Priest Abuse and Clergy Sexual Abuse Information

I see someone got my previous question deleted. I guess the truth hurts?

So how do ordinary Catholics feel about the Vatican placing the ordination of women priests in the same category of "crime" as the rape of children by priests? How could any women respect a faith which clearly has such contempt for the entire female population?

Quote:

"The Vatican today made the "attempted ordination" of women one of the gravest crimes under church law, putting it in the same category as clerical sex abuse of minors, heresy and schism."

"Making a woman a priest is as sinful as abusing a child, the Roman Catholic Church declared yesterday. New religious rules published by the Vatican set both sins at the same level of gravity and recommended the same punishment for guilty priests."

"The new rules issued by the Vatican puts attempts at ordaining women among the “most serious crimes” alongside paedophilia and will be handled by investigators from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), considered the successor to the Inquisition. Women attempting to be priests, and those who try to ordain them, already faced automatic excommunication but the new decree goes further and enshrines the action as “a crime against sacraments”. "

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/7892666/Vatican-says-women-priests-a-crime-against-faith.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1295012/Vatican-labels-ordination-women-grave-crime-par-sex-abuse.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/15/vatican-attempted-ordination-women-grave-crime
You’re still in denial about the sex abuse scandal and the way the Catholic church, from top to bottom, has attempted to cover it up. Now you can’t seem to get your heads around how profoundly offensive this latest statement is.

You’re destroying your own church. Why can’t you understand that?

*sigh* will ever see an end to such blatant sexism?
What bugs me is that The Catholic Church is an employer and the priests are employees. No other employer in the European Union is allowed to discriminate against gender when it comes to giving a job to someone. How can the Church get away with this?

The media/public etc seems to believe/suggest that all those Priests that commited clergy abuse are ‘Predators’ that with evil intent choose those positions so they can get close to and prey on children or that celibracy causes it.
The Church maybe? seems to pass the buck onto Homosexuals and say that the issue is caused by Homosexuality/that theres Homosexual-Child abuse connection.However psychological studies are conflicting regarding this and at this stage with such small studies there is no way to say for certainty either way.Suggestion have been made of people twisting studies and also the highly subjective nature of the studies-eg:a Psych pro-gay can make statistics seem like Gay-pedo isnt connected.Likewise a Psych anti-gay could do the oppiosite with the statistics.
I dont know if the Church is trying to avoid whats happened or alternatively whether they simply have no biases but simply believe that there is a strong gay-pedo connection through ‘innocent’ means.
Ie:do they have a preconcieved bias towards gays due to the bible verses arround gays or are they innocently just believing that that is the reason for the abuses because someone eg:a psychologist suggested so and the church just believed their word and is ‘in the dark’ about these matters.
The media suggesting all these men are predators/predatory evil nature,im not fully convinced by either.Im neither aware of a strong connection between celibacy and sexabuse.
That said,i dont think that priests should be celibrate unless given the gift of celibacy from God but i think they should be allowed and encouraged to marry.I dont think this is fully what is causing the clergy abuse but i think nothing should be compulsory-ie;the celibacy inclined preist should be frre to be celibrate and the marriage inclined preist should be free to get married.

I wonder strongly though,whether much of the sexabuses are caused by unhealthy sexual attitudes?
Whether this is the real primary cause in many cases.
Many in the Church have been taught unhealthy attitudes towards sex,its been passed down from generations/church and it seems many preist have this.Eg:that sexual boldily feelings are bad/dirty/shameful/filthy/to be suppression etc.
This cycle of suppression-shame-longing could very well cause the sort of abuses that have happened.
Priests end up with distorted sexual bodily feelings that they struggle to suppress then they long for the connection then they fight these urges,feel selfhatred and shame and eventually end up not able to find these sensatiosn and molest someone.
Some of the priests have been molested too as children.
I wonder whether theres a whole culture of people-in plain words-beign sexual screwed up-the religious and the non religious.
Coudl these tragedies all be avoided by Church openly teaching clergy about sex=shame is wrong and teach things like the below book and Theology of the Body by John paul 2 and helping them heal their distorted sexual feelings which could literally have changed their chemistry?
Ie:healthy sex is niether about ‘dirty/shame/guilt’ nor is it about ‘im horny/need a root/im tapping that’ but it is instead beautiful,healthy and Holy.
What are your opinion please?
Thankyou

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=mEQbnc92z-gC&pg=PA205&lpg=PA205&dq=unhealthy+sexual+attitudes+catholic&source=bl&ots=t5FYivQBDe&sig=fxvRnGJ4WhAAqQ2EUxEyVANG2AA&hl=en&ei=WcokTNX0Ko-TkAXb8s1q&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CEQQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
http://www.atma-o-jibon.org/english/wilkie_au_7.htm
Thanks Ratz-yes its like everyone seems to forget that.
Marysia-why are you full of anger?
If you had of read the question properly instead of exploding off emotion and anger you would have seen that i was not suggesting that celibacy is the cause.
I am raising questions whether unhealthy sexual beliefs/raising eg:being taught sex=dirt/shame/suppression etc and the struggle with that was the main contributing cause.
I know many priests have unhealthy perception towards sex(not through their own fault) cause from what some have told me.
Its not new to us that many in the Church or society in general have been taught confusing things about sex-i dont see why it angered you so much-by discussing Gods plan for sex maybe we could be helping to avoid things in the future.
This is a seperate issue from celibacy althogether.

do you have CLUE what you are talking about…..
MARRIED MEN are the most common pedophiles — 79.9% are MARRIED – they could have a healthy sex life if that was their choice

Every man who becomes a priest KNOWS HE IS THE REMAIN CELIBATE…. they are not FORCED to be a priest! they could marry and be a deacon OR change denominations!

98% of priests who are celibate have NO PROBLEM AS THEY ARE NOT PEDOPHILES

THE PROBLEM IS THERE ARE PEOPLE (PRIMARILY MEN) WHO ARE PEDOPHILES….. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HEALTHY SEX!!!!!!!!!!

does that happen to anyone else here? when i say automatically, i really mean just that. i have no control over it, its just like a synonym to me. does that happen to anyone else here? why do you think it is? obviously there is a correlation between the catholic church and child abuse, but when someone says the word ‘jew’ i dont automatically think of circumcision, or about the burqa when someone says islam.

Because it shows how much you hate the church and the people

Couldn’t an almighty being prevent this happening under his tent?
I am absolutely NOT pointing a single condemning finger at the catholic church…

no because it is ok for such an all good all powerful being to allow evil to happen (become an accomplice) just to teach his priests a lesson.
That is how sick the religious think

Kimbo: I thought god’s will will always be done. Is it then his will that those kids be molested?
A famous guy once said:
Is god able to prevent evil but unwilling, then he is evil;
or unable to prevent evil and willing, then he is not all powerful;
or able and willing, then why is there evil;
or unable and unwilling, then why call him god

After 2.5 years of court process, I found out that the Judge’s kids were on the same league on the bowling team as my Ex. The Judge dismissed herself. I got a new Judge, but the damage had all ready been done. My case file went straight to the new Judge full of bad remarks and lyes due to my Ex.
I paid an Attorney to modify the case, and to help me get my Son home, ( the Social worker is refusing him medical treatment, being the gate keeper.) Paid well buy my Ex.
The case went from bad to worse, my 17teen yr old couldn’t return because of my Ex unfounded accusations.
The Ex and I were ordered to retain a parenting coordinator.
Another 1.5 yrs have passed.
Physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the Ex house continues. (Even though his current wife has lost 2 of her children) and the Ex continues to be in contempt.
My Attorney still hasn’t modified the case, my son is in another County, completely. The Attorney wants more money.
NOW WHAT?

In general family law cases are very emotional and complex cases

Just because the state has sided with your ex in this case does not mean your lawyer has committed malpractice ; ESP if the old judge, the social worker have sided with your ex

at this point since the lawyer is asking for additional monies to go forward you may want to shop around to see what other family law lawyers think you chances for success are moving forward before paying another cent out of pocket

as toward a malpractice suit you are always free to consult a malpractice lawyer but you maybe disappointed in their opinion of your case against the lawyer

(I am aware that I don’t have a strong chance at winning, but I am pursuing anyways)

Would I most likely be carrying out these charges with a lawyer in a typical court room (minus a jury)?

the criminal and civil cases will be held seperately. and yes, i assume they would be in a court room. i dont see why they woudnt’.

I’ll stop going to Mass/Church when sex abuse is considered acceptable in Catholicism.

It is not.

If someone is being sued for sexual abuse/rape/assault/negligence etc. and they don’t want it to go public so they request mediation. My attorney says that’s good to cut down on cost, but then there’s no jury who would 100% find the other creep guilty. Wouldn’t it be better to go to trial and smear his reputation to cause him some harm like he caused me instead of mediating behind closed doors? Not sure why lawyer crazy about the mediation. Am I missing something?

Mediation is typically not available in criminal cases. Are you suing your employer?

The main benefits of mediation are that it is cheaper and quicker. And, of course, private–good for the D, not so much for you necessarily.

It really depends on the facts of your case, but I’d be pretty surprised why he’d want to do this if you have a good case. PM me w/ more info if you’re suing for sexual harassment.

Shouldn’t these criminals be in jail, or some even on death row? Rape is second only to murder, and these guys are doing it to children! I can’t believe that this isn’t a bigger news story.

How many of these guys are paying for their crimes?

Surprisingly few, given that there are over 40,000 priests in the US and 400,000 in the world. Less than 1/2 of 1% have ever been charged with a crime, which is comparable to or less than clergy in other churches, much less than among teachers and coaches, and not even in the same league as abuse within families.

Here are the American cases that actually involved arrests:

Daniel McCormack, a self-confessed sexually abusive priest was sentenced to five years in prison for abusing five boys (8–12 years) in 2001.

Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul was charged with molesting two teenage girls at a Catholic church in Greenbush, Minnesota, a small rural town near the Canadian border.

Father James Porter was a Roman Catholic priest who was convicted of molesting 28 children. He admitted sexually abusing at least 100 of both sexes over a period of 30 years, starting in the 1960s.

Reverend Mr. James "Ron" Gonsalves, Wailuku, Hawaii, Gonsalves the administrator of Saint Ann Roman Catholic Church in Waihee, Maui, pleaded guilty on May 17, 2006 to several counts of sexual assault on a 12-year-old male.

A Wisconsin priest, the Rev. Lawrence C Murphy, who taught at the former St. John School for the Deaf in the Milwaukee suburb of St. Francis, Wisconsin from 1950 to 1974, allegedly molested more than 200 deaf boys.

In 1981, the former Rev. Stephen Kiesle was convicted for tying up and molesting two boys in a California church rectory.

In 2005, Rev. Francis Engels pleaded guilty to molesting a Peoria altar boy on trips to Milwaukee in the early 1980s.

On November 21, 2005, Monsignor Dale Fushek of the Diocese of Phoenix was arrested and charged with 10 criminal misdemeanor counts related to alleged inappropriate sexual contact with teens and young adults.

Typically, those who have been abused or imagine they’ve been abused sue the Catholic Church, which did not do the abusing, in hopes of raking in the big bucks from donations of Catholic people.

Cheers,
Bruce

That’s the problem with the whole religion….in a nutshell. Their "god" will forgiven anything…..so they go ahead and do whatever they please.

Most are only "sorry" about what they do when they get caught….otherwise there would not be hundreds of boys molested by the same priest!! Repentance is joke.