My Wet Coast Life

I guess i've finally had it and seen enough articles in the press to feel the need to lay in on this topic and put out my point of view on this issue. For years we have been hearing case after case of child abuse at the hands of the Catholic clergy and i'm sickened even more each article that shows more cover ups, secrecy oaths and lack of respect for the law, let alone the the number of innocent victims themselves, when it comes to this topic.

I ask myself, what is wrong with the Catholic religion? It seems to be the only religion facing these accusations as well as being just as diligent in covering them up. All you need to do is search the net or read the paper and voila, you have articles about child abuse occurring for decades, priests and bishops covering up the allegations, moving the offending priest to another location thinking that would solve the problem at hand (and in a lot of cases re-offending). On top of that, they were/are not reporting it to authorities, or if they did, the authorities in some cases would turn a blind eye, which i can only assume religion had a hand in that, which hindered this situation even more.

Seriously, WTF?

Does this religion not state the fact that child abuse is a sin as is homosexuality? Regardless of anyone's religion, i doubt many would accept child abuse as a privilege or right. The fact that for decades, or possibly centuries (one can only hope not), this has been going on and being covered up, just astonishes me but they still let it happen.

Now before i go any further, i am not for organized religion but i am for everyone's right to choice for the religion they believe in and sexual preference. It's your body and as a consenting ADULT, you should have that choice. But what grinds my gears is when people abuse their privilege and power to cause harm to innocent children and then hide behind their religion.

In my opinion, this shows me a couple things about the religion:

1. It is two faced depending on the issue at hand and what suits its needs, with morality and common sense thrown out the window.
2. It accepts violations of its own guidelines, principles and beliefs instead of condoning the actions and being pro-active in preventing it. What ever happened to practice what you preach? Religion or otherwise.
3. It is willing to cover up issues instead of identifying them, addressing them and being pro-active in preventing them from re-occurring
4. For anyone who was aware and did nothing to stop it and/or aided in the cover ups, they indirectly supported these actions of child abuse for not speaking out and are just as guilty.

Now why do i say that? Well, let's look at a couple examples and you can decide for yourself?

Follow up:

Let's start with a letter from the Pope to the people of Ireland. The only reason this came to light is the fact the cover ups could no longer be covered up and the only option was to lay it out and show this has been occurring for decades and ignored by the clergy and they are "trying" to change it. Now i say "trying" with a grain of salt as this has occurred for long enough, if this did not make it to the press, would they still try and stop this? Here is an excerpt from the Pope's letter directed to those who did the abuse:

You betrayed the trust that was placed in you by innocent young people and their parents, and you must answer for it before Almighty God and before properly constituted tribunals. You have forfeited the esteem of the people of Ireland and brought shame and dishonour upon your confreres. Those of you who are priests violated the sanctity of the sacrament of Holy Orders in which Christ makes himself present in us and in our actions. Together with the immense harm done to victims, great damage has been done to the Church and to the public perception of the priesthood and religious life.

I urge you to examine your conscience, take responsibility for the sins you have committed, and humbly express your sorrow. Sincere repentance opens the door to God’s forgiveness and the grace of true amendment. By offering prayers and penances for those you have wronged, you should seek to atone personally for your actions. Christ’s redeeming sacrifice has the power to forgive even the gravest of sins, and to bring forth good from even the most terrible evil. At the same time, God’s justice summons us to give an account of our actions and to conceal nothing. Openly acknowledge your guilt, submit yourselves to the demands of justice, but do not despair of God’s mercy.

Let's take a look at the last sentence. "God’s justice summons us to give an account of our actions and to conceal nothing"? Seriously? conceal nothing...hmmm...let's hear it for a round of practice what you preach? These people abused children and the people that were aware of the allegations covered it up and rarely reported it to authorities. If it was reported to authorities, they turned a blind eye to some cases. To me that makes any and all who were aware an accessory to the crime and should be charged as well and lose there position.

What makes religion higher than the law of the land? We have laws for equality and just because you were the main religion that most countries base a lot of morals, teachings and laws on, doesn't mean you are exempt. Does this mean if you are a Catholic priest, you can abuse children knowing you will have the protection of the church against criminal proceedings? Now consider this, if this was just a regular citizen, Christian or not, that did the abuse, would they get the same reprieve to ask for their respective God’s forgiveness and not be criminally charged? i highly doubt it. They would be charged and have the book thrown at them and hope they survive the time in jail for being a convicted child abuser...so why do the Christian priests get a free pass?

The fact they, the church, consistently covered it up, did secrecy oaths and cash payouts, just shows they would rather turn a blind eye to the issue and sweep it under the rug than address it and prevent it. The Church has been more interested in protecting its reputation and helping its priests than seeking justice for victims. The fact that priests who were accused of child abuse and found guilty by the church only got moved to another church and no blemish or information to there record to show the past just confirms the two sided rules.

How come the accused never got kicked out of the church or stripped on their position when the Code of Canon law states it? Even Pope Benedict XVI himself is in hot water over these issues. In Germany, even after accusations of abuse connected to the Regensburg boys choir directed by the Pope's elder brother for 30 years, the Munich archdiocese acknowledged that it had transferred a suspected pedophile priest to community work while Benedict was archbishop there. In 2001 while a Vatican cardinal, Benedict wrote a church directive instructing bishops to keep abuse cases confidential. All i can say is WOW

Then you have the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland apologizing over revelations that he failed to alert police about a notorious paedophile priest. The two children abused by Father Brendan Smyth were asked to take a vow of silence as part of the investigation. A vow of silence only confirms the accusations were correct and the church was covering it up. That epic failure to notify police at the time allowed Smyth to abuse children for a further 18 years.

The Vatican even stated "The Holy Father observed that the sexual abuse of children and young people is not only a heinous crime, but also a grave sin which offends God and wounds the dignity of the human person created in his image." but they still would rather cover it up.

The Murphy report, based on a sample of just 46 priests, revealed a catalogue of paedophilia and subsequent cover-ups over three decades because the Catholic hierarchy was obsessed with secrecy and was effectively granted immunity by the police. It was commissioned by the Irish government to investigate how the church dealt with allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests from 1975 to 2004. It concluded that the Dublin Archdiocese's pre-occupations in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid 1990s, were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets. Parents trusted them to protect and guide their children and look out for their best interests, not abuse them and ensure a cloak of secrecy.

Now this secrecy is based on Crimen sollicitationis (Latin for "the crime of soliciting"). It was drawn up in a letter in 1962 by the Holy Office. This laid down procedures to be followed in dealing with cases of clerics (priests or bishops) of the Roman Catholic Church accused of having used the sacrament of Penance to make sexual advances to penitents. It gave specific instructions on how to carry out the rules in the Code of Canon Law on dealing with such cases, and directed that the same procedures be used when dealing with denunciations of homosexual, paedophile or zoophile behaviour by clerics. It stated that any Catholic who failed for over a month to denounce a priest, who had made such advances, was automatically excommunicated and could be absolved only after actually denouncing the priest or at least promising seriously to do so.

So 48 years this document has been around, and any priest that is aware should have reported it...hmmmmm. One option they had was "promising seriously" to report it? And that differs from a normal promise how? Maybe that lack of knowledge of this document and there own secrecy to keep this under wraps made it so no one is aware of this Code of Canon Law. How many were suspended from celebrating Mass and declared unfit for hearing sacramental confessions? Deprived of all benefices and ranks? Reduced to the lay state? Well, we can call in the fail boat on this one as we have repeated cases where none of this occurred.

Now based on all of these documents of rules and laws for handling child abuse allegations, i find it hard to believe the current Pope has made it this far without being aware of the gravity of this issue and the wide spread impact it has on his religion and followers. In 1980, the Pope was the Archbishop of Munich overseeing the Archdiocese. The future pope not only led a meeting in 1980, approving the transfer of the priest to his district, but that he was also kept informed about the priest’s subsequent reassignments. The offending father, Father Hullermann, was repeatedly transferred over the following years by the church officials to new parishes and allowed him to continue to work with children. In 1986, the father was convicted for sexually abusing boys but the church still allowed him to stay and was only suspended this month. THIS MONTH? That's almost 30 years of abusing children under the churches protection and knowledge of the now current Pope. To compound it, 24 years of that was as a convicted child abuser. Seriously, what is wrong with your religious leaders to allow this? And you made this person your Pope?

The Pope faces accusations that in the 1990s, he failed to discipline priests who had molested children and did not alert the civil authorities. One prime example is Father Lawrence Murphy, a priest in Wisconsin, who taught at a school for deaf children from 1950 to 1974. He assaulted 200 children in his care. Documents in the case claim that successive archbishops failed to report allegations against Murphy to the police. 200 possibly preventable abuses...just a shame.

No apology or confession can fix the emotional scars left on the abused children. They will never get their childhood back, there is no undo option. How many were abused when it could have been prevented?

I personally think any and all who are aware and took no actions to step down and follow your own law. You have let down your religion, shamed yourself and your followers and shown severe lack of morals in protecting our youth and our future. I feel sorry for all the victims that had to be put through this and enraged that so little was done to prevent it. How can any parent, knowingly allow there children to participate with church leaders not knowing if they are a known child abuser, have been moved from another parish or if abuse happens, will be covered up and forced to take an oath of secrecy or they're out of the church????

So i put this out to you, the reader. No matter what your religion may be, you need to stand up and voice your concern over this type of issue and end it now. For the Christian priests, either follow your law or quit. You do not deserve to be a leader of anyone and the longer this continues, the more i despise organized religion and the more you set back your own cause and beliefs. You are making a mockery of your religion and its beliefs and it could eventually destroy the religion if your current thought process is not reversed. For the follower of this faith, ask yourself, are your religious leaders, based on there actions or lack there of, representing the best interests of you and your religion?

I leave it up to you now to do what you think is right.