330,000 or so
Maybe it’s something about the Catholic church? Is that possible?
An estimated 330,000 children were victims of sex abuse within France’s Catholic Church over the past 70 years, according to a report released Tuesday that represents the country’s first major accounting of the worldwide phenomenon.
The figure includes abuses committed by some 3,000 priests and other people involved in the church — wrongdoing that Catholic authorities covered up over decades in a “systemic manner,” according to the president of the commission that issued the report, Jean-Marc Sauvé.
Of course they did. They’re the church, God’s own representatives on earth, so obviously they get to decide. Raping children is just God’s reward to all these goddy celibate men for managing his propaganda.
Olivier Savignac, the head of victims association Parler et Revivre (Speak Out and Live Again), contributed to the investigation. He told The Associated Press that the high ratio of victims per abuser was particularly “terrifying for French society, for the Catholic Church.”
Savignac assailed the church for treating such cases as individual anomalies instead of as a collective horror.
Kind of like the way the police treat Wayne Couzens as an individual anomaly.
Sauvé denounced the church’s attitude until the beginning of the 2000s as “a deep, cruel indifference toward victims.”
That’s one of the problems with godbothering: the focus is on the imaginary Boss Man and the Boss Man’s deputies, and the mere human beings are just his slaves.
1. I doubt this all started in 1951.
2. It seems to be a feature of the Catholic Church and not a bug.
Yes I think we can be very confident it didn’t start 70 years ago. I suppose the cutoff is living adult memory.
Ugh. 330,000 children, 70 years, 3000 priests–any way you do the math, that’s just horrific.
There’s a Catholic church around the corner that takes up most of a block; I often find it convenient to cut through the parking lot. Outside of the social building (not sure what to call it–I’m sure it’s got some fancy name–but it’s where they have social gatherings and I guess classes) there’s a horrible statue of a priest with his arm around the shoulders of a young boy about half the size. Not the image you should want to project, I always think when I see it. But perhaps it is.
If the owner of a corner lolly shop was caught running a pedophile ring as a sideline, he would likely be jailed, his business closed down and sold up, and the proceeds used to compensate his victims. But that great big lolly enterprise known as the Catholic Church is too big to fail, and its clerics have come up with a corporate structure that cannot be sued by its victims. And so, allowing some time for the dust to settle, the Satanic bacchanal will resume.
I’ve read in some sources that the rationale for the celibate priests is so they won’t leave their money to a wife or children, but to the church. So in the general scheme of things, keeping them from getting married by allowing them to rape children may be seen as collateral damage.
My understanding is that being open about human rights abuses by the Church would cause people to mistrust the Church, which would lead to doubt, which would lead to souls in eternal damnation. Therefore the Church must be protected at all costs. After all, what’s the trauma of thousands of raped children set against potentially millions of souls languishing in hell for all eternity?
PRIORITIES, people.
/s
Speaking of Catholic churches taking up most of a block – Seattle is pocked with domineering Catholic church domes or towers that loom over two or three blocks of Catholic imperialism – church, school, playground, second playground, parking lot, offices. There’s one a few blocks from here, and others all over the city. No other denomination has that kind of horrible looming dominance.
God sends these predatory priests among His flock to test their faith.
Come to think of it, everything is supposed to be a test of faith. The whole point of existence, isn’t it?
So you should trust a priest the way you trust God. And trust God the way you’d trust a priest.
WaM #3 – was it like this? A statue in the grounds of Blackfriars School in Adelaide. That NO ONE stopped to think about the image before it was “erected” tells us all we need to know about the Catholic lack of foresight for anything other than souls and offerings.
https://i.postimg.cc/Gt82NNf7/external-content-duckduckgo-com.jpg
Roj,
It’s a little more discreet.
Another benefit of living in the northern English countryside: no Catholic churches anywhere near. Good, they can stay the fuck away. There are a lot of young children in our village.
‘We don’t need to think about the sexual behavior of priests…they SAY that they are celibate.’
Celibate idennity, ya know.
latsot, you are fortunate. I have an enormous Catholic church practically in my back yard. The church is so huge, the city had to close a street to accommodate it.
And I don’t know if they’re the one that does this, because I have about a gadzillion large churches in walking distance from my house, but one of them plays Sunday School songs on their hour chimes. They get stuck in my head, which is beyond annoying, So the other day I decided to rewrite one of the:
Jesus loves the little children, all the children on his plate.
With ketchup, mustard, and a side,
He prefers them deep fried.
Jesus loves the little children on his plate.
When I got to work, I discovered it was Blasphemy day. Highly appropriate day to rewrite that song.
But as for Catholic Churches, we have more than a few of them in Nebraska; it’s one of the two largest religions in the state, the other being Lutheran. The majority of my friends are Catholic. And put their fingers in their ears going “I can’t hear you!” anytime anything negative comes out about the church…which is actually quite frequently these days. I wonder how long until their fingers become permanently fixed into their ears.
I understood that happened after confirmation.
Although, as a soft atheist at the time, married to a cafeteria catholic, both our children went through the whole rigamarole. Now my wife and both children are atheists.
We are fortunate indeed, because there aren’t any churches at all for miles around. The closest, as far as I know, is about 10 miles away. There was a CofE church for the village but it shut down years ago because of poor attendance (ha!).
Sadly, though, the beautiful old building is falling into disrepair because the vastly wealthy organisation that was gifted it and maintained it for free all those years through donations doesn’t feel obliged to spend money on it now for the sake of preserving a work of beauty for future generations, should there be any.
It all adds a whole new dimension to Mark 10:14 (KJV) “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.”
Obviously I have accidentally typed “iknklast” as my name, rather than to indicate I was responding to her.
Gah! This new medication is really messing with me, I’m making mistakes like that all the time. And it isn’t even working. Hopefully things will settle down over the next few weeks. In the meantime, iknklast, sorry for transing you.
iknklast @#15:
Jesus bugger me green…! You bear an uncanny resemblance to latsot @# 11. Must be something in this strange new brand of beer I’ve been gargling. Time to return to my old brand.
Omar,
I was considering telling an elaborate story about me and ikn somehow being each other’s sockpuppets but I’m far too exhausted.
Latsot: My apologies. With a 3 minute delay between our posts, it was in the cross-post class.
I should add that I know a man who was in a Catholic orphanage as a child and was one of the victims of the Black Brotherhood. Needless to add, it scarred him for life. He has numerous friends and fellow club members, but has never managed to form an intimate relationship with anyone. He would at least be one of the countless beneficiaries of my proposal at #4.