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…
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 “Pink Palace” 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.
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 “Pink Palace” 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.