I guess we shouldn't be surprised https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/14/us/pennsylvania-catholic-church-grand-jury/index.html
No - but we shouldn't fail to be shocked and outraged - by the sheer scale of the monstrosity. Again - thousands of victims, hundreds of priests. Lock them up. LOCK THEM UP!
Well, they first get their days in court. If guilty then they should pay the same penalty as any others.
All too often, sexual predator clergy have contrived, with the help of the Church, to avoid days in court. That has to stop - completely. It is stopping, to some extent. Lock them up! Put them in General Population!
I really wish that Pope Francis would stop all the moral posturing on other polarizing social issues and would address this straight on: Announce a zero-tolerance policy. 1. All accusations go to secular police and/or a church tribunal. (Some victims might not want to go through the emotional trauma of testifying in a criminal trial, some jurisdictions might require police referrals, so it might be case-by-case decision.) 2. This applies not only to the accused, but to anyone who may have hushed these things up in the past as well. 3. Anyone who is accused be removed from all public contact functions while the accusations are investigated. 4. If secular and/or church investigation upholds the charges, the individuals concerned be removed from all ecclesiastical functions and excommunicated. 5. This policy should apply throughout the hierarchy, to archbishops as well as little parish priests. Even if they believed that they were protecting the church by hushing up scandal.
I remember the scandal in Boston and now it’s Philadelphia. There’s no reason to believe this is not the case in every city and town in the country.
Now, now . . . Biblically, we must show compassion to both the victim and the offender. Therefore, lock them up! Put them in general population! And give them a lifetime supply of Vaseline. (Yes, a cheap joke. But I have about as much interest in this topic as 99.44/100% of the other topics on DI these days.)
Honestly, folks, this one hit REALLY close to home. I went to high school in Wilkes-Barre. I went to a Catholic high school. And I know some of the names on this list. One of the people on this list, Bob Timchak, many years ago said that the clergy abuse scandal was disheartening for good priests like him because it made people lump good priests in with bad priests. All the while he was downloading CP. Taking religion out of the mix for a minute, it creates a situation where it causes you to doubt your own ability to judge the character of a person. That might not be a bad thing. It's a good lesson that even seemingly good people might be doing some bad stuff behind closed doors. But it's a disheartening thing, at the very least.
A Tallahassee priest was just removed this week. The claim is the incident occurred 14 years ago but the church became aware of it this week. Apparently this is the first such local incident. The church announced the accused will no longer work in ministry. http://www.wctv.tv/content/news/Local-Priest-removed-from-position-after-alleged-misconduct-491076751.html
Here is an outstanding article that addresses the issue from a spiritual and political viewpoint: Full story: http://wdtprs.com/blog/2018/08/wherein-fr-z-offers-one-of-the-hardest-posts-he-has-ever-written/
"And let’s be clear. This scandal is about HOMOSEXUALITY." 100% wrong. It's about pedophilia. Social conservatives love to pretend these are related, but they're not.
This. As soon as you ever think "but he'd never..." you've already lost. We had a piano teacher *youth music pastor* hired for a semester to come to our home about 9-10 years ago. Our dining room/kitchen were essentially one long room, so the piano lessons were in the dining room while I putzed around the kitchen half listening. Under my nose this d-bag was grooming my son. I was literally present for every minute of every lesson....though distracted loading the dishwasher or cooking dinner. About 4 lessons in, ny son said "I don't like it when mr. X tickles me" and I can tell you my husband was a millimeter away from making a very bad decision - nothing happened, but it was close enough that I SERIOUSLY adjusted my understanding of how people become victims. I've had a bit of an obsession about this subject and behavior ever since. Who was I to question a youth pastor? (asks every parent) He's a coach, teacher, priest, neighbor, X......He'd never..... which is exactly why they can. Game changer for this momma. I suspect everyone, I left none of my children alone with any adult - ever- and make kids know that adults are not their friends- they are adults, a clear and separate category of person. As such, my kids are NEVER allowed to call an adult by their first name- it's not a respect thing, it's a boundary thing, for MY kids. I'm 1000% on my game 1000% of the time.
There’s this as evidence https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1179/002436311803888276 Besides, the report cited in the op clearly states both boys and girls had been victimized.
Steve Foerster, here is a good audio for you to listen to: https://straphaelcrystal.org/homily/august-19-2018/