Child sex abuse by Illinois Catholic clergy spans state and decades, AG investigation finds

[essentialsaltes]

A long-awaited five year investigation has turned up hundreds of new horror stories of child sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests in Illinois, the attorney general alleged on Tuesday morning.

Although many of the cases are historical, going back decades and the subject of previous reporting, survivors remain in need. "The Catholic dioceses and archdiocese in Illinois can, and should, recommit to providing those survivors the ongoing support they need and deserve" said Raoul's report.

Now, with the additional findings from the attorney general, there are 451 Catholic clerics and religious brothers cited as bonafide youth sex abusers according to the report.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Would a new headline help this thread?

Rampant child sexual abuse is occurring in churches — not at drag shows​

 

[Rajni]

All I can say is that as much as I'd like to return to Catholicism, it's this very sort of thing that gives me pause.

I cannot, in good conscience, support an institution in which this sort of thing takes place.

These people are supposedly distributing and ingesting the 'body, blood, soul, and divinity' of God Himself each Sunday, and this is what they have to show for it? While it would be considered tragic if a wafer touched the floor, what of the hands that dispense the wafer in the first place – how clean are they, really?

This sort of thing has happened in the church I grew up in as well; one of the founding pastors, whose portrait even used to hang in the gym of the associated Catholic school (and the gym was named after him too) – was found 'credibly accused' of abuse. His assignment at my church ended when I was only two years old, so I don't remember him (plus, he passed away decades ago). I relatively recently discovered that the church, now knowing about this priest’s actions, was changing the gym’s name to something else.

There was another priest in that same church, when I was probably in Junior High, who also was said to have been misbehaving in similar fashion. I don’t think anyone was aware at the time. The one thing I do remember about him is that I had put him in an awkward position when I was receiving Communion one day. I had written something on my left palm earlier in the day (this was one of those Masses that were held for the students to participate in during the school-day). I was a clueless kid, so I probably didn’t even try to wash the ink off my hands before receiving Communion. He was visibly frustrated as he briefly tried to find a clean spot on my hand where he could place the wafer. The thing is, in hindsight, I find it ironic that he’d care so much about how a wafer was handled while thinking nothing of how he handled at least one soul.

To be fair, it's not just churches that struggle with this kind of thing, though. For instance, the Hare Krishna organization (ISKCON), has had similar issues in the past.

Sometimes I think that being religious gets in the way of being a decent human being.