Child abuse: 7% of Australian Catholic priests alleged to be involved
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-38877158
An inquiry examining institutional sex abuse in Australia has heard 7% of the nation's Catholic priests allegedly abused children between 1950 and 2010.
In one religious order, over 40% of church figures were accused of abuse.
The commission, Australia's highest form of inquiry, is also investigating abuse at non-religious organisations.
The full scale of the problem emerged on Monday, when the commission released the statistics it has gathered.
Gail Furness, the lead lawyer assisting the commission in Sydney, said more than 1,000 Catholic institutions across Australia were identified in claims of sexual abuse, with a total of 1,880 alleged perpetrators between 1980 and 2015.
The victims' stories were "depressingly similar", Ms Furness said.
"Children were ignored or worse, punished. Allegations were not investigated. Priests and religious [figures] were moved. The parishes or communities to which they were moved knew nothing of their past."
Anthony and Chrissie Foster, the parents of two girls who were abused by their parish priest, said the Catholic Church had shown "no mercy, no remorse. Nothing."
This is a tragedy and the offenders need to be held accountable, along with anyone complicit in the hiding of the offences, or complicit with allowing the offences to occur.
__________________
"OOOOOOHHHHHHH those Russians" - Boney M
This is a tragedy and the offenders need to be held accountable, along with anyone complicit in the hiding of the offences, or complicit with allowing the offences to occur.
Unfortunately, this has been said for a decade, and everyone's soberly nodded in agreement, and very little has actually been done as far as I can tell. What needs to happen for something to happen here?
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to CorsiHockeyLeague For This Useful Post:
Unfortunately, this has been said for a decade, and everyone's soberly nodded in agreement, and very little has actually been done as far as I can tell. What needs to happen for something to happen here?
I wonder how it works. Vatican city is a sovereign country. If a pedo is hiding there, is there a process to get them out? I wouldn't think a country of 800 people would have complex extradition treaties with all other nations...
The Celibacy is one of the worst decisions that Church made, and that is saying a lot.
While I agree the celibacy thing is stupid (as is the sexism and homophobia not allowing female or gay priests) is there really a relationship between being celebate and being a pedo? There are plenty of men who are celebate either by choice or not by choice who don't abuse young boys.
Or are you trying to say that forcing priests to be celebate has caused many good people to not consider that career and the church has become desperate and lowered their standards and checks and balances of potentials priests? There could be some truth to that.
__________________
The masses of humanity have always had to surf.
Its debated pretty fiercely, I'm not sure tbh but I think there is something to what he says here:
Quote:
"Many young men at a very early age were recruited into it before they understood themselves or their own sexual identity," Kennedy says. "Their psycho-sexual maturation has been put on hold, so to speak, when they go in. So as a result they tend to act out with young people who were more or less the age they were when their maturation process stopped."
AltaGuy has a magnetic personality and exudes positive energy, which is infectious to those around him. He has an unparalleled ability to communicate with people, whether he is speaking to a room of three or an arena of 30,000.
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: At le pub...
Exp:
Quote:
Originally Posted by FireGilbert
While I agree the celibacy thing is stupid (as is the sexism and homophobia not allowing female or gay priests) is there really a relationship between being celebate and being a pedo? There are plenty of men who are celebate either by choice or not by choice who don't abuse young boys.
Or are you trying to say that forcing priests to be celebate has caused many good people to not consider that career and the church has become desperate and lowered their standards and checks and balances of potentials priests? There could be some truth to that.
I think the traditional rationale is that men who feel guilty for whatever reason about their sexuality are attracted to the Catholic church. Some may feel that celibacy and piousness will help them control whatever sexuality they don't like; others will join because the secrecy of the Catholic church will give them free reign to pursue that sexuality in private with no public knowledge.
Either way, you can see how the priesthood is appealing for pretty much anyone who fears their sexuality. Super healthy.
The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to AltaGuy For This Useful Post:
While I agree the celibacy thing is stupid (as is the sexism and homophobia not allowing female or gay priests) is there really a relationship between being celebate and being a pedo? There are plenty of men who are celebate either by choice or not by choice who don't abuse young boys.
Or are you trying to say that forcing priests to be celebate has caused many good people to not consider that career and the church has become desperate and lowered their standards and checks and balances of potentials priests? There could be some truth to that.
A good chunk of Catholic priests are gay, there is no doubt in my mind. It doesn't really matter if gay or straight since the job requires you to be celibate.
The priests who have committed these crimes should be in jail, and the bishop/cardinal responsible for that diocese or province should be removed from office by the Pope.
I have a feeling this goes even further than the church. It would not shock me if many people we consider to be 'elites' participated in this kind of sick act and this is just the beginning of the whole thing unravelling. Look at Jarred from subway and Jimmy Saville from the BBC.
I have a feeling this goes even further than the church. It would not shock me if many people we consider to be 'elites' participated in this kind of sick act and this is just the beginning of the whole thing unravelling. Look at Jarred from subway and Jimmy Saville from the BBC.
Child abuse: 7% of Australian Catholic priests alleged to be involved
