Moral example of the Catholic Church

[9-10ths_Penguin]

And 9-10ths_Penguin: there are no "mountains of evidence" of an "ecclesiastical criminal conspiracy involving sexual predators whose predations continue today." Get a grip.

Go read the Ryan Report and then come back here and say it with a straight face.

 

[Autodidact]

Some quotes from George Weigel I thought you might all enjoy:


Overwhelming Majority Of Abuse Cases Was Homosexual Molestation
According to press reports, confirmed by the studies of reputable scholars, the most prominent form of clergy sexual abuse in recent decades has involved homosexual priests abusing teenage boys and young men. It took editors, television personalities, and radio talk-show hosts approximately two and a half months to recognize what print reporters had, in fact, been uncovering for months: namely, that the overwhelming majority of cases of abuse did not involve prepubescent children, but rather teenage boys and young men, often in school or seminary settings. While clinical distinctions (“Fixated ephebophilia,” “regressed” or “stunted” homosexuality) may be helpful for purposes of professional study and therapy, normal English describes such abuse as homosexual molestation.

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The sexual and physical abuse of children and young people is a global plague; its manifestations run the gamut from fondling by teachers to rape by uncles to kidnapping-and-sex-trafficking. In the United States alone, there are reportedly some 39 million victims of childhood sexual abuse. Forty to sixty percent were abused by family members, including stepfathers and live-in boyfriends of a child’s mother—thus suggesting that abused children are the principal victims of the sexual revolution, the breakdown of marriage, and the hook-up culture.

Hofstra University professor Charol Shakeshaft reports that 6-10 percent of public school students have been molested in recent years—some 290,000 between 1991 and 2000. According to other recent studies, 2 percent of sex abuse offenders were Catholic priests—a phenomenon that spiked between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s but seems to have virtually disappeared (six credible cases of clerical sexual abuse in 2009 were reported in the U.S. bishops’ annual audit, in a Church of some 65,000,000 members).

Yet in a pattern exemplifying the dog’s behavior in Proverbs 26:11, the sexual abuse story in the global media (and amongst the Church Haters here) is almost entirely a Catholic story, in which the Catholic Church is portrayed as the epicenter of the sexual abuse of the young, with hints of an ecclesiastical criminal conspiracy involving sexual predators whose predations continue today. That the vast majority of the abuse cases in the United States took place decades ago is of no consequence to this story line.

For the narrative that has been constructed is often less about the protection of the young (for whom the Catholic Church is, by empirical measure, the safest environment for young people in America today) than it is about taking the Church down—and, eventually, out, both financially and as a credible voice in the public debate over public policy. For if the Church is a global criminal conspiracy of sexual abusers and their protectors, then the Catholic Church has no claim to a place at the table of public moral argument.

So we know the game. Yawn. What else is new?

So:

Johnny does it too.
And most of it was gay.
And since the secular world made them obey the law, the Church has been much better.

Those are your points?

 

[Autodidact]

Not just hints; mountains of evidence.

I agree with part of your argument: sexual abuse is not just a Catholic problem. However, there are two issues at play:

- the abuse itself, which reflects only on the abuser.
- the Church's systematic coverup of the abuse, which very much reflects on the entire institution.

The first issue applies to many other organizations. The second issue seems to be unique to the Catholic Church, at least in terms of this scope and scale.

And the abuse cases are still an ongoing concern. Just looking at the religious order that runs my wife's church, there are lawsuits and criminal cases before the courts right now involving four different priests who served in Ontario.

And that's even before we consider very recent developments like the Ryan Report.

If you don't like the media attention, too bad. It's news when child rapists and those who protect them are brought to justice. And when it involves a "cold case", sometimes that increases the story's newsworthiness.

There's a third component: The Church's unique position of trust and authority, as the intermediary between Catholics, including children, and God. This was what put the priests in an advantageous position to rape children without being caught, and this was the unique trust and authority they violated and exploited to do it.

 

[Autodidact]

So we know the game. Yawn. What else is new?

Yeah, who cares about a few thousand child victims?

 

[Autodidact]

For if the Church is a global criminal conspiracy of sexual abusers and their protectors, then the Catholic Church has no claim to a place at the table of public moral argument.

Exactly. And clearly, that is exactly what the Church has been for the last 50 years.

 

[Autodidact]

J
there are no "mountains of evidence" of an "ecclesiastical criminal conspiracy involving sexual predators whose predations continue today."

Well that's true. There was an ecclesiastical criminal conspiracy involving sexual predators, but they were busted, so their predations no longer continue today--despite the best efforts of the Church to protect them and enable them to continue to abuse children. So their predations do not, for the most part, continue today.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Well that's true. There was an ecclesiastical criminal conspiracy involving sexual predators, but they were busted, so their predations no longer continue today--despite the best efforts of the Church to protect them and enable them to continue to abuse children. So their predations do not, for the most part, continue today.

That's debateable. However, I do think that the evidence shows that the conspiracy continues today. For instance:

Vatican letter told Ireland's Catholic bishops not to report child abuse | World news | The Guardian