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The Catholic Pedophile Scandal

Started by SGOS, August 24, 2021, 08:31:42 AM

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SGOS

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/24/opinion/catholic-church-abuse-jason-berry-first-report.html?campaign_id=39&emc=edit_ty_20210824&instance_id=38666&nl=opinion-today&regi_id=129705843&segment_id=67065&te=1&user_id=33a2a6e6868fd65c48b0f219d16ed7c2

This video comes from the New York Times.  I hope it's available without a subscription.

While the story is old, here's is a video with the reporter who broke the story of pedophile priests about how breaking the story happens, and how many newspapers refused to print the story.  The movie Spotlight, tells the story also, but its nice to hear it directly from the actual person who was at its center.

One of the things that comes to my mind about breaking the story is how much of it was known long before any reporter ever put the first accounts into print.  As a little kid playing with my Catholic Friends 35 years before the story broke, the knowledge was out there.  My friends talked about this happening in the Chicago area, but we were less than 10 years old, and stories were laughed at as jokes.  Yes, there was something perverse and horrible about the jokes, but since no one was taking it seriously, including my friends parents, nothing happened until 35 years later in 1985.

I suppose parent's were dimly aware, but dimly because it's not something they wanted to face.  Now if Joe down the street did that to their kids, there would be an uproar, but when Men of God were doing it enough for it to become a standing joke, no one wanted to see it, but I suspect even parents must have been at least wondering about it.

There was a line in the movie Spotlight, describing how a pedophile priest comes to the house to defend the Church, and the mother baked him cookies.  The delivery of that line from an adult previously assaulted as a young boy, was so real, it brought back those memories of the stories I was told in 1950.  In fact lots and lots of people already knew about, including law enforcement people, and also thousands of kids knew about it first hand.

Dark Lightning

The RCC still maintains an immense amount of political power. Cardinal Mahoney in Los Angeles still isn't going to be prosecuted by the DA. Evidence of heinous behavior, in the transfer of offenders and sweeping it under the rug abounds. My wife just doesn't get that that is how the RCC runs their game. The Italian police raiding the Vatican because their bank was laundering money for the Mafia was complete news to her, and she was pretty upset, but remains unconvinced. She's still nominally Catholic. I finally admitted (to myself) that I was an atheist in 2001. The RCC is a criminal organization with deep ties to money sources, and supports what I call the World Wide Pedophile Ring. Disgusting.

SGOS

Catholics act like they don't see a problem.  I think many of them certainly must, but they are afraid of being struck by lightning if they object too strongly.  OK that's an exaggeration.  It's more like fear of ostracism. 

Jagella

Quote from: SGOS on August 24, 2021, 08:31:42 AM
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/24/opinion/catholic-church-abuse-jason-berry-first-report.html?campaign_id=39&emc=edit_ty_20210824&instance_id=38666&nl=opinion-today&regi_id=129705843&segment_id=67065&te=1&user_id=33a2a6e6868fd65c48b0f219d16ed7c2

This video comes from the New York Times.  I hope it's available without a subscription.

While the story is old, here's is a video with the reporter who broke the story of pedophile priests about how breaking the story happens, and how many newspapers refused to print the story.  The movie Spotlight, tells the story also, but its nice to hear it directly from the actual person who was at its center.

One of the things that comes to my mind about breaking the story is how much of it was known long before any reporter ever put the first accounts into print.  As a little kid playing with my Catholic Friends 35 years before the story broke, the knowledge was out there.  My friends talked about this happening in the Chicago area, but we were less than 10 years old, and stories were laughed at as jokes.  Yes, there was something perverse and horrible about the jokes, but since no one was taking it seriously, including my friends parents, nothing happened until 35 years later in 1985.

I suppose parent's were dimly aware, but dimly because it's not something they wanted to face.  Now if Joe down the street did that to their kids, there would be an uproar, but when Men of God were doing it enough for it to become a standing joke, no one wanted to see it, but I suspect even parents must have been at least wondering about it.

There was a line in the movie Spotlight, describing how a pedophile priest comes to the house to defend the Church, and the mother baked him cookies.  The delivery of that line from an adult previously assaulted as a young boy, was so real, it brought back those memories of the stories I was told in 1950.  In fact lots and lots of people already knew about, including law enforcement people, and also thousands of kids knew about it first hand.

I was raised a Roman Catholic, and I was abused by my mother, father, and later on by my two sisters when I was a young adult. All of them were or have been professing Christians. The abuse was physical, emotional, and sexual. For example, my mother routinely barged into my bedroom when she knew I was naked. When I told her not to do it, she just mocked what I was saying. She also peeked into my bathroom when I was in there naked.

Regarding Catholic priests, I remember a Father Tamalis who was a priest in some of the churches here in Williamsport, PA. When I was at Bishop Neumann high school in the 1970s I heard rumors there that Father Tamalis was abusing hard liquor and smoking marijuana. If you check this article about Tamalis, you can read that in 1997 a man reported that Tamalis sexually abused him in 1976 when the man was 13 years old. That man could have been one of those boys I heard talking about Tamalis! Tamalis was not removed from the priesthood until 2007.

trdsf

One of my teachers in high school was the priest who abused the founder of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests).  I can only assume that he was put in our school because the diocese figured that since he only raped underage girls, he should be okay in an all boys' school. 

I have never forgiven my alma mater for that.  I treated a rapist with all the due reverence a young Catholic was expected to have for a priest, and my school betrayed me.  As far as I'm concerned, by failing to hand over accused priests (and worse, priests against whom they knew the allegations were true) to civil authorities, the Roman Catholic Church is no more than a crime syndicate.
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan

Greatest I am

I have extended my hate of pedophile priests, to a hate for the legal system that allows a victim to ber victimized yet again, by turning his assault into a pay for play by the courts and church, who then free the podophile to let him do his net crime.

This is a secular problem and cover up just as much as it is a religious problem.

The secular law is helping propagate pedophilia.

Regards
DL


Shiranu

Quote from: Greatest I am on January 16, 2022, 03:33:25 PM
I have extended my hate of pedophile priests, to a hate for the legal system that allows a victim to ber victimized yet again, by turning his assault into a pay for play by the courts and church, who then free the podophile to let him do his net crime.

This is a secular problem and cover up just as much as it is a religious problem.

The secular law is helping propagate pedophilia.

Regards
DL



You're not wrong.
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

Dark Lightning

The problem is that the police generally are religiously trained. The two go hand in hand, in a way- religion and policing. I remember when Cardinal Mahoney was demonstrably involved in the pedophilia issue in Los Angeles, the DA refused to prosecute. The RCC still holds too much political sway in the world. My wife is still religious, but I give her tidbits like this and the fact that the Italian Police raided the offices of a Vatican cardinal who was laundering the mafia's money through the Vatican bank.