Blue_Metal

I live in this little town in TX, I just did this search engine thing, and there's SIXTEEN of them! And there all ages! One's FIFTEEN YEARS OLD! And there's another one that goes to my highschool! As if I didn't hate school enough already. Oh, and guess what the victums age was, EIGHT!

I can't wait to get out of this town. We have a pop. of about three thousand. How can so many live here. And I used to feel so safe!

Blue

DMB

The catholic hierarchy has a terrible record on protecting its own. How about the protection they gave to hundreds of the worst Nazi war criminals after WW2? If they were catholics, they had to be protected.

sullster

Well, maybe back then they would protect anyone who was catholic, even a mass-murdering Nazi, but things have changed. If you are a young boy who is catholic, you are certainly not protected. The priest who diddled you is protected.

There are local apologists who keep claiming that many of these boy-molesters have been "holy men" and have done great things. Molesting boys and ruining them forever is balanced out because the priest bascically did his priest job well. What a crock of dung! Does anyone think that a psychiatrist would get off a charge of molestation because he helped lots of other people? You know he would be in jail.

There are some people here who are claiming that catholics who are outraged at all this , are not "true catholics". Not only can the clergy wall themselves off, they get support from the rump-kissers in the pews.

One more bit. Hundreds of lawsuits are being filed in the Boston area by victims of priests going back 30 years.

brighid

Those who are convicted are certainly reported – but of those 90 priests in Boston alone – how many of them were exposed prior to this to a criminal investigation? Those priests that actually have felony convictions are pretty widely publicized and easy to detect. But those parents who contact Church Officials and are told to keep silent and do so to protect their “faith” don’t usually go to the police until much, much later. I think it’s disgusting that they will protect their faith but not all the future children who will be molested by these predatory men.

If the Church demands secrecy – as is their “tradition” and coerces families into silence, shuffles these priests to different parishes, how are those congregants supposed to protect their children?

It is really difficult to put a 6 year old child on the stand and I don’t think any child should be subjected to the trauma the justice system will inflict upon them because that child happened to be the victim of some sick priest, a man who abuses his authority and divine appointment to damage children for his own sick pleasures.

I have very mixed feelings about the Constitutional rights of sex offenders. We post the pictures of the Most Wanted Criminals, we have shows like Cops and although I believe everyone has the right to privacy I believe that convicted felons, who have high rates of recidivism should not be able to hide behind their rights to privacy – specifically because they prey upon children, who cannot protect themselves and in many ways do not have rights equal to adults.

I think, as a parent I have the right to know whether or not a caregiver has ANY past felony convictions. Any teacher, councilor, priest or other adult who is entrusted with the care of our children should be thoroughly screened and we cannot protect our children when Institutions have a policy of hiding the truth about those men and women. It is completely irresponsible and IMHO unconscionable to allow men and women with these criminal convictions to be around children in any capacity. We lock our household cleaning products in high cabinets, there are warning labels on every inanimate object that could foreseably present a danger to a child, and yet there are no warning labels on dangerous people.

Brighid

Grizzly

Do you know what is the most frightening thing is (to me)? There is nothing that makes the Boston Diocese special. This could be going on all over America.

The Catholic Church provides pedophiles with the perfect cover.

1) no questions about why they aren't married or dating
2) great access to children
3) a job where you are supposed to get close to families
4) a hierarchy that for years would cover up your crimes - and set you loose on a whole new set of people (and children).

It's amazing that anyone would let a priest near there children these days. The entire church in America should have lost all credibility.

sidewinder

I think that Catholic Priests and Evangelical Preachers are considered to be called by God Himself to serve. So, it would seem to me that if this all powerful God actually existed and apparently called these people to serve for Him, that He would pretty much guarantee sucess for these people in their calling. Yet, history tells a different story about these alleged servants of God. This particular case is just another in a long list of atrocities perpetrated by the Catholic church. Yet, I'm sure it will be ignored by most Catholics. It'll be explained away in some twisted fashion using original sin and free will in the explanation. The victims who will be scarred for life aren't as important as upholding the "truth" of the Catholic faith.

abe smith

The latest news tdays paper, is that the Archbishop of a see in POLAND [I forget which: begins w/ 'p'] is announced/admitted by the Vatican to have "molested" boys & seminarians.

Captain Pedantic

Anyone who likes children and is turned on by attacking children will almost certainly go for a job where they can not only get access to children, but can also be seen in public to be "respectable".

It would be nice if we could tell the bad'ns just by looking at them, but people who do bad things are most often respectable, intelligent, charming individuals. That's how they get away with it.

The church is a particularly good cover, because - even amongst the not especially religious - there is a sort of tacit agreement or understanding that priest=holy=good. Of course, where the religious and the not especially religious often (not always, no cruel generalisations here) differ is that the religious will often feel so devastated by their support system crumbling, and by the realisation that religion does not necessarily contain powers to make any human being good (which may well have been something they genuinely believed - indeed, it may have been the very reason for their belief) that they would much rather deny it, and claim that God will heal all sins etc.

It's not right, of course, but it is very human. The human mind has the most amazing capacity to block out what cannot possibly be happening. Repression, denial, anger. It's all here, and it's all for protection from reality.

Seeker196

Ya know, growing up in a vaguely Catholic family one is inundated by all the altar boy jokes, etc. (I remember a particularly raunchy one my cousin told me about choirboys, kinda put me off the whole choir thing)

Guess there was some reality to them after all. So much for the 'kindly old man' image.

brighid

I know of a guy who was attending seminary school and was not closeted about his gayness. He told some pretty interesting stories about how it was an esteemed honor to be invited back to the Bishops place for a "nightcap." Now, of course this was an adult man consenting with another adult and therefore that kind of thing is not what I would call morally repugnant - just utterly and completely hypocritical from a Catholic or Christian point of view on the abominations that homosexuality is as defined by the Bible and it's henchmen.

What I have always found interesting about Catholicism and Christianity an it's vehment stance against homosexuality is how their doctrines and the utter contempt they have shown toward women is a breeding ground for homosexuality - at least for those who make the choice. At the very least it attracts homosexuals in large numbers to the priesthood and to the nunery.

One of the lovely Catholic priests that has dubbed me as the Dark Angel commented how he has always been mortified at specific schools that seems to attract the largest numbers of gay men and that he hated having to visit!! What I would have paid to see that man squirm as another priest hit on him.

Brighid