FreeSpirit1983 wrote:Abusive Priests were moved around, that is very true. One reason is that sexual abuse wasn't as understood back in the 1970's the way it is today. There was the idea that sexual abusers could be reformed with a little therapy, which we now know is not true.
It didn't stop in the 70s, the moving them around. How can an organization that considers itself having the, not a, but the direct line to God not understand something so fundamental about human nature and something that priests but also other adults have done since the church was formed.
That all stopped in 2002 in the Catholic Church with the Dallas Charter. Since those reforms, the amount of abuse cases has been tiny.
That's 2002. Even if you are correct, what does that have to do with the main point of my post. Bishops, the ones, running the administration of the charter are for no logical reason exempt from it. And this response from the Church only happened after incredible pressure from victims, journalists and others who faced ridicule, denial, evidence suppression, secrecy and pressure from powerful Catholics and others not to challenge the church. I am sure many in the church did not realize the extent of the problem. I am sure there are good people in there. But the church only buckled after incredible efforts by victims and journalists made it obvious to everyone the system was corrupt as a whole on this issue.
Sadly, sexual abuse is widespread in America. At least 25% of women are abused during their lifetimes. Most of the abuse takes place in families.
Sure, but families are not presenting themselves as the only route to God and having special powers in relation to divinity, absolution and so on. The Catholic church has heartily condemned the sins of others while at the same time hiding, protecting, suppressing evidence around the abuse of the members of its organization who kept the rite to act as representatives of the church and of God.
https://www.newsweek.com/priests-commit ... ales-70625[/quote]
this means that the process of selecting for priests, the training, the mentorship in all the facets of leading rituals, prayer, contemplation, the authority granted these people, the special connection to God their training is supposed to lead to, the Bible study
did not reduce their behavior from the average.
How could the people who are focusing more energy than anyone else on scripture, God, practices, rituals
not have improved? And why should we believe, then, that these practices, scriptures, rituals, really go to the heart of spiritual matters? SAying that they commit the same amount of these crimes should make every Catholic have a crisis of faith.
And then, given what they are supposed to be, the betrayal is even greater. And it was much harder to prosecute them and confront them because they had a very powerful system to protect them and/or hide their crimes.
And since women are much less likely to abuse children, one has to wonder how long a church with deep insight into God, supposedly, would continue a sexist exclusion.