Myths and Facts about the Catholic Sexual Abuse Crisis

[SecularMotion]

1. Catholic priests are more likely to be pedophiles than other groups of men.

The article claims there is no evidence that Catholic priests are more likely to abuse children than other groups of men.

What the article doesn’t discuss is the number of allegations made against Catholic priests as opposed to members of other faith communities. I have been representing survivors of childhood sexual abuse for 20 years. I have made claims against the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, the United Church and the Baptist Church among others.In short, child sexual abuse is not a problem that is limited solely to the Catholic Church.

However, of the hundreds of survivors that I have represented over the past 20 years, the vast majority of victims (over 90%) were abused by Catholic priests. I am not aware of any studies that have compared statistics for criminal charges involving sexual abuse against religious leaders. However, it is obvious to anyone that reads the newspapers that the vast majority of reported cases involve allegations against Catholic priests.

http://atlanticcanada.legalexaminer.com/miscellaneous/myths-and-facts-about-the-catholic-sexual-abuse-crisis/

[rug]

1. Is there any particular reason you're posting this two years after it was published?

[edhopper]

2. Perhaps like me

he had not seen it before.
Is this information now irrelevant?
And since when is this only a latest breaking news forum?
For someone who follows a book written almost two thousand years ago and quotes writers from hundreds of years ago, why do you have a problem with a study just two years old?

[rug]

3. It's a slow flamebait day.

Enjoy it.

BTW, it's not a study. It's an article by a plaintiffs lawyer.

[edhopper]

4. Thanks

I will

[trotsky]

5. Good article.

It even addresses the topic brought up in another thread - the bogus claim that somehow celibacy is responsible for this crisis.

And it ends with a bang:

The Catholic Church is facing a tidal wave of allegations of childhood abuse and cover-ups from countries around the world. It is difficult to understand how child abuse on such a massive scale could continue without it coming to the attention of the leaders of the world wide Catholic Church.

So I think the question is not: “Does celibacy cause pedophilia?”

Rather, a more appropriate question is: "Why has the Catholic Church, as an institution, failed so miserably in taking appropriate steps to protect children around the world from sexual abuse by Catholic priests?"

And why do so many of its members feel it is a sacred duty for them to defend, deflect, and attack in response to anyone pointing this out?

[SecularMotion]

6. I looked for further information after the responses to the other thread

and found this article. While celibacy does not cause pedophilia, does it provide cover for pedophiles? This is an interesting point.

The article claims that there is no causal connection between celibacy and any kind of sexual deviation. But in an interview with ABC, Eugene Kennedy a former priest who left the priesthood 25 years ago says that celibacy provides cover to pedophilia. Kennedy claims that:

Many young men at a very early age were recruited into it before they understood themselves or their own sexual identity. Their psycho-sexual maturation has been put on hold, so to speak, when they go in. So as a result they tend to act out with young people who were more or less the age they were when their maturation process stopped.

[trotsky]

7. An interesting point.

But I have to wonder how many priests knew they were going to be priests, and began denying themselves sexual relationships/activity in the pre-teen years. I suspect it's not many. Hopefully Goblinmonger will chime in here since he has direct experience in the seminary.

[Goblinmonger]

8. The guys I went to school with that are now priests

were sexually active in high school like any other teens. Some with girls; some with boys. Yes. One of the guys that is a priest now that I went to school with was somewhat openly gay with his group of friends. We were all cool with that even back in the 80s.

OK, there was this one guy that is a priest now that wasn't sexually active in HS but he had a giant stick up his ass and it had nothing to do with him becoming a priest. He would have been like that in public school, too, I'm sure.

[trotsky]

13. Yeah, that's what I was kind of thinking.

Thanks for the perspective.

[cbayer]

9. This guy is a personal injury attorney and this is a 100% opinion piece

with no factual data to back it up.

It's really just a sales pitch by someone with a vested interest in these cases.

And it's two years old. Looks like he's moved on and expanded his expertise to suing doctors and chasing ambulances based on googling him.

Where in the world do you find this garbage?

[trotsky]

10. Good job on the ad hom, cbayer.

What do you think about this question:

Why has the Catholic Church, as an institution, failed so miserably in taking appropriate steps to protect children around the world from sexual abuse by Catholic priests?

Is that one worth asking (and answering)? Or do you dismiss it because you don't like the guy who asked it?

My money's on the latter.

[skepticscott]

14. That's a "gotcha" question

By certain people's evasive thinking. Wouldn't hold my breath waiting for useful and respectful discussion on that question.

[Goblinmonger]

11. So personal injury attorneys

are ambulance chasers? No doctor deserves to be sued?

You are going to some fascinating ad homs to apologize for the RCC.

[trotsky]

12. I cringe every time I see right-wing memes repeated on DU.

Phrases like "ambulance chasers" are crafted specifically to undermine support for the legal profession and the ability of victims to pursue reasonable compensation.

We shouldn't be using them on DU. I hope cbayer reconsiders and edits her post.

[2ndAmForComputers]

17. It's hard to keep one's true nature hidden forever.

It leaks here and there. Sometimes it's just a couple of letters.

[cbayer]

18. Are you calling me a troll again?

You really need to stop that shit.

[2ndAmForComputers]

19. Why are you putting words in my mouth? Where did I say that?

[cbayer]

21. Oh, good. Just wanted to make sure you weren't calling me a troll...

because that just wouldn't be right, would it?

[rug]

15. To be fair, he's also up on Nova Scotian automobile insurance law and motorcycle accidents.

If you would like more information about Nova Scotia’s Automobile insurance system and how it effects car accident victims, contact us for a free copy of Crash Course: The Consumer’s Guide to Car Accident Claims in Nova Scotia.

http://atlanticcanada.legalexaminer.com/motorcycle-accidents/new-changes-to-nova-scotias-automobile-insurance-john-mckiggan-explains/

[Heddi]

20. When did you become the arbiter of what is and isn't acceptable to be posted here?

Last week you went off because someone posted a blog from a "no-name author" so apparently blogs that haven't been vetted by you are off limits.

Now it's an old article, so that's off limits too.

You really should have one of the hosts of the forum pin your rules for what can and can't be posted so we won't keep making the same mistakes.

[dimbear]

16. Try this, ripped from the headlines and the author looks innocent enough:

http://www.dailynews.com/social-affairs/20130909/6-more-files-shed-light-on-catholic-church-abuse-scandal

Los Angeles.

By Barbara Jones, Los Angeles Daily News

One priest admitted to fathering a daughter, while another was hustled off to a treatment center after confessing to having sex with a teenage boy.
***
Those details are among many contained in a new set of confidential personnel files of six more priests who were accused of molesting children while working for their Roman Catholic religion orders — the Vincentians, the Norbertinese and the Augustinians — while assigned to parishes in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The files are the second set to be released this summer and at least a half-dozen more are expected in the coming weeks as religious orders comply with a 2007 settlement with hundreds of clergy abuse victims.
Some of the details were released earlier this year when the archdiocese released thousands of pages on its own priests who were accused of sexual abuse, but the full picture of the problem has remained elusive without records from the religious orders.
***

But the 330-page file released Monday by the Vincentians makes it clear that the order and the archdiocese worked together to intercede, spiriting him off to a residential treatment center in Maryland. Both knew of Rodriguez’s confession, but no one spoke with police until the boy’s family filed a police report a month later, according to the file.
***
Our editing doesn't let me quote nearly as much as I would prefer. It goes on and on, and refers to a report that goes on for days. My friends, if you don't condemn and abhor this behavior, your moral authority muscles are in atrophied condition.