Sort of,
There were a few seminars I remember attending where D&D came up, and my Catholic parents had it on their radar screen. That said, at this point anything related to an organized religion got tossed into the same bucket because the overall tone was similar: Do the things we are against, and the road to hell is a highway for you.
I was raised Catholic, but don’t do anything related with any organized religion nowadays. The fact that this has been going on for 30+ years, complete with coverups all that time means either A) Catholicism is the ‘wrong’ religion because God didn’t do a thing about it, B) God doesn’t deem it wrong (not in the 10 commandments, so a-okay!), C) God is an asshole, D) God is absent Supernatural style.
“They’ll be judged in the afterlife” or whatever is a cop-out. What they did is horrible, especially in a position of power and authority that they have. “He has a plan” - what, just like the Cylons? Nope. Yeah, yeah, he sent us Jesus to redeem us so he didn’t have to intervene himself anymore. That doesn’t help those victims. People are free to believe whatever they like - it doesn’t require an organization like this to do it.
Pure evil. As most things where humans are involved.
EDIT: I realize none of the above adds anything new that probably hasn’t been rehashed above a zillion times over. But it is a topic that I can’t seem to rationally talk to my wife about, so venting here.
There is going to be another deluge of revelations like what came out of Pennsylvania, this time in New York and New Jersey. Good, I guess. The bishops, to their shame, aren’t revealing it, so let the law do it. It’ll only make the bishops look more despicable and/or cowardly.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis’ answer is “silence.”
And Washington Cardinal Wuerl is declaring a “season of healing,” full of more shallow acts and words instead of a full reckoning and public confession of failures:
I’m hearing at least a sentence or two against the bishops in every homily every week since the Pennsylvania grand jury report. I don’t know how long the New York report will take, but that’s precisely how long the bishops have to stop stalling and formulate a real plan. I bet there will be an avalanche of other states that start the same process. If we’re not already numb to the reports, we will be soon enough–but we’ll also have a list of bad actors. By which I mean not just the abusers, but the bishops who laid low and hoped everything would blow over. If they don’t stand up and speak plainly and truthfully before the states expose them, they will lose all their moral credibility for good. For some people, it’s too late, but for me personally, the first one of them that puts their own errors out there for all to see, begs forgiveness from the church and the victims, and steps down will earn back for themselves and the church at least a little of that credibility. How much credibility that is diminishes with each day.
Crazy, who knew that this was happening in other places besides the ones that were specifically outed? This was happening all over the globe. The whole organization needs to burn down for this horrific shit. Whatever good they do is FAR outweighed by the harm they’ve caused thousands upon thousands of kids for decades. Fuck the Catholic Church.
You’ve summoned Timex in 5, 4, 3, 2…
Cardinal Wuerl, who was Archbishop of Pittsburgh (see Pennsylvania grand jury report) and now of Washington, DC (see Cardinal Theodore McCarrick), has announced he is offering his resignation to Pope Francis to begin a “season of healing.” A handful of weeks ago, he was saying “I don’t think this is a massive, massive crisis.” Seems like he’s had a change of perspective, or someone above him (Francis) has.
It looks like he submitted his resignation 3 years ago but no action was taken. I think it’s pretty obvious that the best way to start any sort of healing would be to open up the secret books of the Church and admit to everything they’ve done wrong in regard to this, across the world, not having some 78yo man retire.
the cardinal said he has concluded that the best way to serve the Church as it moves into the future is two-fold: to participate in a process of healing for all those who have suffered abuse, and to meet soon with Pope Francis to request that the Holy Father accept the resignation that was submitted three years ago when the cardinal turned 75. He said he would take that action “so that this archdiocesan Church we all love can move forward,” and it can experience “a new beginning.”
Yeah, ALL bishops submit their resignation at 75, apparently. Just means the Pope can set them out to pasture whenever he wants after that point.
I agree, a radically different level of transparency has to begin for there to be any hope of repairing the damage and regaining trust. But those who have demonstrably failed, like Wuerl, should also step down/be forced to step down.
This has been on my mind a lot; partly because of my line of work (I deal to churches, currently), partly beause of my 4 y/o son in Catholic Pre-K. What are people’s thoughts? Has this died down? Business as usual? Any Martin Luthers stepping forward in a serious capacity?
I follow a couple priests on Twitter, but James Martin is the sort of guy that gives me hope for the organization.
https://twitter.com/JamesMartinSJ
That said, it seems like things are going slowly as the government is forced to work through things since the Church doesn’t seem inclined to give them things freely.
There aren’t any big moves being made yet, and the higher you go up the hierarchy, the more silent and static things get.
The biggest issues today are about justice for past victims and accountability of priests and especially bishops for cover-ups. Which is not to say that abuse isn’t happening today, but churches and Catholic schools have implemented a ton of precautionary procedures and policies that likely make them safer than a lot of similar institutions (where these things certainly continue to happen as well). Your son is at least as safe as he would be in a public school, I would say. But you should bring it up at parent-teacher meetings and such, to make sure they have good answers about what their policies are and how they enforce them.
As far as justice for victims and accountability, states are carrying forward with processes like Pennsylvania did, which means that dozens of grotesque stories from decades past are going to continue to surface. Which is why I would bet that something dramatic is going to change eventually. That might be bishops releasing records on their own, bishops stepping down, and a lay committee (or a dozen of them) being assembled to investigate the records and report on them. Maybe a clean-up of seminary culture, although that’s a tough one to enact.
When a organized religion gets too big can be a menace to the state.
Doh! No criminal charges will be filed because the nuns said they were sorry. No really, that’s what the article says. Same answer they had for all the raped children so it’s consistent at least.
I mean, to their credit, “bad stuff is forgiven as long as you repent” IS on-brand for Catholics, at least.
Doesn’t mean we need to keep giving them tax breaks for doing it!
The article says the church is not pursuing criminal charges after the nuns apologized. That’s typical weasel-word reporting. “After” doesn’t necessarily mean “because”. The source article goes into greater detail:
The archdiocese is cooperating with Torrance police, but is unwilling to be a “complaining party,” archdiocese lawyer Marge Graf told parents. She said the decision was made because the nuns’ order, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, has agreed to pay the school full restitution and impose “severe sanctions” on Kreuper and Chang…
Of note, the DA ultimately decides whether to press charges, the church can only file a complaint. But in practice, crime victims decline to file complaints all the time, and it’s certainly within their rights.
Does a local Catholic member of the parish have standing to sue?
Some local parish members are trying to file a complaint. But it’s technically not their money that was stolen, so I doubt they will succeed.