OK, the headline’s not strictly true. When guns are outlawed only pedophile, rapist priests will have guns. theaustralian.com.au: “Victoria’s parliamentary inquiry into child sexual abuse heard stunning evidence on Monday, including claims of bestiality, hospital chaplains raping patients, student priests being sexually assaulted in the seminary, a priest carrying a gun around a school playground and boys on altar boy camp being assaulted for a week by seminarians in charge of the camp. Helen Last, the director of advocacy group In Good Faith, says abuse victims have told stories of priests keeping guns and knives in their presbytery, while one told her that some clergy ‘introduced dogs into assaults of children’ . . .
Ms Last told the inquiry the Catholic Church took 15 years to deal with priest Peter Searson [bottom row, second from the right in picture above, link added by TTAG], now deceased, who was accused of carrying a gun with him in the playground in the mid 1990s, while another priest kept a pistol in his glovebox.
I’m not saying that Aussie’ loss of gun rights enabled this abuse. No wait. I am. Whenever you disarm a populace, you leave them defenseless. When a populace is defenseless, they become passive. They become prey. Not all of them. But some. Equally, the culture of corruption flourishes. As always, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Click here for a list of 70 Catholic clergy and men working for the Church accused of abuse. In the Melbourne Archdiocese alone. That we know about. [NB: Strange how difficult it is to find photos of these men on Google.]
Don’t think it couldn’t happen here, either. In “no guns for the average Joe” Rhode Island, pedophile priests—up to and including Bishop Gelineau—buggered little boys for decades. I repeat, the state/criminals’ monopoly on lethal force created an environment where this kind of heinous crime could continue unabated and unpunished.
So what’s changed, given that you can round down the percentage of weapons permit holders in Rhode Island to zero, and that Australia continues to be a “gun free” paradise (at least in the gun grabbers’ minds)? You tell me.
[Ms. Last] said clerical abuse continued to this day and her group had been inundated with allegations from victims in recent weeks.
But still the Catholic church had no mental health policy, she said, and adhered to an ancient secretive and hierarchical structure that “no rational person lives now.”
Victims are afraid to complain because of public humiliation, a “fear of an angry punishing God” and because the church’s Melbourne Response process only added to the trauma.
And because they’re used to being controlled and abused, one way or another. Never forget that the Second Amendment is the bulwark against all forms of tyranny.
Makes me ill. These “men of God” involved in this kind of stuff should be executed in public. Oh wait, that’s not a Godly thing to do and Australia doesn’t allow it anyhow. Too bad.
Actually would be a very old testament solution I think
Australia is a country that censors the internet, has banned glue traps for mice, and where only a licensed plumber can fix a tap. That country went the way of Britain (corporatist, statist) long ago, And people who tithe money to the Church should be aware that much of it goes to settling sex abuse cases.
Out of all the things you could list as something restricting freedom, you list the use (or rather, non-use) of glue traps?
Lol, seriously?
How many people are really going to care? Oh that’s right, hardly anyone, because a lot of people don’t actually like glue traps and use the traditional kind instead. Besides, in problem areas such as rural farms, they are useless. Regardless, it’s not going to be high on the list of restricted freedoms.
Adam, our internet is not censored and banning a very barbaric animal trap isn’t what I’d consider a restriction of freedom (they are also banned in many other countries). As far as I know, only three states have banned glue traps.
Forget it, he’s on a roll.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Australia
And how are glue traps ‘barbaric’? They are affective (I can attest to this), and ‘cruelty’ to the grey greasballs is justified. Mus musculus carries murine mammary tumor virus–implicated in HUMAN breast cancer. Mice also spread other diseases (salmonella, hantavirus in field mice), cause electrical fires by nibbling on insulation, damage over a billion dollars worth of food and property in North America annually, and do massive damage to local ecosystems. And if the squeaking of a mouse in a gluetrap bugs you, then do as I do and stomp on them. I’ll keep my glue traps, thank you. Bending over backward to animal rights fruitcakes is a sign of cultural decline.
As of this moment, Australia does not have a mandatory internet filter. So my comment still stands.
I think it’s pretty obvious why they are. Glue traps are barbaric because they don’t kill the animal instantly, they just sit there shivering in fear in their own piss and struggle for extended periods of time, often mutilating themselves and gnawing on limbs when trying to escape. And if they don’t manage to get off, they starve to death. How is that *not* barbaric? I don’t care how “effective” they are, a snap trap is just as effective but not as torturous. That level of cruelty is never justified because it’s not necessary to solve a pest problem.
There’s no evidence that they spread breast cancer, and listing the reasons why they’re pests and should be gotten rid of doesn’t address the fact that you don’t need a glue trap, and there are less cruel ways to eliminate them. That isn’t being “fruitcake”, it’s being someone with a little bit of compassion who dislikes unnecessary suffering. I agree that they should be outlawed, and I’m glad other like-minded people are on the same page. It shouldn’t be legal to stick a mammal on a sheet of plastic and torture it… accepting such things is a cultural/moral decline, not the other way around.
If you are seriously thinking your freedom is impeded on the basis that you can’t torture a little animal on a particular kind of trap any more… well, what can I say? Diddums.
I live on a farm and I shoot rats. I dislike glue traps because they’re a crude device that prolong the suffering of the animal. They don’t even work too well because a lot of the time the animal can pull itself off. What is the point? My friends, who are avid hunters and shoot rats as a recreational activity, also agree. They are pests and need to be killed, but not like that. I don’t really see your point here other than to be upset because you can’t kill them in a way that may induce pleasure. There are a lot of other traps you can use, so there’s really no point crying about them being banned. It’s not like they’re banning your right to protect property.
I have two cats. They are far more brutal that glue traps when it comes to eliminating mice.
About 25 years ago in Chicago a black man confronted his former priest or minister on the street and demanded that he apologize to him for having raped him (I think repeatedly) when he was a child. The clergy member laughed in the man’s face. Witnesses then saw the accuser pull out a gun and shoot the clergy member dead. It was reported that the clergy member did have a reputation in the community for having also sexually abused teen girls and married adult women. The shooter then surrendered to the police.
Like the 3rd Riech and Stalin’s Empire All Statest Goverments prefer pediophiles, pendergasts,panty sniffers and pill poppers to be in positions of power below the penultimate potentate so that they might be easily controled through blackmail and threats of prosecution. The flips side is that the Prevs are permited to pray upon the pedestrian class.
A prime example of the leader of such a system was recently positioned as POTUS
BTW it ain’t Ozzies, unless your refering to the Osbourns.
It’s Aussies
“OK, the headline’s not strictly true.”
But you couldn’t resist.
Send them along to Afganistan, where such conduct is condoned. Whree men cannot marry who have no property, women are essentially off limits, and the fall back is boys. “Women are for marriage, boys are for fun,” the saying goes. While they are there, maybe they can convert the Taliban–or die trying.
These issues with child abuse in the Catholic Church have been in the News for many years now, and one has to wonder why it continues. One also must wonder how many Centuries this has been going-on.
To the point of the article, even if Australia permitted an armed populous, would Laymen assassinate Priests? It does not happen in the “gun saturated” US except very rarely (and I cannot recall a report of it happening at all). Although I firmly agree with your general conclusion…you might be stretching a bit to support that conclusion in this case. I think law-abiding Laymen do not kill Priests in vendetta for perverted behavior for the same reasons law-abiding gun owners do not kill wantonly…it’s murder…and the ordinary person (who might well be a Catholic Layman AND gun owner) is more morally fit than the perverts the Catholic Church harbors. Just sayin’
I am not arguing for assassination. I’m saying that a disarmed populace is prey to severe miscarriages of justice, without recourse.
If society, government, and the courts fail to even take action to prosecute a repeat pedophile (a member of a large religious order the government does not want to mess with) who later gets killed by a ‘presumed’ victim seeking vengeance is it then an assassination, murder, or a morally justified execution?
@Aharon, It would be murder under the circumstances you posit IMO.
I did not suggest you were “arguing for assassination”, but I am saying this particular example does not make a very persuasive argument “that a disarmed populace is prey to severe miscarriages of justice, without recourse” because the Australian Public DOES have recourse to Law Enforcement. If they choose not to utilize their Justice System, it doesn’t matter if they are disarmed or not. If disarmed and no recourse to a Civil Legal System, then your point is solidly established.
They choose not to utilize their justice system because they are made passive by their disarmament. If a police force has a monopoly of force, the people no longer trust them. As true in white suburban Australia as it is in Watts.
Okay, I concede your point.
DerryM,
Technically I agree with you that it would probably be murder. I was speaking more rhetorically (I should have clarified that) on more of a moral and philosophical basis.
Aharon,
I understand what you are saying. I was thinking in technical terms that Civil Authorities would view it as murder and respond as such, probably to the disadvantage of the perpetrator.
Insofar as the moral aspect, I would not personally be able to view a pre-meditated revenge killing as a “morally justified execution”, but THAT is strictly my opinion open to debate.
Excuse me, but this is highly offensive to all Catholic gun owners. Are you implying that people should storm a Catholic church and shoot the priest because he is a pedophile? Should all Catholics be banned from owning a gun because of the actions of a few? I don’t know how your thought proccess works, but as a Catholic and a firearms enthusiast I find this highly offensive and repulsive. I don’t ask for a apology, but this post has made me lose my interests in this blog.
Wow, talk about seeing/reading what you want to see…it’s clearly and easily evident that this is not what the article is eluding to. Some folks (like myself) are touting the brash Internet opinions that you find offensive, not TTAG.
Since we’re on the subject…IMO a good portion of the stuff that goes on (or just gets tolerated) within the Catholic church is what you should find highly offensive.
It’s sickening to see the amount of evil/depravity that lurks within the Catholic church.
Until that is no longer the case, may I kindly suggest that you focus your outrage there? (and not at TTAG).
While I understand where you are coming from (and I know this is off topic to the TTAG article), I feel your comments need to be addressed. Let me also publicly put forth my bias here, I am a Catholic gun owner and enthusiast. I am also a Parole Agent, who carries a gun for a living, who handles a sex offender/ mental health caseload. I think it’s fair to think that because I deal with the “evil and depraved” everyday that I have some perspective on the issue.
First, evil/depravity is present in the Catholic Church because it is made up of sinners who live in a evil/depraved world. Because of that very hard fact, this is not the last scandal that the Church will have to face in her history. To expect the church to be made up of perfect people, or even mostly perfect/holy people is unrealistic. Jesus Christ himself said that “many will say ‘Lord Lord’…” and that he would respond “I do not know you.” Jesus knew that many, maybe even a majority, of Christians would be Christian by name, but not by action.
Second, the “amount” of evil/depravity in the Church is no more or less than what is present in the rest of the world. I challenge anybody who has a differing point of view to name one institution, religion, society, that has not had problems with the morality of it’s members.
Third, I’ll make it a point to say that despite what the media will have you believe, Priests do not abuse children at any higher rate than the rest of the population. Check the following link for a good article (from a NON-religious sources as a reference) http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/04/07/mean-men.html. In fact, the following study (also from a non-religious source) indicates that sexual misconduct among TEACHERS far exceeds those of Priests in the Catholic Church: http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/research/pubs/misconductreview/report.pdf
Does that make it okay? No. It is terrible and the Priests that do commit these horrible acts should be dealt with accordingly. Has the Church always responded in a proper fashion? Nope. As such, the Church needs to revamp the way it deals with such scandals. Again, let me say plainly, I am not writing this to make excuses for the Priests that committed these acts, or even to say that some Church Officials were not wrong in the way they dealt with the problem. I am writing it to say that to believe, or infer that the Catholic Church is more evil, or harbors more evil, than any other public institution, religion, society, is false.
As a matter of FACT, the Catholic Church is the largest charitable organization on the planet. Don’t believe me? Google it. You might try looking up the number of Catholic hospitals, schools, food pantries, emergency aide organizations (Catholic Charities? Catholic relief services?) that are available in the US alone. How about Mother Teresa? How about her order, the Missionaries of Charities? I would say that the Church, though it is made up of sinners (who suffer depravity/evil in their hearts), also does a whole lot of good as well.
I’ll also say that though I know it was not Robert’s intention to start an internet debate on the holiness (or unholiness) of the Catholic Church, the headline is going to make Catholics uncomfortable. It made me uncomfortable because I knew that somebody was going to make comments such as you did. @ Robert: I thoroughly enjoy your articles and the TTAG blog, but I have to question the prudence of this (one) particular headline.
Enuff said.
“Does that make it okay? No. It is terrible and the Priests that do commit these horrible acts should be dealt with accordingly. Has the Church always responded in a proper fashion? Nope. As such, the Church needs to revamp the way it deals with such scandals.”
Exactly. I expect much more from arguably the most significant church/religious organization in the world.
“I am writing it to say that to believe, or infer that the Catholic Church is more evil, or harbors more evil, than any other public institution, religion, society, is false.”
Never said that…but I do think that the arguably greatest church should hold itself to (and should naturally experience/achieve) a higher standard (for God’s sake).
Enuff said.
Priests do not abuse children at any higher rate than the rest of the population.
Okay, I get that, but the rest of the population doesn’t have bishops and cardinals to cover up their crimes. Allowing child abusers to hold positions of authority was a systemic failure. Bad, yes, but even the Boy Scouts made the same mistake. Let’s face it, pedophiles will find a way to be around children. However, covering up thousands of crimes makes the entire institution guilty.
MotoJB: I would like to answer all nine of your points (if your interested in what I have to say). Some of them have actually been debunked by non-religious, secular historians. If you want to continue this conversation, I invite you to shoot me an email at [email protected]. If not, that’s fine too. However I’m not going to continue the convo on this forum.
The whole “xyz should be held to a higher standard” argument has always struck a nerve with me, because it always comes from a individual who more than likely fails to meet “higher” standards from time to time (we all do). BTW, what is a “higher” standard? If by higher standard you mean acting in a morally upright, dignified, honest, just manner, than I don’t see how it get’s any “higher’ than that.
The Church DOES hold itself to this “higher standard.” In fact, it’s pretty clear what happens to a Christian if you die not holding yourself to that standard (which is far worst than anything that can happen to you on this planet). The point is, MotoJB, they (a small number of Catholic Priests, compared to the very large number of ACTUAL Priests) FAILED to meet that standard.
And yes, you should EXPECT more from those men of God, hell, I expect more from those men. But, saying things like “it’s sickening to see the amount of evil/depravity that lurks within the Church” certainly infers an attitude that the WHOLE Church harbors “more evil” than other institutions or societies, which is, as I pointed out, false. Even if you don’t believe that, your statements are at the very least detracting from those in the church who aren’t committing those evil acts.
Statements like that also fail to recognize the large amount of GOOD that the Church does every day. Again, take Catholic Hospitals, Emergency Aide organizations, religious orders out of the equation and see how many people are affected.
“Let he who is without sin among you cast the first stone.” I’m certainly not without sin and I’m not saying that catholic religion in it’s purest nature is evil.
I firmly believe there is good that comes from many in the catholic church and I’m not talking about the majority of the church body – I’m not talking about the good neighborhood church that fulfills it’s mission properly…I’m talking about the atrocities and corruption that came/comes from the greedy, power-hungry, highest levels of the church. Every institution faces the cancer of corruption. No denying that…the church is no different. However the Catholic Church is a very closed, insular society with one leader, and everyone is answerable to that leader. When that leader can then have ultimate authority over everyone in the organization – well, that’s rife for the abuse of power.
When power is not shared, when authority is not delineated to various people in the organization, you’re going to have serious, serious issues.
I will share with you just 9 reasons how the catholic church has demonstrated it is one of the most historically corrupt, and shameful religious organizations the world has ever known (and this is without even getting into the modern day issues around sexual, political, financial and moral corruption).
Lest you forget:
1) John Wycliffe – in a nutshell, John saw very much the same problems in the Roman Catholic Church. Catholicism itself was fine with him, but the Church was largely corrupt by his day. Wycliffe wanted people to worship God and Jesus according to the Bible, not according to the popes and their bishops and priests. He saw that people are corruptible, while the Bible is not, and thus, there was no good sense in taking one’s troubles to a priest, so the priest could make one feel better. He was also the first to translate the complete Bible into English, which did not endear him to the Catholic hierarchy. He died after suffering a stroke during Mass. For his “crimes against the church”, In 1428, Pope Martin V had his body dug up and burned at the stake.
2) Indulgences – where certain Bishops of the Catholic Church saw (and continue to see/use) indulgences as a very good way to get rich. “As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs.” Indulgences are still given in the Catholic Church – some which remit part of the punishment owed for sin, and some which remit all. The most recent indulgences were granted in 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI, for people who took part in pilgrimages to Lourdes. IMO, the church is rotten to the core by the evil quest for riches. Heck, I just got back from the Vatican in Rome where you really can see/feel the excessive greed. They even tried to CHARGE me 9 euros to walk into a little room to see some of the “riches of the Vatican”. No thanks. I can’t in good faith give that gold laden Vatican church more money.
3) The “investigation of the Knights Templar” – the Catholic Church was officially and directly responsible in torturing and executing the Templar knights, knowing full well that they were innocent of all charges.
4) Galileo – The trial of Galileo Galilei is one of the most infamous and embarrassing moments in Catholic history. He was tortured to denounce the fact that orbits are based on gravity, not on mankind’s arrogance…and they effectively placed Galileo under house arrest for the last 9 years of his life.
5) Joan of Arc – Joan of Arc was executed for heresy, not because she claimed to hear the voice of God, not because she defied and killed the English, but because she was said to have worn a man’s clothing while in prison. This was also forbidden, and thus punishable by being burned at the stake. She requested that her last meal be Holy Communion. The Church officials refused, in essence trying everything they could to consign her to Hell. It was even discovered after her death that she had never worn a man’s clothing. Her case was successfully appealed 25 years later, and she was exonerated by the Pope at the behest of St Joan’s mother. Lovely.
And here’s a GOOD one for you:
6) Jan Hus – this is one of the most appalling incidents of criminal cowardice in the history of the Catholic Church. Jan Hus was a Czech priest and Catholic reformer who could not stand what he saw as various corruptions rife throughout the Roman Catholic Church. It would take too long to explain every detail of his arguments with the Church, but they can all be simplified to his view that the priests, bishops, archbishops and popes were immoral and given to sin, just as any other human. Thus, any rule the Church established was corrupt, because 100% of the rules necessary for Christian living and salvation had already been written by God in the Bible. Long story short – He knew they might try to kill him for this, and they did, arresting, trying and imprisoning him for heresy. He was held in an underground dungeon, fed very little, contracting the flu and possibly pneumonia. He was ordered to recant his teachings, and he refused, stating that he stood firmly and solely on the Bible, that for the Church to demand his recantation of the Bible was the same as demanding God’s genuflection to the Roman Catholic Church. This infuriated the Church officials, who promptly sentenced him to death. They refused him the Last Rites and burned him at the stake.
7) William Tyndale – Tyndale dedicated his life to translating the Bible into vernacular English, so the laypeople of England could read it for themselves. This was not expressly against the rules, but everyone was uncomfortable with the Bible being readily accessible to the commoners, because how could the Church then keep power? He was finally caught by the church, charged with heresy for no other reason than translating the Bible into English, and strangled, then burned at the stake. The Catholic Church has never apologized. All subsequent English Bibles, including the King James have borrowed extensively from Tyndale’s Bible.
8) Inquisitions – Spanning the entire latter half of the Middle Ages, lasting into the 1800s. For those seven centuries or so, anyone who roused the anger or suspicion of the Roman Catholic Church was in very real danger of the arrival of Inquisitors, whose job was “to root out and purge the Christian civilized world of heresy and crimes against God.” Torture was not only defended as a means to gain a confession; the Church encouraged it. Aside from the specific cases mentioned in other entries, it must not be forgotten that the Catholic Church routinely arrested and tortured Jews, Muslims, Waldensianism (Christian), Hussitism (Christian) and numerous other religions and religious sects. These people were given prior warning to vacate the given area (a pogrom), after which anyone found in the area was arrested and given an ultimatum: convert to Christianity or be executed. Anyone who foolishly refused was tortured until he or she did convert, and the Inquisition allowed no exemptions for anyone, men, women, children, the elderly or the disabled. These tortures were sickening beyond belief, including branding, the rack, hanging by the toes or thumbs, toe crushing, bone breaking, simple beatings, foot roasting, and blinding by red-hot pokers. After such tortures, the condemned was almost always strangled, then burned at the stake. For seven centuries, the Catholic Church was all powerful, even terrifying monarchs, and the Inquisition held absolute sway by the most brutal methods imaginable.
Interestingly the office of the Inquisition still exists today under the name “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith”.
9) Medieval Witch Hunts – so-called “witches” were rounded up and slaughtered for centuries throughout Europe. Casualty numbers vary drastically because records were not well kept, but the average total is anywhere from 40,000 to 100,000 dead, just in the period of 1480 to 1750. It was established doctrine that witches were not witches by their own volition, but by Satan’s, and so burning them at the stake would purify them by pain so they could enter Heaven. The Church actually believed, and led the populace to believe, that it was doing witches a favor by torturing them and burning them to death. The methods by which to prove a witch were ludicrous, to state the obvious: a mole or birthmark was deemed proof of trafficking with the Devil; uttering blasphemy (and back then it was nearly impossible to open your mouth without offending the Church); denouncement by another witch (and since denouncing another passed the blame, the accused could save himself this way); to be afraid during interrogation; and the most infamous of all, anyone who could swim was most assuredly a witch, since only the Devil could teach someone to conquer water.
The Church pursued and slaughtered people because of the slightest hint of heresy, it also ordered that all witches’ “familiars” be hunted down, killed and burned. These familiars were pets that witches were believed to keep, whether frogs, or owls, or rats or especially cats. From the 1100s until the late 1300s, cats were slaughtered wholesale all over Europe. When the fleas bearing bubonic plague rode on the backs of rats from the Black Sea area and Western Asia into Italy and Western Europe, there were no cats to check the rats’ spread. The Black Death spread so well, in large part, because the rats multiplied out of control.
This is the history of the Catholic church that I see and you’re right – I expect more from these top Catholic men of God.
Excerpts of an article written by non-Catholic Sam Miller – a prominent Cleveland Jewish businessman:
“Why would newspapers carry on a vendetta on one of the most important institutions that we have today in the United States , namely the Catholic Church?
Do you know – the Catholic Church educates 2.6 million students everyday at the cost to that Church of 10 billion dollars, and a savings on the other hand to the American taxpayer of 18 billion dollars. The graduates go on to graduate studies at the rate of 92%.
The Church has 230 colleges and universities in the U.S. with an enrollment of 700,000 students.
The Catholic Church has a non-profit hospital system of 637 hospitals, which account for hospital treatment of 1 out of every 5 people – not just Catholics – in the United States today.
But the press is vindictive and trying to totally denigrate in every way the Catholic Church in this country They have blamed the disease of pedophilia on the Catholic Church, which is as irresponsible as blaming adultery on the institution of marriage.
Let me give you some figures that Catholics should know and remember. For example, 12% of the 300 Protestant clergy surveyed admitted to sexual intercourse with a parishioner; 38% acknowledged other inappropriate sexual contact in a study by the United Methodist Church , 41.8% of clergy women reported unwanted sexual behavior; 17% of laywomen have been sexually harassed.
Meanwhile, 1.7% of the Catholic clergy has been found guilty of pedophilia. 10% of the Protestant ministers have been found guilty of pedophilia. This is not a Catholic Problem.
A study of American priests showed that most are happy in the priesthood and find it even better than they had expected, and that most, if given the choice, would choose to be priests again in face of all this obnoxious PR the church has been receiving.
The Catholic Church is bleeding from self-inflicted wounds. The agony that Catholics have felt and suffered is not necessarily the fault of the Church. You have been hurt by a small number of wayward priests that have probably been totally weeded out by now.
Walk with your shoulders high and you head higher. Be a proud member of the most important non-governmental agency in the United States …
Then remember what Jeremiah said: ‘Stand by the roads, and look and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is and walk in it, and find rest for your souls’. Be proud to speak up for your faith with
pride and reverence and learn what your Church does for all other religions.
Be proud that you’re a Catholic.”
How in the hell would free and easy access to guns stop children from getting molested? Is little Timmy gonna pack a heater to go along with his juicebox?
Culture eats strategy for lunch.
If there is a culture of justice within a community, corruption on this level is not tolerated. A disarmed populace cannot have that culture. They delegate their safety and social responsibility to the Powers That Be, who sink into a morass of corruption and perversion.
For example, here in “gun free” Rhode Island the Church had plenty of politicians and policemen covering-up priest’s (and the Bishop’s) pedophilia. Who could complain? Who could find justice? The people are sheep. In the case of the boys the priests buggered, they were lambs to the slaughter.
Lest we forget, the same held true in gun-free Boston, where Whitey Bulger sodomized Catholic school girls.
When banging kids gets old move on to the livestock. Arm the goats!
While any assault on an adult or a child by a priest (or non-priest) is a travesty, this testimony smacks of the same type that was prevalent in the 80’s about satanic cults. Much of it was hysteria and unfounded and ruined many a teachers life. In fact, the amount of false testimony changed the way investigators questioned victims and potential witnesses. Once frought with leading questions, the dialogue was changed to more open ended questioning that drilled down to specifics and looked for inconsistencies.
@ Ralph, yes, some bishops and higer Church officials made dire mistakes on how they handled the sex abuse scandals. However, the desire of an institution to keep such matter quiet is hardly a “Catholic only thing.” It is not even a mostly Catholic thing. Again, yes, it is wrong to allow such individuals to hold positions of authority. It is even wrong to take so long to administer punishment or take proper action. That, to me, is where the Church failed. However, to want to keep something like that quiet is not a uncommon thing. If someone in your family had commit such an act, would you want it broadcasted nationally to the rest of the nation? Probably not.
I also disagree with the statement that the actions of a few make an entire institution “guilty.” The vast majority of that Catholic Church (the lay people, for example), as an institution, had nothing to do with the scandals. However, I think it is fair to say that some Church leaders are guilty of a response lacking in haste, action, and prudence.
It’s not blizzard’s fault. They didn’t ask for your much. They just proved they ripped them off of $3mil and let the court decide what to do with that fact. The court was just the actual law and pre-defined equations since they worked out the damages. It’s not blizzard’s fault, it’s not the court’s fault.
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