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MILWAUKEE (WSAU) An attorney says at least 8,000 kids were sexually abused by over 100 priests and other offenders in the Milwaukee Catholic Diocese. Jeffrey Anderson made the assertion yesterday at a court hearing on the first compensation claims filed by abuse victims as part of church's bankruptcy proceedings. Anderson told Judge Susan Kelley that sealed bankruptcy documents outlined the extent of the abuse. He said the offenders include 75 priests who have not been previously named by the archdiocese. Anderson represents over half of the 570 victims who filed for compensation.
Threads like these tend to go a certain route. You have folks on one side who defend the Catholic Church and Catholicism, and folks on the other side attacking the Catholic Church, Catholicism, and often religion in general. How about switching things up for ONCE? How about we discuss why the problem might be occurring and what the Catholic Church... and people in GENERAL could do about it without demonizing anyone, or making a side be the victim? Might be a novel approach to this discussion.
That would be a good approach, but with the Catholic Church demanding that we all live our lives in a certain fashion, I am more open to exposing the hypocrisy that exists in the church.
And this is only the diocese for one single city, Milwaukee. Extrapolate this to the world, and it is easy to see that millions of children, over the years, have been sexually abused by priests and other workers in the Catholic church.... Which brings me to this point.....
How dare the Catholic church get on it's moral high horse and tell people how to run their lives, and make demands on women regarding contraception, abortion, or what have you!! Yes, the very same people who make these demands are the very same people who looked the other way when their priests were raping children, and some of them were not even looking the other way, but were participating in the raping of children themselves. And this goes for the Pope himself. He also looked the other way when priests were raping children, and even attempted to cover it up. And these people have the unmitigated audacity to tell others that they are going to hell? And the Catholic Church has the unmitigated audacity to inject itself into politics in an attempt to force others to live their lives how they want them to? My answer to the Catholic Church is the following: Physician, heal thyself. You people are no more qualified to dictate morality to us than a prostitute is qualified to teach sex education to children. Jesus said that we should know of anything by the fruit it bears. Well, I have seen enough fruit of the Catholic Church to know that this fruit is only fit to be thrown away as garbage.
/rant
Discussion?
Article is here.
I notice you haven't done a similar "attack" thread on the LA School system after dozens of children were sexually abused by multiple teachers. I wonder why that is...
Separate issue. The Catholic Church's beliefs have little to do with their ability or INability to manage their employees. I don't see it as hypocrisy at all. I see it as a very poor management style.
I used to have knee-jerk reactions against the Church over all of the pedophile scandals, but now the #1 thing that comes to mind is, "Why do so many pedophiles seem to gravitate to the Church?" I'm not bashing Catholicism or making some kind of broader implication about Catholics here. But I mean, the wide spread abuses, are SO wide spread and numerous. What is the flaw in the Catholic system that has permitted such abominations to happen all over the world?
Is there something about priesthood that attracts pedophilia? Is it the disguise of celebacy when really you're not? Is it the position of authority that gives you such broad discretionary powers over parishoners? Could it be that pedophiles feel safer in plain sight?
I'm just asking these questions as discussion starters, because I'd really like to know. Also, this issue makes me wonder about OTHER faiths and their people of religious authority. What kind of abuses could be happening there?
My own spiritual values do not permit me to give away my power to any middle man. My convenant is with God directly. So I'm wondering what permits people to turn such a blind eye to child abuse within these religious institutions?
Separate issue. The Catholic Church's beliefs have little to do with their ability or INability to manage their employees. I don't see it as hypocrisy at all. I see it as a very poor management style.
You would be wrong about the LA school district not covering it up etc: Teacher at heart of LA school district molest scandal was paid $40,000 to resign - The Washington Post
Teacher at the heart of this was paid to resign. There are ongoing investigations on what happened when, why authorities werent notified etc etc.
Back to the OP, the church needs to have a better plan of action going forward in any abuse cases. But to then claim that voids any morality stance they may have is short sighted and near hypocrisy. Lets put it this way, Dan if you've ever done anything wrong, you have no right to voice your concern over local issues because you dont obey local laws. See how stupid that sounds when you change the context?
And this is only the diocese for one single city, Milwaukee. Extrapolate this to the world, and it is easy to see that millions of children, over the years, have been sexually abused by priests and other workers in the Catholic church.... Which brings me to this point.....
The following is an excerpt from the “SNAP Exposed” report; the complete report on the July 8-10 conference in D.C. is available online at catholicleague.org.
There were approximately 110-130 people in attendance. All were white and approximately 60% were female (one male wore a Voice of the Faithful T-shirt). The ages ranged from about 40-75; the majority were 55-65.
The recurring theme of the conference was the evil nature of the Catholic Church. The word “evil” was used repeatedly to describe “the institution.” There was no presumption of innocence: accused priests were spoken of as if they were guilty, and this was true of all the participants, including the attorneys.
William Spade, who was an Assistant District Attorney in the Philadelphia D.A.’s Office from 1995-2004, gave an overview of his work in that office. His relationship with Catholicism is eclectic. “I don’t like the institution,” he allows, “but I like the faith.”
When Spade was in the D.A.’s office, the man he wanted to get more than anyone else was Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, the former Archbishop of Philadelphia (they always go after the top cleric). To Spade’s chagrin, he noted that Bevilacqua was able to escape again and again. He did not say why he always failed. After striking pay dirt, Spade went into private practice. What he drew from his experience, he told the audience, was that the best way to prosecute the Catholic Church was at the federal level.
When it comes to attorneys who have made a career out of suing the Catholic Church, Jeffrey Anderson has no equal. The Minnesota lawyer was raised as a Lutheran. But that didn’t work out so he became a Catholic. Then he became an atheist. Not just an ordinary one—he became a self-described “dedicated atheist.” Then he had another conversion: last year he described himself as “deeply religious.” His religious convictions, however, proved not to be too deep, which is why he is now touted as an “agnostic.”
Anderson led a legal panel at the conference that included Church-suing lawyers Jeffrey Herman and Mitchell Garabedian. Virtually the entire session was devoted to discussing the legal impediments to suing the Church. The biggest problem, they said, was the way the statute of limitations differed from state to state. Never once was it even hinted at that these statutes were written to protect the constitutional rights of the accused. Without due process, civil liberties are a sham. No matter, Anderson said he wants to see this happen globally, making it easier to sue the Catholic Church around the world.
When Anderson said that the lawsuits are not about the money, he was speaking honestly. To be sure, money is a major motivator for his clients. But greed is not what fires him. No, what inspires him, and those of his ilk, is something deeper, something money can’t buy. Hatred. That’s the only way to understand why Anderson continues to file suit after suit against the Vatican—nothing would make him happier than to bring down the pope. Even though Anderson continues to lose, the outside chance that he might get the pope is enough to get his juices going.
THE TRUTH ABOUT SNAP: The Real Agenda of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests - The Catholic League | The Catholic League
How dare the Catholic church get on it's moral high horse and tell people how to run their lives, and make demands on women regarding contraception, abortion, or what have you!!
Yes, the very same people who make these demands are the very same people who looked the other way when their priests were raping children, and some of them were not even looking the other way, but were participating in the raping of children themselves. And this goes for the Pope himself. He also looked the other way when priests were raping children, and even attempted to cover it up. And these people have the unmitigated audacity to tell others that they are going to hell?
And the Catholic Church has the unmitigated audacity to inject itself into politics in an attempt to force others to live their lives how they want them to? My answer to the Catholic Church is the following: Physician, heal thyself.
You people are no more qualified to dictate morality to us than a prostitute is qualified to teach sex education to children.
Jesus said that we should know of anything by the fruit it bears. Well, I have seen enough fruit of the Catholic Church to know that this fruit is only fit to be thrown away as garbage.
I notice you haven't done a similar "attack" thread on the LA School system after dozens of children were sexually abused by multiple teachers. I wonder why that is...
The LA School system isn't involved in national politics, and attempting at a national level to force the rest of us to live by standards itself does not live up to. Of course, you would have known that if you had actually read the first post.
You would be wrong about the LA school district not covering it up etc: Teacher at heart of LA school district molest scandal was paid $40,000 to resign - The Washington Post
Teacher at the heart of this was paid to resign. There are ongoing investigations on what happened when, why authorities werent notified etc etc.
Back to the OP, the church needs to have a better plan of action going forward in any abuse cases. But to then claim that voids any morality stance they may have is short sighted and near hypocrisy. Lets put it this way, Dan if you've ever done anything wrong, you have no right to voice your concern over local issues because you dont obey local laws. See how stupid that sounds when you change the context?
Berndt was removed from the classroom in January 2011 and dismissed as the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department was investigating him. He appealed but resigned in June after the settlement was reached.
...
“We didn’t have any evidence and we couldn’t put on any witnesses. We didn’t have anything to successfully defend a challenge.”
Meanwhile, some parents at a different school said they were angry that they were never told a teacher was charged months ago with molesting four children.
I have all the sympathy in the world for any child that was abused but I wonder how many people are making false claims of abuse to reap the rewards that will be awarded by the Catholic Church and how big the rewards are for the ambulance chasers who took the case.
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