Priests Are Not Gods

Hi, guys!

*yawn* It's the last day before we're back in school again, and I'm in a pretty blah, tired move. Apologies if this isn't the most mind blowing post ever. Today, I'm going to try to find some meaning in the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal, and explain why the hand in that picture is not the hand of God or another higher power of your choice.

Imagine, if you'll allow it for a minute, that you're a soldier in the Spartan army, one of 300 remaining. You're on your way to the Thermopylae pass, about to guard it from an army of thousands of armed Persians. This, most likely, will be the most important battle of your life, and could be (HISTORY SPOILER FUN TIME! It will be.) the one that kills you. You're on the way to defend your country, sharpening your sword, ready to slaughter some Persian bahookey, when....

BAMF!

This man walks out of the bushes, smack in front of you. He's wearing some sort of wind-resistant armor, and some furry gauntlets that shield him from the cold. There's odd things around his feet that look so light, like they're made from clouds, with a strange plant running through them, a vine or weed of some sort. There's an inscription on them, N-I-K-E, which you assume may be the name of the cloud-god that made these things. He's yelling something at you, in a strange language, but you can't understand him. To make matters worse, he's armed with some sort of hand held weapon, emblazoned with the glyph of an apple, which he keeps pecking at, no doubt sending a bevy of spells and curses your way. The question is: what are you going to do? In my book, you've got three options: take him back to your camp and anoint this strange man with magical powers to be your king, just keep going, or stick a sword through his guts and out his back right then and there, magical weapon be darned. Take a minute to decide, I'll wait.

Done? OK.

Now, it doesn't matter to me what you chose. Rather, it matters why you chose it. I'd venture to guess the reason why your choice varies from another reader's choice is because you perceived the man differently. If you chose to stab the man, you probably thought he was the Devil. If you chose to spare him and make him your king, you most likely thought the magical man was God. If your army moved on, you thought he was one insane dude.

You're probably scratching your head now, wondering what the point of this little social experiment was. The point here, folks, is that anyone who wields a strange new power can easily be seen in a multitude of different ways. It's all about something called perspective. And, in recent weeks, the public's perspective of the Catholic church has been blown wide open and clear into next Thursday.

I'm not going to waste time explaining the long-building and now-boiling news of the Catholic church sex abuse scandal! Instead, how about we head TO WIKIPEDIA!

The report determined that, between 1950 and 2002, 10,667 people had made allegations of child sexual abuse. Of these, 3300 were not investigated because the allegations were made after the accused priest had died.^{[citation needed]} After investigating the remaining 7700 allegations, the dioceses were able to substantiate 6,700 accusations against 4,392 priests in the USA, about 4% of all 109,694 priests who served during the time period covered by the study. The number of abuses increased in the 1960s, peaked in the 1970s, declined in the 1980s and by the 1990s had returned to the levels of the 1950s.^[13]

Of the 4,392 priests against whom the accusations were deemed to be credible, 3,300 were not investigated because the allegations were made after the accused priest had died. Police were contacted regarding 1,021 of the remaining 1092 priests. 384 of these priests were prosecuted, resulting in 252 convictions and 100 prison sentences. Thus, 6% of all priests against whom allegations were made were convicted and about 2% received prison sentences to date.^[14]

According to the John Jay report, one-third of the accusations were made in the years 2002 and 2003, and another third between 1993 and 2001.^[13]

An overwhelming majority of the victims, 81 percent, were males. A majority of the victims were post-pubescent adolescents, with a small percentage of pre-pubescent children.^[15]

Some sources have asserted that most of the victims were between the ages of 16 and 17, making the sexual abuse instances of hebephilia rather than pedophilia. These sources argue that, by failing to make this distinction, the media has fostered a misconception of the problem. In fact, 15% of the victims were 16 or 17 years of age, while 51% were between the ages of 11 and 14.^[13] The John Jay Report determined that just under 6% of victims were 7 years of age or younger. 16% were between 8 and 10.^[13] The vast majority of the victims (78%) were aged between 11 and 17.

In the United States, half of the 4392 priests who were found to have been credibly accused of abusing minors were 35 years of age or younger at the time of the first instance of abuse. Fewer than 7% of the priests were reported to have themselves been victims of physical, sexual or emotional abuse as children. Although 19% of the accused priests had alcohol or substance abuse problems, only 9% were reported to have been using drugs or alcohol during the instances of abuse. Almost 70% of the abusive priests were ordained before 1970.^[13]

Based on a database of 3000 priests accused of sexual abuse that it had compiled, the group BishopAccountability.org said in 2009 that one-third of the abusive priests in the United States had links to Ireland.^[16]

Of the priests in the United States who were accused of sexual abuse, 59% were accused of a single allegation. Just under 3% of the priests were the subject of ten or more allegations. The 149 priests who had more than 10 allegations against them accounted for 2,960 of the total number of allegations.^[13]

The John Jay report identified the following factors contributing to the sexual abuse problem:^[17] 1. Failure by the hierarchy to grasp the seriousness of the problem, 2. Overemphasis on the need to avoid a scandal, 3. Use of unqualified treatment centers, 4. Misguided willingness to forgive, 5. Insufficient accountability.

This has been a Wikipedia Moment TM.

Pretty disturbing statistic there, right? Now, just to be clear here, I am Christian, but I do not regularly attend church. This post is not meant to be an attack against religion, the Christian faith, the Catholic church or any specific person who is a member. This post is just a wake-up call. The Bible teaches us that no person on this Earth, no matter who they are, is immune to sin or evil. I have no doubt that at least a good 70% of people who work at a Church are generally good people. Even so, there are staff at the Catholic Church this very moment, and no doubt a great number of other churches, who do horrible things and get away with them by riding the coattails of God. That's not the God I know, and that's certainly not the one I follow. Your priests, your pastor, the Pope, are usually good people. But nobody on this Earth, once again, is immune to sin. Immune to lying. Immune to doing horrible, awful things.

And all it takes for the triumph of evil like this is for the good people to be silent.

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I'll see you next weekend!
Tomato