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Pennsylvania Catholic Church Sex Abuse Report: The Ecclesiastical Boogaloo


Neonmoon

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/08/14/pennsylvania-grand-jury-report-on-sex-abuse-in-catholic-church-will-list-hundreds-of-accused-predator-priests/?utm_term=.6721ea1e7fc7

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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday released a sweeping grand jury report on sex abuse in the Catholic Church, listing hundreds of accused clergy and detailing 70 years of misconduct and church response across the state.

The release is the culmination of an 18-month probe, led by state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, on six of the state’s eight dioceses — Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Scranton, Erie and Greensburg — and follows other state grand jury reports that revealed abuse and coverups in two other dioceses.

Some details and names that might reveal the 300 clergy listed have been redacted from the report. Legal challenges by clergy delayed the report’s release, after some said it is a violation of their constitutional rights. Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court ruled last month that the report must be released but with some redaction.

The report’s release begins an information war, with prosecutors and many victims saying it’s the start of holding church leaders at the top accountable for the first time, while church lawyers and other advocates for the institution say the report depicts an era of another century, unfairly smearing today’s Catholicism in Pennsylvania.

The report has helped renew a crisis many in the church thought and hoped had ended nearly 20 years ago after the scandal erupted in Boston. But recent abuse-related scandals, from Chile to Australia, have reopened wounding questions about accountability and whether church officials are still covering up crimes at the highest levels.

The new wave of allegations has called Pope Francis’s handling of abuse into question as many Catholics look to him to help the church regain its credibility. The pope’s track record has been mixed, something some outsiders attribute to his learning curve or shortcomings and others chalk up to resistance from a notoriously change-averse institution...

 

That’s a lot of rape

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So I guess my in-laws saying, "Meh, that was a long time ago in diocese very far away" is starting to become a very faded excuse machine once again.  I told my wife the other day that I'd never let our daughter serve as an altar server.  She kind of brushed it off.  I know she knows deep down inside it's nowhere near worth the risk.  But when our daughter is old enough, I know her family will start chiming in on how it'll serve as a foundation for her for a better life down the road.  They just can't see through the forest, can they?  

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21 minutes ago, LonghornJones said:

It's not your fault.

Thank you.  However, I was not raised Catholic.  I conveniently skipped out on organized religion in those critical years when my buttocks were sublime (basically opted out during my parent's divorce between 3rd-8th grade).  But growing up around nothing but Polish, Irish, and Italian Catholics in the Chicago area...I knew way too many kids with that 1000 yard stare at such a young age.  You could see the rage inside them way too early.  I kinda stopped thinking about them years ago, and then the Catholocism excuse machine reared its head again a few years back to me and I'm keeping up my guard.  

Anyway, the Church is nowhere near done with these scandals.  South America is just getting started.  

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I am sure the Cardinal misheard the question in the press conference and only kept those priests on the staff because they were such good recruiters/coaches of young men. :-)

I would never leave my kids alone with a Catholic priest. How many more diocese need to be exposed for material change to happen?

Just a bunch of sick fucks wrapping themselves in religion.

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50 minutes ago, HouTex said:

Try to find this month's Galveston-Houston Archdiocese monthly newspaper for an article by Cardinal DiNardo.  He describes recent failures and the policies that now exist and what to do if there is a problem.

Recent failures...lol, that's a good one.

And they now have policies?  Sounds like they have the problem under control.

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why is there a statute of limitations on child rape?  Seems like they should want to punish those DOBs no matter when it happened.  Dozens if not hundreds of documented priests classified as super sexual predators and then higher ups engaged in doing everything they can to cover it up.  Everyone involved should get their day in court.

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Meanwhile in Chile:

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Chilean authorities raided the headquarters of the Catholic Church's Episcopal Conference on Tuesday as part of a widespread investigation into sex abuse committed by members of the Marist Brothers order in the South American country, prosecutors said.

The raids by investigating prosecutors and Chile's equivalent of the FBI took place at one of the most important buildings of the Chilean church in the capital of Santiago. Investigating prosecutor Raul Guzman, who confirmed the raid, is probing more than 35 accusations of abuse committed against former students at schools run by the Marists, who are religious brothers, not priests.
...
The Marists operate in dozens of countries around the world. The scandal in Chile came to light in August 2017, when the order revealed that at least 14 minors were abused from the 1970s until 2008 by Abel Perez, a brother who worked at two of the order's schools. Then it acknowledged that another Marist sexually abused five students.

The Marists opened a canonical investigation and launched legal action against Perez. But many Chileans were outraged when the order admitted that Perez had confessed in 2010 — seven years earlier. Victims have also filed a criminal complaint against three Catholic priests, a Capuchin brother and six Marists. In that complaint and in interviews with The Associated Press, they have recounted numerous abusive encounters.

Pope Francis sent the Vatican's leading expert on clerical sex abuse, Archbishop Charles Scicluna, to investigate allegations against Bishop Juan Barros, who was accused by victims of witnessing their abuse and ignoring it, as well as allegations of abuse involving the Marist Brothers, Salesian and Franciscan orders.

After receiving the report, the pope denounced a "culture of abuse and cover-up" in Chile's Catholic Church and said he was ashamed that neither he nor Chilean church leaders truly ever listened to victims as the abuse scandal spread.

Last week, however, victims were disappointed when Francis said in letter to the Chilean church's Episcopal Conference that he was "impressed by the reflection, discernment and decisions" taken by bishops after they recently met to discuss the avalanche of scandals.

Chilean prosecutors also recently summoned the archbishop of Santiago, Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, to appear in court and testify about the alleged cover-up of years of abuse.

In May, 31 bishops offered their resignation to the pope. So far Francis has accepted the resignations of five.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/08/14/chile-authorities-raid-episcopal-conference-in-abuse-probe.html

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37 minutes ago, Loco said:

Throw them in jail

We need to end tax breaks for all these cults / pyramid schemes.  Treat them like the business they are.

Except the Catholic Church provides for a whole slew of social services (somewhere estimated at 17% of all non-profits in the US). They aren't the Joel Osteen's of the world which spend nothing on the poor or needy.


As for this, it's awful. It's clear that people put protecting the image of the church over the safety of kids, and they need to be in jail. The policies recently put into play have helped, but there needs to be a lot more transparency. 

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19 minutes ago, GabrielsHorn said:

Except the Catholic Church provides for a whole slew of social services (somewhere estimated at 17% of all non-profits in the US). They aren't the Joel Osteen's of the world which spend nothing on the poor or needy.

What % of the child molesters in Pennsylvania did the church provide?

 

At what cost?  Microsoft and other large for profit businesses provide public service, they don't get a universal tax break....

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You can look at secular institutions and find molesters as well. Penn State is a great example of this, as is Ohio State with the wrestling coach, and that's not even beginning to look at all of the teachers in those states as well. It's awful from the church perspective as they should be the leaders in morals, which they clearly failed and should pay the price. They should be in jail and they should have to pay, but the Catholic Church isn't the only place where molestation have occurred. 

Microsoft is a for-profit business. They do get a tax break for their charitable contributions, but they have a board, stock, etc. Churches clearly aren't the same, and while the sexual abuse scandal has been awful, they still provide a whole host of services (hospitals, education, etc) to the general public. 

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1 hour ago, Wiler77 said:

Recent failures...lol, that's a good one.

And they now have policies?  Sounds like they have the problem under control.

Cardinal DiNardo's comments did not mean that the broader sex scandal was a recent thing.  He was simply referring to the  most recent scandal and then he discussed the policy that is in place in the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese. 

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47 minutes ago, GabrielsHorn said:

You can look at secular institutions and find molesters as well. Penn State is a great example of this, as is Ohio State with the wrestling coach, and that's not even beginning to look at all of the teachers in those states as well. It's awful from the church perspective as they should be the leaders in morals, which they clearly failed and should pay the price. They should be in jail and they should have to pay, but the Catholic Church isn't the only place where molestation have occurred. 

Microsoft is a for-profit business. They do get a tax break for their charitable contributions, but they have a board, stock, etc. Churches clearly aren't the same, and while the sexual abuse scandal has been awful, they still provide a whole host of services (hospitals, education, etc) to the general public. 

nvrmnd.

Edited by Loco
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Not to excuse anything, catholic schools provide a huge relief to our public school system in addition to the relief efforts of Catholic Charities and other catholic organizations.   On education, at an approximate annual cost of $11,500 per public school student, catholic schools save taxpayers an estimated $21 billion per year.

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1 hour ago, HouTex said:

Change is happening.  Try to find this month's Galveston-Houston Archdiocese monthly newspaper for an article by Cardinal DiNardo.  He describes recent failures and the policies that now exist and what to do if there is a problem.

/jenniferlawrencegif

25 minutes ago, HouTex said:

Not to excuse anything, catholic schools provide a huge relief to our public school system in addition to the relief efforts of Catholic Charities and other catholic organizations.   On education, at an approximate annual cost of $11,500 per public school student, catholic schools save taxpayers an estimated $21 billion per year.

Sure.

That's interesting. Now tell me all the schools that covered up, protected, and harbored Child Molesters for decades. I don't give a fuck how much Tax Free money you receive from the community, tax a cut, and then pump back into the community. 

 

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51 minutes ago, HouTex said:

Cardinal DiNardo's comments did not mean that the broader sex scandal was a recent thing.  He was simply referring to the  most recent scandal and then he discussed the policy that is in place in the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese. 

Is one of those policies for the priests to not molest and rape children?  That would be the first one on my list.

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5 hours ago, GabrielsHorn said:

You can look at secular institutions and find molesters as well. Penn State is a great example of this, as is Ohio State with the wrestling coach, and that's not even beginning to look at all of the teachers in those states as well. It's awful from the church perspective as they should be the leaders in morals, which they clearly failed and should pay the price. They should be in jail and they should have to pay, but the Catholic Church isn't the only place where molestation have occurred. 

Microsoft is a for-profit business. They do get a tax break for their charitable contributions, but they have a board, stock, etc. Churches clearly aren't the same, and while the sexual abuse scandal has been awful, they still provide a whole host of services (hospitals, education, etc) to the general public. 

I like people who can see the good side of bad people, how about you tell us about the good contributions that Hitler made? Pol Pot? maybe Bashar al-Assad?

BTW the neg rep is from me ..... because you deserve it.

The people who do the good things should be praised, but those who do the awful things should be prosecuted and those high up who hide and abet the pedophiles should be thrown out into the street (if not prosecuted themselves). Don't you see that they were hiding behind religion and the good things that other people were doing? The Catholic Church looks more like a crime syndicate than a charitable organization.

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Didn't take long for the "Sure this is a horrible tragedy, but look how much good the Church has done for so many more people" excuse mantra to rear its ugly head.  

Your hospital group or biolab can literally cure cancer.  But if we find out, in addition to the cancer cure, you were also covering up the anal rape and forced oral sex of young children under your care...you can't use the "But look at the good we did!" bullshit.  Some of y'all remind me of David Cross in that Mr. Show skit where they're kicking him out of the band for being a shitty drummer but he thinks it's because of his disability.  

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2 hours ago, Wally Fairway said:

I like people who can see the good side of bad people, how about you tell us about the good contributions that Hitler made? Pol Pot? maybe Bashar al-Assad?

BTW the neg rep is from me ..... because you deserve it.

The people who do the good things should be praised, but those who do the awful things should be prosecuted and those high up who hide and abet the pedophiles should be thrown out into the street (if not prosecuted themselves). Don't you see that they were hiding behind religion and the good things that other people were doing? The Catholic Church looks more like a crime syndicate than a charitable organization.

Do you know how to read?

Quote

As for this, it's awful. It's clear that people put protecting the image of the church over the safety of kids, and they need to be in jail. The policies recently put into play have helped, but there needs to be a lot more transparency. 

...

It's awful from the church perspective as they should be the leaders in morals, which they clearly failed and should pay the price. They should be in jail and they should have to pay.

 

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The Catholics manufactered porn on Diocesan property, including parishes and rectories...used whips, violence and sadism as they merrily raped the children.  Then they gave the raped children special gold cross necklaces to signal fellow Catholic rapists that these children were raped so they could rape them more.  One Catholic rapist confessed to anal and oral rape of at least 15 boys, as young as 7 years old.  

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Wait, the cross story is true?   I didn’t see it reported anywhere.  Thought it was just rumor attaches to the story afterwards.  Fucking a, that’s beyond the pale even for the Catholic Church.  The priest gets moved with diocese protection and the kid has to stay out with an advertisement for the next guy.  

Wow.  I’m nearly in tears.  Anybody else?  

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I'm not really sure why anyone is surprised by this. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of children have been abused by Catholic clergy all over the world for decades, and that's just the ones we know about, going back generations. You don't think it's been going on for centuries?

If we had a board devoted to stories of child abuse at the hands of Catholic clergymen it would dwarf the old Bernard board. 

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Except the Catholic Church provides for a whole slew of social services (somewhere estimated at 17% of all non-profits in the US). They aren't the Joel Osteen's of the world which spend nothing on the poor or needy.

As for this, it's awful. It's clear that people put protecting the image of the church over the safety of kids, and they need to be in jail. The policies recently put into play have helped, but there needs to be a lot more transparency. 


Who cares. Those good people will donate to other worthy causes.

Shut it down.
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