Gurdur

And Amos:

You owe Debbie T. a full, unqualified apology immediately.

Gurdur

Germany. But I'm a bloody Australian.

Jeremy Pallant

Of course you are part of the problem. You're blaming the victims for being victimized, and closing your eyes to the psychological issues. Frankly, you're no better than Cardinal Bernard Law, in that you seek to divert the problem rather than stand up and deal with it.

I am terribly disappointed, Amos. Until now I respected you. I hardly understood a word you said, but you seemed like a decent guy. Now you reveal your true colors. Shame on you. What will you do for an encore? Defend the tortures of the Inquisition, perhaps?

seebs

I suspect he could do that while being considerably less offensive.

Infinity Lover

Why don't you ask Gemma Therese, maybe she knows?

Amie

I agree with this post in many ways...so sad.

yes it is a morally repugnant terrible crime. If men can hurt children in such profound ways, those men are capable of anything sinister in my opinion.

Amie

I would like to see this someday however I would venture to say they would allow priests to be married before allowing female priests...

Debbie T

What are you babbling about now? Do you think you are guilty of something? Something you don't want to look at about yourself? Your lashing out like you did looks like something is going on with you.

Back to the subject at hand. Wouldn't it be a simpler solution to quit the denial about the elephant in the church you keep trying to hide? Do something positive to protect the children and stop denying the abuses in your church.

I am glad this has come out in the open, although you want to deny the problem it is beyond the point that it can be swept under the rug again. The world now knows what is really going on and watching the leaders of your church very carefully. Its going to take many years for the church to heal this.

Some quotes from the BBC news:

"When reassigning paedophile priests, those in authority hand-picked the next group of defenceless children that would be preyed upon.

"The world will never know the untold horror and pain their anger, avarice, envy, gluttony, lust, pride, and sloth caused.

"Their actions cannot go unpunished if not for the living but for the dead, for the children who did not survive and chose suicide as their only way out.

"Pope John Paul's void of leadership and total lack of compassion is by far the clearest sign that there must be an overhaul of leadership in the Catholic Church, starting at the top.

"Now, as we wait for American bishops to consider a policy of zero tolerance sometime in June, lawyers for the Archdiocese of Boston have actually asserted that negligence by a six-year-old boy and his parents was cause for the alleged abuse."

"I would wish on no-one the life that I have gone through because of one perverted man.

"What is preposterous is that all of this may have been preventable.

"Others in the Catholic Church knew what this priest was up to. They knew that this priest was having sex with children."

"But they cared more for keeping the actions of this priest secret and cared more for his mental health than the health and welfare of the abused child.

[ December 21, 2002: Message edited by: Debbie T ]</p>

Proxima Centauri

• First I am not a protestant theoligian, I'm an agnostic humanist.
• Second I don't remember ever mentioning the mosques built in England.
• Third, You object to "importing" people from male dominant societies. I don't. I am pleased that the women who come here from those societies have a chance to learn better values as do their daughters. That is not racism.

Jackalope

So there are no mandated reporter laws in Massachusetts? Here in California, any teacher, licensed therapist, doctor, or priest is required by law to report suspected child abuse. When I was a volunteer hotline operator at a child abuse prevention agency, we actually warned people that we were mandated reporters and if they told us things that constituted abuse, we were required to report them to Child Protective Services. Even after being warned, many people were still angry and suprised when we said we were going to have report what they'd just told us. I had more than one person tell me that they hoped I burned in hell. Because of course, it was my fault they were about to get a visit from CPS. Not because they'd been abusing their kids.

Gemma and Amos' responses here remind me a lot of those abusive parents who couldn't believe we were going to actually follow the law and report them. I'm stunned there is no such law in Mass.

--Lee

[edited to fix a typo, and to add that the level of denial some people here are displaying makes me feel ill.]

[ December 21, 2002: Message edited by: Jackalope ]</p>