The 1-2 Punch the Catholic Bishops Have Delivered to Clergy Sex Abuse Victims

[trotsky]

https://verdict.justia.com/2016/03/29/the-1-2-punch-the-catholic-bishops-have-delivered-to-clergy-sex-abuse-victims

...The Reports tell us that adults in power shredded children’s lives. True. Only the bishops and their insurers, however, have routinely leveled an additional, knock-out blow to each victim, either through scorched earth litigation tactics or by lobbying to keep the perpetrators from justice. The trauma these survivors (and their families) already suffered is compounded by the litigation and legislative tactics of the bishops.

The sex abuse alone can cause lifelong debilitating effects, including PTSD and depression, unemployment, alcohol, drug, or sex addiction, and suicide. Children can’t process sex abuse when it happens, and it is simply a scientific truth that multiple factors including shame, guilt and changes in their neurobiology delay victims’ disclosure of abuse until well into adulthood.

The Catholic survivors are subjected to traumatic betrayal twice. First, when the sexual abuse occurs. Second, when society locks them out of the courthouse, and the padlock stays in place because the bishops lobby to keep the doors locked. When a survivor finally has the support and courage to come forward, it is devastating to check on legal options only to learn that the doors remain padlocked, because elected officials defer to the hierarchy that betrayed the victims in the first place. This endless betrayal is a potent destroyer that also can and has resulted in the destruction of survivors’ lives as well as the lives of their families.

The unflinching defenders of the Catholic church have long tried to minimize and deflect by claiming that those opposing their church on this issue are simply "anti-Catholic bigots" who are unfairly singling out the church when there are pedophiles in other organizations as well. That is of course true, but it's a dishonest and deceitful tactic. What makes the RCC unique is exactly what's outlined in this article: its unrelenting campaign to avoid making amends, to continue to protect the men directly involved with the abuse of children, and to smear anyone bringing this to light. As illustrated by this paragraph comparing the incidents at Penn State:

...Penn State officials’ handling of the sex abuse by Jerry Sandusky is no model of moral best practices except, perhaps, when compared to the bishops’ merciless treatment of abuse survivors who wish to bring predator priests to justice and dare to seek their day in court from all those who caused them to suffer. Penn State did not respond to learning about Sandusky’s horrific behavior by mounting a public relations campaign to smear victims and hire lobbyists to make sure victims couldn’t get to court. You don’t find Penn State lobbyists lurking at press conferences and hearings backing the bills that would revive expired statutes of limitations. They aren’t quoted about why it is so unfair to hold Penn State responsible for the abuse on its campus and in its showers. By and large, Penn State sat down and settled with the victims instead of dragging them through the entire legal process. If all responsible institutions were to do that, and accept their responsibility for the costs of the abuse (and it is only fair those costs are shifted from victims to the ones who caused the abuse), the survivors would only have to deal with one excruciating round of trauma instead of the relentless triggering that is inherent in the current bishops’ choice of callous disregard followed by either hardball litigation tactics for the small number in statute and cold-hearted lobbying against every other victim’s (whether Catholic or not) access to justice.

Shame on the RCC. Shame on the hierarchy. And shame on those who continue to deflect, defend, and deceive. They need to be called on the carpet.

[onager]

1. Rec'd and bumped.

n/t

[cleanhippie]

2. Called on the carpet? Pshaw! They'll just keep sweeping it under the rug.

[trotsky]

3. If they do, there will be hell toupée! n/t

[Act_of_Reparation]

6. Sweep it under the what, now?

[truebluegreen]

4. I have wondered since it happened

how the ultra-conservative College of Cardinals appointed by Popes John Paul II and Benedict came to elect a "liberal" Jesuit "reformer" to the papacy. Trying to change the subject maybe? without actually changing anything else on this front? (seems to me that if they actually wanted to change things they should start by dumping the 1000-yr-old celibacy requirement)

[trotsky]

5. Your use of quote marks is perfect here.

It is clear now, several years into this papacy, that the primary goal for it was image rehabilitation. In other words, a public relations campaign. In that regard it has been monumentally successful, fooling a large number of people into thinking the institution was changing when in fact nothing has. The side effect has been some conservative Catholic groups getting upset, but when they realize that nothing is actually changing, they don't seem to mind as much. Almost as if the conservative bishops did this calculation a long time ago, and knew it would work out perfectly.

The final report from the "synod on the family" meeting is supposed to be released soon. It will be a huge indicator of whether Blank Frank is truly a committed liberal reformer, or just a mouthpiece. Will the rules on divorced Catholics receiving annulments or taking communion be changed, or just "restated" in supposedly gentler way? One thing's for sure though, with Frank hating homosexuality too, nothing will be changing there.

[skepticscott]

7. Yes, I wonder if any of the former posters here

who were going to wait to judge the progress of the catholic church on these issues until after this "synod" will dare to speak up?

[trotsky]

8. Oh I'm certain they will.

Because my prediction is that the final report will be more of the same: flowery language that appears more inclusive and accepting, but no significant change in policy or church teaching. The gullible will latch on to the "tolerant" words and proclaim once again that Frank is the BEST POPE EVAH, despite the church still peddling the same bigotry and intolerance in its day-to-day business.

[Angry Dragon]

9. I have always thought the cover-up was the worse part