I have followed the child sex abuse priest Catholic Church scandal in the press.
It hasn’t been easy to read.
I can’t imagine what it was like to endure.
The case…or rather cases…in Wisconsin hit me hard. As the younger sister of a man who is profoundly autistic and aphasic, I carry the worry that someone would abuse him…it’s just there, under the surface all the time. My brother can communicate and he sure as hell lets folks know when he doesn’t like a person, but the worry and fear of abuse never goes away. So, reading that 200 deaf children were abused by a priest hit me hard as hell.
I’m not Catholic, but I don’t have to be to have an opinion about the international priest sex abuse scandals currently being investigated. I’m human…and, as Jodi Jacobson pointed out an article over at RHRealityCheck, the Catholic Church has involved itself in public policy that impacts all of our lives. But even if the Catholic Church wasn’t involved in writing public policy during the federal health care reform debate, it’s various organizations and programs serve children throughout my community in St. Louis Missouri. So, yeah…all of us should be paying attention to news of rampant abuse, a shameful lack of response and the very real potential that known sexual predators were allowed to continue their “work” as part of a cover-up.
Smears happen. People are often caught up in those smears and Lawd knows that the press adores a scandal and could care less should a person be proven innocent.
But the media isn’t smearing the Catholic Church when it reports on these scandals anymore than it smeared China when it investigated and reported on dangerous problems with imported baby formula.
In fact, the media has fallen short on this story...I’m reminded of the priest abuse scandal a few years back and how the press covered it and then tucked it away with little or no follow-up, as if they feared some sort of Da Vinci Code-esque retribution.
Now, there is news of 200 deaf children abused in Wisconsin…and more cases in Poland and Ireland.
Each case…each life…each survivor indicts the institution that failed to protect them, worked to silence them and now strives to discredit them.
This isn’t about smearing and there is no place for schadenfreude here.
There is just disgust…not even shock, not anymore…and concern over what may be happening now only to be covered up in the future.
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5 comments:
I'm certain there are far more good priests than bad priests.
Still, the Catholic Church needs to step into the 21st century.
- The use of condoms does not cause the spread of AIDs.
- Jesus does not care if I practice birth control.
- People who are in a committed and loving relationship should have the right to marry, regardless of sexual orientation.
- Pedophiles should not be shuffled around and allowed to be near children. They should be imprisoned.
I find it impossible to believe that God has talked to a priest, anywhere, and told him that pedophiles should be moved to a new parish and an incident should be hushed up. (Of course, in light of things like this, I find it impossible to believe in a God most of the time anyway.)
The Roman Catholic Church should be put out of business for good.
"Now, there is news of 200 deaf children abused in Wisconsin…and more cases in Poland and Ireland."
And in Germany, Austria, Brazil and...
I volunteer at the School for the Deaf in the South and the Deaf School is another WORLD. Education isn’t compulsory. Many kids who attended school late or not often were put in special education. The education they receive in my opinion wasn’t adequate or sufficient. Rural black and white children are at a lost. The parents really don’t know what to do with their kids and they don’t make them attend school. My observations were; the children were in grades lesser than their ages as compared to traditional age students. There were racial disparities among the teachers with the students (from black and white teachers). The children were taught not to want their disability checks but to find jobs. Most of the children were black and the jobs they would get would be below the median income (living in the South it would be below the poverty level!). They attended school until they were 21. The School for the Deaf is S A D! I can’t imagine what other facilities for the disable is like.
I was very surprised by the number of complaints for children's abuse in countries wher the Catholical church has some power: if the catholical church remains poor, people wanting for a higher social status wonot become priests (French priests are often people who had a well paid job before becoming priests : they choose to become a curate for .... religious(!) reasons, not to have superior studies paid (as it was in the 1700-1900 years- and get a better social status, and , in such conditions, there are lesser allegations of chorus children raping -parts of these allegations are 'because it has grown fashionable', parts are serious).
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