I wonder if it is getting worse, or are we just seeing more of whatтАЩs been there for a long time? I think some things might need to get even worse than they already are (as horrific as that sounds) before hitting rock bottom and getting better. There needs to be a reckoning, and I do think itтАЩs starting to happen in some parts of the world, thanks in part to reporting by The Pillar.
I think there's a bit of a generational effect. US seminaries (and probably others worldwide) were absolutely awful for many decades. Some of them seemed to be places I wouldn't send my enemies. The men vetted and formed by that are the current crop of bishops, since the last generation has died. Society's general distaste for priests has done a lot to clear out some of the guys who don't really believe. There's also been a big effort at getting the seminaries better, but they're still not phenomenal, and the current crop of bishops can probably still pick rotten ones for promotion. Based on that, I think we're getting into the turning of the tide, but it'll be a while yet before it's out, and the scandals have, by virtue of the generational shift, taken over many more of the higher positions. That serves to make them both more powerful, and more public when/if they are caught.
I do not think this means we can just chill and wait it out. I think the efforts to bring things into the light, and to see abusers and the complicit removed, is essential, and that it's still going to take a lot of time before things look like any of those efforts have been successful.
This began as a societal problem, but the statistics you are citing are only based on convictions. We are only at the tip of the iceberg as far as actual convictions of clerical abusers. (As evidenced by the wave of recent diocesan bankruptcy declarations.) It is well-known that many, if not most, American seminaries have been preferring sexually deviant men for decades. (Several earned the nick-name тАЬPink PalaceтАЭ because this preference for homosexual candidates was so obvious.) This cancer will take decades to heal, and cannot happen without a rebirth of holiness among families supplying the men for the priesthood, and an overhaul of the American seminary system. Although the first step, is to keep our peerless Pillar reporters shining the light of truth on stories like the Principi case.
I agree the statistics are the tip of the iceberg. But they are also the tip of the iceberg for all the other demographics. Schools (aided by the secular news) have been covering up this stuff for at least as long as the Church has, and one of the few doctors who made the news for this, made it in part because the FBI was involved in the coverup. I am making an assumption that all the statistics are underestimating the problem by about the same amount.
The most common perpetrator of child sexual abuse is the mother's cohabitating boyfriend.
Doctors have about twice the rate of predators as Catholic priests. School teachers aren't as bad as doctors, but still worse than priests.
This is a societal problem.
But what Sue said is right. If you want to avoid the implication that you're ok with it, then speak and act like you are not ok with it.
As I mentioned above I can do that and have but the rot is so high up and isn't getting better. it's getting worse.
I wonder if it is getting worse, or are we just seeing more of whatтАЩs been there for a long time? I think some things might need to get even worse than they already are (as horrific as that sounds) before hitting rock bottom and getting better. There needs to be a reckoning, and I do think itтАЩs starting to happen in some parts of the world, thanks in part to reporting by The Pillar.
I think there's a bit of a generational effect. US seminaries (and probably others worldwide) were absolutely awful for many decades. Some of them seemed to be places I wouldn't send my enemies. The men vetted and formed by that are the current crop of bishops, since the last generation has died. Society's general distaste for priests has done a lot to clear out some of the guys who don't really believe. There's also been a big effort at getting the seminaries better, but they're still not phenomenal, and the current crop of bishops can probably still pick rotten ones for promotion. Based on that, I think we're getting into the turning of the tide, but it'll be a while yet before it's out, and the scandals have, by virtue of the generational shift, taken over many more of the higher positions. That serves to make them both more powerful, and more public when/if they are caught.
I do not think this means we can just chill and wait it out. I think the efforts to bring things into the light, and to see abusers and the complicit removed, is essential, and that it's still going to take a lot of time before things look like any of those efforts have been successful.
This began as a societal problem, but the statistics you are citing are only based on convictions. We are only at the tip of the iceberg as far as actual convictions of clerical abusers. (As evidenced by the wave of recent diocesan bankruptcy declarations.) It is well-known that many, if not most, American seminaries have been preferring sexually deviant men for decades. (Several earned the nick-name тАЬPink PalaceтАЭ because this preference for homosexual candidates was so obvious.) This cancer will take decades to heal, and cannot happen without a rebirth of holiness among families supplying the men for the priesthood, and an overhaul of the American seminary system. Although the first step, is to keep our peerless Pillar reporters shining the light of truth on stories like the Principi case.
I agree the statistics are the tip of the iceberg. But they are also the tip of the iceberg for all the other demographics. Schools (aided by the secular news) have been covering up this stuff for at least as long as the Church has, and one of the few doctors who made the news for this, made it in part because the FBI was involved in the coverup. I am making an assumption that all the statistics are underestimating the problem by about the same amount.