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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Sept 21, 2021 20:25:45 GMT -5
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Post by Chu Chu on Sept 22, 2021 11:34:36 GMT -5
I am very sorry to learn of this. It is truly shocking how widespread and insidious clerical sexual abuse has been in the Roman Catholic Church.
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Post by longsuffering on Sept 22, 2021 11:48:59 GMT -5
The Priesthood was a great "beard" when society required one. It's no longer necessary and the number of active Priests and Seminarians is way down. Many other factors to consider of course.
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Post by newfieguy74 on Sept 22, 2021 11:56:45 GMT -5
The problem is not gay priests but pedophile priests. I feel very bad for the selfless priests and nuns who have to deal with the backlash. I also believe that any Church that would enable, defend, and overlook the abuse of children throughout the world for countless years is a diseased and dysfunctional institution.
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Post by rgs318 on Sept 22, 2021 12:09:01 GMT -5
It was some of the men who held office in the institution who did that. They should be made to pay the consequences for their choices and actions. IMHO it is not a "diseased institution." Remember the overwhelming number of priests, brothers and sisters have never done anything of that sort.
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Post by bfoley82 on Sept 22, 2021 15:08:24 GMT -5
The problem is not gay priests but pedophile priests. I feel very bad for the selfless priests and nuns who have to deal with the backlash. I also believe that any Church that would enable, defend, and overlook the abuse of children throughout the world for countless years is a diseased and dysfunctional institution. Change Church to organization and you got it correctly. |
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Post by longsuffering on Sept 22, 2021 15:58:58 GMT -5
The problem is not gay priests but pedophile priests. I feel very bad for the selfless priests and nuns who have to deal with the backlash. I also believe that any Church that would enable, defend, and overlook the abuse of children throughout the world for countless years is a diseased and dysfunctional institution. Gay people are not problems in any profession or in any way. My own unscientific observations were that the true pedophile Priests received shockwaves of justifiable media and public outrage, but that many other Priests, like say Cardinal McCarrick were more akin to Harvey Weinstein or Charlie Rose, men who had achieved a position of trust or power or both and groomed young adults of the gender they were attracted to because the victims were younger, more attractive and less secure than middle aged or elderly victims. The Church structure doesn't help matters because it allows no outlet for Priests and Nuns to participate in the universal dance of life: romance, marriage, family, etc. |
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Post by rgs318 on Sept 22, 2021 16:08:21 GMT -5
In counseling, I have worked with many folks in "alternate" occupations. I have been told by escorts that they like having priests as clients because they are polite and treat them with respect.
I have had several former students who became Episcopal priests because they wished to marry (and one who is a clergyman in the Eastern Rite Catholic Church). My own decision to pass up becoming a brother (ICB) was because I was never really interested in celibacy.
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Post by Chu Chu on Sept 26, 2021 15:09:01 GMT -5
It was some of the men who held office in the institution who did that. They should be made to pay the consequences for their choices and actions. IMHO it is not a "diseased institution." Remember the overwhelming number of priests, brothers and sisters have never done anything of that sort. Calling out a "diseased institution." really refers to the church leadership that has allowed the widespread and prolonged abuse of our children over so many years. I believe that these bishops and even Popes were probably well meaning in their efforts to reassign offenders in secrecy, but they were victims of their insularity and the secrecy of the institution. Meaningful involvement of the laity, who would bring a wide range of experience to the table that is lacking in the all male, celibate clergy, would have made all the difference. I do not think that this lesson has yet been learned. |
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Post by newfieguy74 on Sept 26, 2021 15:32:24 GMT -5
I have to disagree that the bishops and Pope were well meaning. On multiple occasions Church leadership was told of priests who had molested children and their response was to assign the pedophiles to parishes even though they knew, or should have known, that more innocent children would be abused. It's what pedophiles do. The offending priests should have been reported to the police, defrocked, and prosecuted; instead the Church's instinct for self-preservation governed its actions. Over and over and over.
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Post by rgs318 on Sept 26, 2021 16:06:06 GMT -5
I had a conversation with a Bishop about the weak attempts of the Church to provide counseling for pedophile priests. It is known that counseling only has a limited effect in getting pedophiles to avoid any contact with children. That was not done and men were reassigned to parishes with no warning to their new church of the danger(s) in their midst. He said that he was aware off how badly this had been handled, but he said that the clergy sees other clergy as "family" and wanted to find some way to help their brothers deal with their "illness." It showed how he had rationalized this problem, but I said it was not a position I could support.
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Post by DFW HOYA on Sept 26, 2021 23:18:47 GMT -5
From the Hoya, Freeze died of Alzheimer's in 2006. That there are misconduct allegations against 16 Georgetown-affiliated religious is, to me, an eyebrow-raising number. Many of those named passed through Georgetown (and many other Jesuit colleges) but not all allegations are specific to an institution. For example, Daniel C. O’Connell, S.J was the former president at Saint Louis University and chairman of the psychology department at Georgetown from 1990-1996, but the allegation dates to his time at Loyola-Chicago in 1983. The ones listed varied by affiliation. Two were graduate students. One was an undergraduate student in 1937 who became a Jesuit, but never taught there. Two were hospital chaplains, another was accused while as a pastor at a nearby parish. Still another was a a Dominican nun, which I'm not sure why she was included other than she taught in the nursing school for four years. thehoya.com/thegeorgetown14/ |
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Post by mm67 on Sept 27, 2021 2:52:18 GMT -5
I had a conversation with a Bishop about the weak attempts of the Church to provide counseling for pedophile priests. It is known that counseling only has a limited effect in getting pedophiles to avoid any contact with children. That was not done and men were reassigned to parishes with no warning to their new church of the danger(s) in their midst. He said that he was aware off how badly this had been handled, but he said that the clergy sees other clergy as "family" and wanted to find some way to help their brothers deal with their "illness." It showed how he had rationalized this problem, but I said it was not a position I could support. More concerned about their brothers in the church than the victims. More concerned about the welfare of the church, its good name than the welfare of the victims. Secrets and lies are toxic in any relationship. |
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Post by possum on Sept 27, 2021 5:05:41 GMT -5
Yeah counseling in this area consisted of sending these perverts to the House of Affirmation whose director was also a pedophile. I guess the idea was to smooth out their techniques. In the end it came down to protecting the children or the cash flow and as we know the Catholic Church will always choose the money.
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Post by newfieguy74 on Sept 27, 2021 9:03:06 GMT -5
On countless occasions Church leadership was informed of "family" members who were pedophile priests, and had the choice to a.) aggressively excise the offender from the Church and facilitate their prosecution, or b.) circle the wagons and transfer the pedophiles knowing it was almost a certainty that it would result in the rape and abuse of more children. The Church always chose b.). I've often wondered how so many of the Church's leaders could have done this when their actions were so profoundly antithetical to the foundational teachings of the Catholic Church.
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Post by mm67 on Sept 27, 2021 9:16:34 GMT -5
On countless occasions Church leadership was informed of "family" members who were pedophile priests, and had the choice to a.) aggressively excise the offender from the Church and facilitate their prosecution, or b.) circle the wagons and transfer the pedophiles knowing it was almost a certainty that it would result in the rape and abuse of more children. The Church always chose b.). I've often wondered how so many of the Church's leaders could have done this when their actions were so profoundly antithetical to the foundational teachings of the Catholic Church. |
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