It's justice at last, but justice that falls on the shoulders of a lot of earnest parishioners who have dug into their pockets every week to add to the collection plate.
I have traveled extensively in Catholic countries especially Mexico, Guatemala and Peru, driving often dirt backroads through villages. One thing they all have in common is a beautiful Catholic Church. Another thing they all have in common is poverty.
Regrettably, this pattern of abuse of children and minors has been part of the Catholic Church's history in virtually every country in which it is active. One would think they might realize they have a systemic problem. We know the basic reason for celibacy historically was to capture priests' personal property for the church and not allow it to pass to a spouse or family. Now it has become a time bomb that will bring down the Church if not corrected. A church with so much moral corruption will not have any moral authority, and little influence with local governments or populations. Look at Ireland.....
Tax all non profits? You may want to think it through. Look at our foundation for example: Phillips Renner Foundation. Our overhead is zero and our annual budget is tiny but we treat thousands of children in the world.
Thanks Tom. Of all crimes committed, to me the worst are the physical, mental, and emotional abuse of children and at the slimy bottom of the barrel are people believed to be of trust: religion, education, law enforcement. Members of these professions should receive the worse punishments
We have treated and I am sure will treat quite a few abused children all over the world. My heart aches every day. Every face is etched inside me forever.
The damage is incalculable. I have a friend who was raised Catholic, has been “therapied” all her life and still has so much guilt it eats her alive. The emotional abuse that she suffered will be with her to the grave I fear, and the abuse was generational.
I had no idea that these large cases were still active. How horrible that the young are victimized, and then have to wait so long for dollar compensation. Money doesn't fix the victim, but it can hurt the Catholic church.
A great fictional account of the Boston Archdiocese and abusive priests, is the movie Spotlight. In the final credits are listed the places priests were shown to be molesters. The list has hundreds of locations.
Abuse, coercion, the disrespect of another sentient being is deplorable. The institutional Catholic churches comeuppance is long overdue. Like the quote “money is the root of all evil.” “Religion is the root of all evil” is leaving out one salient fact. It is not faith or connection to a higher source of wisdom or the love of a pile of useless paper that are the problem. The problem is the Love of money for what it get you that others do not have and the mindless subservience to an institution that is human and not divine. When a person or an institution asks for my support of trust I have two questions. What is your source of revelation, and who do you serve? Once you can answer these questions for your own life it makes separating the sheep from the goats easier. In the end what we have is the will to increase our ability to choose wisely, one day at a time.
Just city blocks from me is the hulk of the former St. Clare's hospital. It was there for years. When it closed the people who worked there discovered there pension money was gone as a result of the Albany Catholic Diocese fucking things up to save money. They all retired with nothing and years of litigation has resulted in the diocese going bankrupt as a ruse to avoid paying up. The current bishop is a nazi and former one, the one who orchestrated the mess, died of a viagra overdose shortly after he retired. This is who they are.
My father (born 1911), altar boy and choir boy, left the Catholic church as soon as he got away from his mother, to college. My brother and I have always wondered whether all this was going on in the teens and twenties of the last century. I will say that if it did, Dad showed no ill effects in his attitude towards us or other children. But he was really quite bitter--and ended up as a Deacon of the Episcopal Church, so it wasn't just a loss of faith.
The financial bankruptcy finally follows on the moral bankruptcy that has been the Catholic Church's lot for hundreds of years, dating back to when they were among the foremost owners of and dealers in chattel slaves.
A good beginning to the recognition by a religious institution of the often fatal impact that the abuse of power by sexualized violence has on those targeted. And as with all of us thousands of too often still silenced survivors a social salve to the heinous calumnies and woundings we all continue to carry.
It would be wrong of me to point my finger at just one church or institution, but given this good news, it does make me wonder a bit about other institutions that seem to be nesting places for sick men, aka SCOTUS and those in Congress like Gym Jordan and Matt Gaetz and possibly (or probably) Mike Johnson and even the self-appointed poobah and chameleon, JD Vance.
Priests take vows of poverty, something rarely seen in the Catholic church., but it makes for good PR. Let them live without their luxury cars, expensive vacations, Cuban cigars, and imported wines. The parish priests hold the power of the confessional, the worst kind of power that enables them to manipulate children into their victimization. Intermediaries between God and Man are always suspect in my book. Besides, the local barbers will confirm that they've never seen any haloes 'round the heads of these men.
The history of the Catholic
church is not a pretty picture.
Nearly every organized
religion has ruptured by the
curtains being pulled back
and light being shown within.
Power of any type corrupts,
absolutely; one way or
another. For me, faith is
entirely separate from
organized religion.
Agreed. Faith today almost requires separation from any organized church.
Organized by men to use people’s faith in “god” to satisfy their personal needs. I call it evil.
It's justice at last, but justice that falls on the shoulders of a lot of earnest parishioners who have dug into their pockets every week to add to the collection plate.
Hate to say it but "ouf course." Isn't that the way the world's oldest continuous conjob - the state church of the Roman Empire - always did it?
I have traveled extensively in Catholic countries especially Mexico, Guatemala and Peru, driving often dirt backroads through villages. One thing they all have in common is a beautiful Catholic Church. Another thing they all have in common is poverty.
And some of those villages have little classrooms of children that look strangely alike.
Maybe like a priest…
And another thing they have in common is numerous children with very little food and horrible oral hygiene.
Go to the Vatican and check out the riches! Obscene!
Regrettably, this pattern of abuse of children and minors has been part of the Catholic Church's history in virtually every country in which it is active. One would think they might realize they have a systemic problem. We know the basic reason for celibacy historically was to capture priests' personal property for the church and not allow it to pass to a spouse or family. Now it has become a time bomb that will bring down the Church if not corrected. A church with so much moral corruption will not have any moral authority, and little influence with local governments or populations. Look at Ireland.....
Seems the Church just gains more political authority with its increased moral corruption.
Solve this: Tax the Church.
Yes, and tax ALL “non-profits.”
Tax all non profits? You may want to think it through. Look at our foundation for example: Phillips Renner Foundation. Our overhead is zero and our annual budget is tiny but we treat thousands of children in the world.
Rex
Thanks Tom. Of all crimes committed, to me the worst are the physical, mental, and emotional abuse of children and at the slimy bottom of the barrel are people believed to be of trust: religion, education, law enforcement. Members of these professions should receive the worse punishments
We have treated and I am sure will treat quite a few abused children all over the world. My heart aches every day. Every face is etched inside me forever.
The damage is incalculable. I have a friend who was raised Catholic, has been “therapied” all her life and still has so much guilt it eats her alive. The emotional abuse that she suffered will be with her to the grave I fear, and the abuse was generational.
Thanks for reporting on this Tom. I remember the case from my time in LA.
It's good to hear that some measure of justice has been done.
A lot of second sons were encouraged to become priests. In the age of primogeniture, those second born sons got no property that could be inherited.
I had no idea that these large cases were still active. How horrible that the young are victimized, and then have to wait so long for dollar compensation. Money doesn't fix the victim, but it can hurt the Catholic church.
A great fictional account of the Boston Archdiocese and abusive priests, is the movie Spotlight. In the final credits are listed the places priests were shown to be molesters. The list has hundreds of locations.
Spotlight is excellent. If anyone here hasn't seen it, go watch it.
I misspoke. Spotlight is based on the real efforts of The Boston Globe to bring Catholic priests abuses to light. It's not a work of fiction.
Religion is at the root of most evil, if not all.
Abuse, coercion, the disrespect of another sentient being is deplorable. The institutional Catholic churches comeuppance is long overdue. Like the quote “money is the root of all evil.” “Religion is the root of all evil” is leaving out one salient fact. It is not faith or connection to a higher source of wisdom or the love of a pile of useless paper that are the problem. The problem is the Love of money for what it get you that others do not have and the mindless subservience to an institution that is human and not divine. When a person or an institution asks for my support of trust I have two questions. What is your source of revelation, and who do you serve? Once you can answer these questions for your own life it makes separating the sheep from the goats easier. In the end what we have is the will to increase our ability to choose wisely, one day at a time.
At last some sort of justice!
Just city blocks from me is the hulk of the former St. Clare's hospital. It was there for years. When it closed the people who worked there discovered there pension money was gone as a result of the Albany Catholic Diocese fucking things up to save money. They all retired with nothing and years of litigation has resulted in the diocese going bankrupt as a ruse to avoid paying up. The current bishop is a nazi and former one, the one who orchestrated the mess, died of a viagra overdose shortly after he retired. This is who they are.
Yuck. Why is Viagara still a thing when women can ‘t get meds for their health.
My father (born 1911), altar boy and choir boy, left the Catholic church as soon as he got away from his mother, to college. My brother and I have always wondered whether all this was going on in the teens and twenties of the last century. I will say that if it did, Dad showed no ill effects in his attitude towards us or other children. But he was really quite bitter--and ended up as a Deacon of the Episcopal Church, so it wasn't just a loss of faith.
It's been going on since 331AD when Emperor Constantine made an offer to the Holy Fathers they could not refuse.
My Catholic friend told me of a priest who faked his death until his mother died, then, a miraculous “resurrection” with a wife…. Insanity
The financial bankruptcy finally follows on the moral bankruptcy that has been the Catholic Church's lot for hundreds of years, dating back to when they were among the foremost owners of and dealers in chattel slaves.
A good beginning to the recognition by a religious institution of the often fatal impact that the abuse of power by sexualized violence has on those targeted. And as with all of us thousands of too often still silenced survivors a social salve to the heinous calumnies and woundings we all continue to carry.
It would be wrong of me to point my finger at just one church or institution, but given this good news, it does make me wonder a bit about other institutions that seem to be nesting places for sick men, aka SCOTUS and those in Congress like Gym Jordan and Matt Gaetz and possibly (or probably) Mike Johnson and even the self-appointed poobah and chameleon, JD Vance.
Priests take vows of poverty, something rarely seen in the Catholic church., but it makes for good PR. Let them live without their luxury cars, expensive vacations, Cuban cigars, and imported wines. The parish priests hold the power of the confessional, the worst kind of power that enables them to manipulate children into their victimization. Intermediaries between God and Man are always suspect in my book. Besides, the local barbers will confirm that they've never seen any haloes 'round the heads of these men.
My sentiments