It is feared that many Catholic diocese around the country have records and evidence of how they have covered up the large numbers of criminal priests who have sexually abused children. In many cases, bishops moved predator priests around to unsuspecting parishes, allowing them to continue molesting at will. Catholic leaders want to keep these damning records hidden, but should they be allowed to? Does church/state separation protect churches who are protecting criminals?
This question is complicated by the fact that in most, and maybe all, cases the statute of limitations have run out -- so no matter what we learn, no one can be prosecuted. Perhaps this is one reason why the Catholic Church has fought so hard to prevent state legislatures from extending the statute of limitations on the molestation and sexual abuse of children -- better to let predators go free to continue raping kids than risk what might happen to current priests and bishops?
This would also explain why some of the predators have been sent abroad, hidden in monasteries and other church locations. Apparently the church is doing nothing to bring priests back to nations where they face arrest or imprisonment. Instead of being disciplined, they have found sanctuary and are even continuing with work in the church with communities that have no idea what these priests' backgrounds are like.
It’s amazing to me that this type of crime even happens (comes to pass, alas!). I know that priests undergo psychological evaluations when they go for their Holy Orders. I guess they lie about a proclivity to pedophilia, which I find repulsive. They do not want to hurt their chances for being accepted. Then when they are in, they choose young boys like it’s fashionable or something. I find that a bit odd. No, worship and prayer are serious matters. Keep clean. They must be exposed. Who are we confessing our sins to? We need some real holiness, which includes a respect for secular law.
Are we not being skeptical enough? Just because somebody makes the claim that the records exist, does not make it so. IF the records exist, then bring them forth and prosecute the perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law. Personally, I think that the Catholic church would have to be stupid to leave behind a paper trail.
I grew up as a devout Catholic; to be told that this happens at all is astonishing. I’m still in denial, but if it does happen, then those priests are out of their mind. If they wanted to be a pedophile, did they really have to stand before God and lie straight to everyone’s faces about how holy and devout they are?! I mean, there are already people who don’t believe, and priests are suppose to convince them to believe, but who is going to believe a hypocrite? It is like a child saying,”Bobby doesn’t go to bed at eight, why should I?” kind of thing. People who are turning over a new leaf may even begin to believe that since a holy man can commit what is called a *sin* and get away with it, what does it matter anything they do to atone? The Church should strip them of their position and hand them over to the law.
There is no reliable proof to support anything you stated in the article. The Catholic Church has been examined by Law Enforcement agencies four separate times in the last ten years and that is just official examinations. There have been very few reported cases and many of the children who claimed abuse have admitted in their adult lives that these accusations were made out of spite or immaturity. Research also shows that public school teachers are five times as likely to abuse children than Catholic priests. The Church makes no attempt at a cover-up and has publicly denounced the few priests that have been found guilty.
Oh really? None whatsoever? And what research have you done on this?
All the dioceses? Citations, please.
Many? Citations please.
Please cite your resaerch.
Oh really? Never?
Yet it has also sought to prevent priests from seeing the inside of a court room where they might be found guilty.
Funny how you claim that there is “no reliable proof to support anything” in my article, yet I’m able to cite numerous news stories in support of what I have written whereas you have cited… absolutely nothing whatsoever.
The Catholic Church has never been held responsible for any of it’s crimes over the last, well, two thousand years. I’m sure the Cosa Nostra set up the heirarchy of the Church, after all, the Popes of past were nothing more than, “The Don of Dons” Who else could have perpetrated the, Spanish Inquesitions, literally crime free and sanctioned by the Church itself. Talk about the fox guarding the henhouse,that sure takes that saying to atmospheric levels.
I have personally known three Priests through my membership in good standing of the, Gay community. I’m sixty now, but thirty years ago the bars were crawling with God sanctioned pedophiles, even as an Aethist then I was totally disgusted with the behavior of these so called men of the cloth, what a joke they could play on their own flock, and drink and brag about it. It’s pure depravity in it’s purest form. This of course wasn’t reported and if there were sticky wickets, they were all hushed up by the Church itself, can you just imagine the cost of law suits, christ that makes Bernie Madoff look like a piker.
If the head of a school district or an orphanage had tried to cover up rampant sexual abuse by the leaders or the staff, there would be public outrage and possibly lynchings, or at least, investigations and trials.
Why should religion get a free pass? Never mind the issue of mythologies being a load of crap, the moral and ethical issue alone is reason enough for courts to ignore “privilege”. Warrants should be filed and the cult’s offices forcibly entered to remove all such records. This isn’t just systematic abuse, it’s a conspiracy to commit rape and the aiding and abetting of criminals.
Please be patient, I’m new to this blog, and don’t know who’s who except Austine, so I may come out with guns blazing, I mean no disrespect to anyone.
Having said that, Austine, Mr. Williams is under the opinion “”that the Catholic Church has been examined by Law Enforcement agencies four separate times in the last ten years and that is just official examinations.”" Well all I can say is this must have been in a sub-station of a sub-station in Nome, Alaska. Where is this man getting such absurd information, there were four examined before breakfast anywhere in the World.
Absolutely, However we have a situation that involves tons and tons of money being supplied by the Catholic Church, ever try and fight city hall, well times that by a million and now you get an idea of their power, this is precisely why separation of Church and State are paramount in our Constitution and never be allowed to be fudged with by the Religious Right. They will wait to get another Bush and between his idiotic grins, we all will be praying to someones God that has the most money, OH, by penalty of death. It happened!!
RE: James Williams’ comments.
Here’s a link that refutes everything he claims.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091126/ap_on_re_eu/eu_ireland_catholic_abuse
Some samples from the article:
“That report in May sought to document the scale of abuse as well as the reasons why church and state authorities didn’t stop it, whereas Thursday’s 720-page report focused on why church leaders in the Dublin Archdiocese — home to a quarter of Ireland’s 4 million Catholics — did not tell police about a single abuse complaint against a priest until 1995.
By then, the investigators found, successive archbishops and their senior deputies — among them qualified lawyers — already had compiled confidential files on more than 100 parish priests who had sexually abused children since 1940. Those files had remained locked in the Dublin archbishop’s private vault.”
“Thursday’s report detailed “sample” cases of 46 priests who faced 320 documented complaints, although the investigators said they were confident that the priests had abused many more children than that. They cited testimony from one priest who admitted abusing more than 100 children, and another priest who said he abused a child approximately every two weeks for 25 years.
Just 11 of the 46 ultimately were convicted of abusing children — typically decades after church leaders learned of their crimes — while two others are scheduled to face Dublin criminal court actions within months. Fourteen are dead and most of the rest have been defrocked or barred from parish duties. [...] six are still active priests.”
“Three Dublin archbishops — John Charles McQuaid (1940-72), Dermot Ryan (1972-84) and Kevin McNamara (1985-87) — did not tell police about clerical abuse cases, instead opting to avoid public scandals by shuttling offenders from parish to parish and even overseas to U.S. churches, the commission found.”
I can refute James Williams’ assertions with an article from today’s news.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091126/ap_on_re_eu/eu_ireland_catholic_abuse
Here’s some examples:
“Three Dublin archbishops — John Charles McQuaid (1940-72), Dermot Ryan (1972-84) and Kevin McNamara (1985-87) — did not tell police about clerical abuse cases, instead opting to avoid public scandals by shuttling offenders from parish to parish and even overseas to U.S. churches, the commission found.”
“That report in May sought to document the scale of abuse as well as the reasons why church and state authorities didn’t stop it, whereas Thursday’s 720-page report focused on why church leaders in the Dublin Archdiocese — home to a quarter of Ireland’s 4 million Catholics — did not tell police about a single abuse complaint against a priest until 1995.
By then, the investigators found, successive archbishops and their senior deputies — among them qualified lawyers — already had compiled confidential files on more than 100 parish priests who had sexually abused children since 1940. Those files had remained locked in the Dublin archbishop’s private vault.”
“Thursday’s report detailed “sample” cases of 46 priests who faced 320 documented complaints, although the investigators said they were confident that the priests had abused many more children than that. They cited testimony from one priest who admitted abusing more than 100 children, and another priest who said he abused a child approximately every two weeks for 25 years.
Just 11 of the 46 ultimately were convicted of abusing children — typically decades after church leaders learned of their crimes — while two others are scheduled to face Dublin criminal court actions within months. Fourteen are dead and most of the rest have been defrocked or barred from parish duties. [...] six are still active priests.”
Sorry for the double posting, I reloaded the page eight times, didn’t see my comment, and assumed I’d forgotten to hit “send”. Oh well.
Why did you pick on the Catholic Church alone? I know they have done it but other religious groups have been involved with the crimes as well. Even churches without the rule of celibacy have been involved.
It is more important to track down serious individual crimes than it is to preserve a reputation.
Why is there a staute of limitation on sex crimes against children in the first place? What sick pervert decide that was a good thing to do…
The mere fact that anyone even asks if the Catholic Church should be allowed to get away with an offence of such magnitude, is amazing. They should not be allowed to get away with these crimes because as much as they like to think otherwise, they are not a special case in anything. Its only got to the stage where the christian church, and religion in general, have been induged by people and organisations who should know better.The fraudulent clergy who covered it all up should share a cell with the perpetrators.They are evil bastards, christians or not, and should accept the punishment that would apply to the rest of us.
There should be one other choice. The Church, like any big business, has plenty of lawyers and wouldn’t turn over anything “without delay”. But, when there is enough evidence, warrants should be issued, and THEN, the Church should comply.