A obvious Anti Catholic asked a question why the Catholics Church has so many Pedophiles?
They then of course chose the answer that supported there belief and even responded claiming it was sad we Catholics did not face up to it.So i did a quick search and found this article and see if you agree??
Making your church safe for children
(Published by Disciples Today, an online publication of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ, April 2002)
When you attend church this Sunday, take a look around at the people in your congregation. For every five women and eight men in your church, statistics show one woman and one man were sexually abused by the time they were 12. The majority of these people knew the person who abused them.
Since congregations are microcosms of our society, we can’t ignore that sexual abuse and pedophilia can occur within a congregation. With media attention focused on the Catholic Church and allegations of clergy sexual misconduct shrouded in years of secrecy, be aware that the problem is not confined to the Catholic Church. Nor is the crime of pedophilia related to celibacy.
"It’s in every denomination," said Carol Q. Cosby, retired director for Social Action Networks in Disciples Home Missions, "including the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)."
Late last year, Patsie Sweeden, regional minister, Christian Church in Kansas, learned that a former associate pastor and youth director from the Kansas Region had reportedly abused at least six young boys between 1979 and 1981. The pastor was serving in the Mid-America region at the time the abuse was reported to the Kansas regional office.
"When [the Mid-America] interim regional minister became aware of the situation, he acted on it immediately," said Sweeden. "We had excellent cooperation across regional lines, we all exited a horrible situation feeling like a process had worked well." Sweeden said the pastor’s standing in the denomination had been removed meaning he no longer had access to the relocation system of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and could not function as a pastor in the denomination. The legal system has acted on this situation as well.
While Disciples have no central office to collect statistics on sexual abuse cases related to pastors, according to Cosby, United Church of Christ denominational officials report that during the past decade, credentials are stripped from a minister, on average, once every two weeks. Furthermore, the majority of cases were related to "some form of sexual misconduct," including pedophilia. (http://www.cpsdv.org/Articles/UCC_Response.htm)
And a 1997 article in Christianity Today reports clergy are not the only offenders in a church. A 1996 profile in the Church Law and Tax Report concludes "volunteer workers are the most frequent abusers, constituting half of all sexual misconduct offenses in churches." (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/7tb/7tb090.html)
So who will protect the children? According to Father John Heagle of Therapy and Renewal Services, "In a community, not all of us are guilty, but all of us are responsible." So what can we do?
"There are some basic things every congregation needs to do to keep children safe," said Kaye Edwards, director of Family and Children’s Ministries in Disciples Home Missions. "We cannot assume that abuse is not going to happen simply because we are a Christian community."
Edwards added that congregations should consider the following:
Evaluate your building;
Raise awareness and educate members of your congregation;
Appoint a task force to develop and implement policies and procedures to protect the children and youth of your church;
Screen all paid staff and volunteers who work with children and youth;
Hold regular trainings for all paid staff and volunteers who work with children and youth.
Protecting our children against sexual abuse is one of the most important things we can do as a church community. Before you leave your church this Sunday, take another look around, this time at the children in your congregation. Then pray for them … and act to make your congregation a safe place for those children.
No i did not miss the point. But you apparrently have.You all act like the Catholic Church is the only ones who covered up such evil behavior and that is the point this article was making.It look’s as if were more than willing to admit it but you Protestants are still in denial..
Looks like no one read the article but then again that does not surprise me as all you anti Catholic’s would not accept any thing that just might prove your thinking is misguided.Hate has it’s own way of destroying those who folow it being as it’s one of Satan’s better weapons at decieving and blinding.
I read the article.
I used to belong in the Disciples of Christ congregation. Some great People. Looks like they are being pro-active about the issue instead of pretending it is not there.
The Catholics came late to the game, but now that Catholics have addressed it, other congregations should also and adopt the changes that the Catholic Church has made.
Background checks for Everyone that works with kids as well as a facility check and rules about being alone with kids.
google Catholic Virtus training.
Be careful, our Protestant Brothers and sisters, it is happening there right now, failure to act pro-actively will hurt you also.
September 29th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Is this a question or a book? There are so many pedophiles in the Catholic Clergy because the church perverts the Word of God. My question is, why don’t Catholic Priests have relations with their parish secretary and just leave the kids alone? If they need relations why don’t they just have an affair with an adult? I just don’t get it. They are truly disturbed.And, if you don’t like my answer, you can just take it up with God.
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I Timothy 3:2a, "A Bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one WIFE." Maybe if Catholic Clergy could marry there wouldn’t be so much pedophilia in the church.
September 29th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
You miss the point as to why the catholic pedophile story is so particularly heinous, it’s because the church hierarchy kept moving these pedophiles from parish to parish, state to state. There ought to have been charges for interstate promotion of pedophilia.
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September 29th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
[Insert insulting comment here]
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September 29th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
The reason the catholic church has child molesters is because there are both believers and unbelievers in the catholic church. Not everyone who says they are a Christian are born again. But if the priest is a born again Christian the church HAS to purge that person from the church.
1 Corinthians 5:9-13
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—10not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
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September 29th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
I haven’t heard such nonesense in ions.SEX ABUSE AND THE RC CHURCH ( THEY ARE RAMPANT)
The Sins of Our Fathers in the RC Churches
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_20011028/ai_n13964089
Roman Catholics Sexual Abuse Cases
/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_sex_abuse_cases
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-110075087.html
SINS OF OUR FATHERS.
http://www.sexualabuseclaimsblog.com/2009/06/sins_of_the_fathers_sexual_abu.html
A LONG LIST OF ABUSES HERE
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-83374924.html
Payout in LA.. Only in LA.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the largest in the US, is believed to have agreed to pay sexual abuse victims around $660 million, the largest such settlement in recent history
http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/Los-Angeles-Diocese-
PAY OUTS
http://www.mostholyfamilymonastery.com/22_SScandal.pdf
Catholic Church pays out £325m over abuse | Mail Online16 Jul 2007 … The Roman Catholic Church in America is bracing itself for a series … Mahoney. Cardinal Roger Mahony: must testify about his church’s … This dwarfs the previous highest payout of £60 million by a Roman Catholic diocese since …. goodbye to their father at funeral service A heartbreaking image …
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/…/Catholic-Church-pays-325m-abuse.html
Catholic sexual abuse victims win £98m – Telegraph
… has agreed to pay $198.1 million (£98 million) to settle 144 claims of sexual abuse by clergy in one of the … 660 million usa (£325 million) in July, …telegraph.co.uk/…/1562538/Catholic-sexual-abuse-victims-win-98m.html
MORE LINKS ON SEXUAL ABUSE IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
Dioceses Sell Land, Borrow Money to Pay Settlements in Sexual Abuse Cases … Rome pays $110 MILLION to settle child sex abuse cases in Ireland ‘ …www.remnantofgod.org/rccsex.htm -
Many Roman Catholic Churches were sold to pay for Pedophilia Crimes
Greek Orthodox Katholikos ( Gr Unviersal ) Apostolic Christian of
The First Greek Septuagint and First Greek New Testement of the World Our Priests Marry. we Orthodox ( right way)
observe the Word of God.. It is not Good for Man to be Alone.
( Genesis) and yes our Bishops are celibate when they are very old..AND WIDOWED .AND ALL WERE MARRIED.. No one is forced to be a Bishop ( we Live for ions)
and Look at our Bishops in 70’s which is fine ( WIDOWED). ( they don’t have to Bishops choice. Our Young Priests Marry.
Very Seldom does a priest chose to be celibate and when he Does.. We Check him Out very very Carefully.
. and Yes all may have trouble with Pedophilia and SSex "Crimes" in Churches but .. we all obey God.. IT is not Good for man to be alone. All Marry excepts RCs. ( But they do take married priests when they Convert from Other Faiths) Interesting. No where in the Bible does it state that Priest should not Marry.. Paul may have stated his Opinion about ( being Celibate ) but not a Rule and Paul did not Make it a Rule.. and It is said from God.. IT IS NOT GOOD FOR MAN TO BE ALONE ( Genesis) Only RCs demand Celibacy.
and thus the OUTCOMES.
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September 29th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
You seem to be defending the catholic cover up of child abuse by saying others did it too. Apparently God thinks this is fine also all he wouldn’t have selected Heir Ratzinger to the position after he lead the coverup.
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September 29th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Good point.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families report "Child Maltreatment 2006" states that sexual abuse by Catholic clergy was less than one-half of one percent of all cases.
The report states that the perpetrators relationship to the victim was:
29.1% were Other Relatives
26.2% were Parents
24.4% were Others
6.9% were Unknown or Missing People
6.1% were Unmarried Partners of Parent
4.4% were Friends or Neighbors
1.8% were Child Daycare Providers
0.5% were Other Professionals
0.3% were Foster Parents
0.3% were Residential Facility Staff
0.1% were Legal Guardians
All clergy is a subset of Other Professionals and Catholic clergy is a subset of all clergy. http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm06/table3_19.htm
Here is the complete document: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm06/cm06.pdf
The 2007 Annual Report prepared by the Catholic bishops identifies 15 allegations of childhood sexual abuse in the U.S. Catholic Church from 2000 to 2007. Please note that there were 64,800,000 Catholics in the U.S. in 2005. http://cara.georgetown.edu/bulletin/index.htm
The 2007 Associated Press investigation identifies 2,570 public school teachers who, from 2001 through 2005, had their teaching licenses "taken away, denied, surrendered voluntarily, or restricted" because of sexual misconduct with minors.
With love in Christ.
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September 29th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Jesus gave us a good lesson for those who are so quick to condemn the Church for the sins of individual clergy. It is as if they are not guilty as well and we all know that this is not just a Catholic problem but a problem among all clergy and if one is objective when looking at the problem the statistics proves that Catholic clergy have the least problem of all clergy. Even school teachers have a much greater incidence of committing this crime.
When people are in denial as most Protestants are then it is easy to place blame on others and especially when the Christ’s Church is their favorite target. It also keeps one from confronting one’s own problem with sexually abusive clergy. Certainly the Protestants are no more or less guilty of covering up their complicity with the cover ups.
An example is the case of which hundreds if not thousands could be named is the case with the Church of God of Cleveland Tennessee who had a bishop named Wesley McCoy who was accused of up to 22 incidents of sexual abuse with children. Immediately after the arrest the church removed all reference to him on their website and denied he was affiliated with their church. This is typical of the reaction to these incidents. I was a Protestant minister for 25 years before becoming Catholic and believe me this is common. So errors like this occur because people are trying to protect their reputations whether Protestant or Catholic. The worst thing is when one focuses on their denial and nothing is done to prevent these incidents in their own churches. In other words the best way to cope is to deny one’s own problem or potential and to blame others. Jesus said it this way:
Joh 8:7 When therefore they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said to them: He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
You will see people being hypocrits and casting aspersions on the Church when they answer questions like these on this forum but Jesus also taught us about these people in the following:
Mat 7:3 And why seest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye; and seest not the beam that is in thy own eye?
Mat 7:4 Or how sayest thou to thy brother: Let me cast the mote out of thy eye; and behold a beam is in thy own eye?
Mat 7:5 Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
Luk 6:41 And why seest thou the mote in thy brother’s eye: but the beam that is in thy own eye thou considerest not?
Luk 6:42 Or how canst thou say to thy brother: Brother, let me pull the mote out of thy eye, when thou thyself seest not the beam in thy own eye? Hypocrite, cast first the beam out of thy own eye: and then shalt thou see clearly to take out the mote from thy brother’s eye.
So my fellow Christians the Church certainly erred decades ago when they moved priests who were accused of these incidents after giving them treatment that the medical community said was a cure for their problem only to find out in retrospect that they had a mental disease that is not curable and hardly treatable. Hindsight is always clear and in focus and we accept the blame but we did it for charitable reasons just as we pay restitution for one who only claims abuse without any proof. It was never for evil intent. Sometimes the victims are those that are accused but are not given the opportunity to defend themselves because they are dead or denied trial but the secular authorities. Remember that very few of the accused have been convicted and accusations do not equal guilt.
My suggestion to all of those lacking charity and predisposed to hatred of Christ’s Church is to replace your hatred with love and move in a direction as the Catholic Church has done to make sure that the number of abusers in your churches are reduced and make your children safer from these predators. Follow the lead of the Catholic Church and purge yourself of your own problem so that then you will have some credibility and moral prerequisite to say to us and others look what we have done let us help you. That is what the Church is giving you example of how to confront your problem by screening for these abusers and to accept the blame and pay restitution to victims. It is the loving Christ like thing to do and we ask humbly for you to do as we have done and put down the stones you are so anxious to throw at others. God bless!
In Christ
Fr. Joseph
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September 29th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
I read the article.
I used to belong in the Disciples of Christ congregation. Some great People. Looks like they are being pro-active about the issue instead of pretending it is not there.
The Catholics came late to the game, but now that Catholics have addressed it, other congregations should also and adopt the changes that the Catholic Church has made.
Background checks for Everyone that works with kids as well as a facility check and rules about being alone with kids.
google Catholic Virtus training.
Be careful, our Protestant Brothers and sisters, it is happening there right now, failure to act pro-actively will hurt you also.
References :
Catholic Convert
September 29th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
What really gets me about anti Catholics is that they think being celibate causes one to be a pedophile. When in fact it is true that 98% of pedophiles are married men. A child has a 97% more of a chance of being molested in their own home,protestant church, school, or sports team then in a Catholic Church.
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September 29th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Agents of Satan will continue to attack the Church founded by Jesus.
But the gates of hell will not prevail against the Catholic Church.
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September 29th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
its immaterial whether its a catholic church or any other church or atheists, or other religion follower. whoever it may be if there is a abuse of children then one needs to condemn it.
some people just try to find fault in a particular faith and trying to justify that ‘that’s the reason they don’t go to church’. we cannot help such kind of low thinking people. in fact secretly they too will be a child molesters.
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