Zeus,
I was raised Catholic and attended a Catholic elementary school in NYC. Many of my childhood friends attended Catholic elementary schools throughout the city. The majority of them went on to Catholic high schools throughout NYC. Later in life I met many other people that shared similar educational experiences etc... throughout NY state and elsewhere.
In all that time I never even heard a rumor about a pedophile priest. I heard about priests that liked to drink too much and priests that liked to use their hands to discipline the students (in those days though, the latter was acceptable). This was not a widespread problem.
Yes, there are priests that are pedophiles.
There are also lawyers, judges, politicians, accountants, computer programmers, investment bankers, and men of other religions etc.. that are pedophiles.
There are three differences when it comes to the priesthood.
1. We expect and deserve more from religious men.
2. In a few cases, the church covered up for a guilty priest. That was a disaster for the church, obviously wrong, and not even executed well in terms of keeping children safe and helping the priest with his emotional problems.
2. The church is in a difficult position because of the combination of the "politically correct nazis" with great influence in our society and the type of people that tend to want to join the priesthood. The church cannot change its recruitment procedures (at least publicly) because it would cause a firestorm of criticism and controversy. Unless it does however, it is likely that a higher percentage of priests than is typical in society in general will be attracted to little boys instead of adult women. (Read between the lines here!!!)
In my entire life I have never even heard of a priest that abused a female child despite the fact that they often have almost equal access to the young girls. I'm sure there are some out there, but I suspect no more than in the general population and probably massively less.
Again, just read between the lines and you'll understand what I am saying. The stats on this have been well documented internally.
The problem should be obvious and so is the reason why the church is targeted for criticism. |
