I'm not going to get into the pedophilia part here. It's disgusting enough but I can understand part of it. I can't understand the pedophilia part but I can sure understand why pedophiles would gravitate towards the priesthood, scout leadership, youth groups and so on.
All you have to do is remember why Willie Sutton robbed banks.
Willie Sutton robbed banks because that's where the money is. The parishes and youth groups of all sorts are where the children are.
Scouts and other youth groups have had this problem for years and they solved it simply by making it clear that any shenanigans would be reported MOST riki-tik and they'd throw the book at anyone caught. There's also probably a pretty good reason the Cub Scouts have den MOTHERS.
I guess the church is a different story. I'm sure this kind of thing has been going on for decades if not centuries. The priesthood is a natural place for a pedophile to hide. On top of that the priesthood used to enjoy the trust of practically everyone, Catholic or not.
The part that bothers me worse than the crime is the cover up.
Penn State had a pedophilia incident with Jerry Sanduski as the pedophile and the great guy, 'Papa Joe' Paterno was covering for that sick bastard. Papa Joe at least had the decency to die when this all came out. He was not a great guy. Great guys do not cover for pedophiles. They expose them. Joe Paterno was no better than Jerry Sanduski.
The Church has been covering for these people for years for no good reason. First they are trying to uphold the integrity of the priesthood and for the past several decades they have been hiding thing to avoid lawsuits. It's been a cowardly approach that has done neither.
Exposing Father Tom and turning him over to the criminal justice system IS going to cause lawsuits and IS going to damage the integrity of the priesthood. Get over it.
An isolated incident is recoverable from and the resulting lawsuits will be expensive but won't really break the bank. That can be recovered from.
People are generally pretty good about things if they are kept on the up and up. While they will want to see Father Tom strung up, they will realize it's an isolated incident and the higher ups in the Church are not tolerating it. Father Tom diddled a kid and now he's off to the slam for the next two decades. Tough.
This also sends out a message to those that would consider committing similar crimes. Get caught and it's off to the joint for a nice, long rest at the Cross Bar Hotel. Most of those that considered something like molesting a kid will think twice.
While it didn't prevent the incident the very fact that the higher-ups sent the bum to jail where he belongs does a lot of good to smooth over things and retain the integrity of the priesthood. It also does a pretty good job of minimizing lawsuits. A lot of people will not bother to sue if they see that justice was served.
On the other hand, there is nothing worse than a cover-up. The cover-up is generally regarded as being worse than the original crime. It is looked at as the higher-ups condoning and accepting the original crime. The system in effect is saying it is no big thing to let someone molest kids. A cover-up not only exonerates the criminal, it condemns the entire system.
A cover-up brings on a condemnation of the entire priesthood and the Church itself. As I sit here I have seen a couple of posts on another board made by Catholics that are looking for another place to worship. I can't say as I blame them. They look at the entire system and it appears rotten to the core.
How far up the chain it goes I can't say with 100% certainty but if I ventured a guess it probably goes straight to the top. I daresay the Pope is at least aware. The fact that he hasn't publicly come out and condemned these perverts speaks volumes.
If I were to venture a guess I would say that the Pope has kept quiet about this because he has taken the advice of a few cardinals that have been so insulated from the public that they are outright stupid. It's a case of follow the money. They want the Pope to quietly let this slide so as to avoid expensive lawsuits.
Of course, when something like this finally does surface the number of lawsuits will go through the roof. People demand justice. If the criminal system doesn't provide it people will do something else. If the Church covers for these perverts and the criminal justice system doesn't get to work then it's lawsuit time.
Jurors have kids, too and they are just as outraged as anyone else. A jury is probably going to be pretty generous in awarding the Catholic Church's money to the outraged family of a molested child. They will likely pick a number and start adding zeroes until they either run out of paper or get writer's cramp. It's going to really be costly and could possibly bankrupt the Church.
People are going to look at the Church the same way they look at Joe Paterno. They are going to be angry because it has enabled and covered for child molesters which is looked at as a crime worse than murder. A molester has harmed our children. While most people can at least understand the motives for murder, they go completely insane over crimes against children.
I don't think too many people are upset over the fact that the priesthood has a history of drawing perverts. Like my earlier analogy to Willie Sutton, the Church is where the children are.
What makes people go totally rabid is that it looks like the Church has given these people a place to hide.
The Church has brought this on themselves and this is yet another case of you can't fix stupid
To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this:
http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY
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