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

The lawsuit filed Thursday in Milwaukee by St. Paul, Minn., attorney Jeff Anderson says the unidentified plaintiff was a student at a suburban Milwaukee school for the deaf and an alleged victim of abuse by the Rev. Lawrence Murphy.

The lawsuit says the accuser, who is from Illinois, sent two letters to the Vatican in 1995 reporting the abuse and asking for help but he received no response.

The lawsuit seeks the release of confidential Vatican files detailing clergy abuse allegations and unspecified monetary damages."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h_l0HtfJc-Jw9Q-CWAxTBrUGLaYwD9F86T2O0

The Vatican has responded calling it a publicity stunt.

Do you think it’s justifiable or wrong? Should American citizens have a right to file a lawsuit against the Pope and Vatican?

"The Vatican has responded calling it a publicity stunt."

The Vatican would, since they have no shame and no soul (metaphorically speaking). I think it’s ABOUT FUCKING TIME. Why would it be wrong…? No, you know what’s wrong? The Connecticut diocese advocating for not getting rid of the statute of limitations on child sex crimes since they’re bankrupt the church. Nevermind about the victims, nevermind about all the OTHER children raped by people other than priests.

"The letter says the bill, now pending in the legislature, would put "all Church institutions, including your parish, at risk," and warns that it could lead to bankruptcy, threaten the assets of parishes even without a history of abuse, and "would undermine the mission of the Catholic Church in Connecticut."

"The bottom line is that this is terrible public policy, discriminatory by its nature, and a huge threat to us all," says the letter, signed by Mansell, Bishop William E. Lori of the Bridgeport diocese, and Bishop Michael R. Cote of Norwich.

"We must stop this bill now," the letter says. The bishops ask parishioners to contact their representatives "TODAY!!!"

In addition to the actual abuse, much of the scandal focused around the behavior of some members of the Catholic hierarchy who did not report the crimes to civil authorities, and in many cases reassigned the offenders to other locations where they continued to have contact with minors, giving them the opportunity to continue their sexual abuse.[
3] In defending the church’s widespread sheltering of pedophiles (needs citation), some bishops and psychiatrists contended that the prevailing psychology of the times suggested that people could be cured of such behavior through counseling. In response to the widening scandal, Pope John Paul II failed to firmly declare that sex crimes are a criminal as well as a spiritual offense. He declared instead in 2003 that "there is no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young".
[4] With the approval of the Vatican, the hierarchy of the church in the United States instituted reforms to prevent future abuse including requiring background checks for Church employees and volunteers and, noting the preponderance of adolescent males (teenage boys) amongst victims of abuse, warned that a more searching inquiry is necessary for a homosexually oriented man;
[5] and the worldwide Church also prohibited the ordination of men with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies".
[6]Rather than acknowledging the church’s culpability, members of the church hierarchy have compared the church with the most depraved parts of the secular world, arguing that media coverage of the issue has been excessive given that abuse occurs in other institutions.
[7] For example it has been estimated by the only official government report comparing sexual abuse between the Catholic church and public schools in the United States that sexual abuse is much more prevalent in public schools than the church. link Sex Abuse by Teachers Said Worse Than Catholic Church, E. Dougherty, Newsmax Monday, Apr. 05, 2004 Other commentators have said that the scandal highlights deep-seated problems with mandatory celibacy in the priesthood of the Catholic Church and how that institution deals with allegations of child abuse by its clergy.
[8] Other experts in the field of sexual abuse counseling contend that celibacy has no effect on rates of child abuse in the Catholic Church, as it has been shown that the rates of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is not higher than in society, other public institutions and other religious denominations.
Have you experienced any abuse?
Should the bishops be held responsible for the cover up?

According to mental health professionals, pedophilia is not connected to celibacy.

This very small group of child molesters would be just as sick or evil whether or not they had taken a vow of celibacy.

For more information, see "10 Myths about Priestly Pedophilia": http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/facts/fm0011.html

With love in Christ.

The mainstream media has all but ignored the recent Associated Press report that the three major insurance companies for Protestant Churches in America say they typically receive 260 reports each year of minors being sexually abused by Protestant clergy, staff, or other church-related relationships.

In light of the sex abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic Church beginning five years ago, religious and victims’ rights organizations have been seeking this type of data for years. It has been hard to come by since Protestant Churches are more de-centralized than the Catholic Church.

Responding to heavy media scrutiny, the Catholic Church has reported that since 1950, 13,000 “credible accusations” have been brought against Catholic clerics (about 228 per year.) The fact that this number includes all credible accusations, not just those that have involved insurance companies, and still is less than the number of cases in Protestant churches reported by just three insurance companies, should be making front page of The New York Times and the network evening news. It’s not.

The report is even more telling if we consider the plethora of independent or “store front” Protestant churches that don’t have insurance and whose numbers, therefore, certainly are not taken into account in this study.

This bad news for Protestant Churches is sad news for all of us. I would prefer the problem be limited to any one church — even if that church were my own — because it would mean more kids would be safe. But as I have said repeatedly over the last few years, the problem of sexual abuse of minors is not an issue of religious affiliation because there is nothing religious about abusing children. The phenomenon of sexual abuse of minors in church settings is the story of sick human beings taking advantage of their position of moral authority to prey on the weak and vulnerable. If Catholic clergy were to be faithful to their church’s teaching, there would be no abuse in the Catholic Church. The same goes for Protestant clergy. The problem, then, is not one of corrupt doctrine, but of individuals being unfaithful to the most basic precepts of their own religious belief.

Let’s be clear: the report of abuse in Protestant Churches in no way clears guilty members of the Catholic Church — neither the predators nor those who moved them from church to church and put other young people in danger. But the report does give us better perspective. The problem of sexual abuse has no denominational boundaries.

But why, then, is there so much abuse in church settings in general? Because contemporary society is sick and it is producing so many sick people that some of these disjointed souls even end up in churches. It should also be noted that we are more likely to hear about the church-related cases because they tell a more salacious story — what should be white is black, and so on. The Catholic Church is the best story because the blame (and the money trail) can go all the way to Rome.

I would like to be able to say that the sexual abuse of minors is limited to church settings because, if that were the case, once again, more kids would be safe. But it’s not. Sexual predators are in our schools, hospitals, and foster families. It hurts to say it, but because our society is so sick, sexual predators are everywhere.

But there’s hope. Society does not spin out of control on its own. It has fallen with us and it can rise with us. Society is cultivated and formed by human beings who are capable of changing behavior patterns and doing the right thing. The most important thing we can do to heal societal wounds is to teach our children, day in and day out, by words and example, what it means to love and be loved. Disjointed and sick people, the ones who abuse children, don’t fall from the sky. They are born into families, into towns, and communities. It is to the degree that more moms and dads, teachers, pastors, and neighbors are able to pass on the beauty of selfless love that society will start to get better — and our churches too.
Stealth, surely you don’t watch the news because all it has been about is Catholic sex abuse scandals. I had to dig very deep to find this article.
Terry, somehow I knew someone would bring that up. The article was originally from the Associated press, if you’d read.
Saul, my God, do you know how to read? Protestants do more of the sexual abuse than Catholics do.

They are not.
However, since the cover up goes right upto the top of the catholic church then it is only right that they make the news.
It shows the hypocrisy of the whole organisation.

I think that the point is that the straight priests are much more of an example of how we expect adults to behave around children and this is just yet another example of why we don’t want gay teachers; gay adoption; gay scout leaders; gay baby sitters; gay gym teachers etc. It is foolish to pretend that gay men are just like straight men. We don’t allow straight men to be in compromising situations (girls locker rooms, girls showers) etc. so why would we allow gay men to have this access to our boys when we KNOW that they are sexually attracted to them in the same way that a straight man would admit that he _could_ be turned on by a teenage girl.

Archdiocese of Anchorage: The Society of Jesus made a $50 million payout to over 100 Inuits who alleged that they had been sexually abused. The settlement did not require them to admit molesting Inuit children, but accusations involved 13 or 14 priests who allegedly molested these children for 30 years. n The Diocese of Fairbanks, a co-defendant in the case, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, claiming inability to pay the 140 plaintiffs filing claims against the diocese for alleged sexual abuse by priests or church workers during this period.

Archdiocese of Los Angeles: The Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to pay out 60 million dollars to settle 45 lawsuits it still faces over 450 other pending cases. According to the Associated Press a total of 22 priests were involved in the settlement with cases going as far back as the 1930s. 20 million dollars of this was paid by the insurers of the archdiocese. The main administrative office of the archdiocese is due to be sold to cover the cost of these and future law suits. The archdiocese will settle about 500 cases for about $600 million.

Archdiocese of Miami: Since 1966, the Archdiocese of Miami Insurance Programs have paid $26.1 million in settlement, legal and counseling costs associated with sexual misconduct allegations made by minors involving priests, laity and religious brothers and sisters.

Archdiocese of Milwaukee: A 2003 report on the sexual abuse of minors by clergy in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee revealed that allegations of sexually assaulting minors had been made against 58 ordained men. By early 2009, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee had spent approximately $26.5 million in attorney fees and settlements. Under Archbishop Timothy Dolan the archdiocese was able to avoid bankruptcy from lawsuits.

Is it ethical/moral to fund the rampant pedophilia within the Catholic Church? Or is paying into the pedophile machine just the price of going to heaven?

Oh, Catholics have pedophile insurance now.

Church sources expected some bishops to resign in the wake of a government report that said Church leaders in overwhelmingly Catholic Ireland had covered up widespread abuse of children by priests for 30 years.

"I think that we are looking at a very significant reorganization of the Church in Ireland," Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said after he and other Irish Church leaders held an emergency meeting with the Pope.

The Vatican said the pope would write to the Irish people about the crisis and a plan for action — the first time a pope will devote a document solely to the clergy’s abuse of children.

"The Holy Father shares the outrage, betrayal and shame felt by so many of the faithful in Ireland, and he is united with them in prayer at this difficult time in the life of the Church," a Vatican statement said.

Ireland has been in a state of shock since the publication of the Murphy Commission Report two weeks ago.

The paper said the Church had "obsessively" hidden child abuse in the Dublin archdiocese from 1975 to 2004, and operated a policy of "don’t ask, don’t tell."

A number of bishops who worked in Dublin during the period covered by the report are likely to offer to resign, Church sources said.

The Vatican statement alluded to this, saying the Vatican would look into "questions concerning the governance of local Church leaders with ultimate responsibility for the pastoral care of children."

"PROFOUND REGRET"

It said the report "deeply disturbed and distressed" the pope, who expressed "his profound regret at the actions of some members of the clergy who have betrayed their solemn promises to God, as well as the trust placed in them by the victims and their families, and by society at large."

Martin said: "I really think we need renewal."

He said that, beyond "working very hard on the question of child protection," the Irish Church must renew parish life and get more lay people involved in Church organization.

The report said all Dublin archbishops in charge during the period under study had been aware of some complaints, but the archdiocese had been more preoccupied with protecting the reputation of the Church than safeguarding children’s welfare.

The Church’s prominent role in Irish life was one of the reasons why abuses by a minority of priests were allowed to go unchecked, the report said.

One priest admitted abusing more than 100 children. Another said he had abused children every two weeks for over 25 years.

The Murphy Report came six months after the release of a similarly damning and even more graphic report about floggings, slave labor and gang rape in Ireland’s now defunct Church-run industrial and reform schools in the 20th century.

That report also accused state officials and police of abetting a cover-up, further eroding the moral authority of an institution that dominated Irish life for centuries.

Critics and victims’ groups say the Vatican and the Church have still not gone far enough in handing over suspected abusers to civil justice.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091211/wl_nm/us_pope_abuse_irish
This same church is talking about human right for one and all with regard to address a "broken immigration system in need of repair and a need for an immigration reform legislation that keeps immigrant families together,when is the Church going to start to deal with child abuse ?

1% did you see that, 1% of Priests have been accused, I get sick and tired of people accusing the Catholic Church when more happens in other Religions

The Catholic Church has been found to have broken the law by failing to report to police suspicions that young girls at one of its primary schools were being sexually abused by a teacher, who allegedly went on to rape and molest 12 other students.

In a damning judgment, Toowoomba magistrate Haydn Stjernqvist yesterday said it was clear a person at the Darling Downs primary school, west of Brisbane, or Catholic Education had "committed an offence" by their inaction. The school’s principal, who cannot be named for legal reasons, became the first person in Australia to be charged under laws mandating the reporting to police of any suspicions of sexual abuse by a school staff member.

Police launched the investigation into the school’s handling of the case after a series of reports by The Weekend Australian revealed the principal had received complaints from parents of a child and staff about the teacher.

The allegations — which detailed complaints of inappropriate touching of two girls, then aged nine — were kept secret for 14 months until another student made further allegations directly to police in November last year.

I understand that the Vatican did in fact issue specific instructions for cases of abuse to be covered up. Surely the leaders of the church should also be charged and not just those who follow the instructions?

Shouldn’t the Potestants be held more ?
accountable for these monsters from their midst?
It’s incredible that the churches just move these maniacs about after they know what they are doing.
Unfortunately some churches, especially the protestant ones choose to cover it up and defend their repulsive Pastors. The Proties don’t seem very upset about child abuse. Its pathetic that they have chosen to cover up and sweep under the carpet the problem of pastors who abuse children and even thwart criminal investigations, arrests and proceedings against such ‘Ministers of God’

Welcome to a collection of news reports of ministers sexually abusing children:
http://www.reformation.com/

ALL Protestant denominations – 838 Ministers

147 Baptist Ministers

251 "Bible" Church Ministers (fundamentalist/evangelical)

140 Anglican/Episcopalian Ministers

38 Lutheran Ministers

46 Methodist Ministers

19 Presbyterian Ministers

197 various Church Ministers

http://web.archive.org/web/2004010714112…

http://www.reformation.com/CSA/allabuse….

http://web.archive.org/web/20040107141121/http://www.reformation.com/index.html

http://www.reformation.com/CSA/allabuse.html

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3279558

http://stopbaptistpredators.org/index.htm

http://stopbaptistpredators.org/news.html

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070618/released-figures-offer-glimpse-into-protestant-sex-abuse-problems.htm

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2007/jun/15/protestant-sex-abuse-cases-revealed/

http://www.fisheaters.com/clergysexabuse.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/15/us/15protestant.html
Protestant Clergy Abuse Equals or Exceeds Catholic Clergy Abuse

http://dannimoss.wordpress.com/2008/06/20/protestant-clergy-abuse-equals-or-exceeds-catholic-clergy-abuse/

http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0405/p01s01-ussc.html

NBC Jehovah’s Witnesses child sexual abuse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZpScLCMqEk&feature=related

Long list of Jewish Child Molestor Rabbis gets no media coverage and Jewish homosexual pedophiles are undisturbed

http://100777.com/node/463

http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/clergyabuse

The Statistics of Teacher sexual abuse to Students

• The best estimate is that 15% of students will be sexually abused by a member of the school staff during their school career.
• Though, when the American Association of University Women Foundation surveyed more than 1,600 students in eighth through 11th grade, 25 percent of the girls and 10 percent of the boys who said they had been harassed or abused said the harasser was a school employee.
• The number of K-12 public and private school students in 1996 who have been or will be sexually abused by a member of the school staff is nearly 7 million of 51,331,000.
• Between 1% and 5% of teachers sexually abuse or harass students.
• At least a quarter of all school districts in the United States have dealt with a case of staff sexual abuse in the past ten years.
• Most cases of sexual abuse of students by teachers are never reported.
• In nearly half of the cases, suspects were accused of abusing more than one student.
• Only two cases were cases of false accusations; less than 1 percent of the cases studied.
• No type of school was immune to abuse: public or private, religious or secular, rich or poor, urban or rural.
Peace be with you my heretic protie brothers

I think that as there is prey, there will unfortunately be predators. It’s really sad what depths one will go to get away with a crime. As a Catholic, I would hope that the Protestants and their off shoots ,Bishops, Pastors , Deacons, Ministers , Apostles, Profits and Brother’s would be taken to task by the authorities, but I’m also wise enough to know that it will rarely happen

Yes this is very disturbing and sad. Any Protestant reading this I beg you think about where your money is going before you donate to the any denomination of the protestant Church. The Protestant churches and their off shoots offers pay offs to silence rape victims is this really where you want your money to go. I don’t think it matters what you believe I think as a human you should know that this organization has done a lot of things that are either obviously wrong or some what shady
depending on what your morals are. Though I think anyone who is a relativist when it comes to rape of any kind needs serious mental help or is a rapist themselves trying to justify in their mind what they are doing especially when children are involved. The Protestant Churches have been nothing but trouble for a long time.

I believe that all those who knew what was happening in the protestant church to these innocent victims and did nothing about it should all be executed, which includes the Billy Graham. They broke a law of the God they worship that being put to death was the punishment

the Protestant church refuses to acknowledge their past mass murders (literally millions of Christians). They refuse to admit that they continue to cover up for pedophile pastors. The rank and file Proties refuses to stand up against the hierarchy in the church and kick out the murderers and perverts in the clergy.
This lack of action makes all protestants and their various denominations guilty of murder and child rape………………
Violating thousands of innocent children, all over the world. Lying about it, stonewalling, Pastors moving from one meeting hall to another to ensure they have a fresh supply of victims.

By the way, these were not mistakes. A mistake is when you shoot at someone and miss. These were all intentional acts.

Family friends and acquaintances compose the largest group of perpetrators (28 percent), followed by such relatives as uncles and cousins (18 percent), stepfathers (12 percent), male siblings (10 percent), biological fathers (10 percent), boyfriends of the child’s mother (9 percent), grandfathers and stepgrandfathers (7 percent), and strangers (4 percent).” Horn was struck by the fact that 10 percent werebiological fathers and only 4 percent were strangers. “Which means,” he said, “86 percent of the perpetrators were known to the family, but were someone other than the child’s father.”[

According to a 2000 report to the Baptist General Convention in Texas, “The incidence of sexual abuse by clergy has reached ‘horrific proportions.’” It noted that in studies done in the 1980s, 12 percent of ministers had “engaged in sexual intercourse with members” and nearly 40 percent had “acknowledged sexually inappropriate behavior.” The report concluded that “The disturbing aspect of all research is that the rate of incidence for clergy exceeds the client-professional rate for physicians and psychologists.”[xix] Regarding pornography and sexual addiction, a national survey disclosed that about 20 percent of all ministers are involved in the behavior.[xx]

In the spring of 2002, when the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church was receiving unprecedented attention, the Christian Science Monitor reported on the results of national surveys by Christian Ministry Resources. The conclusion: “Despite headlines focusing on the priest pedophile problem in the Roman Catholic Church, most American churches being hit with child sexual-abuse allegations are Protestant,

in the authoritative work by Penn State professor Philip Jenkins, Pedophiles and Priests, it was determined that between .2 and 1.7 percent of priests are pedophiles. The figure among the Protestant clergy ranges between 2 and 3 percent.[xxii]

"I would like to pause to acknowledge the shame which we have all felt as a result of the sexual abuse of minors by some clergy and religious in this country," Benedict said during an address at a Mass in Sydney.

"I am deeply sorry for the pain and suffering the victims have endured. I assure them as their pastor that I too share in their suffering," he said.

"Those responsible for these evils must be brought to justice."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080719/ap_on_re_au_an/australia_pope

Its just a shame that the victims & their families were NOT invited to St Pauls to hear the Pope’s speech.

Things wont change! It will all be covered up again as it has been for decades.
Not inonvenienced, i am in Melbourne,
I could not give a rats **** about his visit.

APOLOGIES. to all the Catholics out there