Grooming, pedos, abuse, coverup… No drag queens though or it might be a bigger story.. How do people keep going to these churches? https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/04/05/baltimore-archdiocese-catholic-sex-abuse-report/ The investigation found that over 600 young people — from preschoolers to young adults — suffered sexual abuse and “physical torture” by more than 150 clergy members from the mid-1940s to 2002. The attorney general’s office had previewed some of its findings in a November court filing, but the report itself brought them to life in visceral and horrifying detail. “Tests of torture” that involved chaining and whipping teenagers. Two sisters abused as grade-schoolers “hundreds of times” by one priest. A deacon who admitted to molesting more than 100 minors over three decades. Clergy who preyed on children they met recovering at hospitals.
Anyone who abuses children is beyond despicable. Those who use "the cloth" as a means to do so are even worse. Also, in before the " war on Christianity" card gets played. The Church is not the victim here.
That’s just the priests who were discovered and the Church admitted to. This leads me to wonder: does this lifelong trauma to children outweigh the good the Church does? And to another: will the perpetrators and those within the Church who turned a blind eye go to the Hell they believe in?
While it is easy to "BLAME" the church for horrible statistics of this nature (and I do, believe me) perhaps it is time to take a look beyond the church structure and recognize the "wickedness" inherent in human behavior, especially male behavior when males are put in dominant positions of authority or leadership in any endeavor. People may not be comfortable coming face to face with the inherent nature of our species. It's a scary place most people do not wish to look. Just a reminder, barbaric industrialized murder, demonstrative as to whom we really are, is being played out in front of our eyes in Ukraine as I type this. Nor is it "church" folk whom participate in child rape and manipulation, hardly, humans outside the church, I suspect, are just as predisposed to this horror as those that reside in it. One should read up on "Sparta" to get a good idea just how far this can go on a societal level. Our species is only a couple of hundred years removed from complete ignorance and barbarity, in fact, I wonder what % of the worlds population, to this very day, are even literate? We overestimate ourselves, particularily in the West and of course in this insane country we reside in. Happy Easter.
I mostly agree with you. In fact, my Catholic wife and I just talked about it over our coffee. We concluded two things could dramatically change the Church and see the return of lapsed Catholics such as my wife: allow priests to marry and allow women priests. That this hasn't happened by 2023 is simply incomprehensible to us.
Not sure why those things matter in regards to the sex abuse scandal. There are more than one protestant child sex scandals through the years. People are perverts or they are not. Their marital status plays little to no role in their psychology. Also, as an active Catholic, my opinion is that the greater crime was hiding the abuse after the fact. Any child abuser should spend life in prison. The weak-arse defense from the church at the time was that they were seeking to allow predators to "make amends" in some form of reconcilliation. Great, they could do that behind bars as a reminder ever single day of what they did. However, the priests and higher order clergy from Bishop to Pope who actively sought to conceal all of this should be in the cells right next to those priests. Just like any organization, from the church to the federal government to your local bowling league, when criminals are allowed to continue to operate in the shadows, allowing their corruption to fester, it damages the entire institution and the only way to make the institution whole is to cut out all of the corruption. THEN, let remaining priests get married and embrace females to the clergy. But do not do these things in lieu of purging the roles of perverts and the corrupt protectors.
Agree. I believe that there is a very special place in hell for child molesters and mothers who take their fetus life. That said, I’m know that much of this particular catholic scandal is way overblown in numbers. A then friend of my older brother, ( former friend for 30 years now) went to the local catholic high school. The school pastor was accused by a boy 25 years later of being molested on a retreat. My brother’s friend was on that retreat so he and another of his friends smelled the blood in the water and made allegations as well. They both got around $250,000 (early 90’s $) from the diocese based on bullshit accusations. Those two are in the statistics. Early on, the church was in a panic and was paying out big money to keep people quiet. I suspect that many good priests were falsely caught up in the mess. For those that truly were guilty, may they and the supervisors who covered for them rot in hell. Chris Leak was coaching HS in Orlando a few years and was doing well. His coaching career was ended by an accusation that was later retracted by a 16 year old girl ( can I say girl here). There’s a lot to this mess that has not just caught the guilty.
Righties treat perverted Catholic priests who mess with kids with the same kid gloves they treat corrupt police, the only time they have full-blown vitriol is when it comes to abortion and tranny issues
We do? I'm pretty sure I treat a child molester priest the same as any other child molester. Not at all. It's not my job. I'm all for a child molester have any affiliation to get the full maximum sentence allowed in prison. Just like basically every other "righty"
You're right - the fact that one is married doesn't mean he isn't a pervert. Interestingly, my lapsed Catholic wife is from a small farming village. It was well known that the much-loved priest for that diocese had a housekeeper with whom he sired 3 children. No one in the village cared because they thought celibacy was absurd.
It's under advisement by the Legislature but is taking time to educate the many representatives who don't know what a "Bishop" is.
Based at least on recent comments from Pope Francis, allowing priests to marry would be more likely than allowing women priests.
I would side with the village people too. If it was concentual between adults, then who really cares. I still respect the priesthood and its calling. I had a second cousin murdered in Chiappas, Mexico many years ago while trying to help run the Catholic mission and hospital. Many, many take their vocation to heart and do good work all around the world. That said, that does not excuse, make up for or in any way mitigate my anger towards any perverted priest or any one who hid said priests. The damage that they have done to children cannot be calculated.
"How do people keep going to these churches?" You act like the members knew. This is mostly from decades ago. It is horrifying. It is evil. It is the worst of the worst. But it isnt like the gen pop knew. And I am the furthest thing from Catholic, just offering some perspective.
Good thing they can just repent, ask for God's forgiveness and go to heaven meanwhile people who lived a good life but weren't baptised or follow a different religion will go to hell (or so I'm told by people who yell at me through a megaphone on the street corner).
Bull crap. What "righties" are defending this? Only 37% of catholics even identify as Republican. This is a church issue. A church that is predominantly progressive and left leaning compared to protestant churches. Everything isn't political. This is just powerful people producing evil. Then more powerful people covering it up.
you are really lumping women who have abortions in with child molesters? wow. even the fictional writings that comprise the book known as the bible allowed for abortion..
