Sexual abuse and cover up in the Catholic Church

[Robert the Pilegrim]

From post 102 of the thread "U.S. Backs Homosexual Groups at United Nations"

I think child Molestation and rape are also excommunicatable offenses also, but alas they are ignored

I don't mean to go off topic but could you please provide proof that they are ignored?

I thought PaladinDoodler had a problem with the present tense form eastcoast_bsc's statement, i.e. "are ignored".
So in post 103 I responded:

They were covered up for many years by the hierarchy.
I have hopes that public shame has essentially brought that to an end.​

PaladinDoodler responded

I asked for proof, not another statement with absolutely no evidence to back it up. All well, I'm leaving this thread now and requesting that it be locked so bye!​

I'm not sure what the basis for asking for it to be locked would be, it seems to me that if you think there is a violation one should ask for a warning to be issued first.

Personally I'm afraid I have to take that request as a personal affront as well as running away from the truth.

Well, here is the truth:

I want to make two points up front, sexual abuse by pastors/priests is not an exclusively Catholic problem (see http://www.clergyabuseaustralia.org/stats.htm)

Nor is it an exclusively "homosexual" problem
http://www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives/031601/031601a.htm
http://brokenrites.alphalink.com.au/nletter/page4.html
http://www.counterpunch.org/sexabuse.html

(along those lines note that many of those who abuse male children are sexually active with female adults)

But the fact is that the Catholic Church has a serious problem caused in large part by the behaviour of the hierarchy.

For a long laundry list see
Dallas Morning News Article
Which was downloaded from http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/bi/dallas/2002/priests.cgi on 2/18/04.
(and yes the article is still there.)
Quoting from the first few paragraphs:

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. The study - the first of its kind - looked at the records of the top leaders of the nation’s 178 mainstream Roman Catholic dioceses, including acting administrators in cases where the top job is vacant.
[]
In checking whether a bishop had protected priests or other church representatives accused of sexual abuse, reporters Brooks Egerton and Reese Dunklin relied on published reports, court records, interviews and church records obtained in civil litigation. Most protected priests were accused of sexually abusing minors - primarily adolescent boys, but also younger ones, and a sizable number of girls of various ages. The newspaper’s study also covered behavior that indicated a sexual attraction to minors, such as viewing child inappropriate contentography or, in one case, trading sexually charged e-mails with someone a priest believed was a minor.​

Another article:

FATHERS' HELPER
How the Church used psychiatry to care for and protect abusive priests.
By Barry Unsworth
New Yorker
June 9, 2003
Ney Yorker article

In 1986, Bishop Robert J. Banks, an assistant to Cardinal Bernard Law, until recently the head of the Boston Archdiocese, learned that a complaint of sexual abuse had been made against Father John Geoghan, a priest in the parish of St. Julia, in the town of Weston, near Boston. Within the archdiocese, Father Geoghan's problems with pedophilia were well documented. He had been removed from four other parishes because of charges that he had molested children, and he was currently undergoing treatment by a psychiatrist chosen by the archdiocese. When the psychiatrist warned Banks to "clip the priest's wings before there is an explosion," Banks sent Geoghan for evaluation to St. Luke's, where he was diagnosed as a homosexual pedophile. Banks told Geoghan to leave the ministry, but instead the archdiocese placed him on sick leave and referred him for further treatment to the Institute of Living, where he remained for three months.​

Church allowed abuse by priest for years
Aware of Geoghan record, archdiocese still shuttled him from parish to parish
1/6/2002
This article was prepared by the Globe Spotlight Team: reporters Matt Carroll, Sacha Pfeiffer, and Michael Rezendes; and editor Walter V. Robinson. It was written by Rezendes.
Boston Globe Spotlight article

In 1981, after a year's sick leave, Geoghan was dispatched to St. Brendan's in Dorchester, with little chance he would be placed under scrutiny: His pastor for most of his 3 years there, the Rev. James H. Lane, has told friends he was never warned that Geoghan had a history of sex abuse.​

Rights of the Children Shadow Report

In France
■ Bishop Pierre Pican was convicted of concealing evidence about the abuse of
eleven children at the hands of one priest between 1996 and 1998. The priest
received a sentence of eighteen years in jail, while the bishop’s three-month sentence was suspended.21

In Mexico
■ In April 2002, Cardinal Norberto Rivera admitted priests in Mexico have abused
children, but offered no information about whether the church has assisted victims
or punished abusers.28
■ In 1997, a single Mexican priest was accused of molesting nearly sixty children.The
church leaders defended him, citing “health problems.”29
■ In 1997, Reverend Marcial Maciel, founder of Legionaries of Christ, and a priest
with close ties to the Holy See was publicly accused by nine men of sexual abuse
while they were children in the 1940s through the 1960s.The case had been reported
directly to the Holy See in 1978 and 1989. Rather than being punished however,
the accused priest has been praised by the Holy See for his work with youth.30
■ Hundreds of priests have been treated at church-run centers for behavioral
problems, including sexual abuse of children, and then returned to work among
children.31​

Story of Bishop in England ignoring child abuse complaints

 

[DeaconDean]

That is one reason why I believe the Catholic doctrine of non-married priest should be done away with. I mean after all, even though they are priests, aren't they men just like the rest of us? Don't they have the same desires and needs that other men do? Granted that child-molestation is the extreme, if they were allowed to marry, wouldn't it stand to reason that 99 percent of this type of stuff would stop? I agree with you friend, something needs to be done now, not later when it is discovered, but NOW!

Thank's for the thoughts.

 

[ebia]

That is one reason why I believe the Catholic doctrine of non-married priest should be done away with. I mean after all, even though they are priests, aren't they men just like the rest of us? Don't they have the same desires and needs that other men do? Granted that child-molestation is the extreme, if they were allowed to marry, wouldn't it stand to reason that 99 percent of this type of stuff would stop?

Given that similar abuses have happened in other churches that do allow clergy to marry (Anglican and Salvation Army spring to mind) and in equivalent non-Church organisation, that doesn't obviously follow.

I'm sure the RCC will allow priests to marry in the not too distant future, but not for that reason.