Church Sex Abuse

[muwarrior69]

Camden New Jersey diocese settles for 87.5 M, largest settlement in US.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-jersey-diocese-87-5-million-child-sex-abuse-settlement

...and they wonder why people no longer identify as Catholic. The "good" clergy have a hard road ahead. Its time to end the rule on celibacy.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

I personally wouldn't connect the rule on celibacy and sex abuse. I don't think A causes B. I do think that they should end the rule on celibacy and allow female clergy in order to increase the pool of people interested in joining the priesthood.

[The Sultan]

I personally wouldn't connect the rule on celibacy and sex abuse. I don't think A causes B. I do think that they should end the rule on celibacy and allow female clergy in order to increase the pool of people interested in joining the priesthood.

Not to speak for mu69, but my guess is that he means that dropping celibacy opens the door for more "good" clergy.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Not to speak for mu69, but my guess is that he means that dropping celibacy opens the door for more "good" clergy.

I wasn't sure, I definitely agree with this sentiment

[dgies9156]

I personally wouldn't connect the rule on celibacy and sex abuse. I don't think A causes B. I do think that they should end the rule on celibacy and allow female clergy in order to increase the pool of people interested in joining the priesthood.

Brother TAMU:

I came from a high school where priestly abuse of the student body was prevalent. The problem with celibacy and the anti-woman attitude of the church is exactly as you outline -- the Catholic Church ruled out 99%+ of its potential workforce.

The reason why I suspect celibacy caused the problem was that when our faith eliminates most of its potential workforce, it takes what it can get.

As to the broader question of participating in Catholicism, think of it this way. We're still Americans and we still participate in our country -- because we believe in the cause and the inherent goodness of who and what we are. That's the case no matter how many bad actors we have.

For evil to prevail, all the good has to do is sit silently. Or to run from the problem.

[The Sultan]

Brother TAMU:

I came from a high school where priestly abuse of the student body was prevalent. The problem with celibacy and the anti-woman attitude of the church is exactly as you outline -- the Catholic Church ruled out 99%+ of its potential workforce.

The reason why I suspect celibacy caused the problem was that when our faith eliminates most of its potential workforce, it takes what it can get.

As to the broader question of participating in Catholicism, think of it this way. We're still Americans and we still participate in our country -- because we believe in the cause and the inherent goodness of who and what we are. That's the case no matter how many bad actors we have.

For evil to prevail, all the good has to do is sit silently. Or to run from the problem.

Yeah, but participation doesn't do anything to solve the problem unless it comes with some other call to action.

[Scoop Snoop]

For a number of years, I conducted training sessions as a facilitator for Virtus, the professionally developed program of the US Catholic Church. It is required for anyone who comes into contact with underage children and is designed to teach participants how to recognize known behavioral patterns of molesters in part 1 in a video. A discussion and a Q/A session follows. The second part of the training (more video) addresses how to counter the molesters by instituting strict procedures/practices and monitoring.

During the discussion periods, occasionally a participant decided to tell the group about having been abused. later, she told my wife that her brother had also been abused and committed suicide, having blamed himself. On one occasion, a woman went to a far corner of the oversized room and crouched tightly into a chair, watching the videos through her arms in front of her face (participants are told in advance that they were free to either avoid watching the first video or slip out of the room at any time).

On another occasion, a very pale faced couple approached me after the sessions. They were in shock and mumbled "Thank you. (long pause). We now realize we have a problem concerning one of our children. (near tears). Thank you."

Virtus is available free to everyone, whether Catholic, any other faith, or atheists. Info is on your local diocesan website. I can absolutely guarantee you that you do not know as much as you may believe you do about sexual abuse and encourage you to learn. You may have a great opportunity to live up to Marquette's motto" Be the Difference by reporting your observations to the authorities.

[Miss Katie’s]

For a number of years, I conducted training sessions as a facilitator for Virtus, the professionally developed program of the US Catholic Church. It is required for anyone who comes into contact with underage children and is designed to teach participants how to recognize known behavioral patterns of molesters in part 1 in a video. A discussion and a Q/A session follows. The second part of the training (more video) addresses how to counter the molesters by instituting strict procedures/practices and monitoring.

During the discussion periods, occasionally a participant decided to tell the group about having been abused. later, she told my wife that her brother had also been abused and committed suicide, having blamed himself. On one occasion, a woman went to a far corner of the oversized room and crouched tightly into a chair, watching the videos through her arms in front of her face (participants are told in advance that they were free to either avoid watching the first video or slip out of the room at any time).

On another occasion, a very pale faced couple approached me after the sessions. They were in shock and mumbled "Thank you. (long pause). We now realize we have a problem concerning one of our children. (near tears). Thank you."

Virtus is available free to everyone, whether Catholic, any other faith, or atheists. Info is on your local diocesan website. I can absolutely guarantee you that you do not know as much as you may believe you do about sexual abuse and encourage you to learn. You may have a great opportunity to live up to Marquette's motto" Be the Difference by reporting your observations to the authorities.

I had to take part in this training in order to be a chaperone on any field trips for my daughter's school.  It was very eye opening.  Thank you for your work with this program.