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Outrage over sex crimes against children depend on whether they are Catholic or not [UPDATE]

Compare and contrast

Guy in charge fires all the teachers, whether they are guilty or innocent. Presumably they'll go on to get jobs elsewhere, but no matter, he's dealt to the problem.

Faced with a shocking case of a teacher accused of playing classroom sex games with children for years, Los Angeles schools Superintendent John Deasy delivered another jolt: He removed the school's entire staff — from custodians to the principal — to smash what he called a "culture of silence."

"It was a quick, responsible, responsive action to a heinous situation," he said. "We're not going to spend a long time debating student safety."

The controversial decision underscores the 51-year-old superintendent's shake-up of the lethargic bureaucracy at the nation's second-largest school district. His swift, bold moves have rankled some and won praise from others during his first year of leadership.

Superintendent fires entire school staff over classroom sex allegations (Hattip: Crusader Rabbit)

How about reporting the entire staff to police?  Probably didn't, as the police might need far more specific information that he didn't have, but never mind, no one wanted that because we are not talking about Catholics here, so nothing to see, move on ...

Anyway, twenty years ago in Australia, some priests had a meeting with a priest accused of abusing children. The Australian media has been in a frenzy over this over the last week, with there being no sign of it calming down. Now, the media is using it to attack the whole notion of a celibate Catholic priesthood, which even though it is not to blame for priests abusing children, it is to blame.  Huh?

Nothing sacred about celibacy

Yeah, it's confused, but that's to be expected in a sex-saturated culture.  The whole idea of celibacy to most in our society seems to be considered far more sinister than any other sexual choice.

However, celibacy is not an issue in schools, and yet they are not immune from sexual abuse allegations, as multiple news items show.  Why isn't sending children off to be looked after by other adults through compulsory schooling being looked at more closely?  What good is it if some children are sexually molested?  Doesn't the harm outweigh the good that schools do?  No, when it comes to schools, it's too important to all of us that our children attend, therefore we will take the risk that they'll be ok, and that things will be dealt with somewhat when they come up.

What about the boys scouts?  Here's a news story that the Catholic bashers might want to look into, Child abuse in Scouts dwarfs Catholic Church.
A televised report from an ABC affiliate in Phoenix has built upon the recent revelation that the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) kept files on thousands of cases of child sex abuse.
The voluminous amount of stomach-turning abuse cases prompted Seattle attorney Tim Kosnoff to opine:
"I think the amount of abuse in the Boy Scouts of America dwarfs that which we've seen in the Catholic Church."
Kosnoff's statement is remarkable considering that he has secured millions of dollars in settlements from "several Roman Catholic dioceses, the Jesuits, and other religious orders."
Have a watch of the video below:

 
Waiting for the outrage ... Hmmmm, doesn't involve only priests, so I'll be waiting a long time, I think. Meanwhile, Whale Oil writes another post in which he tries to take the moral high ground, Hey Catholics…Boy Buggering is bad. Yes, we know. We also know all consensual sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman is bad as well. Even sex with yourself, even looking at porn, even imagining sex with someone. All of that is covered under "bad". However, all those definitions of badness make most people very uncomfortable, especially when they are championing another form of sex outside marriage: same sex relationships.  Thus the demonisation of Catholics in order to destroy moral credibility in the protest against the redefinition of marriage.  This is a very dirty battle indeed.
UPDATE: Police were told of an Australian priest's offending back in 1983, but nothing was done by them. Police 'took no action' over priest's abuse
NSW police were told that a Catholic priest now at the centre of a child sex abuse scandal was abusing boys almost 30 years ago, but took no action against him. In 1983, the father of an 11-year-old altar boy told officers in the town of Moree that his son had been touched inappropriately by the priest, known as Father F for legal reasons. The boy's father, who asked not to be named, said he raised the allegation with the late Monsignor Frank Ryan, a church official in the diocese of Armidale on three occasions, but nothing was done. "So I spoke to the police and they said they were aware of (Father F's) activities and something would come out of it," the father said. "But nothing happened."

Will the police be demonised? Doubt it.

Comments

  1. Indeed Maria Lucia.....

    A survey of the school system in the States as part of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act in 2002 found that sexual abuse in schools is "likely 100 times the abuse by priests" (Researcher Charol Shakeshaft)

    In the Californian public school system alone the mind-boggling number of students who would be victims before graduation...422,000.... the entire enrollment in Catholic Schools in the State 143,000.

    There's some chilling perspective there for those with an anti Catholic agenda ... but then I get the feeling that truth is always going to bring up the rear...

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  2. but we also shouldn't forget there is an "industry" around this, that once promoted the lie that 1 in 3 girls in NZ would be abused by their fathers and got national TV publicity for this fake stat and saw a vast number of girls wondering which of their two friends were a victim. There is a radical-feminist agenda behind it to demonise fathers and men in authority around children, which has succeeded in gutting men from the teaching profession, especially for kids below high school age.

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  3. Sure, you can see many instances where fatherhood and the family suffer from generalised accusations, such as "all men are rapists".

    I think the key difference being articulated in the last few posts is that the "all priests are pedophiles" is used indiscriminently and is almost "accpeted as fact" and the extent of this can be seen baying for the blood of any priest, and the desire to shut down the Catholic Church using this as an excuse.

    There haven't been such widespread acceptance of the "all men are rapists" mantra, and ensuring men are banned from access to pornography, in the same way people inanely call for an end to priestly celibacy.

    This comment a bit garbled - gotta run to a meeting. Back later.

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  4. LibertyScott,

    "to imply that there is anything remotely equivalent about child rape compared to masturbation.

    I am fairly sure you don't believe that, or mean that, but if you're going to be glib about the former because you're tired of the ordained of your faith having the finger pointed at them for crimes that others do also, then you'll be fodder for many who simply consider Catholics to be morally bankrupt."


    Of course all sins against the Sixth Commandment are not morally equivalent, even though they are all mortal (ie one-way ticket to hell if done deliberately with full knowledge and full consent).

    It's one thing if your sin harms just yourself, it's another completely if it harms another, and much, much worse if it harms an innocent child.

    I understand that a lot of people think there is nothing at all harmful in masturbation and that they find the Church's position on this strange or even offensive. However, the thing with sin is that it not only has a negative effect on the soul, but also on the body, and masturbation, even if you don't accept that it's morally wrong, is not immune from negative effects.

    Furthermore, masturbation is training yourself in selfishness, where sex becomes about what it does for you, not what you can give to the person you love. This is part of the reason why it is a mortal.

    "The Catholic "problem" with sexcrime is due to the proliferation of rampant hypocrisy by men of the cloth, who entrusted with power over children, taught shame about bodies and then used them for their own pleasure. It is particularly vile, as vile as parents abusing their own children relative to a random stranger."

    I've not heard of any instances where this has been the case. I would have thought it would be more likely for such men to be most lax with their teachings on sexual morals so that they could continue to have access to their victims.

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  5. It's because the Catholic Church has had the balls to stand up to the modern so-called morality.

    Hypocrisy has nothing to do with it (in general at least) - as noted above, they have 1% of the problem that schools have, and schools screen people who work there.

    I always recall similar issues that the Salvation Army had. But you never hear about them these days because the Sallies aren't taking the lead in the culture wars, sticking to their traditional strengths of working with the poor (And good on them for that work that they do).

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  6. libertyscott's second post is also a good thing to keep in mind.

    We had a friend who had a neighbour who's family was destroyed by them. She ended up telling all sorts of stories, clearly fiction, yet he did time. Lucky the warden realized he's been screwed and gave him a lot of responsibility and privileges, but still - prison is prison. And of course, if you maintain your innocence that's evidence you haven't been "rehabilitated".

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