By Matt for the TIB Network:
Yet another Yahoo News Alert:WASHINGTON (AP) U.S. Roman Catholic bishops say they've received 1,092 new allegations of sex abuse against 756 Catholic priests and deacons in the past year.Anybody surprised? How full are those pews, padre?
Doug's Dialogue
The real question should be what are they going to do about it? Unfortunately, the Catholic church has a history of sweeping these types of allegations under the rug or hiding the perpentrators of these crimes by moving them to different parishes within the Diocese. To me, priests committing these types of crimes are pathetic.
As we grow up in life, we are taught from a young age that there are certain people who are there to help us and that we can trust to help us. Family members would be among the first tier of these individuals. In the second tier would be police officers, fire and EMS personnel, perhaps teachers and doctors as well. I would consider religious personnel to be in this tier. I think that it is a crying shame if any one of these types of individuals violates that trust bond that children develop as they are growing up. And instead of hiding these individuals or finding ways to sweep the allegations under the rug, the priests and bishops should be monitoring themselves and taking the right corrective actions. Instead of sweeping under the rug, or hiding these individuals, they should be willing to turn these people over to the justice system. Let the police investigate these allegations, and if they turn out to be true, then charge those people with the crimes.
Mark's Remarks
I agree with Doug's last point. For too long, ALL churches have been guilty of attempting to throw the dirt under the rug, so to speak. Granted, there are issues of confidentiality and church and state, but when it comes to the welfare of children, the state and the church should be united. Those whom we trust with our religion should be held to a higher standard. As a teacher, I have to go through a rigorous background check before substituting at a school or being hired full-time. The same should be done for pastors/priests.
However, we must not let this lead to a total distrust and paranoia society within the church. For example, as a church leader, some of the ridiculous garbage I get about having expensive investigations done into church workers is ridiculous. WE would not have this climate of paranoia if ALL churches were more transparent. If churches would have revealed the level of transgressions initially, they would have been hailed. Much the same way, according to some political scientists, that if Nixon would have owned up to the Watergate thing initially, he may have been forgiven and not had to resign his office. Often it is not the crime that is mostly condemned, it is the covering up, which can be a greater crime because it damages truth and faith in certain institutions.
