German Catholic Church ‘Abused Thousands of Children’

mindlight · Sep 23, 2018

Par5 said:
Now you are talking about context and sheep! The sexual abuse and rape of children are wrong, yet you see fit to try and lessen the responsibility RCC's role in the abuse by comparing it favourably to other non-religious institutions and flocks of sheep.
Yes, the discussion is all about abuse by Christian clergy within the RCC, which shouldn't really come as a surprise to you as that is the subject matter of this thread.
When you talk about worse behaviour by secular parents I assume you mean parents who are atheists or of a non-Christian faith. How do you know what their religious belief is or is not? As for organizations with no religious affiliation, like most businesses in the workplace are, do you believe that they are devoid of Christians and peopled only by atheists, agnostics and those of non-Christian faiths?
Your attempts at deflection are both pathetic and sickening!

"Deflection"!!! I am no Catholic.

I am not unfamiliar with the costs of abuse and think the perpetrators need to be punished whoever they are. But a distorted perspective is a distorted perspective.

TerranceL · Sep 23, 2018

FireDragon76 said:
I notice the atheist are out once again to beat up on their favorite bogieman- religion. It seems kind of cynical to me. As somebody said a long time ago, let him who is without sin cast the first stone.

Interesting quote.

Did he have anything to say about protecting child rapist?

Gene2memE · Sep 24, 2018

Al Masihi said:
Considering the Roman Catholic population of Germany is 23.6 million with 200,000 priests.

mindlight said:
The annual statistics in Germany report about 3500 cases of child abuse. If German priests account for 3677/68 = 54 cases a year then their contribution is about 1.5%.

But since the statistics have grown over time and the contribution of abuse by the church to those statistics seems more historical you would also have back load the numbers. So the Catholic church % may have been higher in the past but today can be considered statistically negligible.

So, based on these statistics.

There is a population of approximately 200,000 Catholic priests in Germany (per Al Masihi);
Germany has a total population of approximately 80 million.
This means Catholic priest represent 0.25% of the German population.
However, German Catholic priests are responsible for about 1.5% (per mindlight) of reported cases of child abuse.
This means German Catholic priests are six times more likely to be involved in reported cases of child abuse than the rest of the German population

HOWEVER, the population of Catholic priests in Germany doesn't appear to be 200,000. Or even 20,000. It seems to be about 14,000 - per this 2016 Catholic News Agency article.

So, this means we need to re-do the above numbers:

There is a population of approximately 14,000 Catholic priests in Germany (per the Catholic News Agency);
Germany has a total population of approximately 80 million.
This means Catholic priest represent 0.0175% of the German population.
However, German Catholic priests are responsible for about 1.5% (per mindlight) of reported cases of child abuse.
This means German Catholic priests are 85.7 times more likely to be involved in reported cases of child abuse than the rest of the German population

Now, these figures are just pulled off the internet and from posters here on these boards so caveats about accuracy apply. But to me, having a prevalence better than 85 times that of the general population indicates a massive problem.

Barney2.0 · Sep 24, 2018

Gene2memE said:
So, based on these statistics.

There is a population of approximately 200,000 Catholic priests in Germany (per Al Masihi);
Germany has a total population of approximately 80 million.
This means Catholic priest represent 0.25% of the German population.
However, German Catholic priests are responsible for about 1.5% (per mindlight) of reported cases of child abuse.
This means German Catholic priests are six times more likely to be involved in reported cases of child abuse than the rest of the German population

HOWEVER, the population of Catholic priests in Germany doesn't appear to be 200,000. Or even 20,000. It seems to be about 14,000 - per this 2016 Catholic News Agency article.

So, this means we need to re-do the above numbers:

There is a population of approximately 14,000 Catholic priests in Germany (per the Catholic News Agency);
Germany has a total population of approximately 80 million.
This means Catholic priest represent 0.0175% of the German population.
However, German Catholic priests are responsible for about 1.5% (per mindlight) of reported cases of child abuse.
This means German Catholic priests are 85.7 times more likely to be involved in reported cases of child abuse than the rest of the German population

Now, these figures are just pulled off the internet and from posters here on these boards so caveats about accuracy apply. But to me, having a prevalence better than 85 times that of the general population indicates a massive problem.

Keep in mind this is over a span of 68 years, with a population of 80 million among which 23 million is Roman Catholic. If Roman Catholic priests are responsible for 1.5% of child abuse cases, what about the other 98.5 percent of cases of child abuse? How does that make Roman Catholic priests 85.7% more likely to be the involved in cases of sexual abuse then the rest of the German population if they just make up 1.5% of the cases of sexual abuse leaving the other 98.5% out. The numbers don’t seem to add up.

FireDragon76 · Sep 24, 2018

Sexual abuse is widely underreported in the general population. Most people underestimate how common it is.

Insurers who cover religious institutions do not charge higher rates for Catholics than other religious groups. Rates of payouts for sexual abuse are more or less the same.

Priests Commit No More Abuse Than Other Males

Par5 · Sep 24, 2018

FireDragon76 said:
I notice the atheist are out once again to beat up on their favorite bogieman- religion. It seems kind of cynical to me. As somebody said a long time ago, let him who is without sin cast the first stone.

Show me where anyone, atheist or otherwise, has been critical of religion on this thread. All the criticism has been directed at the child abusers and those who protected the abusers. The abusers may be Catholic priests, but there has been no criticism of the Catholic faith or dogma, only the abusers and those who protected them. As far as I am aware the Catholic faith does not include child sex abuse in its teachings. The RCC has been criticised for what is tantamount to criminal negligence in it's handling of predatory priests, but I have read no criticism of the church's religious teachings on this thread.
I am sure that those expressing criticism here would be equally critical had the abusers belonged to a non-religious organization.

LittleLambofJesus · Sep 29, 2018

German Catholic Church ‘Abused Thousands of Children’

Brings to mind some Scriptures from the great Teacher, Jesus:

Lazarus and the Rich Man - Here a little, there a little - Commentary

Matthew 18:5
And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth Me:
6 but whoso shall cause one of these little ones that believe on Me to stumble,
it is profitable for him that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea. [Mark 9:42 Luke 17:2]

Revelation 18:21
And a strong Messenger took up a stone as it were a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, "Thus with a mighty fall shall Babylon, the great City, be cast down, and shall be found no more at all".

And my bro Paul;

Romans 2
19 and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth......
24 For as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the nations because of you”

Revelation 16:9
And men were scorched with great heat:
and they blasphemed the name of God who hath the power over these plagues;
and they repented not to give Him glory.

ranunculus · Sep 30, 2018

FireDragon76 said:
Sexual abuse is widely underreported in the general population. Most people underestimate how common it is.

Insurers who cover religious institutions do not charge higher rates for Catholics than other religious groups. Rates of payouts for sexual abuse are more or less the same.

That's not the point, rates of sexual abuse might as well be higher in the general populace and it shouldn't lessen our condemnation of the catholic church. The point is that the church has institutionalized child abuse. What other organization active in 200 countries on 6 continents has this problem while simultaneously proclaiming to be a moral authority?
http://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20110503.gif

RestoreTheJoy · Oct 1, 2018

Occams Barber said:
German Catholic Church ‘Abused Thousands of Children’

The latest chapter in the ongoing saga of the Catholic Church and child sexual abuse…

According to a leaked study, commissioned by the German Catholic Church, around 3,677 children were sexually assaulted by around 1,670 Catholic priests between 1946 and 2014. The study was due to be published on 25 September.

Based on the study, only 38% of the alleged perpetrators were prosecuted with most facing only minor disciplinary procedures. About one in six cases involved rape.

Most of the victims were boys, and more than half were aged 13 or younger.

Predatory clerics were often moved to new communities, where no warning was issued about their actions.

The study was compiled by three German universities, using 38,000 documents from 27 German dioceses. Its authors said the true extent of the abuse may be even greater, as some records were "destroyed or manipulated".

This is the latest in a series of major investigations into child sexual abuse and cover-up within the Catholic Church. Thousands of instances of clerical abuse of children have been uncovered in Chile, Ireland, Australia, the Netherlands and now, Germany, while perpetrators have been protected and, sometimes, aided and betted by Church hierarchy. There are documented cases of abuse, or allegations, from Spain, Italy, Malta, Austria, Belgium and Switzerland.

Within the USA, broad scale abuse has been uncovered in Boston and, more recently, Pennsylvania. New York, New Jersey, Missouri, Illinois and New Mexico are now in the process of launching their own investigations. Los Angeles diocese has paid out millions in compensation to victims of abuse while a Wisconsin priest is suspected of abusing some 200 boys at a school for the deaf despite the fact that his activities were reported to Church hierarchy.

Given the current known extent of the abuse, it seems reasonable to assume that there is more to uncover.
OB

Links:
German Catholic Church ‘Abused Thousands of Children’ (BBC)
Catholic Sex Abuse Scandals Around the World (BBC)
States take on Catholic Church (NY Times)

Disgusting. Cleaning house needs to happen now. Judge yourself, that you be not judged, RCC.

RestoreTheJoy · Oct 1, 2018

BNR32FAN said:
I haven’t in any way made excuses for child abuse. My point has continuously been that the church nor any other large organization can prevent it from happening 100%. However they have been successful at keeping it to a very low percentage. That was the reason I posted the article about sexual abuse in the schools to show that the Catholic Church is not the leading organization of child sex offenders as everyone is being led to believe and that their percentage of offenders is much lower about than the public schools which nobody seems to be making a big deal about. Nobody wants to look at the big picture because that’s not controversial enough. People want shocking news. They want to point fingers and condemn the entire church based on the actions of an extremely low percentage of people in the church. It is no different than racism or bigotry. It’s no different than labeling all black people as criminals or all Muslims as terrorists. The problem with the OP post is it states that THE CATHOLIC CHURCH abused these children. It is not stating the fact that a small percentage of Catholic priests ALLEGEDLY abused 3,677 children because the majority of cases are allegations not convictions. Just one more thing I’d like to point out is I am well known on this site as not being a Catholic. I’m not standing up for my church I’m standing up for my brothers and sisters in Christ.

No, no one said "the Catholic Church" abused these kids. There are a LOT of priests there who have done this though, not a couple.. It isn't one or two victims. It is tens of thousands over decades. There is a pattern here.

The RCC did NOTHING about this and simply moved priests around when molestations came to light. THIS IS NOT OK. The RCC has some major spiritual problem that it is a welcome harbor for molesting priests, and it needs to clean the house.

BNR32FAN · Oct 2, 2018

RestoreTheJoy said:
No, no one said "the Catholic Church" abused these kids.

Look at the title of the thread my friend.

German Catholic Church ‘Abused Thousands of Children’

RestoreTheJoy · Oct 2, 2018

BNR32FAN said:
Look at the title of the thread my friend.

German Catholic Church ‘Abused Thousands of Children’

That was the original poster's interpretation. That was not the title of the article referenced. It read:

Catholic Church sex abuse scandals around the world

Click on the link and see.

BNR32FAN · Oct 4, 2018

RestoreTheJoy said:
That was the original poster's interpretation. That was not the title of the article referenced. It read:

Catholic Church sex abuse scandals around the world

Click on the link and see.

I did read the articles I’m referring to the OP’s post not the articles.

Newtheran · Oct 4, 2018

High Fidelity said:
To the surprise of no one at this point.

How Catholics still take their children to church is beyond me.

Sodomites must be purges from the clergy...all denominations who permit this will reap the consequences of their disobedience.

German Catholic Church ‘Abused Thousands of Children’

See in the dark

Sarcasm is kind of an art isn't it?

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