I’m grateful to Freethinker for this posting which seemed too important to pass by:
THE Roman Catholic church in the United States paid out £306 million in 2007 to victims of sex abuse involving members of the clergy – an increase 54 percent over the previous year, and the largest sum ever paid in a single year
According to a report in Australia’s News.com:
Of the monies paid out by the church, £262 million went to settling cases – almost double the amount paid out in 2006, according to the report commissioned by the church. About £10.6 million was paid out for therapy for victims or support for accused offenders, and £29.5 million for legal fees.
The annual report on the implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People showed that 689 new allegations of abuse were lodged last year – three per cent fewer than in 2006 – but most involved cases dating back decades.
This YouTube video says it all:
[YouTube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGZSvdSsoAE"]
Of course, I accept that the YouTube video doesn’t say it “all”, but only portrays a small part of the ‘work’ of some Catholic priests, and that people of all religious faiths and none are abusing children. However, the satire about that particular part of the “all” is very devastating.
(See also: Structural and Moral Failure)
It leaves me almost speechless this video. The satire of this leaves such a bad taste, worse than any priest repellent spray. I cannot understand why Catholics insist on the non-relationship of priests fuelling this type of abuse.
I thought Paul said in the New Testament “better to marry than to burn.”
onethoughtfulwoman
I agree that the Roman Catholic church seems to have such a warped view of marriage and sexuality which is partly behind the child abuse situation. I think their male dominated hierarchy which has such archaic beliefs about inappropriate pastoral confidentiality, and about priests being above the law are also fuelling the problem. There is a whole culture of secrecy which seems to be being perpetuated in many places.
God, that video is morbid and disgusting. I’m not sure this topic can be handled appropriately with humor. It doesn’t work for me.
A lot of attention has been paid to the sex-abuse scandals within the Roman Catholic Church. This is understandable because of the scale of the abuse and the fact that there is evidence to suggest that church officials at all levels colluded in hushing it up, rather than in preventing it and rescuing the victims. But there is also the fact that we are talking about a church, possibly the most powerful Christian church in the world, and that most people assume that such an organization places a duty of care high on its list of priorities. This is probably why many people refused the believe the allegations when they were first made.
This naive belief is, I would suggest, part of the problem. Why would we for a moment think that ordinary men and women, simply because they are members of some organization, would automatically and infallibly be above reproach? Why would the Catholic Church itself think this and why would it not put in place checks and balances to avoid abuse, not only sexual abuse, but abuse of any kind?
The world is such that we have to give some people extra powers over the rest of us. Politicians and the police immediately spring to mind. But we surely know that power inevitably includes the possibility of abuse of power: there are enough reports of “bent coppers” and “sleazy politicians” to remind us of this, should we forget it.
If a priest sexually abuses a child, that is an act of unmitigated evil and I would never want to be thought of as excusing it or diminishing its gravity. The guilty should be rooted out and punished and the victims helped to overcome the wounds inflicted on them. But I think we should also look to ourselves and our attitudes and stop naively assuming that someone with a name badge or a uniform is completely trustworthy. A degree of caution is always advisable. Organizations need to put safeguards in place to make abuse difficult or to detect it immediately it occurs.
A problem, of course, is swinging too far the other way. I think we have done so. It is very difficult these days to be a teacher or anyone working with children. Teachers cannot give a consoling hug to infants who have fallen down in the playground. Any touch, any injudicious brandishing of a camera in a public place, any one of a hundred unthinking but harmless gestures can easily attract suspicion and, ultimately, accusation. A panic reaction has set in and panic of course brings problems of its own.
What is the answer? There probably isn’t one. We probably have to soldier on, balancing our suspicions and our trust as best we can. It’s tempting to think we should err on the side of caution but that can mean erring on the side of unjust suspicion too.
Sexual abuse is a particularly painful example of a general syndrome, the abuse of power, and this includes other forms such as bullying. So many people - adults - are bullied at work and are too afraid to report it.
Sexual abuse of children used to be the “invisible crime”. Our society denied that it existed. Thankfully, that shameful silence has come to an end and we now have the chance to take positive steps to end not only sexual abuse but all forms of abuse. Let’s make sure we do.
[...] A Huge Payout [...]