We hear a lot these days about systemic, oppressive power structures that damage various racial, sexual, or gender identity groups. These institutions, we are told, perpetuate racism or “unconscious bias” against persons of color. Others enable the patriarchy, cisgender norms, or “heteronormativity.” Whatever the truth to these claims — and I confess that I believe there to be very little — they all elide one of the more obvious systemic biases among America’s elite institutions: that of anti-Catholicism. And nowhere is that bias more obvious then those institutions’ treatment of the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis.
Indeed, as Bill Donohue’s new book The Truth about Clergy Sexual Abuse: Clarifying the Facts and the Causes exhaustively catalogues, one of the biggest lies believed in American culture is that the scandal of the Catholic Church’s sex abuse crisis is categorically different and exponentially larger than that of any other institution in the United States. For example, an editorial in the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2018 asserted that “nowhere has the abuse been as widespread and accountability so disregarded [as in the Catholic Church].” And a 2019 editorial in the Washington Post similarly declared that the Church has a “unique history as a haven for abusers.”
Yet, according to an extensive 2011 study of the Church’s handling of its sexual abuse scandal by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, “no organization has undertaken a study of itself in the manner of the Catholic Church.” In truth, the Church monitors itself for sexual abuse allegations more carefully and reports incidents more regularly to the police than any other institution in this country. In 2010, even the president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children acknowledged that the Catholic Church had no bigger problem with abuse than anywhere else.
Professor Philip Jenkins, in his book Pedophiles and Priests: Anatomy of a Contemporary Crisis, estimated that the amount of Protestant clergy who were pedophiles was at least twice that of Catholic clergy. The Southern Baptist Convention, for example, has in recent years elicited increased attention for its failure to address sexual abuse. In Orthodox Jewish circles, when a sexual abuse accusation is lodged, a rabbinical court performs the investigation and never notifies the authorities. But it’s not just other religious organizations where this is a problem.
Children living with stepparents or unrelated adults are far more likely to be sexual abused, and only about 10 percent of perpetrators of child sexual abuse are strangers to the child. As of November 2020, the Boy Scouts of America reportedly faced 92,000 claims of sexual abuse from as many as 8,000 perpetrators. In recent decades, more than 100,000 men have been sexually assaulted in the U.S. military, and female service members face a much higher rate of sexual assault — about seven times higher.
Thousands of migrant children have been reportedly sexually abused while in government custody, while a recent study found that more than one-third of employees at group homes in the state of New York had committed abuse-related offenses. Nearly one third of criminal convictions of mental health industry personnel are for sexual abuse committed by psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, and counselors. Indian reservations, children’s camps, professional sports, academia, corporations, the entertainment industry, corporate media, and public schools all suffer from widespread sexual abuse. A 2017 report funded by the U.S. Department of Justice found that an estimated 10 percent of K-12 students will experience sexual misconduct by a school employee by the time they graduate from high school. I don’t know what words to use to describe this besides disastrous, horrifying, embarrassing, and scandalous.
Meanwhile, the number of accused Catholic priests has declined sharply since the 1990s. Indeed, the worst years of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church (the 1970s) are long behind us. According to research done at Georgetown University (not exactly a great defender of conservative or orthodox Catholicism), the average number of allegations against current clergy members was more than 6,000 than in the 1970s; by the 1980s it had dropped to about 3,600, it further dropped to about 780 in the 1990s and to about 350 in the 2000s; it is now down to single digits.
And yet the caricature of the priest pedophile bogeyman persists. A 2018 CBS poll found that 69 percent of respondents thought the priestly sexual abuse scandal was “very serious.” A Pew Research Center survey in 2019 found that eight in ten Americans believed Catholic clergy sexual abuse was an “ongoing problem.” Why?
Perhaps it has something to do with corporate media giving more attention to sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church than any other institution in America, and publishing editorials and featuring evening news segments claiming that the Church is still a hotbed of sexual scandal. Perhaps it has something to do with an entertainment industry that disseminates an endless supply of films and television programs that castigates the Catholic Church over sexual abuse (often with dishonest story lines), while hypocritically ignoring its own sexual scandals. And perhaps it has to do with lawyers and victims advocacy groups more focused on turning a profit than going after the new, non-Catholic loci of sexual abuse in America.
There is other data worth noting. The majority of victims of sexual abuse (81 percent) have been male, and 78 percent of victims have been postpubescent. Less than 4 percent of clergy sexual abuse victims were boys ten or younger. And this trend is the case not just in the United States but across the world. Though there is no hard data on the subject, numerous authors and researchers who have studied the clergy sexual abuse scandal estimated that in the 1970s and 1980s somewhere between one-third to two-thirds of priests were homosexuals. Cardinal Gerhard Müller has argued, “It’s more a homosexual attack than a pedophile attack.”
To understand how this could have happened, one need only look to what was going on in Catholic seminaries in the 1960s: flirtation, if not capitulation, to the sexual revolution. Catholic seminarians at that time were assigned articles and books that explicitly dissented from Church teaching on sexuality. This even included books by Alfred Kinsey, the now discredited researcher and promoter of the most bizarre and extreme sexual deviancies. Not only this, but many seminaries at the time were in open revolt against the Church’s teaching on contraception, manifested in such examples as the telegenic Catholic University of America professor Charles Curran, who publicly argued that Humanae Vitae should be rejected. In other words, an entire generation of Catholic priests were trained to believe the Catholic Church’s historic teachings on sexuality were wrong and would soon be overturned.
In sum, we have a systemic, institutional problem, one that stems from elite institution’s total capitulation to the sexual revolution and its ever-more deviant descendants. Corporate media, the entertainment industry, academia, big business, and even the federal government have all embraced this sexual ideology, which is not only at odds with historic Catholic teaching, but resulted in their own sex scandals. Let us list a few names: Matt Lauer, Harvey Weinstein, Larry Nassar, Jeffrey Epstein, David Petraeus. Should anyone be surprised then that all of these institutions — who aim above all for self-preservation — continue to pretend that these are just a few bad apples?
When it comes to sexual abuse allegations, no other organization is held to the same standard of scrutiny as that of the Catholic Church. No other organization in the United States is expected to post the names of employees accused of sexual misconduct except the Catholic Church. And yet no other organization has done more to purge itself of this rot than the Catholic Church in America. That the elite institutions of this country refuse to acknowledge this — and actively seek to argue the exact opposite — suggests that they have much more to hide. Perhaps these are the real power structures deserving of Americans’ skepticism, concern, and censure.
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Thank you for this valuable context. I’ll remember this article for future reference.
One point though: I don’t believe Petraeus deserves to be in the same category as people like Weinstein and Epstein. He resigned over an affair with one adult woman and mishandled classified information. As far as I’m aware, he has never been accused of child abuse. Is there evidence to the contrary?
I Agree—Don’t put him in that field..geesh….
Also, Epstein, Nasser, etc. we’re not priests. Surely more is expected from a priest than some pompous and sensual philanderer. In “persona Christie”. … the sacrament that not even a good and holy woman couldn’t experience.
Yeah, right. It’s all an anti-Catholic conspiracy by those evil Protestants.
Let’s not forget one of the most important names that should be on that short list: Andrew Cuomo, the disgraced former governor of New York and one of the biggest promoters of abortion, the safety net for the sexual revolution. He became such an embarassment that, had he not resigned, his own people were ready to throw him overboard, hoping that the people of New York would forget about him by the next election. As I said, let’s not forget.
Thanks BE To God for the life saving measures of Abortion. Pro-life is a lie because you don’t care if women die. Catholicism is married to the wrong side once again. The thousands upon thousand upon thousands of Victims of the Pedophile Priests and Pedophile Nuns will no longer be silenced by the Ridiculous Catholic Church. Exactly what did it cost the Catholic Church to Secure 6 Seats on the United States Supreme court other than their Goddamned souls? Catholicism has certainly been leading a lot of people to the eternal damnation of the burning lakes of fire. Glory
The patron Saint for the afflicted, Saint Dymphna, would be a good resource for coming to grips with what ails you, Terry.
The issue is not so much what the Church did do but what she didn’t do when she could and should have done better.
The issue is truth: about what has happened and what has not happened.
Agree, the truth is the Church could and should have done better but chose otherwise by severely underestimating the magnitude of the issue in the beginning. Contending that other organizations mishandled the issue worse than the Church is true but the Church is not in the business of wallowing in the muck, also true that the adversaries of the Church hold the Church to a higher standard to which the Church should aspire. To be certain the article is instructive but then since V2 the objective truth is held by a minority of rad-trads in the Church while the populist subjective truthiness reigns reinforcing modernism (for example Father Martin, Biden, Pelosi))
My big problem with the reports on clergy sexual abuse is the continued, almost exclusive, reference to pedophilia instead of pederasty.
The DLEMM – Dominant Liberal Establishment Mass Media – as well as many of the Bishops won’t admit that homosexual ephebophilia is the overwhelming crime committed by deviants masquerading as ordained Priests. You’ll never hear Norah O’Donnell or any other teleprompter reader quote from the 2 February 1961 Religiosorum Institutio document “Instruction on the Careful Selection And Training Of Candidates For The States Of Perfection And Sacred Orders” which affirmed the Church’s ban on ordaining homosexuals.
“Advancement to religious vows and ordination should be barred to those who are afflicted with evil tendencies to homosexuality or pederasty, since for them the common life and the priestly ministry would constitute serious dangers.”
The question, “What if that ban had been enforced?” will never be asked by many.
What appears to be unique in the clerical sex abuse situation is the systematic grooming that has taken place in some seminaries as has been testified to in the Theodore McCarrick case. I don’t believe that his type of situation could be only instance of this particular occurrence of grooming.
Whatever the case may be, no sexual abuse should be overlooked.
I think there is a danger in saying, “Well, look at them, they are worse!” The effect of this kind of thinking is to tamp down, absolve the heinous crime committed. Each entity upon becoming aware of a problem must address, deal with it promptly and let the sunshine in.
Unless the alleged problem is immediately addressed and investigated justly, (as I am aware that some are unjustly accused) there will be no mitigation of the culture of sexual abuse.
But at the same time, focusing exclusively on sex abuse within the Church allows a far, far larger absolute amount of abuse to continue in the world. If we were truly concerned with the welfare of victims, it needs to be addressed as a whole, in every institution, including but definitely not limited to, the Church.
I wasn’t really clear on saying, “Whatever the case may be, no sexual abuse should be overlooked.” What my intent was that across the board any and all, not just clerical, incidents must be dealt with promptly. As Casey Chalk writes: “…we have a systemic, institutional problem, one that stems from elite institution’s total capitulation to the sexual revolution and its ever-more deviant descendants. Corporate media, the entertainment industry, academia, big business, and even the federal government have all embraced this sexual ideology, which is not only at odds with historic Catholic teaching, but resulted in their own sex scandals. Add to that the trafficking of migrants, both children and adults—male and female.
There are plenty of other serious, serious problems happening in the anti-rooms of chanceries. Chanceries need to get their houses in order and start doing the Lord’s Work. When my house is a mess, I can’t justify it by broadcast that my neighbor’s house is in worse shape. The wining and dining days, the lobbying for government hand-outs, etc. —–it’s gone on way too long. After chanceries are disinfected it’s time to put on sack cloth, repent and truly take care of the flocks. St. John Vienney, pray for us.
We need to get our own house in order. How we compare to others is beside the point. I tried to deal with this very issue in 2019. I made an analogy with comparing yourself to your neighbors when you’ve got a serious problem of your own. “Oh well, at least we aren’t as bad as the Jones,” doesn’t do a thing to address the problem of a drug addicted son or an anorexic daughter. As I put it:
“Whatever momentary comfort we might take in keeping one step ahead of the Jones’s, we still have to get on with our business of taking care of our own hurting family members.
To be sure, our neighbors are watching us, but not necessarily the way we think they are. They are not only judging us for the problem itself. They are judging us for how we conduct ourselves. ‘His daughter is on life-support with anorexia and he’s worried what the neighbors will think. What an idiot.'”
https://www.ncregister.com/news/is-sexual-abuse-in-the-catholic-church-really-no-bigger-problem-than-the-rest-of-society
Jennifer Roback Morse, you said it – in a nutshell:
“Catholic clergy sex abuse is our mess. We have an obligation to clean it up. We owe it as a duty of justice to those who have been harmed, directly and indirectly. The world is watching how we handle ourselves.”
Thank you for the link, and yes, in spades, “We have an obligation to clean it up…as a duty of justice to those who have been harmed, directly and indirectly.”
And I’m on fire for that! If that means losing 70% of our clergy, at least the salty, full of light clergy can lead us according to the Way, the Truth and the Light. St. Catherine of Siena, pray for us.
Thank you Rosemarie. I just came across this article of mine about the situation in the Loudon County Public Schools.
“People who fancy themselves “progressive” love to hate the Catholic Church for one reason and one reason only: The Church is the last institution on the face of the earth that — at least on paper — resists the Sexual Revolution. But the secular world certainly has sexual abuse problems of its own.
This particular incident of covering up sexual abuse is not the only instance of problems in public schools: By one estimate, 10% of high school students will suffer some form of sexual abuse at school. “Passing the trash” takes place in public schools as well as in churches. The United Nations has sexual abuse scandals that they deal with only perfunctorily. There are serial predators in sports, Hollywood, media — even classical music. Memo to Sexual Revolutionaries: Crying crocodile tears over the victims of Catholic priests while covering for all the other victims is wearing thin. People are fed up.
Sooner or later, the clear teaching of the Catholic Church is going to prevail over your tortured, incoherent ideology.”
https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/loudoun-county-school-board-s-response-to-sex-abuse-not-news-to-catholics
How true Rosiemarie’s comments on “grooming” at seminaries in past decades. There was one sensational criminal trial in St. Louis County of a priest abusing minors who was “vocation director” at a seminary, and the family of one victim told a reporter that the priest was known as the “chicken hawk” for taking close look at everyone in new incoming class of seminarians to select his victims.
When it comes to sexual abuse allegations, no other organization is held to the same standard of scrutiny as that of the Catholic Church.
Rightly
And the expectation is zero,0,none no incident of sexual abuse
Being the least worse doesn’t mean a damn thing from the Church
High standard? Yes
Commensurate to authority? Yes
Some of the worst abusers were ordained prior to the 1960s.
That we know of.
Firstly, I need to state that I thank Casey Chalk and appreciate his aim in this article. Casey Chalk seems to me to be a sterling Catholic man, and I respect him very much.
I also note that in linking to reviews of Bill Donohue’s book, I found a review by Fr. Sullins of CUA, commending Bill Donohue’s analysis in the book, and as I greatly respect Fr. Sullins’ because he has himself been a candid truth-telling Catholic man and priest, I am heartened to hear such a commendation of Donohue’s book.
And of course, the mainstream world political and corporate and media powers detest Jesus and the Catholic Church and are pleased to lie every day to subvert him and our faith.
At the same time, I must deal with the fact that I no longer have any reasonable basis on which to place trust in most Bishops and most Cardinals, and especially the Pontiff Francis. If it is the case, as Fr. Sullins has reported, that homosexual abuse of teenaged boys (I.e. pederasty) reached its height in the 1980s, in direct proportion to the increase in the % of homosexual men in the priesthood (estimated as something btw 40-60% in the 1980s), then it stands to reason that this same hyper-homosexual cohort is now sitting in episcopal chairs worldwide, particularly in the US and Europe, as this cohort are now in their 60s and 70s and 80s.
I also have built great reservations about the motives of Bill Donohue, as I do not know who or what organization has created the $30M endowment which generates his $1M annual salary. If that organization is the USCCB, then I have every reason to hold reservations about his motives.
I don’t know what others think these days, but I and now in my late 60s, and I have concluded that my household of believers, and my extended family of believers, however much that has and will dwindle, has very little in common with millionaire professional Catholic elite, be they Bishops or laity (like Mr. Donohue).
I particularly distrust Mr. Donohue’s recent attacks on Michael Voris and Church Militant, and others like them, and here’s why:
In 2018, self-declared “Catholic moderates” like Ross Douthat (who I happen to like as a person, even if I find his “calibrated” statements somewhat uncompelling), declared that when it comes to sex abuse (etc etc) we need to start listening to voices on the margins, because they are often the ones telling the truth about what is going on in chanceries and among bishops and Cardinals. Having taken Douthat’s advice, I have increasingly tuned in to what Church Militant and others are talking about, and they have brought facts to bear, for just one example (and there are numerous and worse, including some horrifically evil like the Buffalo priest murder case) in the Staten Island sex and embezzlement case, where the poor parishioners had to sue the AD of NY and Cardinal Dolan because they contemptuously dismissed and ignored their pleas for justice from the Church. This same pattern of contempt for the faithful is evident in the sociopathic behavior of the Pontiff, who as both Archbishop of Buenos Aries and now as Pontiff refuses to even give audience to sex abuse victims or suffering faithful Cardinal like Cardinal Zen, all the while mocking faithful Cardinals snd Bishops, calling Cardinal Mueller “a child” and Archbishop Chaput “an ideologue,” apparently because they hold that the 6th Commandment also pertains to sodomy.
The millionaire professional Catholic class (Bishops and Mr. Donohue included) seem on balance to be an enemy of The Good Shepherd and his Church, and the enemy of my little domestic church, where I am fighting for the soul of my loved ones.
I am not leaving the Catholic Church, but my opinion is that a long, long time ago, many of the millionaire Catholics in the professional Catholic class have actually left the Church, and simply remain inside as parasites, raking in money and living the high life, and writing off parishioners like those in Staten Island and Detroit, and writing off young priests and nuns of the traditional orders like the FFI.
The professional Catholic clas cannot have it both ways: it cannot defend itself on Friday “after-the-fact” by saying “we should have listened to the Catholics on the margins,” and then turn around on Monday and call them extremists snd “but-jobs” and “conspiracy theorists.”
That warn-out, self-serving double-talk just doesn’t cut it anymore.
I end where I began, and place my trust in young men like Casey Chalk, and old priests like my late associate pastor Fr. Paul R, and Catholic men and women of candor and courage. As for the chanceries and their episcopal bosses, you have, with few exceptions, forfeited your expectation of trust.
What baloney. This article has as much credibility as those who make the ridiculous claim that there is no more liturgical abuse occurring in Novus Ordo Masses. Are we really supposed to believe that whenever a priest opens his mouth about the reality of widespread homosexuality in the priesthood and suffers disciplinary consequences from his bishop, that there is no longer any culture of coverup going on? Are we supposed to believe that when a farcical sham of a sex summit occurs in Rome where even mentioning the word homosexuality was prohibited, that anyone in the hierarchical structure of the Church is in any way serious about eliminating homosexuality in the priesthood? Or are we supposed to accept the insanely ridiculous liberal stupidity that there is no correlation between homosexuality and pederasty?
I apologize for my initial remarks, and to the author. Mr. Chalk tried to give a balanced presentation of the situation. My actual opinion is more in line with Chis in Maryland. I am simply very incensed at people like Bill Donohue who constantly insults what he calls “the right wing.” You would think anyone interested in defending the Church would know at the least how phony it is to project a political spectrum onto religion. Mr. Chalk nonetheless does acknowledge that homosexuality is at the heart of the problem, but this is only half of “the heart of the problem.” The other half is getting the episcopate to acknowledge homosexuality is the heart of the problem, which is a crisis because there are so many who have this mental illness amongst them and almost all of them, afflicted or not, refuse to admit it.
Donahue has come under attack in the past (about 10-15 years ago) for stepping ungallantly and without clarity about one thing or another. Plenty of orthodox Catholics stopped their support of his organization then. He is now 74 years old, divorced, perhaps time to retire, retreat, and return to greener grass pasture. He may well be compromised but without the mental acuity or the charity of practiced virtue to know.
This was G. Pell’s argument before he moved onto higher things: offending by priests and religious in Australia was only 6% and therefore unremarkable compared to other institutions, e.g. Salvos, Anglican Church, scouts, etc. – can’t remember where his email went from there but the offending obviously had a catastrophic impact on the Church and upon priestly morale (and the morale in religious orders). However, while people succumb to immorality all too easily, the rate of offending for priests (taking a vow of celibacy which implies chastity) and religious (taking an explicit vow of chastity) should have been zero compared to other institutions. I would rather go into bat for the great number of priests and religious who lived their vows faithfully and for one Franciscan priest who was afraid of walking down the street in his clerical suit as a result of the bad and continuing publicity. The news commentary on Donoghue’s book does mention the analysis mentioned by Ben XVI that the sexual revolution affecting the church is responsible but the problem with this theory is that there was offending prior to the 1960s and, historically, the incidence has affected the Church at different times, from at least the 4th century with attempts by the church to deal with it, e.g. threats of withholding Holy communion from the offending cleric at the hour of death. In fact, the “founder/originator” of one of the prominent teaching orders in the early 19th century had offended and was banished to a monastery.
The much broadcast notion that celibacy is the wicked state responsible for abuse is countered by reality, married men and woman it seems in many occupations are not immune and many of these occupations, both secular and religious, go to great lengths to damage control.
The Catholic Church keeps records. Without those records being made available the secular media would have nothing to work on. As we have experienced with Covid mania it doesn’t take much for media to get really creative.
Childhood sexual abuse is endemic throughout society. Here is my “take” on how Catholics should respond to that fact. Short version: if we don’t deal with childhood sexual abuse, really end it, really heal it, certainly no other institution in society will deal with it.
https://youtu.be/M2TwoYr3TNo
Jennifer Roback Morse,
Thank you for this link.
-Thank you for exposing the ice (evil) under water of the ice burg.
-Thank you for explaining how the clogs of evil in the marketing of the evil sexual revolution work.
-Thank you for exposing the insidious alliance of, see all, say nothing, in the culture of sexual predation, trafficking as it continues to operate in plain sight.
AND
Thank you for providing access to materials to help us be part of the solution.
Alba writes: “…both secular and religious, go to great lengths to damage control.”
The systemic institutional problem that Chalk addresses abet the
silence on the part of those close to the abuser.
Read more on how the evil of sexual abuse hides and thrives — secular and religious:
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-mones-harvey-weinstein-sexual-assault-20171022-story.html
Is it really that prevalent? Yes, it is.
Is this the exception?
From:
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/grindr-blackmail-and-confession-the-life-of-a-gay-seminarian-1.3808475
“A former seminarian who lives in Zurich explains his point of view.”
“While the celibacy of priests remains in place, a gay priest will always receive a better welcome in the church than a straight priest. That’s a reality, and there’s nothing the church can do about it.”
No, it isn’t the exception — accused, convicted, settled.
https://www.bishop-accountability.org/accused-by-state-va/
Now how about establishing a secular institutional accountability list?
Start with government officials and international traffickers.
How many on this site are willing to help uncover the extent to which sexual abuse is continuing in the U.S. and abroad? Well, at least this article opened the subject, again and good for that, as the rotten apple cart needs to be upset, even though it is
very painful to look at the leprosy.
It is extremely painful for me to write about this, because a Catholic Institution with which I was very familiar and trusted had and has so many abusers — and yes, to this day continues damage control!
As others have said, the recent sex scandals in the Church are mainly related to homosexuality (predatory and consensual) in the priesthood, not child abuse. The pedophile narrative was spun partly to deflect attention away from the real source of the problem. That is what urgently needs to be addressed.
Wonderful article. I agree wholeheartedly that the sexual abuse syndrome in our society runs wide and rampant and that it’s scale pales in comparison to 4 decades ago. So, explain to me why it took the Catholic Church sooooo long to finally remove the stain upon our Church otherwise known as Cardinal McCarrick. Until the summer of 2018, McCarrick was CELEBRATED by Church leadership. Explain to me how Bishop Knestout (former priest-secretary to McCarrick) could lock one of his priests out of his parish and “banish” him to a prison ministry in response to that priest’s blogging concerning the sexual abuse scandal? Catholic Church leadership at the highest levels remains corrupt, complicit, or apathetic.
“To understand how this could have happened, one need only look to what was going on in Catholic seminaries in the 1960s: flirtation, if not capitulation, to the sexual revolution.”
Stop. For the love of God, STOP blaming he culture for the failure of the Church to be holy.
Why was there a “sexual revolution” to begin with? Only some antecedent failure in the Church could have allowed such deviation in public institutions (and Church institutions).
The blame-shifting is even more egregious when it is considered that there wasn’t a “sexual revolution” a few short years before, and “the culture” was instructed weekly on national television by no less than Bishop Fulton Sheen.
Once the Church quits excusing its lamentable (and in my eyes, as nearly unforgivable as any can be without crossing that line) descent into perversion and betrayal by pointing to the naturally perverse culture, it true penance may have begun.
“Stop. For the love of God, STOP blaming he culture for the failure of the Church to be holy”
Many Web Sites and newspaper articles with posters on different web sites have proclaimed that Pederasty, within the Priesthood is its current most serious problem, augmented recently by former Cardinal McCarrick, as here we see the corruption of young men, who presumably entered the Priesthood, intending to live the celibate life. Some of whom may have acknowledged having homosexual tendencies, especially via the secrecy of the Sacrament of Confession, easy prey to be groomed/ensnared/corrupted by the likes of Cardinal McCarrick, who possibly was ensnared also as a young seminarian, many years ago.
Not all priests are Christian as I can testify, as I have witnessed many times, over the last thirty-five years, actions that incorporate intimidation, duplicity, gesture, implied talk, murmurings, and symbolism. Those who practice evil, the dark arts, are proficient in creating a situation where others do their dirty work, by manipulating them, as in, to use words of power/’association’ in conversation with their intended victim, while being totally unaware, that they are been used. This has happened to me via the Parish Priest when I was in the SVP. (Verified by an older Catholic woman, years later who was living in poverty and isolation in one of his former parishes)
While other many years I have also witnessed others who also been unaware, have intimidated others which leads to division, as the recipient of this accumulated action of evil from different sources ..V.. becomes confused/fearful as friend or foe you no longer know (Hence isolation). Our emptying Church’s bear witness to this as no (Worldly) lawyer or civil agency can expose what these evil men use while smiling, as they are the tools of the Evil One.
Homosexual rings of corruption are the fruit of these manipulative men ..V.. but they are not necessarily homosexual themselves, but they are depraved and have existed since the early formation of the church. And they work to undermine what is left of the faithful by any means possible.
The flock has been and continues to be devoured, the wolves who hunt in packs, are very highly organized and backed by worldly power, wealth and influence (..V..) They pick out the sheep and shepherds with the greatest potential for producing the whitest fleeces, every avenue of escape is closed, many become wolves also, some suffer daily, others are those who are washed in the blood of the lamb.
Over many years I have witnessed other Christians being accompanied by a ‘fiend’ in many different situations, who covertly signal others with glee
“May God help us!
To expose the reality of this evil ..V.. manifest within the two-fingered sign of collusion with the Evil One.
kevin your brother
In Christ
Addendum to my post above
Please consider continuing the theme of my personal encounter with clericalism via the link.
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2020/03/24/25-years-after-evangelium-vitae-we-still-need-a-new-feminism/#comment-181593
kevin your brother
In Christ
I have said this before and that is things like Pornography late in life is Extreme Sexual Immaturity/ It comes from the Self-Awareness of Sex at the start of puberty / Puberty is when OUR SELF-AWARENESS HAS AN EXPLOSION and we become of Aware of our BODIES / We become Aware of Adult Hypocrites’ / Do as I say and NOT as I do/ they REBEL with this increased SELF-AWARENESS/
Sexual Immaturity as an Adult is a form of MENTAL ILLNESS/ This is where God can give DIVINE MERCY because he KNOWS ( AWARE ) what we think ( SELF-AWARENESS /
GOD is an DIVINE SELF-AWARENESS AKA SPIRIT /SOUL AKA SELF-AWARENESS/
DAVID CROW COPE
So that’s okay.
If others do it, why shouldn’t the Catholic Church have some sort of entitlement to baptized children’s bodies? Why should the Church be held accountable, for goodness sake?
This article is an example of confirmation bias and wishful thinking, both fallacies of informal logic.
One, just one, raped child is one too many.
I am curious what is the Catholic Church’s explanation for their role in the Native American boarding school tragedy that occurred in the USA and Canada? The church was found to be guilty of not only widespread physical/sexual abuse of indigenous children, but also responsible for the murders of over 500 children in the USA alone. These children’s bodies were hidden in unmarked graves at schools all over both countries and their families were never told their child died or where they were buried.
Lala:
The explanation is that, upon further investigation, the claims made against the Catholic Church that you and others have gullibly accepted (why?) are completely falling apart, and they have been doing so for a few years now.
See the following:
“No human remains found 2 years after claims of ‘mass graves’ in Canada”
by Dana Kennedy
August 31, 2023
https://nypost.com/2023/08/31/still-no-evidence-of-mass-graves-of-indigenous-children-in-canada/
“Not One Corpse Has Been Found In The ‘Mass Grave’ Of Indigenous Children In Canada”
BY: JOHN DANIEL DAVIDSON
JANUARY 19, 2022
https://thefederalist.com/2022/01/19/not-one-corpse-has-been-found-in-the-mass-grave-of-indigenous-children-in-canada/
“Some cast doubt on claims of ‘mass grave’ of indigenous children at Canadian residential school”
By Michael Gryboski
January 26, 2022
https://www.christianpost.com/news/doubts-cast-on-claim-of-mass-grave-of-indigenous-children-in-canada.html