The sex scandal in the church is another manifestation of the power of the white male in our society. Their power is sacrosanct - even at the expense of our children.
2
I imagine all the young boys and girls sitting in the confessional, and stating "forgive me Father for I have sinned." The sadness I feel at the thought of a sexual predator on the other side of the opening, deciding your punishment for your "sins." The horror of this enrages me.
4
It is so sad when an institution, which does so much good, refuses to find the means to protect its members and forces the state to intervene to protect its citizens. I hate the idea that the state intervenes in religious affairs; but after listening for so many years as so many called for a thorough examination and reckoning of alleged wrong-doing and nothing happening, I can see no other recourse. In so many ways, this institution now is acting worse than Jim Jones's mass homicide actions. Bless the prosecutors for doing a job that no one else will do. God save the victims of such institutional evil.
3
There is ONLY one thing that makes sense and will save the Catholic church from serious future disorder -- allow priests to marry and live on parish grounds. To deny male priests a sexual outlet is to invite disaster. It's their sexuality that you have denied far too long. The diocese needs to relax their views immediately. It also needs to put the HOLY BIBLE in its pews. We do NOT return to our posts.
1
@ab
Nuns also sexually abuse.
Child sexual abuse has nothing to do with hetero or homo sexuality. That is a known fact. It also has nothing to do with marriage or tha lack of it. Priests and nuns have been having sex with other adults for as long as they have been human beings.
If you think for a moment, when you say that these child rapes are because of homo sexuality or no marriage you are saying that raping a child is a rational substitute for having an adult mate of ones preference.
Does that really make sense to you that a "normal" person would choose to rape a child if they had no adult mate?
Is that something you have considered doing?
3
Homosexuality has nothing to do with it. Forced celibacy does. It attracts people who are expected to wage war on this powerful natural human impulse. And once they violate their vow they are waging a new war against their god. What a tortured existence it becomes.
1
If we heard that a private club down the street was full of pedophiles assaulting children in the most despicable ways, and that the management of the club was doing everything in their power to cover up the crimes of the club members, we would not hesitate to demand that authorities prosecute the club as a criminal enterprise, throw its members and management in prison, and dissolve the club entirely.
How is it that the Catholic Church--after thousands of revelations--is still regarded as a church?
11
When will us adult children who were abused and tortured and stunted by the child welfare system get our day?!
I know for a fact the state of NJ needs to be investigated for what it has been doing (mainly to coverup what was done) going back 70 years at least.
1
The scale of the abuse in the American church is huge, of course.
But amazingly, it pales in comparison to what took place in Ireland and Spain.
1
This Justice Department investigating the Church? We already know the conclusion: "No evidence of any wrongdoing."
1
Does anyone really think the current U.S. justice department is going to punish the catholic church? They will make sure the investigation is surface and inconsequential and/or that it gets to the corporate/catholic U.S. Supreme Court where they will be exonerated. They are sorry like all good little catholics so they will be forgiven.
The only way to punish the catholic church and get their corruption out of OUR governments at every level is to stop attending mass and paying for supposed "protection" - just like the mafia - and stop using any social/health services they have managed to get control of.
It will be tough because they have managed to become the only health providers in some red states and force providers and patients to adhere to their supposed religious beliefs. Their only "belief" is that women must keep pushing out war fodder for their "religious" wars.
3
NYT, TWO STUDIES CITE CHILD SEX ABUSE BY 4% OF PRIESTS, By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26— Two long-awaited studies have found that the Roman Catholic Church suffered an epidemic of child sexual abuse that involved at least 4 percent of priests over 52 years and peaked with the ordination class of 1970, in which one of every 10 priests was eventually accused of abuse.
The human toll amounted to 10,667 children allegedly victimized by 4,392 priests from 1950 to 2002, but the studies caution that even these numbers represent an undercount. The totals depend on self-reporting by American bishops, the studies note, and many victims have never come forward out of fear or shame.
Even the authors of the two reports do not agree on the meaning of the findings. The review board's report mentions that more than 80 percent of the abuse at issue was of a homosexual nature. The report theorizes that the problem reflects a cohort of gay priests, based on their figures that the percentage of male victims rose from 64 percent in the 1950's, to 76 percent in the 1960's and 86 percent in the 1980's.
Yes, the Catholic Church must scrutinize candidates entering the priesthood and make sure they are not homosexual. In any religion, it is a beautiful calling to spread the word of God, but not as a homosexual.
You have a choice, either protect little boys from homosexuals, or protect homosexuals and let them do as they wish.
@manoflamancha
Child sexual abuse has nothing to do with hetero or homo sexuality. That is a known fact. It also has nothing to do with marriage or tha lack of it. Priests and nuns have been having sex with other adults for as long as they have been human beings.
If you think for a moment, when you say that these child rapes are because of homo sexuality or no marriage you are saying that raping a child is a rational substitute for having an adult mate of ones preference.
Does that really make sense to you that a "normal" person would choose to rape a child if they had no adult mate?
Is that something you have considered doing?
6
An escalating financial crisis for the church... Gosh, I guess they'll just have to have a lot of bake sales.
Oh, wait a minute, the Vatican is sitting on millions and millions of dollars of art, jewelry and precious metals. THAT was the very reason priests had to start being celibates, *hundreds of years* after the founding of the church.
THAT would be a very fitting source of revenue for the Catholic church's current troubles.
3
@Ambient Kestrel
Trillions.
1
The old joke at the Justice Department is that the U.S. Attorneys are 93 people who want to be governor somewhere. The Catholic Church is now the biggest target out there, the easiest way for somebody with higher political ambition to get his name in the paper. Watch the subpoenas fly!
But let's not forget that there are many, many good men and women who have devoted their lives to the Catholic Church, who have done much good. Don't tar everyone with the same brush.
2
The public is going to be shocked at the depth and breath of child abuse in the Catholic Church. As one of the victims I have long been aware of it. Ive watched as they tried to treat each incident that came to light as a anomaly, independent of similar incidents. NO its systemic. No one seemed to want to look too deep. Its had hundreds of years in the dark to fester.
6
A “blink of an eye ago,” the nation was told by the President, his entire party and the FBI that a credible sexual assault/sexual abuse allegation investigation of an event that happened decades ago (1) is not credible unless there is some form of tangible proof (the testimony of the victim apparently is meaningless); (2) is not credibly unless a contemporary police report was made; and (3) can be conducted in a matter of days. I demand that those same principles be applied here.
But of course what you should be demanding is that a much more thorough investigation be conducted into Catholic Church abuse in Pa. than was conducted in the Kavenaugh /Ford matter. We will not stand for whitewash and rubbish and the pretense of investigating. Just because justice was far from perfect in the investigation of Kavenaugh it should never be allowed to become the norm for other investigations that seek justice for victims of crimes.
2
It is about time that the United States took action to protect children from religious groups and people that abuse children.
In my view, if you as an adult choose to believe in an invisible being that is your choice. However, when the "leaders" and adherents to that same belief systematically abuse children, including indoctrinating them into their mythical belief, those adults need to be jailed for life.
It is not just the Catholic Church, but all organized religions that have this same problem. They breed secrecy through fear and get away with rape and murder; the evidence is overwhelming if mostly anecdotal. This is why formal investigations at the national level need to be conducted and the results made public.
6
Generally speaking, child sexual abuse is not a federal crime and for those few cases where it may be one the statute of limitations has long since passed.
1
@Jesse James
But it should be. Children are our most valuable national asset and protecting them from abuse and sexual abuse should be, in a just society, a top national priority.
Interestingly if the abuser takes pictures of the naked child or the sex act they can then be charged under federal laws dealing with exploitation and child porn.
2
@Jesse James: That's somewhat factually correct but irrelevant. The civil rights statutes alone afford ample foundation for both investigation and prosecution and the financial statutes, although more of a stretch, are how you ensure the Church gets hit where they fear it most - in the pocketbook.
3
@Jesse James
Child sexual abuse is not a federal crime, but systematically aiding and abetting unlawful acts -- e.g. under RICO -- is. Unfortunately for survivors, the civil portion of RICO claims has a four-year statute of limitations.
2
Homicide detectives will tell you that, "we speak for the dead." But, who speaks for the children still being abused and the survivors living with their nightmares?
No more mincing words - the Catholic Church is structured to incorporate, enable, promote, protect and defend pedophiles. There is ample reason to believe that non-pedophiles are, indeed, *the minority* population of the priesthood.
The seminal point being that the bishops and the senior structure of the Church are not just protecting their institution but protecting their very own like abusers.
The Catholic Church is rotten to the core and inimical to the safety and well-being of any child entrusted to its walls. I thank the USA/Eastern District of PA for having the guts to do what he's doing. This is not a career-enhancing move but is, truly, a fight for the triumph good over institutional evil and the moral bankruptcy of the Catholic Church.
6
@Robert
sadly it is not just the Catholic church.
All religions have this same problem. The CC's problem is that it is the biggest and recently become the most publicized.
Hopefully that will change soon and all those groups are placed under a legal microscope and where proof is found, dismantled and the culprits jailed.
1
@Robert:
I share many of your feelings, but as a 'recovering' Catholic and former altar-boy, I do NOT believe the pedophile priests are anywhere near a majority. I spent the first 18 years of my life in Catholic grade and high schools, during which I *never* experienced myself, nor observed, nor heard stories of, any priest abusing someone. I don't think this is ALL due to successful cover-up, even if it's partially due to that.
It doesn't take very many bad apples to spoil the barrel. If even 10 to 20% of priests are guilty - that's already a horrifically large number - it could easily account for the estimated numbers of the abused.
I'll also point out that, while we collectively demand justice for the abused, we should beware of slipping into the overt anti-Catholicism of the Evangelical right, long present in the US. The KKK was known to also burn crosses on the front lawns of Catholics. I know this for a fact because my mother's (white) family experienced this in West Virginia when she was young.
1
Don't be so sure that none of the priests in your church had not been placed there after having abused children somewhere else. I have looked through the reports of the various Pa. dioceses and found that at nine of the churches I had attended with any regularity 8 of them had had priests reported for abuse serving in the parish at one time or another. Generally more than one. I was heartbroken to see the Sunday front page of this paper the week when the Pa. report came out. It carried the story of a parish and the pastor of the church whose name appeared in the abuse report. He had been in my parish for 8 years and had been the pastor of the church in the story for something like 30 years. He seems to have been adored by his parishioners and they were shocked and very hurt to find out about him.
Along with an anti-Catholic bias developing there is also the danger of even more discrimination in the treatment of gay people by some parishes and dioceses. That is shown even in these posts calling for the elimination of gay men in the priesthood. Heterosexuals are as capable of abuse as anybody else and some victims were girls.
I am aware of the KKK cross burnings at the home of Catholics. In reading the report written by an alumnus of my college I discovered that there was a women's branch of the KKK. In the Northeast they were mainly responsible for demonstrations against Catholics and immigrants. Hate and criminal behavior come in all persuasions and genders
What do the Feds think they will find or can do that has not been covered by three state grand juries did not cover. There are lots of dioceses that have not been investigated, a lot of date rapes that no one is paying attention to. As they used to say on LA Law "Move along Douglas."
1
@Robert M. Stanton
We need verification that the Church is not holding anything else back. For years, it has been a new a crop of bishops trying to cover things up. Complete disclosure will go a long way to get rid of this mess. Then, we can move along - at least in Pennsylvania.
1
There needs to be a day of true reckoning for the Roman Catholic Church. There can be no doubt that far too many who were (and some who still are) in charge actively facilitated decades of abuse and coverup "to avoid scandal." Well, dearies, you're now getting that scandal and then some.
The above being said, it amazes me how, every time this scandal is discussed some insist on tying pedophilia to either homosexuality, celibacy, or both. It has no connection to either, and that's been shown by many studies of pedophiles. We have yet to find a cure for pedophilia, and that's the scariest part of the whole "just shift 'em around and keep quiet" ploy that was used by the Church.
Having grown up in Western Pennsylvania in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, and having always been identified by others as gay [and I am], it's nothing short of a miracle that I was not preyed upon. It's even more of a miracle since I actually knew and interacted with a number of the priests named in the 2016 Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report. I haven't yet been able to bring myself to read the latest one.
7
Meanwhile our state senate refuses to go after the church... our state is s complete GOP embarrassment. Bought and sold to the highest bidder - the Catholic Church.
17
Having served as an attorney for a sexual victim, I researched and interviewed experts to learn of the life long damages from abuse to the child, and I conducted depositions of perpetrator and the at-fault organization officers and directors to learn of corporate inattention and presumption shown by those in charge. It is a fact that even highly regarded superiors entrusted to duties of care, education and protection of a child are not immune to temptation to treat the child and the trusting parents as second class citizens. I have served as clergy in the Orthodox Church and as trustee for a seminary. I have learned that the words of Christ - who said to his disciples to let the children come to me - can be spoken by men who know the truth but who do not live up to it, and as a result even the words they spoke seem to be a lie.
22
I have been baffled for years over the reluctance to charge the Church under the RICO statute in cases where priests and other religious have been transferred over state lines, sometimes national boundaries, to resume their abuse. This possibility should at least be investigated.
27
@Stephen Landers Agree 100%. If by a name other than the Roman Catholic Church RICO would have been a slam dunk.
1
Any Catholic Diocese that is under investigation for these kinds of charges needs to be shut down until the investigation is complete. The Catholic Church has ceased in these areas to be a valid and trustworthy religious framework. There needs to be a nationwide investigation--state by state and diocese by diocese-to determine where there are criminal offenses that need to be prosecuted. This is the practice of religion at its worst when adults take sexual advantage of children, their superiors know about it, and they get away with it. Shut these diocese down and don't let them open their doors again until these criminals have been prosecuted and jailed.
34
A stark reminder that they just didn’t commit a grevious sin, they also committed a felony. My hope is that the investigation just doesn’t stop with the crimes of individual pedarist priests but also those of the bishops in charge of moving them around, only to cause further misery.
109
@Al Notarfrancesco
Then move on to the so called president and his recent Supreme Court pick.
4
Long overdue. The sweep should be nation wide, statues of limitations removed and criminals tried and jailed, just like war time criminals.
85
The sweep should be global, I would have said...
However and alas, child sex crimes are state crimes and their statute of limitations are set by state law.
3
I believe that the incidence of child abuse in the Catholic Church is no greater than that in the general population , but the record keeping by the church is more readily available and is leading to a disproportioned reaction.
7
@ndbza
What evidence is there about the prevalence of child abuse in the general population? What records about child abuse are kept by any church?
One abused child -- anywhere -- should lead to a universal reaction. And never labeled "disproportioned."
9
@ndbza
It's been proven over and over that child abuse within the Catholic church has been, and maybe still is, systemic.
This is not something that we see in the general population.
Besides, the RCC has been allowed for far too long to handle all accusations on their own. In the general population such crimes are called crimes and are prosecuted and tried. And there are serious consequences, unlike in the church where there are basically no consequences for the offending parties. A little slap from the Pope and then he lets them back into the game to practice without impunity.
7
I’d like to see your evidence based research on that
3
Agree whole heartedly with other commenters about exposing the Catholic Church. The church and its subsidiaries in whole should immediately lose their tax free status in the United States.
Public costs of these repeated abuses cannot be measured and have destroyed families along with many communities. It is a down right shame that they can continue to reap a windfall in tax abatement and receive public services. This needs to stop!!
8
Isn’t this a bit hypocritical given how the GOP run justice department just appointed a man to the Supreme Court accused of sexual assault.
The GOP rammed that nominee through WITHOUT A FULL FBI investigation, dismissing and re victimising those who were assaulted by claiming no proof because it happened decades ago.
I say appoint all those preist to the justice department and be done with it.
After all we do have a man in the Whitehouse who is a self proclaimed sexual predator, re access Hollywood tape!
12
This is the tip of the iceberg. The image of these men as being holy, devoted to God and somehow special is a lie that we need to see for what it is. The church is the perfect hotbed for these deviants who use the cover of the church and all it's criminals who provide cover-up to protect the lie. They are men in an unnatural life where sex is not permitted.
9
The Saudi prince was involved in this.
1
There are one billion Catholics in the world, we have just touched the bare fringe of Child Abuse in the Catholic Church.
What is desperately needed is the end of celibacy in the Church, anything less is a fiasco.
3
@Joe Blow
Celibacy is not the issue; antisocial personality disorders are. In reviewing data/stats on sex offenders, there is not a direct correlation between celibacy and sexual abuse. If celibacy were at the core, then child abuse among clergy would be limited to RCs. It is not. Child sexual abuse is perpetrated by members of the clergy across all religious groups.
2
@CommonSenseRules
You would not have the huge numbers of child abuse in the Catholic church if the clergy was married.Celibacy is the cause, it is a haven for pediphiles.
The Church should be prosecuted under the RICO act.
7
The Church is supported by three legs: Bronze Age folklore, the model of the Roman Empire, and wishful thinking.
10
And a fourth: misogyny
9
Oh my gracious! Conservative Catholics who helped put Trump in office are now confronted with the Trump administration rooting around in their Catholic Church. May we conjecture that their MAGA hats are feeling a little tight in the band these days?
2
So...will the justice department only believe the boys/men who tell their story?
Will the justice department tell the girls/women that they are mistaken, lying, asking for it?
15
“.... But before the truth can set us free, it must first be revealed.”
Amen.
3
That's right, Trump's DOJ will launch a thorough investigation of sexual abuse by priests just not against a Republican Supreme Court nominee.
8
When I was a little boy, back in the late sixties, I told my mother about a scary story I had heard from another little boy. This seventh grade boy claimed that many Catholic priests liked to get little boys and girls alone in rooms, make them take off their clothes and do naughty things to them. He claimed that the priests told the children that what they were doing was allowed, because the children were helping God to do his work on earth and that they would get rewards in heaven. The boy told me that other priests knew about this but didn’t do anything about it. My Mom a non-religious woman who hadn’t been inside of any church more than a handful of times, told me that the little boy was filthy minded and wrong. She claimed that he was spreading a nasty wives tale as some nasty little boys like to do. She said that I should avoid the kid. She said that these were tales that were spread by people who were intolerant of Catholics. She asked me to consider my Uncle Ron and what a good person he was.
“Ron is a Catholic. Do you think he’d belong to a church where the Priests did that sort of thing?”
2
This is exactly the problem. Parents and other adults were complacent about these events for years. Children were not believed and even punished for making these accusations by those closest to them. It’s not just the clergy that is to blame for these events. It was the entire congregation for knowing of it and doing nothing for generations. Shame on everyone.
1
@lawrenceb56
With today’s administration that priest could be appointed a Supreme Court Justice!!!
2
Hey ... this is in only one state ... in one country ... one can only imagine how many around the world ... then and now ...
How does this church get sanctioned as a tax free, bona fide religion ...
And this is but one issue of wrong doing by this church ...
1
The celibacy requirement to be a member of the Catholic clergy is a violation of the natural normal civil rights of all men and women working for the Church or anywhere else for that matter, to have the opportunity to have a normal sexual life, married or otherwise without being ostracized, admonished and fired.
Considering the celibacy requirements what other sexual outlet would a clergy member have but to be a sneaky hypocrite and what type of person would enter into and maintain such a contract but someone less than healthy sexually or a naïve idealistic type who at some point would come face to face with a massive struggle to maintain something so unnatural.
1
The celibacy issue is a red herring. The sexual deviants that populate the Catholic Church do so for many reasons including self hatred if they are gay, self hatred if they are pedophiles and ,for some, the belief they can get away with anything bc if the power and secrecy of the church itself. There will always be creeps. It's the policing of your own that will clear them out. And getting rid of "blind faith" which allows people to turn away when confronted with "wives tales".
2
@Margaret Flaherty , Celibacy means that the men who become priests and want to remain priests cannot ever find love and intimacy in marriage with a woman, that leads to terrible problems for healthy normal men and leads into the priesthood men who have pre-existing problems and find a solution of sorts within the Church with its community of men who are struggling with the same major issue celibacy.
I know this isn’t a popular opinion, but can’t we just wrap the whole religion thing up? Religious oppression of sexuality and other elements of human existence don’t really seem to do us much good.
10
If a secular, non-profit organization was found to be involved in covering up the wide spread sexual abuse of children by a significant percentage of its employees, it would lose its tax exempt status for violating the specific paragraph of Section 501(c) under which it was granted that exemption. This holds true even if it was individuals within the organization committing the violations, and not the organization itself: "....(1) acts by an organization's officials under actual or purported authority to act for the organization, (2) acts by agents of the organization within their authority to act, or (3) acts ratified by the organization should be considered as activities "of the organization."
Contrary to popular belief, church organizations are not shielded from losing their tax exempt status by the First Amendment if they are found to be in violation of "public policy standards evidenced by criminal and civil statutes". There are numerous cases where tax exempt status of a church has been revoked because the church was deemed to be a criminal enterprise.
I can think of no greater "criminal enterprise" than an organized, comprehensive and deliberate effort to hide the systemic sexual abuse of children by clergy of the Catholic Church, an effort promoted and encouraged at the highest levels of the church.
Prosecute these crimes, yes. And then revoke the tax exempt status of the Catholic Church.
11
@Jim Thank you for clarifying the legal aspect of the religious exemptions. What you wrote should be plastered on all social media and should be given the first page on the New York Times. Thank you for the info.
1
Sadly in our country Federal investigation means "sweep under the rug" .
2
@joe Hall
It depends
It is important to note that until 1985 (and possibly beyond), child sexual abuse was only a civil offense in Pennsylvania. At that time, apparently PA and TX were the only states in the US that did not consider such abuse a criminal offense. I happen to know because at that time, I won such a court case on behalf of my two young daughters. After a prolonged and uphill battle, imagine my shock when upon the guilty verdict, the judge's only interest was increasing "Dad's" visitation rights. The court even refused my request that he at least get therapy. Sad, that in NJ, four miles from where we lived, Dad would have been behind bars for 20 years.
1
Mr Rozzi needs to talk about "justice" day not judgment day because that is what is required. The Catholic Church stands accused of the most horrendous crime that can be committed == defiling of young children by those they trusted in the name of so-called religious belief. It takes ones breath away to even consider this.
1
It's time to expose the Catholic Church for what it is. The crimes of priests and bishops should not be handled internally, but as the criminal offences they are, by the authorities where they belong. It is an outrage that this has not happened until now.
Why the Pope in Rome has any involvement in shaping justice in these cases is beyond all reason. His mild condemnations, and then reversals allowing participation in church affairs are slaps in the face to all victims of which there are hundreds and thousands all over the world.
36
The bishops had a window. In 2002 they met in Texas and received the bombshell: child abuse and rape were far more prevalent in parishes around the country than anyone knew, probably even the individual bishops themselves.
Right there and then, they could have shunted their agenda and taken up only this issue. They could have called in the holiest retreat director in the country and begun praying for forgiveness, humility, and wisdom.
They could have proceeded from that point with courage and a sense of the enormity of their collective sin and the absolute need for total individual and group accountability. All this would have come out quickly and, yes, terribly.
But we would not be here almost 2 decades later watching and cringing from the dribs and drabs of revelations seeping through the cracks in the coverup.
I think it's too late now. A Church is deeply compromised, its lifeline to its God and its founder, Jesus, frayed to a thread, if that.
The future depends entirely on the faithful in the pews. Or not in the pews.
17
@Victor
Consider that those bishops themselves cut their teeth in the trenches of the parishes; they certainly already knew, many first hand. More than a few had their own secrets. They could not have been surprised.
The problem for them at the time was their complete and total inability to understand the necessary biological, emotional, and sociological imperatives that could have provided some useful tools. Many were loath to even read the academic literature on the nature of sexual abuse or pedophilia; in short, they didn't understand and didn't want to understand. So they prayed.
This former altar boy from Pennsylvania knows how well that will work out.
2
Strengthen the feeble hands,
steady the knees that give way;
say to those with fearful hearts,
“Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
he will come to save you.”
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
- Isaiah 35:3-5
@Miquel Devesa So true Miquel - just like Santa Claus comes down every chimney in the world every Christmas.
2
@David Atheist can quote scripture too. It's not God, but Mankind who will prosecute the crimes of those who under the guise of pious men raped and tortured children, and that of their enablers. And such retribution will certainly be divine, as in "extremely good".
Time for the RCC to go the way of the dinosaurs......extinction.
17
@susan then so should all homo sapiens - the entire race is rife with corruption, rapists, killers etc is it not? What is the ratio of criminal priests to the entire Catholic population? What is the ratio of criminal humans to the entire human population?
1
This is a welcome investigation which should get to the bottom and extent of the priest sexual abuse scandal. Catholics are in favor of this and want to clean house of any priests no matter their status who covered up or participated in these evil acts. They want their church scandal free.
The innocent priests who make up the majority of the priesthood and Catholic Church want it also. They do not want to have people think they were in any way complicit in these horrible crimes. They are as outraged as anyone as to what occurred within the Church.
As a Catholic, I have high hopes that my Church will continue to flourish and thrive. There are still many people of all ages filling the pews each Sunday. Their Catholic faith is relevant and has meaning to their lives. They are there to receive the Holy Eucharist which is at the center of their faith. They put their trust in God who never disappoints.
3
@WPLMMT I so disagree. The Catholic hierarchy is well aware of the those who commit crimes and those who cover it up. The facts show that those who covered up the crimes were treated with promotions or "retirement" at the Vatican (think Cardinal Law) away from criminal prosecution. This problem is systemic and has been going on for decades. Given that most priests in America are older than 50, most priests are surely aware of the system and at best looked the other way. Otherwise we would be hearing about priests who helped and comforted victims and directed prosecutors to pedophiles for the last 30 years.
Meanwhile your donations are paying for defense lawyers to defend the pedophiles and church lobbyists who push for laws that make it more onerous on victims. And my tax dollars are subsidizing the costs of running this operation. Ugh.
3
Congratulations to the "evil Trump" Administration for going where its predecessors feared to tread.
5
@RM
I find it ironic that men who claim to have been abused 30 years ago are believed but women with similar claims are scored and called liars.
50
@RM
Donald "Fingers" Trump had nothing whatsoever to do with the matter.
1
Even a blind squirrel can find one nut.
2
A thousand people!
Where does this end and the Catholic Church begin?
11
@Mike Edwards
At the Supreme Court appointments, and so called president of the us.
7
@Mike Edwards
This has always been a component of the Church. This will happen any time or place that it can happen, and the power structure is not constantly held accountable.
Put another way, faith is blind. And that is all some people need. That blind spot.
8
“Nobody is above the law!” we are constantly told. We all know in reality that’s just a rather large pile of rubbish.
Here is an opportunity to restore perhaps a small shred of confidence in our justice system by finally righting a massive wrong, both legal and moral, that has been going on for decades! Those involved should feel the full weight of the law. Civil law governs here. Not church edict!
This has nothing to do with the Catholic religion. It has to do with the Church, as an organized institution, and the individuals who committed these heinous crimes and/or looked the other way or actively covered up all this. Pious men...all of them I’m sure!
38
What about all of the law enforcement and prosecutors who didn't act? They are the ones that arrest and try the accused, right?
Do Bishops have authority to criminally charge, prosecute and punish?
In the sad Penn State affair, which had nothing to do with RCC, didn't prosecutors and law enforcement investigate a decade earlier but do nothing also?
Did the PA grand jury also investigate PA public schools? Or does sovereign immunity create a pass on that?
16
Parents who send their kids to this church are equally guilty.
26
Have to laud the Justice Department for taking the initiative to jump on the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s bandwagon. But let’s be prepared for the Orwellian/Putin attack to come from Sessions’ Department: The report was biased in favor of all those child victims. Interesting that they waited more than 30 years to report. If this is how things will go down in PA, no one will want to become a priest in the future.
3
Victims or their families did not wait 30 years to report the abuse to the church. In the case of the priest from my old parish he was reported in. 1972 to some church official. The priest was removed for a week for counseling, then returned to the parish. Only in 2003. after the Boston scandal, he was given orders to retire by then Bishop Wuerle. This was several years before he had planned to retire. Although no police report seems to have been filed, a complaint was made and recorded by the diocese and it only took 31 years to remove the priest.
1
A criminal conspiracy to traffic in children for so long surely qualifies for Ricco charges with all the fixin's. Imagine if Church property were confiscated!
49
"...the Catholic Church as it struggles through a new chapter of the sex abuse scandal..."
All the Catholic Church seems to do is struggle from one sex-abuse chapter to the next...
52
Now that the Pope has admitted the Church is at fault, it's safe to act like it's their fault. 'Spotlight' came out how long ago? These guys won't face any such backlash.
18
Our system reeks. A single individual accuses Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault and her motives are questioned because she "waited so long". 'Why did she not go to the Police?"
Priests abuse children over a period of 70 years. Why not give them a "pass" because the victims " waited too long?"
Kavanaugh committed a crime. He is not qualified just as the Priests committed a crime and are not qualified.
Senior member of the Clergy covered up the sexual assaults and are being defrocked or sent to jail.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee covered up the assaults by Kavanaugh and should be disqualified from serving as representatives and should go to jail, as should the "president"
71
I thought Ford was telling the truth before the Senate. Her treatment is a scandal. However the victims of clerical abuse are not just telling their stories for the first time now. In many cases they did report the abuse to somebody in the diocese. In some cases they even went to the police who did nothing. The diocese kept records but took care of things in house with a retreat rather than sending the families to the police. Diocesan records along with testimony from victims have been used to write the Pa. abuse report.
1
Great news.
The Pennsylvania Investigators may find the Royal Commission re Child Abuse in Australia evidence helpful.
I am happy to write a submission to the investigation.
My sworn statements to the Royal Commission and Victorian Police volunteered may be helpful to the investigators of Pennsylvania.
I am a former employee of the Australian Taxation Office and mindful of my oath of secrecy.
My oath of integrity does not preclude me from commenting on matters as a private citizen.
My advice to the investigators is to follow the money trail.
Legal privilege concerning matters of financial obfuscation may lead to accounting issues.
The investigators may scrutinise financial transactions as is their wont.
The IRS website is the go to place for news.
Good to see Pennsylvania investigating the case.
1. Warrants issued for arrest in the State of Victoria
2. Multiple statements of victims effect the warrant
3. Offender resides in Japan and gains citizenship and employment as a school teacher, note point 2
4. No attempt to extradite
5 .Wow!
The trust of police is important
12
I can't help but be struck by the contrast between the Catholic priest scandal and the recent Cavanaugh debacle.
I would assume the vast majority of the abuse by priests occurred without witnesses. Yet the victims have been, by and large, believed by our society, not dismissed as confused, not accused of “asking for it,” not slammed because they waited years to report it, and not told it is just “boys being boys,” etc., which is as it should be. These victims, and ALL female and male victims of child sexual abuse and assault, deserve all our compassion, and they deserve justice without statute of limitations.
118
@Jenny
Isn’t this a bit hypocritical given how the GOP run justice department just appointed a man to the Supreme Court accused of sexual assault.
The GOP rammed that nominee through WITHOUT A FULL FBI investigation, dismissing and re victimising those who were assaulted by claiming no proof because it happened decades ago.
I say appoint all those preist to the justice department and be done with it.
After all we do have a man in the Whitehouse who is a self proclaimed sexual predator, re access Hollywood tape!
2
@Jenny
How convenient and just a bit hypocritical given how the GOP run justice department just appointed a man to the Supreme Court accused of sexual assault.
The GOP rammed that nominee through WITHOUT A FULL FBI investigation, dismissing and re victimising those who were assaulted by claiming no proof because it happened decades ago.
I say appoint all those priests to the justice department and be done with it.
Or just give them jobs in the bigot-in-chiefs cabinet.
After all we do have a man in the Whitehouse who is a self proclaimed sexual predator, re access Hollywood tape!
2
The Catholic Church will survive. These priests should not.
2
I have a hunch that all of these recent revelations are the beginning of the end of the catholic church as we know it.
Allow the migrants to take over the vatican , plenty of accommodation there.
24
Don't bet on it Paul...this particular church scandal has been on a global run for over two millennia.
2
@Paul
Tear down the Vatican and all the churches. Melt the gold, sell the tapestries and paintings, auction off the real estate, feed every hungry person on earth.
1
Around 1920 when my grandmother, Jenny Herrick (then Jenny Remortel) was 10 years old she saw a group of male seminary students chasing a frightened young woman out of the catholic church and down the street. This happened in Marquette, Michigan. She told my mother this as a point that just because you are Christian, doesn't mean you are a good person.
48
We've just finished watching 'The Keepers' (Netflix) - anyone who doesn't understand how the clergy get away with this behaviour and why the children preyed upon don't report heir abuse needs to settle down to seven hours of real-life horrors.
The brave, admirable women who speak up in this series, and those who kicked off and are continuing this investigation, are true heroes of our time.
p.
67
@Jerry and Peter There is also a very readable book by Geoffrey Robertson QC, "The Case of The Pope" Penguin 2010, which not only lays out the legal case against the Catholic Church but also explains how, over the past centuries, Canon Law has developed to shield the Church from outside investigation and punishment -- which I admit is no different from our current-day practice of allowing K-Street lobbyists to write business regulations. Foxes deciding on hen-house rules. Anyone looking for an interesting legal read should consider Robertson's book.
J
22