Catholic Church opposes Connecticut anti-paedophile law

[Scam of God]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

I'm just curious: why would the law put "all Church institutions, including your parish, at risk"? It's not as if these parishes have anything to hide, is it?

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

sad

[John Dibble]

sad

Agreed. The Catholic Church really is out of touch if they think that this is the kind of thing that's going to help their image.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

who cares about image?!  I am worried about doing the right thing regardless of how it makes me look.

why is there even a need for a cover-up?  what is so hard about removing someone from the clergy and handing them over to the police?  if someone in my church was involved in paedophile, they would be gone in an instant and without hesitation.

i don't understand how you can, on one hand, unscripturally forbid the clergy from marrying, then turn right around and cover up sexual assaults against children.

I respect the Catholic Church, but they're screwed up and have strayed from the faith in a lot of different areas.

[John Dibble]

who cares about image?!

The Catholic Church, apparently.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Me too. I'm simply noting that since they are so concerned about it they should do the right thing (expel pedophile priests or clergy who commit other highly unlawful acts, cooperate with law enforcement, etc.) would actually help improve their image rather than harm it, which is what they seem to think.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Hell if I know. Picking up the phone and dialing 911 or going down to the local police station seems rather easy to me.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

I don't disagree. (well, the unscriptural part is all a matter of interpretation I suppose)

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Again, I don't disagree.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

There's no clear evidence that pedophilia is any greater problem in Catholic churches than Protestant churches (in fact it could be just as well quite the opposite).  The only reason that that Catholic scandals take the lion's share of the media coverage is its comparative centralization; they actually document and compile the abuse.

There is one reason to suspect that it's a bigger problem for the Catholic Church than other denominations; most churches don't run care-homes and alternative social support networks, at least not on on the scale that the Catholic Church does.

[Torie]

If the evidentiary trail is old and cold, then presumably there would not be enough evidence to convict, so color me skeptical that that is the main concern of the bishops. Indeed, it might be quite the reverse; the concern is that, even though the events occurred long ago, there is in fact that , there is still enough available evidence to send some folks to the slammer, and some more diocese into BK court.

Regarding other churches having clergy doing little boys too, no doubt that is true,  but of course, what is really sexy about the Catholic story are the elaborate cover-ups; the outfit simply didn't know how to cut its loses.

[Gustaf]

who cares about image?!

The Catholic Church, apparently.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Me too. I'm simply noting that since they are so concerned about it they should do the right thing (expel pedophile priests or clergy who commit other highly unlawful acts, cooperate with law enforcement, etc.) would actually help improve their image rather than harm it, which is what they seem to think.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Hell if I know. Picking up the phone and dialing 911 or going down to the local police station seems rather easy to me.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

I don't disagree. (well, the unscriptural part is all a matter of interpretation I suppose)

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Again, I don't disagree.

Actually, I don't really think this is the case. Apart from the fact that the Catholic Church is alone among larges Christian churces to practice celibacy (at least to my knowledge) they didn't even do it themselves. Celibacy was not introduced until after a couple of centuries and had more to do with internal power stuff than religious matters, IIRC (basically, they didn't want priests to favour their heirs).