No, Benedict didn’t take anyone publicly to the woodshed. He didn’t lay out any canonical or structural issues. Those things are important, but they are also not the stuff of homilies and press conferences.
Here in the U.S., Benedict spoke as a pastor, laying it out plainly before all of us, including the bishops, not only by his words but by his actions.
Time after time, we hear that in the beginning, victims of abuse asked something simple of bishops: Meet with us. Listen to our stories. Help us.
How many bishops were asked to do this, how many times? And how often did they refuse?
This week, one bishop said “Yes.”
Here are the statistics:
* over 4,000 priests accused of abuse since 1950
* 2 billion dollars paid out in claims to victims
* six dioceses forced into bankruptcy because of abuse claims
There should have been/should be a housecleaning that would make Torquemada blush.
Granting a personal audience to a few victims is a nice gesture, but that’s about it.
What TEC apparently has going for it, I guess, is that its homosexual clergy are pretty much out in the open, partnered with other consenting adults, and apparently much less prone to predatory practices against children.
Still a mess, but less of a mess it appears, especially if you are a child or adolescent.
It’s good that Benedict did this. Meeting with victims is important.
I would have been interested in whether, in his outline of what the Church is going to do about this in the future, he would have indicated whether the Vatican will continue its policy of giving asylum to bishops and priests responsible for the molestations. There is no question that Cardinal Law repeatedly moved known molesters from parish to parish and shielded them from the law; and no question that he fled to Rome to avoid prosecution, aided and abetted by the pope. Will Rome continue to do that?
It’s a relevant question. If a person has been raped, and you make a public show of pastorally listening and caring for that victimized person; well it makes your pastoral compassion suspect when the victim finds out that those responsible for the crime are living in your house, which you have done especially to protect them from prosecution.
I like Benedict but hope he’ll have the courage to address this too at some point.
Furnituremaker: Yes, those are appalling statistics. It represents less than 1% of the priesthood. And it doesn’t lessen the magnitude of the priests’ actions.
That being said, I also encourage you to peruse statistics of abuse in other denominations/faiths, as well as the incidence of abuse in public schools. If DAs went after the public schools, that figure that the Church paid out would be miniscule.
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No. 4, Cannon [sic] Law:
I’m fifty two years young and if you can point me to media coverage or other reference sources of a church sexual abuse scandal comparable in scope (and as entrenched institutionally) as the one in the RC church in the United States I would be most appreciative.
Two billion dollars is a lot of money.
I would also add the the percentage of priests involved in these scandals is a more or less meaningless statistic since each one of these sickos could have had dozens upon dozens of victims. And some apparently did.
If each of the 4,000 priests so accused only had one victim that would be tragic enough, however, the number of victims is easily well into five figures given that this crime was repeated over and over through the years by these individuals.
“I would also add the the percentage of priests involved in these scandals is a more or less meaningless statistic” – it’s not meaningless if you’re trying to determine how corrupt the organization itself is. That’s a different issue than how many teenage boys were actually fondled by priests over the past 50 years. It makes a huge difference whether you’re talking about 25% of priests being involved or less than 1% of priests. I don’t see how someone could argue that it is meaningless what that percentage is.
As to your observation that you haven’t heard of widescale abuse in other institutions, I guess I’d say, why the surprise? You mean the press is more likely to go head over heels on a story that makes the RC church look bad? Next you’ll tell me that the principal crime in Aruba isn’t the kidnapping and murder of pretty white highschool students on spring break (Natalie Holloway anyone?). I’d suggest you simply google the following: “rate of child abuse in the general population” or “rate of child abuse by priests versus male public school teachers” or permutations of the same (go crazy with your search parameters). You’ll be shocked…
Two billion bucks and six bankrupt dioceses. If the percentages make you feel better that’s okay. Count me amongst those who would hold clergy to a higher standard than the general population, school teachers, etc.
I thought about invoking the cliche’ that the cover-up is worse than the crime but decided against it given the nature of child sexual abuse.
[i] Off topic [/i]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1933666/posts
Though Amy Welborn listed the things this pope has actually done over the past few years, it’s still NOT ENOUGH. Oh, well. Clearly, the Great Whore of Babylon must be wrong, wrong, wrong. Always…
For those who prefer facts to ignorance, I recommend Phillip Jenkins’ Pedophiles and Priests, containing rather convincing data that shows the Catholic problem is no greater, on a percentage basis, than other churches. I reviewed the stats on this blog a while back and thought I had bookmark that thread. Unfortunately, I didn’t. The bottom line is that, on a statistical basis, your children are safer with a bunch of Catholic priests than at a family reunion. Most abuse occurs within the family, and it’s almost certain that the rate of offense among men in general is higher than among priests, possibly twice the rate.
Furnituremaker, if you think that media exposure means something, and that an organization 33 times larger than the Episcopal Church would not have more problems… well, I really can’t think of anything to say to you. One seldom encounters such claims.
CPKS, thanks for the link. I would like to read the AP series, which confirm what I have read elsewhere.
RE: “What TEC apparently has going for it, I guess, is that its homosexual clergy are pretty much out in the open, partnered with other consenting adults, and apparently much less prone to predatory practices against children.”
Well — no, not really:
http://www.standfirminfaith.com/index.php/site/article/10036/
http://www.standfirminfaith.com/index.php/site/article/2054/
Vicarious outrage is an interesting and widespread phenomenon. It can sometimes be exercised as a means of control and compulsion in contexts where the moral situation is less than crystal clear (anti-smoking regulation, animal experimentation, climate change…).
In western society, it is paedophilia that is at present the most reviled of all sins, the revulsion powerful enough to stir up vigilante gangs to attack (in one celebrated instance) the home of a paediatrician who had moved into a respectable suburb. It is indisputable that paedophilia is harmful and undesirable, and equally indisputable that in its commonest and most harmful form, it occurs within the family itself; paedophile contact from a stranger is believed by professionals to be immeasurably less damaging than from an older family member.
I am not convinced that vicarious outrage is unequivocally a force for good, nor that its intensity is always symptomatic of clear judgment, rational discernment or a spirit of charity.
Thank you, Sarah.
The reason the Catholic problem’s [b]apparent[/b] magnitude is so much greater than that of other churches (and than that of public schools) is that the Catholic Church is hierarchical and has excellent records, has deep pockets, and is an affront to the moral sensibility of many working journalists, who cannot imagine that anyone is [i]really[/i] sexually continent, or even ought to want to be.
If you actually look at the stats on child molestation, you will find that children are safer at the Chrism Mass dinner than at school or at a family reunion. Your daughters are MUCH safer.
$2 billion dollars and six bankrupt diocese iis an “apparent magnitude?”
I’m still awaiting an example of a similar payout, bankruptcies, etc. from some other institution – church, school district, city, local government, other secular or religious organization anywhere NEAR that of the RC church in the U.S.
Folks, there’s nothing even close.
Okay, I’ll bite on the percentages. Somebody show me an example of even a PROPORTIONAL payout comparable to the RC church.
There is no other organization around with the record of serial men on boy pedophilia than that of the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S.
None, zip, nada.
I’d also like to know when was the last time a catholic diocese filed bankruptcy other than the six I’ve already mentioned?
Hey listen, Furnituremaker — I totally agree that what has happened over the past 50 years regarding the RC same-sex molestation issue is a bad thing.
I just don’t agree that it doesn’t happen in the same proportion in other denominations or institutions. I expect that as the Roman Catholics clean up their seminary admission policies, things will improve.
For instance, above, CPKS has posted a *fascinating* article on the incidence and rate of this stuff in public schools. Have you read it? It’s pretty devastating.
I also agree with Ed the Roman when he points out that the press — liberal activists as they are — had a field day with this story, and will continue to do so, because the Roman Catholic church is a serious threat to their attempts to remake the world into their own progressive ideal.
That fact of the threat to the secular news media’s agenda is in no way an excuse for the Roman Catholic church’s not dealing with their odious and horrific problem. It is what it is. But it’s also a lesson to all traditionalists in all denominations — if your own house is not in order, the progressive news media will feature you front and center. You can take it to the bank.
That may be a good thing for Christians. We as traditionalists should know that we will be held to a much higher standard in the public sphere than progressives, because the media needs urgently to try to tear down those who are opposed to their agenda.
What Sarah said…
although I will add that since Furnituremaker changed the subject from abuse of children to the homosexual abuse of boys (mostly young men, really), he’s probably right. The abuse by Catholic clergy was overwhelmingly homosexual in nature. I haven’t seen data from schools and other churches broken down by sex, but I’ll bet it wasn’t so predominantly male-on-male.
This whole business has really been good for the Catholic Church, not only for cleaning out the miscreants, but also for bringing up the wickedness of the bishops in their surrender to the culture, particularly in the areas of (un-) pastoral care, finances (and that’s a story not yet told) and the therapeutic model of sin. Has it been said in the last 5 minutes that this was really about the bishops?
For me, the payouts are, generally, a good thing. We have been too rich, too comfortable. St. Benedict spoke of a poor monastery being particularly blessed; I think that applies to the local Church, as well.
And, best of all, the scandal has been an occasion for bringing modernist theology, including homosexualist ideology, out front, where we can see it, reject it, and move on.
The Catholic Church in the U.S. is under the judgement of God, who disdains not even to speak through an ass (in this case, the mainstream media). He loves us! Enough to discipline and rid us of our sins.
Hallelujah! Christ is risen!
#13 – CPKS, that was an excellent post, and gets to the heart of the matter; thank you.
>Furnituremaker wrote: “What TEC apparently has going for it, I guess, is that its homosexual clergy are pretty much out in the open, partnered with other consenting adults, and apparently much less prone to predatory practices against children.”
That explains these 140 Anglican/Episcopal priests:
http://reformation.com/CSA/episcopalianabuse.html
>Furnituremaker wrote: “if you can point me to media coverage or other reference sources of a church sexual abuse scandal comparable in scope (and as entrenched institutionally) as the one in the RC church in the United States I would be most appreciative.”
You might look into the sexual molestation lawsuit against Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg, Va. for $250 million by 35 plaintiffs, who include more than a dozen children.
Also, review:
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070618/28035_Released_Figures_Offer_Glimpse_into_Protestant_Sex_Abuse_Problems.htm
http://www.reformation.com/
http://www.advocateweb.org/cease/csa.htm
http://stopbaptistpredators.org/index.htm
>Furnituremaker wrote: “I’m still awaiting an example of a similar payout, bankruptcies, etc. from some other institution – church”
‘One of the largest settlements to date in Protestant churches involved the case of former Lutheran minister Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr. in Texas, where a jury several years ago awarded the minister’s victims nearly $37 million. Separate earlier settlements involving Thomas cost an additional $32 million.’
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070618/28035_Released_Figures_Offer_Glimpse_into_Protestant_Sex_Abuse_Problems.htm
>Furnituremaker wrote: “I’d also like to know when was the last time a catholic diocese filed bankruptcy other than the six I’ve already mentioned?”
How is bankruptcy germaine to a discussion on child sexual abuse? Bankruptcy is the result of poor financial management, i.e. lack of adequate insurance.
God bless…
At the end of the day the answer appears to be to increase the organziation’s liability insurance policies. Too many appear comforted by the assertion that the rate of abuse is about the same as in the ‘general population’ (although I’m not sure I accept that, but will for agrument’s sake).