"The report is a watershed moment in the Catholic child sex abuse crisis.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court made public one of the broadest-ever investigations into Catholic clerical sex abuse of minors in the United States on Tuesday. The document, a 1,400-page grand jury report, is the result of an 18-month probe by Pennsylvania state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, and names at least 300 priests accused of child sex abuse by more than 1,000 victims throughout the state.

Some of the priests’ names in the report have been redacted. The report’s release was delayed after several clergy members named in the report filed legal challenges against its publication. Shapiro told reporters at a news conference that the report details “systematic coverup by senior church officials in Pennsylvania and at the Vatican.”

https://www.vox.com/2018/8/15/17689994/catholic-sex-abuse-priest-crisis-pennsylvania-report

Statutes of limitation for crimes that ruin lives are a travesty.

Couldn't agree more.

I suspect that they are seriously short on the victim numbers. I am guessing that the average offender assaulted more than 3-4 children on average.

Right, and over a very long period of time.

Trust placed in a religious institution is woefully inadequate.

Some of the priests used crosses to mark and identify their victims. The coverup goes all the way to the Vatican.

The Vatican has been silent on the PA Grand Jury's report on the abuse.

The coverup has been systemic.

A new statement was released this afternoon by the vatican, citing "shame and sorrow" condemning unequivocally the abuse of minors. Vowing to do more to protect children.

Let's hope it does.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/2018 03:47PM by Amyjo.

I wonder whether, when the Vatican does address this, they will blame it on the people, rather than the institution?

In this case, it is clear the awful individuals WERE the institution.

Sympathies to the victims fall far short of being sufficient.

May the perpetrators all rot in ....

You got it!

Hearing this kind of shit makes me sick.

It really does make we want to comdemn all religion wholesale when it seems like the chances of being abused are this high.

Because for every person who does make an official legal or civil complaint, there are many more who don’t, which leads me to suspect that the number of children abuse was probably a lot more than 1000, as others pointed out, which is sickening.

It makes me wonder how many parents know this when they decide to take the kids to church or leave them alone with adults who are clergy, and if they do, what kind of parents they are.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/2018 10:47PM by midwestanon.

Religion is a perfect environment for grooming children. It's also perfect for grooming people to automatically blame imperfect clergy instead of the institution and the people who enable, and defend it. This is a deeply systemic issue and the cover-up has been going on all the way to the top for a very long time- probably centuries.

Gee, I wonder if the Vatican is preparing rooms so they can move the Pennsylvania pervs there to be protected with the others. (OK, that's a joke - I hope anyway).

An article from CNN yesterday highlighted the years of abuse through the eyes of several of its victims.

Such as an 82 year old man who was never able to bond with his own children; was afraid of intimacy, etc.

Another from a young woman who is scarred for life. They're heartbreaking stories of survival amid the rubble.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/15/us/pennsylvania-catholic-church-victims/index.html

I was talking to a (non-practicing) Muslim friend last week.

He is mostly an atheist, but comes from an Algerian (Muslim) background. And he gets really annoyed when people associate Islam as a whole with terrorism.

In his eyes, implying that Muslims in general are potential terrorists (and that Islam encourages terrorism) would be like saying that Christians in general are potential pedophiles, and that Christianity encourages/promotes pedophilia...

(As you look at the incredible number of cases in the Catholic Church.)

Regularly reader, infrequent poster, not a Mormon.

People like me are also to blame. I've known of an issue regarding a priest fondling a child at a Catholic church in Utah in the 1970s. Victim has passed away so the information I know is secondhand.

I just picked up the phone to report what I know now--decades late--in case it is of any use.

One of my children was sexually assaulted by our Mormon babysitter's older children, while their mom hid out in her bedroom chain smoking cigarettes and addicted to narcotics.

She came highly recommended from the women at church because she was a full-time SAHM. I was livid when I'd learned what had occurred while my children were under her care. My child didn't tell me out of fear before we'd moved hundreds of miles away because he'd been threatened by them. Only until after we'd moved far away did he feel safe enough to inform me what had transpired.

By then the family had moved to New Jersey to escape Child Protection Services for NYS. The mother's parents had reported their own daughter to authorities for neglect and abuse of her children. The kids were taken out of the home for a year before the parents were able to regain custody of them.

My kids had stopped going there years before because of her carelessness I observed while watching my kids. But nothing could compare to the charges of abuse. By the time I found out the statute of limitations had run or I'd have pressed charges. I was so upset that I wanted to do them bodily harm.

Yet the Mormon cult enabled that family. They covered for them. Protected them. The father was the ward clerk, who also stole tithing payments from parishioners. (It was shortly after that TSCC began its decree of only giving tithing payments to bishops, not ward clerks. It was people like him on the take that led to that.) But yet the cult protected him and his wife. Making excuses for their neglect and abuse of minors, unlike the grandparents who turned in their own daughter out of love for their grandchildren. They, in turn, were Catholic.

Go figure.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/17/2018 12:13PM by Amyjo.