Oui

Hellish stuff truly!  I knew a lady who had lived in Ireland and went to the Catholic school  in the early 1900's  I suppose. As kids they were so badly physically abused and punished that she never recovered from it. These people are long dead and buried but they're sure owing a huge apology too. I don't mean sexual abuse but who knows.

 I read something about the priests being absolved of their sins by the church saying something to the effect that Jesus forgave them making it O.K. ???? Not! There was also the idea that by the power of Christ they wouldn't become repeat offenders. I'll see if I can find that link. Unbelievable! They knew what was happening and simply turned a blind eye. There's a 2008 movie called "Doubt"  which explores sex abuse by a priest. I saw it last week on TV.

The posing of " Why does a "Christian" institution act diametrically opposite to what it preaches and what Jesus preached?  What does this tell us about its true nature?" makes it appear the roasting of the Catholic Church is about to begin.

My answer will be "likely the same why for every other institution" and if we are going to go about saying it speaks of  a denominations"true nature", then every denomination labelled Christian will be tossed on its arse.

It is not about what denomination, branch.... it is about institutional power and the misuse and abuse of power that all too often accompanies it.

Let's see... is it the sex abuse or the cover-up? Oh what does it matter... It spans the spectrum of churches.

Why do you think there are criminal background checks, finger printing, and policies – such as never having children and adults "one-on-one" in almost every place?

Residential schools will tick of the boxes for Anglican, Catholic and United Church in one fell swoop and we could add the UCC predecessors the Methodist, Congregationalist and Methodists in there too.

Jehovah Witnesses have settled lawsuits that they covered up sex abuse and protected the abusers.

Sex abuse if you are talking Amish,  the bishops mete out punishment. They shun them and the law is never contacted.

The Baptist General Convention Texas keeps a secret list of those clergy who have confessed or there is evidence of sexual misconduct....Darrell Gilyard... Doug Myers (can't leave the Baptists out)

Any more you want me to highlight, tell me a denomination...

The difference is Catholics draw most the headlines.

Why? Bigger lawsuits because of more assets? Pushing the issue of mandatory celibacy? More conservative theology that screams "hypocrit" like when conservative politicians are caught in affairs? Let's just say, no matter the reason, the media is devoted to talking about it in Catholicism more than all the other denominations.

Church leaders, all denominations church leaders,  did not start addressing this issue over the welfare of children or there would have been no cover-ups and the conversations acknowledging it and the work to eradicate would have been had years ago ...

What precipitated it? Lawsuits! Big ugly, costly lawsuits and a very real possibility of the inability to get insurance.

What started the background checks, the fingerprints, the no "one on one" policies? Often, it was not the church implementing it or looking for solutions, it was insurance companies demanding it.

It makes me feel as icky as the UCC not issuing a "real" apology for so long over residential schools because of lawsuits...

GRRR

Sex abuse or covering it up is not just a Catholic thing. It is all over denominations. It is also not always clergy doing the abuse it is often volunteers.

I grow very tired of the Catholic bashing. While we are so obsessed about what they did over there and what they are doing about it, someone molests kids on our watch or someone covers it up. No thanks. I would rather sweep my own stoop.

I often wonder how much abuse (physical, emotional and sexual) can be linked to the British system of Boarding schools.  I often wonder why we never hear about it and yet every allegation and/or confirmation of abuse at Catholic boarding schools gets wide coverage.

Off the cuff -- maybe it's easier to point fingers at specific institutions rather than admit how common abuse is in every walk of life.  That would be admitting there's something dark in human nature that always preys on the young, given the opportunity. 

British boarding schools have a sorrid past and a pretty sorrid present. Again, it is what garners our attention and what does not. Look at mental institutions, group homes, reform schools, prisons, nursing homes, military academies... (all rampant with "institutionalized abuse") Heck we don't hear about that much from those either, but it sure is happening. 

 Let it happen at church and it gets front page or lead story on the evening news. Why? People like to say, "see that about those church folks diddling them kids". The sad truth, they like to say it because "church folks" have acted so pure and innocent with the same skeletons in their closet as anyone else and church leaders have told people how evil and sinful they are and liked to show off how pious they are while they are doing any number of things.

Ask me, they deserve front page.... but page two should have some of the others instead of pretending it does not happen or that the mentally ill, convicted or elderly are any less victimized.

It doesn't get media attention because it is not so shocking to say, "that one felon raped that other felon". It is not so easy to listen to when it is "that nurse raped grandma"....

People kept quiet about church or boarding schools or military academies and the like because of loyalty to the institution and saying something bad about the place was seen as critical of parents who sent you there. Guilt and shame.... Those who needed help did not get it and went on to abuse others.... break the cycle. If you ask me, shine a light on it and on it all, no matter where it happened.

It`s just that some institutions have more opportunities to those that prey on the young. Those that operate in secret, and those that give undue authority and  power to clerics and others are in my opinion more likely to coverup abuse, thus providing more opportunity to abusers.

Check out this NYT article on abuse by Rabbis in some New York City Orthodox Jewish communities.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/nyregion/14abuse.html

 I think there could be several factors as to why church abuses make the front page.  

First, the church institution proclaims itself to be Christ's representative on earth, upholding and promoting Christian values.  When it utterly fails to do so, on so many levels, and protects itself instead of helpless victims, the disappointment is shockingly deep.

Secondly, the church no longer holds the hefty political power it used to possess in the past, so it is much more vulnerable to attack.

Also, perhaps because of the cracks in the churches armour, shining the light into those cracks may encourage lighting up other dark places in other institutions.  I think it has to start somewhere.

I am with stevie on this - witch hunts begin

Watch the movie 2012 and you'll see a really hilarious scene with that beautiful painting in the Sistine Chapel breaking apart in a 'strategic location' :3

But yeah, this reminds me of scapegoating.  It served a very useful function in our tribal days, and it still does today.  It is a 'release valve' and isn't recognized at our peril (cue echo chamber).

But I acknowledge that part of me that wants the Church to suffer for its sins as well.  For our sins as well.

And I wonder what they do with "all those treasures"?  And I wonder at the janitorial staff, how both simultaneously lucky and damned they are :3

Just a Self-writing poem,

Inannawhimsey

They aren't witches - they're paedophiles, hiding behind the authority of the Church, and shuttled off to other parishes when allegations of abuse arise.

I've said it before, but if the Catholic Church was a multinational daycare company, even the CEO (the Pope) would be in jail by now.

The Catholic Church is run by a bunch of elderly (supposed) virgins.  Is it any wonder they are so many of them who are sexually dysfunctional?

chansen,

It is easy to scream "paedophile!". It is easy to look at prsion inmates and say "homosexuals!". The problem is that what you scream may not be accurate. You can be content yelling it anyways.

The Vatican has screamed back that they do not want gay priests.

Both can yell, but sexuality or sexual preference has little to nothing to do with it.

We like simple answers to complex issues.

We call also yell that it is churches, but that would not be accurate either. Creating a moral panic about priests is not so bad to deal with, we ain't all Catholic. We can rant and rave about priests and even churches if we want and think we are protecting children. It is harder to look at research like Philip Jenkins' in Pedophiles and Priests: Anatomy of a Contemporay Crisis and look at 3% of any organization your child might be involved in... from Scouts to church (no matter the faith) to school to any place.... That is scary!

We can scream about how rampant it is in Catholic circles, but that is not real accurate either. The Freedom from Religion Foundation found clergy molestors were 58% Protestant and 39.5% Catholic. When it went to staff, non-clergy, it was 22% Catholic and 72% Protestant.

Some accept repressed memory when it involves priests, but there are many who might not accept repressed memory in any other case.

We have to ask ourselves why?

There is in media and in people an anti-Catholic bias. We can scapegoat the church quite easy. They have a bureaucracy and centralized records in a diocese. You won't get that in other faiths. It does not mean it doesn't happen or does not happen with others in the know. Not keeping records also helps. It certainly cloaks abuse by Protestants and Jews and all the other houses of worship. It makes Catholicism it own worst enemy when people are looking for stuff to use against them or if there is a scandal.  You can cite numbers on sexual misconduct and make it look like eb\veryone knew someone molesting a child or accused of it, but again "misconduct" would include any sexual conduct, period.

All across Canada we know about Mount Cashel and Father Hickey and Covenant House and Father Ritter and Father Porter? They certainly got news coverage. How about Salvation Army Captain William Douglas? I doubt it got much coverage outside B.C.

Do we know all about George Lowe? Ashby Breneman?  Do we know about the Detroit clergy who impregnated a 15 year old girl?  How about the pregnant 14 year old and Deacon Stephen Andrews? How about William J. Keichline, his abuse was horrible? Maybe it is not about numbers or age of victim or severity or "gasp factor". If not, then what?  

Abuse is abuse. It is not suddenly more disgusting done by a preist than done by a rabbi. It is also not suddenly less horrible.

There is a difference between paedophilia and ephebophiles or hebophiles. It does not make abuse of power or position any less an abuse, but there is a difference between adolescent and post-pubescent victims. So, screaming "paedophile" may be innaccuarte on many levels. 

There is also a difference between being sexually attracted to someone and being an abuser looking for a victim or looking for those you can have opportunity with and who will not tell. It is like saying prison inmates are gay because they have gay sex.

It is easy to say that the Pope should be jailed. It is not quite so easy to grasp the protection not only of other priests, but police, social workers, parents.... courts in sentencing.

The problem is institutional systemic abuse.

When we, as a society, go on witch hunts or like laying blame and we don't get to the real problem or the roots of problems or find out how to limit its scope... we abuse children. All of us, because it is our institutions and our systems. Scream you are an atheist if you like and churches don't belong to you... the media, the laws, the criminal justice system... they are a collective "ours", no matter our theology.

No, it's not.  Despite how much I approve of comparing paedophole priests to criminals (because they are).

Prison inmates don't exactly have a smorgasbord of choices in a sexual partner - they have same-sex choices only.  Priests supposed to have no choice - they are to be celebate.  This is one of the most unnatual restraints placed (or accepted) by a human being.  But if they wish to break that vow of celebacy, they have as many choices as anyone else.  When they choose an underaged person, of either sex, they are scarring that child for life.  Prison inmates who engage in homosexual sex are not neccessarily homosexuals.  A priest, or anyone who coerces or forces a child into sexual acts, is a paedophile.

Yes, and this is just one more morally reprehensible position they've taken - to equate men having sex with boys with homosexuality.  That would be like saying men who have sex with little girls are heterosexual.  It's pathetic.

I'll give you the above, though I have not researched them.  I'll take you at your word on those.  There are other faiths and other organizations where children of all ages have been abused.  But the depths of the coverups in the Catholic Church are reprehensible, and the church's responses and apologies have not been much better.

This is not about attraction - it's about actions taken.  Men have been calling sexually-adventurous underaged girls "jailbait" since age of consent laws were introduced.  You can't touch 'em.  Call it any name in the book - it's still a crime, regardless of which side of puberty they are on.

I think the police are partly to blame for failing to investigate on many occasions, because they had too much respect for the church.  The Catholic Church, and any church or religious institution, deserves no more respect than any other business or organization.  Churches are not always the pillars of the community they are portrayed to be, and they certainly can not claim any moral superiority.

Sure, we could improve laws, improve the media, etc., but they aren't the root of the problem.  The media doesn't cause someone to rape a child.  There are individuals who are responsible, and those who are complicit by failing to act on allegations, or sweeping allegations or suspicions under a rug.  This isn't about poverty or homelessness.  You can't push these failings onto society.

I believe we've treated religious leaders with reverence for far too long, and I'm glad to see that is coming to an end.  In the case of Bishop Raymond Lahey, a customs official flagged him for further inspection because he had been travelling to countries known for producing child pornography.  How refreshing that they didn't just assume the good Bishop had been serving spiritual needs in these countries, because if it had been me, a 37-year-old white male travelling extensively to these countries, my belongings would have been spread all over a customs room, I'm sure.  And you know what?  I'd be fine with that, as long as they don't give people like the bishop a pass under the same suspicions.

Chansen,

On many things we agree. On others, we don't.

The age of consent in Canada is 16, but from 1892 until May 2008 it was 14, and I do not think we can label things "criminal" that are not, no matter what their job is or the gender they are and no matter how much we might wish they were deemed "criminal". That was/is our societies rules not merely rules of parish priests, bishops or the Pope.

How do you prosecute those that there was no crime committed? You don't. You can't. How do notification laws apply when there is no conviction? How do you monitor those not on probation? How do you regulate what they can and cannot do for employment without a conviction?

Yes, they could have defrocked them. Ok, now, because of the bureaucracy and the way the Catholic Church is designed, when one is defrocked it becomes pretty obvious and yet in the eyes of the church, and the eyes of the priest, they remain priests for life. When you demote a priest to lay status they lose only certain abilities.

How do you out the priest to a parish and the larger Church in general and leave the child protected? How do you do so when the child has not come even come forward to allege abuse or denies abuse? What do we do with repressed memories and denials back then or never coming forward? Isn't hindsight usually 20/20?

How does the church monitor those they have placed outside church control? What stops them from seeking a ministry job in another denomination or being a chaplian or Scout leader or a teaching assistant or daycare worker?

I do not think you can take celibacy and make it the cause of sexual abuse of children. I have known many people who have been celibate who did not become child molestors. I would agree that a mandatory, institutionalized celibacy may draw those who have their sexuality arrested. It certainly ups the odds of immaturity sexually meeting immaturity sexually. It definitely makes procreation impossible and perhaps in some ways a childs value lessened. Yet, being unmarried and/or celibate does not create paedophiles. If it did it means anyone not able to have sex with a partner would start perving children and I do not for one second believe that.

We also have to remember most molestation is not happening by clerics. They are parents, relatives... and even in church they are more often volunteers than clergy.

The system fails. The system designed to protect children does not. Sorry, I will put that firmly on societies doorstep. I will put it in the media's lap. I will put it on the court room floor. I will lay it in social services that are cripled and broen. I will lay it on the backs of taxpayers who want their own kids safe, warm, fed, clothed... and do not care about other people's children.

Children need the media, the resources, the legal system, the money, the effort.... to quit focusing on stranger danger and pervert priests and ignoring all the bedroom doors that creak open in the "safety" of their own friggin' homes. Work in sexual assault and you will quickly be able to tell me where the sexual assault generally happens. I had to walk away because it is not church, schools, the weird guy down the block.... It is those who took far more of an oath to them than a vow of celibacy. It is those who sicken you the most and who get the least attention and get a system in place that wants to "reunite" the family.

The dioceses are not the only ones failing children. We all are.

Every child who is abused is an abused child.