A rocky road to healing: Diocese enacts new policies, programs, but victims demand more accountabili

[Ian David]

Article published Sunday, July 15, 2007

By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR

<snip>

The high-profile court action by the nation's top attorney for victims of clerical sexual abuse brought to Toledo the national scandal that erupted in Boston in January, 2002, and spread like a dark cloud across the country.

It has been a tumultuous five years for church leaders and lay persons as more than two dozen people sued the Toledo diocese, alleging they were sexually molested as children by priests, deacons, or other church leaders.

The Toledo diocese, which has 325,000 members in 19 counties, also has endured a number of other high-profile controversies including the murder conviction of one of its priests, Gerald Robinson; public protests over the moving of the historic Lathrop House; financial woes leading to staff layoffs; the closing of 17 parishes, and a dispute over the reassignment of the Rev. Thomas Leyland from St. Rose Parish in Perrysburg.

<snip>

Forty priests in the Toledo diocese have been accused of abusing children between 1950 and 2006, according to the latest figures from the diocese. Updates are published periodically on the diocese's Web site, toledodiocese.org.

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[SoCalDem]

1. Here's what I don't understand.. A teacher molest a kid and he/she's hauled off in handcuffs.

a priest does it, and they get "transferred' to another unsuspecting parish?

WHERE ARE THE PARENTS IN ALL THIS.?

and why do they not call the police and insist on an arrest.

I know many of these cases are from long ago, but it;s got to be still happening.

Why aren't the parishoners up in arms as they pay into the collection plate every week, so hush money can be paid to victims of pervert-priests.? Why do they keep paying? I would have never paid another penny if I was still a churchgoing catholic.

[Ian David]

2. By the church's own figuring, it's only 7% of their clergy with "credible accusations" against them.

I mean...

Wouldn't you put your child on an airplane if you knew there was a 93% chance the pilot was sober?

Especially if you thought getting on that plane was the only way to save your child's immortal soul from an eternity in red hot boiling magma (and sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads).

I mean... what's a 7% chance of being exposed to a pedophile compared to a 100% chance that Jesus will consume your child in fire for eternity if they don't go to church?

:sarcasm: