The Associated Press is currently running a multi-day series on their 7-month investigation of the sexual abuse of minors by their teachers in public schools. You can see the first day of the article by clicking here.
Hopefully this will open the eyes of those who still persist in thinking that the sexual abuse of minors is "something only celibate males do in an oppressive church". Ladies and gentlemen, this is a cultural, societal problem! What are we doing about it?
3 comments:
I would expect the public schools to be in much worse shape than the Church. After all, without the mandate to care for Christ's sheep, school administrators have only the fear of legal liability to motivate them. Hmmmm.
As for what to do - we are a society awash in sex. Every deviance is catered to at least on the internet, and many in clubs. This defining down of deviance has the inevitable effect of emboldening people wrestling with various issues such as child lust to feel that perhaps they are "normal" after all.
Pray. Speak loudly and clearly about the root of the problem. Pray.
(And if someone shows up at your door and suggests its time to leave, don't look over your shoulder on the way out of town.)
"this is a cultural, societal problem! What are we doing about it?"
Nothing, we complain about it and twiddle our thumbs. What can we do about it? Kill the porn industry for one, teach our children morals so they don't grow up to be pedophiles and sexual deviants, counsel and love those who have been abused.
Father, I agree with you 100%...well, actually, 99%. You see, it is absolutely true that sexual abuse of minors is a societal problem, not just one of the Church. It is also absolutely true that, just as with teachers, for every priest who is a pedophile there are ten thousand (like yourself) who perform their duties quietly and devotedly, taking in stride all of the nonsense about "pervert priests" that the mainstream media throws at us.
I think most Catholics know this. However, what has really driven us laypeople crazy is not so much the actions of the delinquent priests as those of their bishops. We absolutely have the right to expect much, much, MUCH more from the successors to the Apostles; we have the right to expect them to take the moral high ground and admit how wrong they were in covering up such horrid acts, rather than offer the lame justification that "it's how everyone handled things like this back then."
So yes, sexual abuse is a societal issue that needs to be dealt with on a societal level. But I think you're wrong in impugning so many faithful Catholics who are extremely disappointed in the actions of men to whom we had accorded much deference nad much mroal authority.
Just my two cents. Carry on!
PS: I'm curious - have you had the opportunity to say the TLM yet?
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