more pedophile priests

There have been scandals in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and now Texas. And this is just in the US. To me it seems clear that wherever you shine a light you're going to find sexual abuse perpetrated by the Catholic Church.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2019/01/02/nuns-india-tell-long-history-abuse-hands-priests/ebxtQNm1o0cFnGYDQWYqVJ/story.html

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2018-06-05/abuse-scandals-erode-authority-of-catholic-church-in-chile

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/16/dutch-catholic-church-accused-of-widespread-cover--up

It's hard not to think that there's something fundamentally wrong with a religious organization where this is such a pervasive problem.

 

When my children were born in 2001 at Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital in Boston, one of the hospital chaplains was a priest from India who was pursuing his Ph.D. in Theology at Boston College.

He was a really nice guy, and we got talking about the state of the Catholic Church (after I told him I’m Protestant). With one of the saddest looks I’ve ever seen on a human, I’ll never forget him saying “I never thought that I’d be embarrassed to wear my clerical collar in public”.

 

worse and worse

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pope-francis-priests-nuns-sexual-slavery-abuse-saint-jean-order-france/

 

is anyone shocked to learn that it's not just Catholic priests?

https://www.foxnews.com/us/hundreds-of-southern-baptist-church-leaders-volunteers-accused-sexual-misconduct

 

Old news. The Southern Baptists--at least the higher ups--have long been known for lax attitudes towards abuse of laity, both sexual and spiritual, and for marginalizing those who tried to bring it to their attention. Years ago victims and advocates pleaded with the Southern Baptist powers to set up a database so that leaders known to be abusers and convicted sexual felons could be identified and thus not just passed along from church to church, like so many Catholic priests, but they were shut down and called trouble makers. This has been brewing for some time. It's just that now, it finally has made the national news.

If you start seeing tears from the highest ranks of Southern Baptist leadership, just assume they're alligator tears, because people have been screaming at those guys forever that there was a problem, but the primary actions in response have been to call the whistle-blowers "divisive" and servants of hell and the like. Thank God for the truth reaching the national news--finally.

 

What you've said is all news to me but I can't say I'm surprised. Abuse of power is a problem everywhere.

 

Abuse of power is a huge problem. In my experience, sometimes the least qualified were moved up the ladder, once worked in sales for a tech multinational with tens of billions in annual revenues (a company that should know something about efficiency and controls, you'd think), and the people in my metro, the local HQ, who were put in positions of authority were the ones who were most like the boss, who'd back-slap with him, who'd quite literally go to the same strip clubs he went to. Was kind of a thing there, the favored guys, still in their business suits, heading downtown on Friday to the club and getting bleep-faced and getting the lap dances--then they'd sit around the office and tell war stories the next Monday. The guys who got into this were given the choice accounts (though I didn't know it at the time), and naturally they ended up being the ones who went over quota and got the awards and promotions. They also were all single and good-looking (the boss was movie star handsome). I, an average-looking married guy who'd never gone to a strip club, was grinding away, doing pretty good but not great business, beating my quota regularly, but not getting as flashy numbers, and I always wondered how those guys who seemed so lazy could be beating me. Found out later, after I'd moved on to another company, that the boss had been behind the scenes directing accounts to them out of other people's territories--including mine, of course. Much of the best stuff, the Glengarry Glen Ross-type stuff, was secretly reserved for the drinking buddy club.

With human beings, you're right, Kizmet and Steve, power is abuse. Nobody should have the kind of power this world tends to give them. It's why Jesus said to his disciples (in my loose translation) "You know the way the world does it, with leaders lording their power over people, tyrannizing them. It can't be this way with you. If you want to be a leader, then be humble and be a servant of everyone."