People get up in arms when it comes to the Catholic Church, but my question is how many Baptist Ministers, Presbyterians, Buddhists and Imam's have done terrible things to the people that trust them? The Catholic Church represents a huge group of people and has a lot of influence across the world. The sex scandals alone cost the Vatican $700 million. (Makes me wish I had applied for a scholarship from the Church). Some have also stated that more charges are brought against the Catholic Church because of the amount of money and influence they have. Whether this is true or not, I don't know. However I could see how this is true for some, small amount of cases. Maybe. (People are opportunists and this is America right?)
The charges being brought against the Church are most likely to raise awareness to the sex abuse within the clergy. I think people are starting to take notice.
Recently a Catholic bishop in Kansas City is being charged for failing to report sex abuse within his diocese. This is unprecedented because charges are rarely raised against the hierarchical level and normally just the perpetrator. The clergy for the most part has the bad habit of playing priest shuffle (which stems from historical Canon law that made it difficult for bishops to defrock a priest) but it seems that more and more people are being held responsible.
The LA Times reports that it is uncertain whether charges like this will begin to pop up in other regions or if it is only for this case.
"What remains to be seen is whether the indictment of Bishop Robert Finn will be an isolated event or will encourage prosecutors elsewhere to investigate allegations of coverup against members of the church leadership.
The charges being brought against the Church are most likely to raise awareness to the sex abuse within the clergy. I think people are starting to take notice.
Recently a Catholic bishop in Kansas City is being charged for failing to report sex abuse within his diocese. This is unprecedented because charges are rarely raised against the hierarchical level and normally just the perpetrator. The clergy for the most part has the bad habit of playing priest shuffle (which stems from historical Canon law that made it difficult for bishops to defrock a priest) but it seems that more and more people are being held responsible.
The LA Times reports that it is uncertain whether charges like this will begin to pop up in other regions or if it is only for this case.
"What remains to be seen is whether the indictment of Bishop Robert Finn will be an isolated event or will encourage prosecutors elsewhere to investigate allegations of coverup against members of the church leadership.
Prosecutors announced Friday that Finn had been charged with a single misdemeanor count of failure to report child abuse after he allegedly learned — but failed to tell authorities — that a priest in his diocese had a laptop computer containing hundreds of images of child pornography. Finn's diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph was also charged.
"I can assure you that this has nothing — nothing — to do with the Catholic faith," Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said in announcing the indictments. "This is about the facts of this case, and this is about protecting children."
The exposure that the Survivors Network have brought to the international courts will no doubt be dismissed, but what it does do is raise awareness of the problem. My issue is that the Catholic Church always ends up being the sexual abuser. I'd like to see the rates within other communities. Sexual abuse is not a phenomenon to the Catholic clergy. I think there needs to be more aid to the victims and more charges being raised against specific members of the clergy that are abusers. I think that the charges brought to the ICC no doubt have raised awareness, but I think detrimental to the positive works done within the Church. It isn't fair to paint a whole group with guilt when only individuals are to blame.
I was raised in a joint catholic-nondescript 'protestant' household (I know, look how well that turned out!) Based on my experiences, the following question came to my mind as I was reading.
ReplyDeleteDo you think an additional reason for the special attention paid to the Catholic Church is the hierarchical nature of the organization?
Compared to, say, Baptists (the largest church group that comes to mind in the midwest) the Church has a great deal more structure. Many other sects don't have clearly defined leadership positions, so prosecution can only fall to the perpetrator.
Coming from a Catholic family I agree. The whole group should not be accountable. The main focus should be on the individual who committed the abuse not the community they come from. I do understand though it makes it more of a scandal that it was a leader.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree. The church has never sexually assaulted anyone, it is just sick individuals, and it's not right to tarnish the name of the church simply because of them.
ReplyDeleteThe sad thing is that it is impossible to screen against. Someone could be a perfectly devout and committed member of the clergy when hired on, but after years and years change into the monsters that they become.
I don't feel that the church should be held accountable for these individual's actions.
I have always been right there with you on this topic. As much as I feel for the members of SNAP, the charges are exorbitant in the sense that they take on the entire Church. That aside, you can't even prove the standards for a human rights violation. I do also, however, think it is unfair that until now MEMBERS of the Church have been above the justice system. I think it is unconstitutional that members of the Church who commit these crimes are only subject to the punishments of the Church. It's a criminal offense and it should be charged as such by the law.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you lindsey, the criminals should be tried by the law, not by the Church. Because although they are members of the Church, their victims would be tried in a court of law if they did something wrong. Until the victims are allowed to properly try their abusers, they won't ever receive the justice that they deserve. I don't know if I would be able to move on after something like that until I knew that my abuser was give an unbiased trial.
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