sullster

The diocese here in Boston has been outing child-molesting priests, as ordered by a new law, and by the defiant Cardinal Law. The count is up around 90 and climbing. Yet, they are going to be showing up in your neighborhood next, no matter where you live. The nearbly states of New Hampshire and Maine are starting to drop pedophile priests. I just read that a priest or two is going in Pennsylvania.

This is going big-time, I say, and the child-molesters are going to be purged all over the country and maybe the world. What was going on that such mentally ill individuals were first attracted, accepted and given protection by the church? The fact that the church can so speedily identify the pedophiles shows that they knew who was doing it for decades. Watch out, wherever you are, they're coming out.

brighid

It's really sick that in ONE area they have NINETY pedophile priests. It makes me want to vomit!!

How the hell can they send these guys to ANOTHER parish anywhere? They should be defrocked and a warning label should be permanently attached to their foreheads that reads: Warning - do not allow your children within 100 ft of me. I am a sick bastard who will fondle and rape your children and I do it all in the name of your Lord and God.

They should have their faces up on the bulletin boards of the Post Office and every grocery store around. If you see this man - stay away - he is a pedophile!

Just another one of the many reasons my children will NEVER attend church! It seems those that do drastically increase the chance that their children will be harmed by a priest!

Brighid

hezekiah jones

Many states do in fact provide this information. Most if not all states maintain a sex offender registry, and the information is available through various means.

Some states, such as Alabama, post photos, home addresses, and criminal records of registered sex offenders.

You can find out to what degree this information is available for your state at <a href="http://www.sexualpredators.com/" target="_blank">sexualpredators.com</a>.

Megatron

For some reason, I can honestly say that I'm not surprised...

Can't we figure out some way to get these assholes imprisoned, or exiled into deep space with no life-support equipment?

Megatron

HOLY SHIT!!!

One of these assholes lives in the next apartment complex down from me!

A child molester, even!!

brighid

Hezekiah-

Thanks very much for the link! I have already gone through the ones in my area. It's pretty disgusting to know that some of these men (and a few women) live so close to my family.

The problem with finding out if some of the clergy in the area are sex offenders is that so few are criminally prosecuted and those cases are settled out of court.

How are people to guard themselves a system that protects these men and shuffles them from one state to another and when they aren't listed in national or state databases?

Brighid

hezekiah jones

I don't believe the fact that many sex offenders settle their cases out of court precludes them from being included in the registries - a conviction is a conviction, whether the result of a jury trial or a plea. In fact it is often desirable for the state, on behalf of the victim, to avoid jury trials, since trials necessitate victims to endure considerable additional agony.

Having a six-year-old victim testify at trial can be extremely traumatic, as I'm sure you can imagine. This is the main reason that the state often will attempt to avoid jury trials in these cases. However when the defendant opts for a trial, the state becomes much more aggressive in pursuing the maximum penalties. But remember that sentences arrived at through plea agreements are already pretty damn hefty these days, and deservedly so. It is not uncommon, in Wisconsin at least, for sentences of 30 or 40 years to be meted out to sex offenders even in plea agreements.

My wife (a state prosecutor) tells me that only in very narrow circumstances would the inclusion on the registry become a factor in a plea agreement. For example a sex offender may avoid the registry by virtue of very specific circumstances, such as the fact that the victim may have been 15, and the defendant, 17, and the activity otherwise consensual - a crucial point, although, generally speaking, 15-year-olds (and younger) are deemed by the law to be technically incapable of consent. But exclusion from the registry on account of such circumstances is a relatively rare occurrence.

However you are correct, there is not a uniform national policy, and by browsing around the various states' websites, the degree to which information is readily available varies widely. It should also be noted that the ACLU, I believe, has challenged the constitutionality of the information available on these websites on several occasions.

[ February 23, 2002: Message edited by: hezekiahjones ]</p>

trunks2k

I was watching a thing on TV and a representative from the Catholic church was trying to defend the pedophile priests.

Basic idea of what was said:

"You cannot condemn these men, you don't know them, I do, they have done great things. They are not evil"

Reporter: "THEY HAD SEX WITH CHILDREN!!"

sullster

Just to show you how vast this pedophile thing is, let me tell you that a former priest from the city where I live in now on the list. The next small city, about 20 miles away, a priest was just pulled out of a church.

A guy who was a religious teacher and youth councilor, who was convicted last year of multiple counts of diddling little boys, was shown to have been protected by the church for a few years.

The Boston Cardinal is very Nixonian in the sense that he angrily defies any calls for his resignation. He calls the clergy a "family", and he seems to have felt the need to protect the sickos in his "family". Being cardinal is a good job with good pay and perks and I am sure he doesn't want to loose it.

The priests have a great preference for little boys. One young priest was accused of having sex with a 15 year old girl, and he is a glaring exception to the rest.

It is all cause for vomiting. There are few things that are more revolting than an authority figure with ties to self-proclaimed transcendant reality ,using his power to sexually assault innocent little boys. These kids are the children of practising catholics, obviously ,so they are alienating their dwindling followers. By protecting these perverts, the church may be hurrying its end even quicker.

Darwin's Finch

Does anyone know if the Catholic church conducts some kind of psychological screening of prospective priests? How the hell do they end up with so many pedophiles?!?

I don't want to be offensively flippant about this because I most certainly do not find sexual predation of any kind funny, but WTF happened to priests just banging nuns? Every one of these bastards should do years behind bars, and Darwin help the church if it waffles on this issue and does not fully open their files on every single case they have hitherto whitewashed. Fucking shameful!