places in the world). If you are implying that the woman that you cited was from the U.S., I’m going to aasume the story is invented unless you have solid third-party corroboration. It sounds like it is just a modern update of the old “tunnels from the rectory to the convent with babies buried in the convent basement” stories that were popular among anti-Catholic (notably Protestant, not secular) hate groups in the early 20th century. (With no implication that all Protestant groups engaged in such hate-mongering.) A “young girl” (from the _U.S._?) becomes a nun and is shipped to a country where they do not speak English (which would be _where_? in the last few years) and used by the priests to avoid _AIDS_(?) until she escapes and makes her way home and finds support among a Protestant group who now sponsors her for her speaking engagements? Sisters in the U.S. haven’t been taking “young girls” for a long time. With the drop-off in vocations beginning in the 1960s, few convents have the staff to accept high-school-aged applicants and nearly all postulants are accepted at (or after) college. She was sent somewhere that the priests used her to avoid getting AIDS? This implies that she had to have been sent over some time after the late 1980s–long after the age of recruits had risen to adult levels. She finds assistant among a Protestant group? How convenient. The U.S. embassy or consul was not accepting applications for stranded citizens? They would not notify anyone of the problem of American white slavery in Africa? There very definitely _was_ the sort of abuse that you described. However, it generally occurred among priests and sisters _of the same culture_ in areas where that culture had a long tradition of concubinage that had not been suppressed by the introduction of European Christian religions.\* I am sure that it is possible that some European or North American missionary, finding himself in such a situation, might have taken advantage of that situation, but that is _not_ what the actual investigators of the reports have generally found. - (Whether European Christian religions should be suppressing cultural practices such as concubinage in the Thrird World is a different set of discussions. The reality is that there are practices generally condemned by European Christianity that continue _sub rosa_ within the societies that have been subjected to missionary work.) ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-sexual-abuse-by-catholic-priests-appear-to-be-a-distinctly-american-problem/238885/22 "2004-04-08T13:11:46Z")
I wouldadd to what’s been said: the Archdiocese of Boston has had the worst problem with pedophiliac abuse of children…something like 7% of the priests of the diocese have been involved in such activities. However, the VAST majority of the abusers were ordained in the 1950’s and 60’s…and the Class of1960 (St. John’s seminary) were the worst! Adding to this,the attitude of the hieracrchy is both shocking and mystifying…there is one ex=priest now on trial (Shanley) who was an admitted member of NAMBLA! He made NO secret of his activities, and a parent of one of his victims called Cardinal Law many times to complain…Lawd did nothing! The record reveals tha ex-Cardinal Law repeatedly ignored warnings of many cases (of abuse)-he eaither re-assigned the errant priest, or quietly paid out settlements (out of court). So, the worst offenders were priests who were ordained at a time when official church policy was to IGNORE the reality of sexuality in people’s lives. I am quite sure that today’s priests have much healithier attitudes about sexuality. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2004, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-sexual-abuse-by-catholic-priests-appear-to-be-a-distinctly-american-problem/238885/23 "2004-04-08T15:54:22Z")
> [@](#): > > _BrainGlutton wrote:_ > A male of Catholic family, born with a homosexual orientation, lives in a religious community which condemns the gay lifestyle as sinful and unnatural… If you modify your scenario, it fits with more of the data. A male of a Catholic family, who discovers in his youth that he has sexual ideas that are viewed as deviant and perverted by his community, seeks shelter from his demons in the celibacy of the church. The demons persist, and being in a position of trust with the children, he has a weak moment and acts on them. Note that my use of “demons” is symbolic - I’m an atheist. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2004, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-sexual-abuse-by-catholic-priests-appear-to-be-a-distinctly-american-problem/238885/24 "2004-04-09T04:14:39Z")
> [@lee](#): > > I remember finding a site of an abuse victim descibing how she had become a nun at a young age, was shipped to a country that did not speak English and then repeatedly raped by priests because it was better they have sex with her than go to a prostitute and get AIDS. She told her tale of escaping and finally making her way back to America after years of abuse, and back to Christianity through a protestant church. She now goes around telling her tale to protestant groups about the abuses of the church and the glory that is Jesus. > > When I first found that site, I asked a Catholic friend what he thought of her tale. He read it, and said “Well, I am sure _she_ believes her story. Sad really.” He did not think that it had really happened to her. Then the pope apologizes. Can you provide a cite for this? I know there’s a lot of real horror stories about the RCC, but this one sounds disturbingly like the story of “Father” Alberto Rivera. You can read about him in the comic books of the pychotic-evangelical Jack Chick ([http://www.chick.com/](http://www.chick.com/)). Rivera claims he was a Jesuit priest until he finally found Jesus and broke with the RCC – and he has told a lot of tales about the Catholic hierarchy taking part in Satanic rituals and participating in world-domination conspiracies. But it turns out he’s a fraud, he never was a priest at all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-sexual-abuse-by-catholic-priests-appear-to-be-a-distinctly-american-problem/238885.md?page=1)