# Yet more Catholic priests are rapists? Oh. Say it ain't so. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 15, 2018, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-catholic-priests-are-rapists-oh-say-it-aint-so/819624 "2018-08-15T01:02:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-catholic-priests-are-rapists-oh-say-it-aint-so/819624/21 "2018-08-15T14:12:47Z")
People just need to stay home on Sundays; their children are safer at home than in church. I think God will understand. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-catholic-priests-are-rapists-oh-say-it-aint-so/819624/22 "2018-08-15T17:17:45Z")
Recycled from the Sandusky era: What do Pennsylvanian priests and Campbell’s have in common? They both come in little cans. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-catholic-priests-are-rapists-oh-say-it-aint-so/819624/23 "2018-08-15T19:58:14Z")
Has any priest ever been arrested and convicted and sent to prison? ---
**Author:** ![ShadowFacts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfacts/32/2934_2.png) [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-catholic-priests-are-rapists-oh-say-it-aint-so/819624/24 "2018-08-15T20:03:47Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Has any priest ever been arrested and convicted and sent to prison? [Yes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Geoghan). ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-catholic-priests-are-rapists-oh-say-it-aint-so/819624/25 "2018-08-15T20:04:30Z")
Then let’s get moving. Bring the whole sordid mess down. According to Wiki, he was “diagnosed with homosexual pedophilia.” It’s a disease now? ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-catholic-priests-are-rapists-oh-say-it-aint-so/819624/26 "2018-08-15T20:43:29Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > [Pennsylvania, a breeding ground for Catholic Priest rapists.](https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/14/us/pennsylvania-catholic-church-grand-jury/index.html) The much larger problem is that Pennsylvania _wasn’t_ a breeding ground for catholic priest rapists. It’s just one of the places that’s dug deeply into the mess. There’s not a doubt in my mind that any state or country which did similar digging would turn up the same horrors. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-catholic-priests-are-rapists-oh-say-it-aint-so/819624/27 "2018-08-15T21:02:38Z")
Apparently they misread that “suffer the little children” quote. I think we need to rethink the statute of limitation on crimes against minors. It needs to be at least long enough for a child to reach adulthood, as it’s possible the child will never fully understand how bad/illegal some actions by adults can be until that child becomes an adult himself/herself. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-catholic-priests-are-rapists-oh-say-it-aint-so/819624/28 "2018-08-15T21:13:49Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > The much larger problem is that Pennsylvania _wasn’t_ a breeding ground for catholic priest rapists. It’s just one of the places that’s dug deeply into the mess. There’s not a doubt in my mind that any state or country which did similar digging would turn up the same horrors. I actually do agree. 100%. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-catholic-priests-are-rapists-oh-say-it-aint-so/819624/29 "2018-08-15T21:15:00Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Then let’s get moving. Bring the whole sordid mess down. > > According to Wiki, he was “diagnosed with homosexual pedophilia.” It’s a disease now? Well, pedophilia is considered a mental disorder, correct? The ‘homosexual’ part is troubling, unless they also diagnosis ‘heterosexual pedophilia’. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-catholic-priests-are-rapists-oh-say-it-aint-so/819624/30 "2018-08-15T21:50:17Z")
And the Pope leads the way… Pope Francis Silent About 1,000 Children Abused by Priests in Pennsylvania [https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/pope-francis-silent-about-1000-children-abused-by-priests-in-pennsylvania/ar-BBLYu2o?li=BBnb7Kz](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/pope-francis-silent-about-1000-children-abused-by-priests-in-pennsylvania/ar-BBLYu2o?li=BBnb7Kz) ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-catholic-priests-are-rapists-oh-say-it-aint-so/819624/31 "2018-08-15T22:01:23Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > And the Pope leads the way… > > Pope Francis Silent About 1,000 Children Abused by Priests in Pennsylvania > > [MSN](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/pope-francis-silent-about-1000-children-abused-by-priests-in-pennsylvania/ar-BBLYu2o?li=BBnb7Kz) To be fair, he would probably want to read the Pennsylvania report (1000+ pages long) and do some investigation of his own before addressing the issue. If he’s still quiet in a month, then it’s worth complaining. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-catholic-priests-are-rapists-oh-say-it-aint-so/819624/32 "2018-08-15T22:03:23Z")
I’ll also add that the lack of most people to remember anything much past 2 weeks ago is the second great evil of humanity. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-catholic-priests-are-rapists-oh-say-it-aint-so/819624/33 "2018-08-15T22:14:13Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > One thing I’ve had to assume - with the Catholic church rapes, with Roald Dahl’s stories of school, etc. - is that this sort of stuff happened to the parents of these kids and yet they sent their own kids back to those same places. So while the church takes full blame for failing to correct this - and likely has a long-practiced tradition of this sort of stuff from thousands of years back that makes this sort of thing likely to be endemic and basically impossible for them to kill from the inside - it’s still worth pointing out that this all shows the basic monstrosity of man and our ability to pretend like nothing is happening and never happened, if the niceties of society dictate that we follow the line. All of the biggest evils lie on that, and yet everyone is constantly trying to believe that there’s some sort of training or cultural shift that has or will change it. > > It ain’t so. It’s a creepy world where women will get raped in the middle of a concert, with a crowd of spectators watching. > > The gene for genial placidity is possibly the greatest evil of our species. After another story broke, I saw an interview with a late-middle-aged man and his very elderly father, who had both been molested by the same parish priest. The shame this carries was well described by the father, who said, “I was married to your mother for (50-plus) years, and I never kept any secrets from her, except for this.” ☹ On a related note, has anyone heard about the alleged abuse going on in the Shambhala Buddhist community, specifically the one in Halifax? While most of it seems to involve adults, if it’s true, it’s just as terrible. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-catholic-priests-are-rapists-oh-say-it-aint-so/819624/34 "2018-08-15T22:18:44Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > To be fair, he would probably want to read the Pennsylvania report (1000+ pages long) and do some investigation of his own before addressing the issue. > > If he’s still quiet in a month, then it’s worth complaining. Normally, I would agree. But do you think the Pope was ignorant of this issue until the actual report was released? We have a Cardinal who tried to get out in front of this. > [@](#): > > In a statement on Monday before the report was published, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the former Bishop of Pittsburgh who now heads the Archdiocese of Washington, said the report “will be a reminder of the grave failings that the church must acknowledge and for which it must seek forgiveness.” > “We are now in the midst of a new era where our communal bonds of trust are once again being tested by the sin of abuse.” ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-catholic-priests-are-rapists-oh-say-it-aint-so/819624/35 "2018-08-15T22:25:51Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > And the Pope leads the way… > > Pope Francis Silent About 1,000 Children Abused by Priests in Pennsylvania > > [MSN](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/pope-francis-silent-about-1000-children-abused-by-priests-in-pennsylvania/ar-BBLYu2o?li=BBnb7Kz) He should have the Church Police investigate. Nobody expects them. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-catholic-priests-are-rapists-oh-say-it-aint-so/819624/36 "2018-08-15T22:38:47Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Has any priest ever been arrested and convicted and sent to prison? There is one archbishop sentenced to prison, but who is now serving the sentence under house arrest: [Philip Wilson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Wilson_(bishop)). He wasn’t convicted of doing the child abuse himself, but of concealing child abuse while working in the [Diocese of Maitland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Diocese_of_Maitland-Newcastle) (now Maitland-Newcastle). Several priests from that diocese have been convicted of child abuse, and are serving or have served prison sentences. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-catholic-priests-are-rapists-oh-say-it-aint-so/819624/37 "2018-08-15T22:52:36Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > Normally, I would agree. But do you think the Pope was ignorant of this issue until the actual report was released? I don’t know how well the left hand talks to the right hand in the Catholic church. If you follow political news, for example, it’s not uncommon for politicians to make the point that they discovered things through the media reporting that, one might niavely think, would have been general knowledge among their clique. The Catholic church spans every continent on the planet and is dealing with wars, famines, and political diplomacy across hundreds of countries. I could reasonably see the goings-on of one city in America - in an organization that is institutionally constructed to hide misbehavior - not having had the reports that the police were all over and talking to everyone about child molestation make its way up the ladder all the way. I may be wrong, but so far Francis has seemed pretty trustworthy so I’m reasonably inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-catholic-priests-are-rapists-oh-say-it-aint-so/819624/38 "2018-08-16T00:30:34Z")
My brother was molested by one of the priests on the list. Another was the headmaster of the seminary high school where my brother also attended. So this hits home to me. The attitude was, we all know this happens just watch yourself and stay clear from the offenders. Nothing was done, nothing. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-catholic-priests-are-rapists-oh-say-it-aint-so/819624/39 "2018-08-16T00:39:40Z")
A combination of: Victims that don’t realize they were actually victims. Those that do realize it think too much of the good things the priest does to make it worth their while to bring up. When it is brought up to the pastor or bishop, the offender is reassigned and the victims can be told they were taken care of because there is a massive shortage of priests. It’s not something that need be agreed upon by anyone, but that everyone is well aware of anyway. The church can’t let go of anyone who actually was willing to become a priest and went through the training, because it’s becoming impossible to find replacements for them. That’s not to say that’s the response of the very first person in charge of the priest, but at some point some Bishop or Archbishop decides they can’t lose the priest and finds a new home for them. None of these people dare tell their superior about what they did. Bishops and Archbishops get their post by generally being good administrators, not by being the holiest. Most of them were like Cardinal Ratzinger, who as far as I am concerned was never Pope, and less were like John Paul II and Francis. Ratzinger probably resigned when he realized that the church needed someone more like his predecessor and successor than people like him as figureheads. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-catholic-priests-are-rapists-oh-say-it-aint-so/819624/40 "2018-08-16T00:46:54Z")
Well, it makes sense why the Catholics are so anti-abortion. Sorry. Too soon. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-catholic-priests-are-rapists-oh-say-it-aint-so/819624.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-catholic-priests-are-rapists-oh-say-it-aint-so/819624.md?page=3)