LA 'abuse priests' were moved on

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Catholic Church records in Los Angeles show that for decades priests accused of child sex abuse were moved to new assignments or given counselling.



The Los Angeles area has 126 clergymen accused of sexual misconduct in cases which have yet to come to trial.

The Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles is the largest in the US, serving more than three million Catholics.

More than 500 alleged victims have now filed a civil suit against the archdiocese.

The personnel records of the clergymen accused have just been released as part of settlement talks with lawyers in the case.

They show that for more than 70 years, the Church provided therapy to clergymen accused of abusing children, believing that they could be rehabilitated.

The Church then assigned the priests to new parishes, which often resulted in them re-offending.

One priest, who eventually confessed to having molested as many as 10 victims over 20 years, was only removed from the priesthood after several unsuccessful attempts at therapy.
If a civil settlement is reached with the plaintiffs in this case, it is likely to dwarf a settlement reached two years ago in the US city of Boston, when the Church paid $85m to settle claims also involving about 500 members of the clergy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4336636.stm
 
[quote name='elprincipe']The saddest thing perhaps is that this doesn't shock anyone at this point.[/QUOTE]

Ya, it's just that it looks like another one on the level of what happened in boston. Also the fact that they did try to rehabilitate people, it didn't work, so they tried again and then still put them back out there. I know an effort was made, but it seems worse than simply shuffling them around like Law did.
 
I'd like to see statistics about public school teachers sexually abusing their charges. I'm sure the high profile cases that have hit the media in the past year are the tip of the iceberg and hundreds if not thousands of teachers are guilty of the same offense and had it burried, settled and were moved along. You think the media is going to shed it's giant spotlight on public school teachers or investigate how widespread abuse may be?

Yeah, right. If you think these occurances are just Catholic priests and not reflective of people that work with children in general I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. Unfortunately the media only cares about tarnishing the Catholic Church. This issue is 10% about caring for children and the crime inflicted on them and 90% about damaging the status of organized religion in general.

If this were sincerely "about the children" you would see much more in depth reporting on the 6-10 cases of female teachers sleeping with their students and further investigation to see how deep the problem may well be. Of course though anything the government does, left leaning PC government anyways, that may harm children is a non-issue.

I'm not minimizing or trivializing the charges but this kind of systematic abuse, cover up and transfers may lie with other institutions with public trust as well.
 
[quote name='PittsburghAfterDark']I'd like to see statistics about public school teachers sexually abusing their charges. I'm sure the high profile cases that have hit the media in the past year are the tip of the iceberg and hundreds if not thousands of teachers are guilty of the same offense and had it burried, settled and were moved along. You think the media is going to shed it's giant spotlight on public school teachers or investigate how widespread abuse may be?

Yeah, right. If you think these occurances are just Catholic priests and not reflective of people that work with children in general I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. Unfortunately the media only cares about tarnishing the Catholic Church. This issue is 10% about caring for children and the crime inflicted on them and 90% about damaging the status of organized religion in general.

If this were sincerely "about the children" you would see much more in depth reporting on the 6-10 cases of female teachers sleeping with their students and further investigation to see how deep the problem may well be. Of course though anything the government does, left leaning PC government anyways, that may harm children is a non-issue.

I'm not minimizing or trivializing the charges but this kind of systematic abuse, cover up and transfers may lie with other institutions with public trust as well.[/QUOTE]

The church essentially runs itself as a secret organization, with even the current pope on record as saying these issues should be dealt with internally, not by governments. If what I said was not the case, I'm sure the incidents would not be as high.
 
[quote name='PittsburghAfterDark']I'd like to see statistics about public school teachers sexually abusing their charges. I'm sure the high profile cases that have hit the media in the past year are the tip of the iceberg and hundreds if not thousands of teachers are guilty of the same offense and had it burried, settled and were moved along. You think the media is going to shed it's giant spotlight on public school teachers or investigate how widespread abuse may be?

Yeah, right. If you think these occurances are just Catholic priests and not reflective of people that work with children in general I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. Unfortunately the media only cares about tarnishing the Catholic Church. This issue is 10% about caring for children and the crime inflicted on them and 90% about damaging the status of organized religion in general.

If this were sincerely "about the children" you would see much more in depth reporting on the 6-10 cases of female teachers sleeping with their students and further investigation to see how deep the problem may well be. Of course though anything the government does, left leaning PC government anyways, that may harm children is a non-issue.

I'm not minimizing or trivializing the charges but this kind of systematic abuse, cover up and transfers may lie with other institutions with public trust as well.[/QUOTE]

How frequently do you hear about child abuse with other institutions, and the perpetrators not being held accountable?
 
[quote name='PittsburghAfterDark']I'd like to see statistics about public school teachers sexually abusing their charges. I'm sure the high profile cases that have hit the media in the past year are the tip of the iceberg and hundreds if not thousands of teachers are guilty of the same offense and had it burried, settled and were moved along. You think the media is going to shed it's giant spotlight on public school teachers or investigate how widespread abuse may be?

Yeah, right. If you think these occurances are just Catholic priests and not reflective of people that work with children in general I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. Unfortunately the media only cares about tarnishing the Catholic Church. This issue is 10% about caring for children and the crime inflicted on them and 90% about damaging the status of organized religion in general.

If this were sincerely "about the children" you would see much more in depth reporting on the 6-10 cases of female teachers sleeping with their students and further investigation to see how deep the problem may well be. Of course though anything the government does, left leaning PC government anyways, that may harm children is a non-issue.

I'm not minimizing or trivializing the charges but this kind of systematic abuse, cover up and transfers may lie with other institutions with public trust as well.[/QUOTE]

See, like Alonzo and catapalist said, the issue is not that its happening but the vast coverups that were being done. These priests were found out about and instead of it becoming news they were quietly shifted around. Something like that would NEVER happen in a public school, I can say that with quite a bit of certainty.
 
Given that the curch will not even entertain the notion of marriage for priests, despite the lack of foundation for the doctrine in scripture, reinforces every reason why I no longer attend church. I expect reasoned responses to realistic problems, and Benedict seems to be the kind of person wholly uninterested in that.

It's a shame; since I'll probably be a parent in a few years, I'd like to start attending a church; problem is, I'm a skeptic, so I'd like a church that would welcome critical discourse of their teachings, without having the pretentious confused morass that is most nondenominational church I've ever attended.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']It's a shame; since I'll probably be a parent in a few years, I'd like to start attending a church; problem is, I'm a skeptic, so I'd like a church that would welcome critical discourse of their teachings, without having the pretentious confused morass that is most nondenominational church I've ever attended.[/QUOTE]

That's a bit of a contradiction - you want to be able to question the church's beliefs and teachings, but you don't want to attend with a confused or divergent group of chuch-goers.

I assume you're looking for a christian church (you use the word "church") - however since the christian followers are supposed to be sheep are you sure you're in the right religion.
 
[quote name='camoor']That's a bit of a contradiction - you want to be able to question the church's beliefs and teachings, but you don't want to attend with a confused or divergent group of chuch-goers.

I assume you're looking for a christian church (you use the word "church") - however since the christian followers are supposed to be sheep are you sure you're in the right religion.[/QUOTE]

Of course not; as I was raised catholic, I lean slightly more towards the judeo-christian notion of god than I do others. I don't think that, outside of Buddhism, critical thinking is appreciated in any religion; if it were, Marx wouldn't have been so right about it. It ain't just christians; Muslims aren't known as being bringers of tolerance either. Let's just say that I'm an agnostic who is partial to catholic pageantry (that being the mass) and idol worship (Mary and the Pope) due to their upbringing; additionally, although I believe in the existence of the metaphysical, I don't believe that any single person or group of people is capable of properly deciphering and presenting the teachings of said metaphysical presence to me (i.e., I think priests aren't very bright as a whole). This should not discourage me from being religious.

It isn't a contradiction; most nondenominational churches have become, as a reactionary measure (which rationalizes their existence vis a vis traditional churches), places where damn near any kind of behavior is permitted and recognized as providing glory to god. I don't believe that is the case at all; I like structure, I like a belief foundation and a concept of morals. However, if I were goldilocks, the catholic church would be papa bear's porridge, and nondenominational ones mama bear's porridge. Dig?

I also have disdain for nondenominational churches (let this be the last time I have to type that abominable word!) after a friend's funeral in late 2002. He had just gotten his shit together, had a two month old girl, was clean, and just up and died one day. Because conventional wisdom was that he suffered from long term heart problems as a result of heroin use, the funeral at some point turned into a lecture against his friends (part "you are responsible for this" and part "don't let this be you"). This is above and beyond his parents' oblivious denial to present him as he would have wanted at the funeral, instead opting for more traditional "he was a good white child" type pictures that would sate their middle-class suburban competitors and colleagues. In the end, my qualms with the ND's is that they are too irrationally permissive; OTOH, we can agree that the catholic church is restrictive to its own fault (the marriage issue, which Benedict won't touch, is one potential cause of abuse, as well as a major reason why the average age of priests is getting higher, and there are fewer and fewer recruits than ever.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']In the end, my qualms with the ND's is that they are too irrationally permissive; OTOH, we can agree that the catholic church is restrictive to its own fault (the marriage issue, which Benedict won't touch, is one potential cause of abuse, as well as a major reason why the average age of priests is getting higher, and there are fewer and fewer recruits than ever.[/QUOTE]

Yes - your opinion makes total sense, I just think that when a religion suddenly opens the floodgates to questioning, the natural result is that some will abuse this priveledge to lecture or push their agenda. The christian church has been squelching all independent thought for at least 1950 years, IMO in the new world it's going to take some time for them to critical christians such as yourself to find the right blend of structure and critical discourse.

I myself was raised Catholic, but I would never support subjecting an innocent open-eyed child to the same treatment.
 
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