Abuse cases show RCC can't police itself

[Sid]

That pretty much sums up the sorry state of the handling of priests accused of sexually abusing children by Cardinal Francis George and the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago. Two reports released by the archdiocese Monday reveal repeated glaring mistakes. There is no requirement that accused priests get treatment by professionals. There is no trained personnel in charge of the accused priests. Even when they are supposedly segregated from society up on the grounds of the Mundelein Seminary, these priests still have the keys to all facilities there, even those where visitors often stay. No one restricts their use of the Internet, which is like giving an alcoholic the keys to the liquor cabinet.

Let's remember what we're talking about here: children. These are innocent children who have been violated by a priest -- a person they have been taught to revere as God's ambassador on Earth. If you recall the story of one boy whom the Rev. Daniel McCormack is accused of molesting, that child had returned to the church and was asking to be an altar boy. Maybe that day the sermon got to him, and he now wanted to give service to his God. And on that day, instead he allegedly was molested. How betrayed that child must have felt.

All I know is the church hierarchy has squandered the independence they have been allowed to handle the sex abuse crisis themselves. Either they can't or won't handle the problem. It's time for law enforcement authorities to step in and take it over.



Abuse cases show church can't police itself (http://www.suntimes.com/output/ontiveros/cst-edt-sue251.html)

[CoreIssue]

Is it they can't, won't or just dont really care as long as they don't get caught?:not:

[Jessie]

Is it they can't, won't or just dont really care as long as they don't get caught?:not:

thats more probable, wonder how many were and are sitting on pins and needles wondering when/if they will be next to be brought out in the open.

These people have NO fear of God to do these vile things and then
hide in the churches skirts.

[Sid]

All I know is the church hierarchy has squandered the independence they have been allowed to handle the sex abuse crisis themselves. Either they can't or won't handle the problem. It's time for law enforcement authorities to step in and take it over.



The RCC has been a Jerry Springer episode for almost five years now, with no end in sight.


My [retired] bishop is listed on this rogue's diary:


Roughly two-thirds of top U.S. Catholic leaders have allowed priests accused of sexual abuse to keep working, a systematic practice that spans decades and continues today, a three-month Dallas Morning News review shows.


Special Reports: Catholic Bishops and Sex Abuse (http://www.bishop-accountability.org/resources/resource-files/databases/DallasMorningNewsBishops.htm)

[Sid]

The American branch of the RCC has been a Jerry Springer episode for almost five years with the priest sex abuse scandal and the bishops inability to deal with it.


I believe it is pretty obvious that the RCC will not reform itself.




Imagine a large, wealthy, and hierarchical organization that persists in believing it is above the law. Over many decades, the organization has employed a tradition of blood brother secrecy to keep its illegal actions from being analyzed or criticized in the press, or prosecuted and punished by legal authorities. It employs powerful, adept, and highly-paid lawyers, and resists judicial process whenever it can.

Meanwhile, the organization's leaders are united in a secret bond that requires them to do whatever it takes to protect the organization from scandal. For them, the cover-up of serious crimes is a way of life, a feature of their everyday business.

Those who believe Keating's analogy was overstated, or unfair, should consider that this description fits both the Mafia, and the Catholic Church's approach to child abuse by its own clergy.

RICO is needed, because local prosecutions are not going to suffice. Some brave local and county prosecutors are going after the Church's crimes in the interests of the children who have been hurt so terribly. But others foolishly continue to trust the Church to set things right itself - something it has had the opportunity to do for decades, and never really tried, let alone succeeded in.

Instead, for years, the Church told the newspapers not to report the stories and the prosecutors not to charge the perpetrators and the parents not to report the crimes, because they would take care of it. But they did not take care of it. They simply let the suffering, and the scandal, and the evil fester. So why does anyone believe it can be trusted, now, to effect meaningful internal reforms?



It's Time For A RICO Prosecution of the Catholic Church (http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20030619.html)

[Sid]

These people have NO fear of God to do these vile things and then hide in the churches skirts.



There are many problems that the RCC hasn't decided to address: transparency, acceptance, listening and humility.

As long as the RCC claims that the Christian world revolves around them, discerning Christians will demonstrate with their feet that they aren't.

[Chrystalwuzhere]

To support celibacy, the catholics quote these verses:


1 Corinthians 7:7-8:

7 Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am. However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this manner, and another in that.

8 But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them if they remain even as I.


If they do, tell them to quote the rest of it (verse 9)! They conveniently leave this verse out...


1 Corinthians 7:9:

9 But if they do not have self-control, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn.


And they still can't explain away this scripture, nor do they have a good answer for it:


1 Timothy 3:2:

2 An overseer (or bishop), then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,

I wish just one...just ONE... would give me an answer to this.

[Sid]

There are many problems that the RCC hasn't decided to address: transparency, acceptance, listening and humility.




The Internet is bringing the light into the darkness of RCism:

Bishop Accountability.org (http://http://bishopaccountability.org/)


The Boston Globe and the Internet has done more to protect children than the USCCB ever thought of doing.

. . . like bologna, the RCC goes down best unexamined.