Originally posted by spikey
reply to post by Hemisphere
Are there any non-paedophile priests in the RC church?
Yes, of course there are.
Thing is though, the 'lumping together' is so, because apart from there being a significantly higher proportion of these slime paedophiles posing as
good people within the RC church, the vast majority of the non-paedophile priests (and nuns for that matter) actively aids and abets the paedophiles
by covering the crimes up, and not speaking out against them.
So really, the child rapist and the conspirators who hide it are all as guilty as each other.
That's why there's the 'lumping together'.
Spikey, I mostly agree with you. You know there are issues of conscience aplenty in this. I remember back in my (public) high school, the mid 70's,
and no not 1870's, it was well known by students and teachers that there were male teachers, some married, that were openly dating and bedding their
female students. A number of these "couples" were seen lunching openly on school days at a local restaurant owned by a former teacher of the school
district. We're talking men in their late 20's/early 30's with 16 year olds. We often saw these "couples" drive out of the school parking lot
together. I personally heard one of the girls involved bragging openly that she was served alcohol at these lunches without being proofed.
The number of teachers involved was small. The number of students was small. The issue was both hinted at and openly discussed within the school and
between students and teachers. The wife of one of the men taught in this very same school while this was happening. They later divorced. The wife was
my French teacher. (Don't go there!) Yet, with a large number of fellow teachers knowing first hand or having heard the rumors, no investigation or
stoppage of the behavior(s) were implemented. And as you might imagine, like something out of bad movie, one of the male teachers involved eventually
married one of those then minor girls. These were not people a couple years apart. This was a 30 something and a teenager. Married just months after
her graduation. I suppose that made it socially acceptable. Not to me mind you.
They still live in our town. The guy is still in the school system although must surely be approaching retirement. I've softened somewhat to their
cheesy deal. If she was an adult I would thought nothing of it. 15 or 20 years apart? Who cares as long as you're both adults when you hook up? One
might argue what does a year or two matter? When one person is in a position of power over the other it makes all the difference. My opinion, although
I think it's widely accepted.
Here's a little aside I think you'll enjoy. I had to coach their son in soccer about 12 years ago. The son was a good kid and the parents were from
my vantage point good parents and an apparently normal couple aside from the now clearly obvious age disparity. And no I never told the son "Hey,
your mom and I went to high school together and your dad taught us both!" But it does go through your mind. That would have been a rather cruel thing
for a practicing Catholic to say. But my wife and I had a couple good laughs over that.
Life goes on and you hope everyone's delivers a "and
they lived happily ever after" ending. Should this relationship have been nipped in the bud decades earlier? All I can say is I'm glad I was not
another teacher in the school with that knowledge.
There is no excuse for not speaking out when these instances occur. Why were the other teachers silent? Dozens of moral, good hearted, bright,
dedicated educators said nothing. One can imagine the reasoning but as I said no reasons were valid excuses. My point is people are constantly
bombarded with issues of conscience that challenge and threaten the good they do in their lives. I can imagine it's just that way for good people
within the Church too. We all would like to imagine that we would risk our career, family, friendships, reputation and even our lives at just the hint
of impropriety. Yet we see over and over that this is extremely difficult for many. I can only imagine the difficulty that a priest or nun has in
bucking the system that they believe in. They have been indoctrinated to believe that the Church is always under attack from evil. If they've never
encountered the wrongful acts first hand, what more would they think?
I think in most life issues there are shades and levels of involvement. I think a lot of the clergy have only rumor and innuendo to go on. We never
saw any of this at our former parish although it was in our diocese. The former bishop was involved in covering up. I took my family out of the Church
a couple years ago. These pedophile scandals were among my reasons. It was not easy mind you. We had to choose between all the good things that we
were able to do and experience within the parish. Parishes and individual Catholics do much good in their communities. We found other outlets once we
left but again it's not a pleasant experience leaving. It's hard to change course half way through your life. But you live through it and you move
on. I have no regrets with what I did before or what I'm doing now. I feel fortunate to be very much the same person I was before leaving Church. We
feel rather fortunate to see things from the outside now.
[edit on 2-4-2010 by Hemisphere]