Here's the thing: The percentage of priests who are pedophiles is small.

[MineralMan]

There are pedophiles everywhere. The problem really is that the Roman Catholic Church officially and regularly covered up such crimes and failed to punish offending priests internally. Worse, they universally failed to report such incidents to the civil authorities. This has gone on for decades, and probably for centuries.

Instead of being handed over to the civil authorities, priests who committed such grave offenses against children confessed their "sins" to other priests, who could not tell anyone else about it. Instead, the offenders were given some sort of penance to perform and were given absolution (forgiveness) for their actions.

What that means is that pedophile priests were able to continue to groom and abuse children again and again, seeking out new victims from those children they supervised, taught, or had in catechism classes or who served as altar boys. Those who knew of their offenses through the confessional, were under oath not to reveal anything told them by a confessing priest.

The long, long history of child sexual abuse is the fault of the Church itself. Its practices and secrecy allowed countless thousands of children around the world to suffer at the hands of the Church's official representatives. Under protest, and with continuing attempts to cover up these incidents, some information is being revealed. But, the full extent of child sexual abuse by priests will probably never be known by the public.

It is the official practice of the Roman Catholic Church to "handle" such things internally, rather than reporting these crimes. Only under duress and official court orders is anything revealed, and only so much is revealed that must be revealed. The rest remains hidden.

For me, that is the primary issue, and is a fault for which I cannot forgive the Roman Catholic Church. Not ever.

Note: Reposted as an OP from a reply in another thread.

[Merlot]

1. Agreed. It's always the coverup, as evil as the initial act.

[MineralMan]

5. More evil, in my opinion.

Such coverups act to encourage future abuse, I think.

[snowybirdie]

2. Also

The Catholic church consistently interferes with the private sexual lives of its congregation,, i.e. Birth control, no sex without marriage, lgtbq people, etc. So all its priests must be without stain. Otherwise they lose respect and adherence to its laws. Much must change!

[Beakybird]

3. Who would go into a profession where you can't marry

And you spend lots of time with children?

[MineralMan]

8. There are many reasons people become priests.

Every priest has a story about why. Of course, some are priests because they have access to children. That percentage, thankfully, is small, however, but significant. Significant, because of the RCCs policies about keeping scandals covered up.

[mahina]

4. I agree. People also mostly dont know the immense good that Catholic Charities does.

Just last month they helped me find housing for two different seniors who would have necome homeless.

I sure wish there could be a way to keep that immense infrastructure for helping people intact.

[MineralMan]

12. The bad always overrides the good where news is concerned.

The church is suffering from its own failings, I'm afraid. Good deeds go unreported most of the time. Evil deeds are news.

You'd think the Vatican would understand that, somehow.

[Pope George Ringo II]

20. Al Capone ran a soup kitchen. Eva Peron fed the hungry.

At some point it's fair to ask what's genuine, what's a PR stunt, and what's just a velvet glove on an iron fist. And sometimes, even when we know all about the good being done, it's simply nowhere near enough to offset the evil.

[Voltaire2]

6. Bergoglio's criminal cartel.

[MineralMan]

7. It predates him, as well.

Who knows how far back this goes? I suspect it goes back to the beginning of the RCC, frankly.

[Cartoonist]

9. The other thing

And this is how religion makes things worse. They set themselves up as agents of God. When a child tells his parents of the abuse, they believe the priest. If the child accused anyone else, the parents would take action.

[MineralMan]

10. Yes. That myth makes things much, much worse.

The violation of trust is the most evil part of priests abusing children. The church demands trust from its followers, only to betray that trust far too often. Frankly, the RCC is losing people's trust as these horror stories emerge. If it does not correct the problem, visibly, publicly and aggressively, it could lose all trust. Personally, I think it is at that stage now, but hasn't recognized it yet.

[Major Nikon]

13. If you are a child rapist, the priesthood offers all sorts of benefits beyond access to victims

[Major Nikon]

11. What is the percentage compared to the general population?

We'll probably never know for sure because it's not as if the RCC is going to ever offer full transparency. However, it's pretty safe to assume predators gravitate towards the profession as it offers them both opportunity and concealment.

The RCC must have figured this out very early on, but instead of taking pro-active steps to protect their membership, they chose to engage in a conspiracy of coverup. The result was the formation of extensive networks of child raping priests many of whom were able to reach high levels of power and conceal the crimes of other child raping priests.

The whole thing amounts to a criminal enterprise. The worst part is the RCC has yet to enact policies which protect children.

[MineralMan]

14. There is really no way to know.

Clearly, professions that put adults into positions of trust with children tend to attract those who wish to take advantage of that.

Although, now, the RCC appears to be acknowledging the problem, they are not doing anything systematic that would correct the problem. The "sanctity of the confessional" is one of the chief issues. Under duress, the church, diocese by diocese, is being forced to show its records of such abuses. As that happens, people are beginning to understand how widespread that abuse and the coverup has been for decades.

Other organizations that focus on children have also been caught covering up. The Boy Scouts of America is an example. However, the BSA has made systematic changes as a response. The Vatican has not done that. Instead, it issues platitudes from the Pope, but does nothing to change how its hierarchy operates. The Pope "deplores" past actions, but changes nothing.

It is failing in its responsibility to its congregations, I think, and that will not end well for the organization.

[Major Nikon]

15. I think there is a way to know

If AGs start charging the RCC under RICO they could compel them to turn over their records. This would have already happened if the RCC was a secular organization. The BSA wasn't able to hide behind religious "freedom" which evidently includes the freedom to engage in a conspiracy of child rape.

The RCC has known about this problem all along. It's not as if the public outrage over it is making them aware of something they didn't already know.

[MineralMan]

16. That is beginning to happen. We're starting to hear about actual

numbers of offending priests from a few dioceses and archdioceses. Those numbers are very, very disturbing, and people are being surprised by how many priests are involved.

The more such reports are released, the more pissed off Catholics are going to become. And the more pissed off they become, the more they'll be likely to abandon attendance and donations. Add to that the hefty legal settlements so many dioceses and archdioceses are having to agree to, and the financial hit those policies are causing keeps growing.

I have no question about this being an issue in every jurisdiction, both here in the US and around the world. It is a horrendous scandal that has the potential to break the Roman Catholic Church beyond repair. We're just at the beginning the revelations. More to come...

[Major Nikon]

17. AGs are having to pry the information out of the RCC

There's also little doubt there's much the RCC will never disclose.

[MineralMan]

18. Yes, of course.

Much of the information is probably being destroyed, even as we write. We'll never have the entire story, I'm certain. Really, unless individuals report what happened to them, it won't be made public without a fight.

[safeinOhio]

19. I think these things happen more in any institution with an authoritarian base to it.

Police departments and schools. It is a gang mentality that supports not reporting it to outsiders. All so they think they can get away with it because they are in authority.

[guillaumeb]

21. Schools, Boy Scouts, military, police forces, families

anywhere there are children.


All regularly engage in cover ups.

But if anyone expects perfection of imperfect humans, that person is looking for what never was.

[MineralMan]

22. This is the Religion Group, Guy.

Your attempt at diversion is rejected.

[guillaumeb]

23. Your avoidance of the obvious point is noted.

It undercuts your arguments.

[Major Nikon]

24. So we can't expect morality from groups who pretend to be moral authorities

Good to know.

[guillaumeb]

25. All of these groups make some claim.

As do politicians.

So what can we conclude?

Perhaps that humans often behave badly no matter what label we attach to them?

[Major Nikon]

26. I don't remember the Boy Scouts lobbying against civil rights

YMMV