Pittsburgh had 'ring of predatory priests' who manufactured child porn: grand jury re

MattinBama

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i was raised to believe that they didn't preach the "truth" (and neither did the methodists, or the other baptist church in town for that matter, and the catholics were right out)

and i think they thought the same ;)
My grandmother will rail against Baptists if you get her going. Having been to both all through my childhood CoC always just seemed like Baptists without musical instruments.
 

BamaHoosier

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My grandmother will rail against Baptists if you get her going. Having been to both all through my childhood CoC always just seemed like Baptists without musical instruments.
As a teen, my parents spent some time in the Reformed Presbyterian church. Your comment made me laugh because hymns were too liberal at this church, so they'd only sing psalms. Not songs based on the Psalms, the literal translation of the book of psalms set to monotone music. They also only sang them acapella because instruments "deflected the praise from God and onto the musician." They did have a choir, but they had to stand in the back so as not to draw any attention to themselves. Looking back it was the most oppressive atmosphere you could possibly fit into a church. Your comment reminded me of that and I would imagine our experiences were similar.

I don't view myself as one who has given up entirely on their faith, but that was the church that taught me that organized religion is the biggest ruining factor of faith. Other than appeasing my wife by going to holiday mass a handful of times, (As she grew up Catholic) I don't think I've set foot in a church in 7 years.
 
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uafan4life

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Wait a minute!...

From the article... said:
The report listed 99 offenders, with nine unidentified priests, and 90 identified but eight redacted names. The eight redacted names are the subject of litigation by the named subjects to hide their identities.The Diocese was the largest of the six under investigation for this report. It employs 211 priests at 188 parishes. The Diocese includes the counties of Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Green, Lawrence and Washington.

Am I reading this correctly? This particular diocese employs 211 priests and 99 of them were listed in this report as being child molesters??? So at least 47% of their priests are child molesters?!?!?!

I've always suspected that this was a relatively common occurrence - at least more so than in the general population - amongst Catholic priests but that is an insanely absurd percentage over a fairly large sample size.

I sincerely hope the global percentages are nowhere near that high. If so, it might be time to just light some torches. Goodness.

Could it be that - for decades and decades now, apparently - pursuing a career as a Catholic priest has been a major draw for sexual predators, specifically?
 

MattinBama

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Wait a minute!...




Am I reading this correctly? This particular diocese employs 211 priests and 99 of them were listed in this report as being child molesters??? So at least 47% of their priests are child molesters?!?!?!

I've always suspected that this was a relatively common occurrence - at least more so than in the general population - amongst Catholic priests but that is an insanely absurd percentage over a fairly large sample size.

I sincerely hope the global percentages are nowhere near that high. If so, it might be time to just light some torches. Goodness.

Could it be that - for decades and decades now, apparently - pursuing a career as a Catholic priest has been a major draw for sexual predators, specifically?
The way I’m reading that section is 99 across six diocese with the 211 being just one of the six. So potentially 99 that are known out of possibly 1200 if they were all similar size although it says 211 is the largest.
 

gtowntide

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Maybe the Catholic church should start letting their priests commit adultery with adults and then they might leave the kids alone. Probably not.
 

uafan4life

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The way I’m reading that section is 99 across six diocese with the 211 being just one of the six. So potentially 99 that are known out of possibly 1200 if they were all similar size although it says 211 is the largest.
Okay, that's at least a little bit better. Even so, though, that's pushing having one out of every 10 priests being child molesters, depending upon the size of the others.

Ideally, that would be zero out of 10 but, even at one out of 10, it seems very high. I mean, what's the average in the general population? Less than one out of 100? That's still above the average by at least a factor of 10.
 

Jon

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Okay, that's at least a little bit better. Even so, though, that's pushing having one out of every 10 priests being child molesters, depending upon the size of the others.

Ideally, that would be zero out of 10 but, even at one out of 10, it seems very high. I mean, what's the average in the general population? Less than one out of 100? That's still above the average by at least a factor of 10.
Predators go where they have access to prey. In the case of priests (and pastors and any other name for them) they get access to prey with the extra bonus of nearly unquestioned authority and assumed absolute trust. It is a perfect gig for those who wish to commit abuse. In the case of Catholicism in specific you also have the added factor of celibacy which harms in multiple ways. It keeps out people who simply want to serve the religion but also have a more typical sexual life while simultaneously providing perfect cover for those who are inclined towards abuse of kids. A grown man who shows no outward sexual desire looks odd to most. A priest appears to be making a sacrifice for a greater good. Its a perfect beard for a predator
 

chanson78

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Two things.

1. Listening to NPR yesterday they interviewed parishioners at a local mass in Pennsylvania. The first thing the first person they interviewed said was: "We need to pray for the priests, because they aren't all bad." I am glad my kid wasn't in the car or else he would have learned some colorful language.

2. Every priest/bishop they interviewed immediately brought up "This happened over 70 years. These incidents weren't all recent. We need to put this behind us and move forward." One bishop said "I am sorry people had to read this. I am sure it was very upsetting."
 

92tide

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Two things.

1. Listening to NPR yesterday they interviewed parishioners at a local mass in Pennsylvania. The first thing the first person they interviewed said was: "We need to pray for the priests, because they aren't all bad." I am glad my kid wasn't in the car or else he would have learned some colorful language.

2. Every priest/bishop they interviewed immediately brought up "This happened over 70 years. These incidents weren't all recent. We need to put this behind us and move forward." One bishop said "I am sorry people had to read this. I am sure it was very upsetting."
horrible folks hiding behind religion
 

Jon

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Two things.

1. Listening to NPR yesterday they interviewed parishioners at a local mass in Pennsylvania. The first thing the first person they interviewed said was: "We need to pray for the priests, because they aren't all bad." I am glad my kid wasn't in the car or else he would have learned some colorful language.

2. Every priest/bishop they interviewed immediately brought up "This happened over 70 years. These incidents weren't all recent. We need to put this behind us and move forward." One bishop said "I am sorry people had to read this. I am sure it was very upsetting."
exactly how this gets so effectively pushed under the rug. We must protect the faith (and not the kids)
 

MattinBama

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Two things.

1. Listening to NPR yesterday they interviewed parishioners at a local mass in Pennsylvania. The first thing the first person they interviewed said was: "We need to pray for the priests, because they aren't all bad." I am glad my kid wasn't in the car or else he would have learned some colorful language.

2. Every priest/bishop they interviewed immediately brought up "This happened over 70 years. These incidents weren't all recent. We need to put this behind us and move forward." One bishop said "I am sorry people had to read this. I am sure it was very upsetting."
Skynet can't wipe out our disgusting species quickly enough. Not sure if I wanna make that blue or not.
 

92tide

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SavannahDare

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This is all nothing less than evil. The church is complicit in perpetuating it and therefore in devastating countless children's lives. The ripple effect is almost impossible to comprehend (in terms of cycle of abuse, speaking as a psychiatrist). I have a friend who was sexually abused by a priest when his family was stationed in Cuba (Air Force) in the late 1970's/early 1980's. Knowing him and how the abuse changed him and how it's affected his life, makes this latest news item particularly hurtful. Pedophilia is real, y'all. Happens every damn day, all over this world. Our children are our greatest asset and our easiest targets. They need our protection, our vigilance, and our bravery in sniffing out this type of morally corrupt behavior. Just damn!
 

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