300 priests abused thousands of children over 7 decades in Pennsylvania

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/us/ca...vania.html

"Bishops and other leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania covered up child sexual abuse by more than 300 priests over a period of 70 years, persuading victims not to report the abuse and law enforcement not to investigate it, according to a searing report issued by a grand jury on Tuesday.

The report, which covered six of the state’s eight Catholic dioceses and found more than 1,000 identifiable victims, is the broadest examination yet by a government agency in the United States of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. The report said there are likely thousands more victims whose records were lost or who were too afraid to come forward.

It catalogs horrific instances of abuse: a priest who raped a young girl in the hospital after she had her tonsils out; a victim tied up and whipped with leather straps by a priest; and another priest who was allowed to stay in ministry after impregnating a young girl and arranging for her to have an abortion.

The sexual abuse scandal has shaken the Catholic Church for more than 15 years, ever since explosive allegations emerged out of Boston in 2002. But even after paying billions of dollars in settlements and adding new prevention programs, the church has been dogged by a scandal that is now reaching its highest ranks. The Pennsylvania report comes soon after the resignation of Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, who is accused of sexually abusing young priests and seminarians, as well as minors..."

One of the few times where I want religion, particularly the punishment in the afterlife part, to be true. Then again, belief in such a system may be what's preventing these perps from being severely punished, although some religions don't f**k around with this type of bad behavior.

But the public schools are a far greater problem, that Christian-haters rarely report.

Has Media Ignored Sex Abuse In School?
If the suspect in the 1996 murder of JonBenet Ramsey were a priest, there would be a fresh outcry about a decades-long cover-up in the Catholic Church. Commentators from Left and Right would rightly unite in decrying the crisis and the entrenched complacency that led to it. Catholic pundits would take a special relish in pointing out that they agree: The Church had better get its act together.

Any institution that has allowed children to be harmed by predators deserves to be taken to task for it. No institution should get a pass. And no profession should get a pass. Not preachers, not priests — not even teachers.

Especially not teachers. And yet …

Consider the statistics: In accordance with a requirement of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, in 2002 the Department of Education carried out a study of sexual abuse in the school system.

Hofstra University researcher Charol Shakeshaft looked into the problem, and the first thing that came to her mind when Education Week reported on the study were the daily headlines about the Catholic Church.

"[T]hink the Catholic Church has a problem?" she said. "The physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests."

So, in order to better protect children, did media outlets start hounding the worse menace of the school systems, with headlines about a "Nationwide Teacher Molestation Cover-up" and by asking "Are Ed Schools Producing Pedophiles?"

No, they didn't. That treatment was reserved for the Catholic Church, while the greater problem in the schools was ignored altogether.

As the National Catholic Register's reporter Wayne Laugesen points out, the federal report said 422,000 California public-school students would be victims before graduation — a number that dwarfs the state's entire Catholic-school enrollment of 143,000.

Yet, during the first half of 2002, the 61 largest newspapers in California ran nearly 2,000 stories about sexual abuse in Catholic institutions, mostly concerning past allegations. During the same period, those newspapers ran four stories about the federal government's discovery of the much larger — and ongoing — abuse scandal in public schools.
- https://www.cbsnews.com/news/has-media-i...in-school/

The abuse of children by Catholic priests is several orders of magnitude worse than public school abuse. These are the self-proclaimed arbiters of morality and God-revealed truth. These are the divinely appointed spokesmen of what humans should be doing. High school teachers don't come even close to this status. It is a much more egregious crime against the souls of Catholic children to abuse them in the name of God. It is the vice of hypocrisy, which greatly exceeds the immorality of abuse of students by their teachers.

(Aug 18, 2018 08:54 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: The abuse of children by Catholic priests is several orders of magnitude worse than public school abuse. These are the self-proclaimed arbiters of morality and God-revealed truth. These are the divinely appointed spokesmen of what humans should be doing. High school teachers don't come even close to this status. It is a much more egregious crime against the souls of Catholic children to abuse them in the name of God. It is the vice of hypocrisy, which exceeds the immorality of abuse of students by their teachers.

So you think 100 times more children abused is somehow qualitatively better? That's a sick excuse to maintain your anti-religious bias. We all know you couldn't care less about God or the souls of Catholic children. To children, especially of secular families, teachers are supposed to be among the most trusted adults outside of family members.

(Aug 18, 2018 09:11 PM)Syne Wrote:

(Aug 18, 2018 08:54 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: The abuse of children by Catholic priests is several orders of magnitude worse than public school abuse. These are the self-proclaimed arbiters of morality and God-revealed truth. These are the divinely appointed spokesmen of what humans should be doing. High school teachers don't come even close to this status. It is a much more egregious crime against the souls of Catholic children to abuse them in the name of God. It is the vice of hypocrisy, which exceeds the immorality of abuse of students by their teachers.

So you think 100 times more children abused is somehow qualitatively better? That's a sick excuse to maintain your anti-religious bias. We all know you couldn't care less about God or the souls of Catholic children. To children, especially of secular families, teachers are supposed to be among the most trusted adults outside of family members.

Doesn't matter. The abuse of a trusted and faith-devoted priest is way more immoral than a teacher's abuse of a student. It's called hypocrisy.

Do you really think a sexually abused child cares anything about hypocrisy. Betrayed trust is betrayed trust, and children don't really differentiate trusted adults.

Or are you speaking from personal experience with priests?

(Aug 18, 2018 09:35 PM)Syne Wrote: Do you really think a sexually abused child cares anything about hypocrisy. Betrayed trust is betrayed trust, and children don't really differentiate trusted adults.

You don't think having your religion connected to sexual abuse is traumatizing? You're an idiot.

Quote:Or are you speaking from personal experience with priests?

You're pathetic...

(Aug 18, 2018 09:31 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: It's called hypocrisy.

They think they're teaching them about God’s love from a male’s perspective.

Magical Realist Wrote:You're pathetic...

I know they’re annoying when they land on you but swatting at them doesn’t seem to help. Gadflies don’t bite. We should probably just ignore them. Maybe even learn to live with 'em.

(Aug 18, 2018 09:36 PM)Magical Realist Wrote:

(Aug 18, 2018 09:35 PM)Syne Wrote: Do you really think a sexually abused child cares anything about hypocrisy. Betrayed trust is betrayed trust, and children don't really differentiate trusted adults.

You don't think having your religion connected to sexual abuse is traumatizing? You're an idiot.

Straw man. But you seem to be saying it isn't as traumatizing if it doesn't include religion.
I can only assume that your religious experience included heavy brainwashing, since most children do not view religion as anything very different from school.
You simply have your weekday teacher and your Sunday school teacher. The priest/pastor is just like a principal. All of them tell you how to behave, and you have zero real concept of death.

Quote:

Quote:Or are you speaking from personal experience with priests?

You're pathetic...

Well if it ain't just your anti-religious bias, there must be some reason you think religious abuse is especially traumatizing. So which is it? Bias or personal trauma? O_o

---

(Aug 18, 2018 09:53 PM)Secular Sanity Wrote: I know they’re annoying when they land on you but swatting at them doesn’t seem to help.  Gadflies don’t bite.  We should probably just ignore them.  Maybe even learn to live with 'em.

Says the troll who's only posting off-topic to be inflammatory. I actually offered relevant info. Do you ever plan to? O_o