I can only speak for my lifetime and that of my parents, but in my country the church has been revealed to be a child trafficking, child abusing, money laundering, woman enslaving organisation. It has a veneer of pseudo-wholesomeness.
It’s important to recognise that while people rightly expose the church for this, they usually operate with the assistance of the local communities. In Ireland people in the community would report woman who were “impure” in some way, which the church could justify for enslaving them and selling their children if those women gave birth. This is all within the last several decades and I’m sure even before then.
That’s not just your country. That’s organized religion in every country.
I think that’s generally accepted. I wanted to qualify what I’m saying a bit more by mentioning the lived experience here and the complicity of wider society.
Been happening for a long time. It’s also not just Catholic church. All religions are guilty of some sick shit. ALL OF THEM!
I thought this was far less common between protestants whose priests can actually have a family, but I rarely get any “protestant news” given that i live in a catholic country
It happens at the same rate most likely, but I don’t think protestants have the same centralized authority that Catholics do to coordinate massive coverups, so the pastors usually get fired or “quietly retire” rather than being shifted to a new church where nobody knows they’re a pedo.
Personally I feel like it happens less often. The Catholic Church really have a reputation. I’ve only ever heard ‘altar boy’ to mean a young boy who’s being groomed and taken advantage of. I have no fucking clue what an altar boy really is.
Whoever it definitely still happens with protestants. Usually with youth pastors (surprise, surprise).
For the hows, I find the life of Marcial Maciel a raw example. For how long, I wouldn’t put it in the beginning of the roman-catholic church, but centuries have passed for sure.
Been going on for thousands of years. The more information access we have the more we hear about these kinds of things.
The sexual abuse of young boys has been going on for a very, very long time but for most of that time, the church and all its institutions were unassailable and infallible. So most of it went unreported at the time. The attitude that the church and by extension, the priest could do no wrong was especially prevalent here where I grew up. Which is why some truly horrible things were allowed to happen. The church committed some vile acts and they weren’t all sexual abuse and enjoyed the protection of the government all the while. Here have some fun reading.
The last decade?!
This is going on forever and people are coming forward from the moment it was possible to do so. Unfortunately it wasn’t possible for a long time.
Watch The Keepers on Netflix.
It starts out as an investigation in a cold case murder of a Catholic nun in 1969 and unearths atrocities in multitude. It shows clearly how they silenced everyone who dared to question or speak out about abuse in the church.Just the latest offenders, but please look at the size of this database: https://www.bishop-accountability.org/accused/
A common way of manipulating people is to deny them parts of being human. Be wary of any organization that tries to control your food or sex. Fasting and abstinence are massive red flags that the organization is toxic.
Some might argue that’s the point of the church.
As someone who is stationed close to a catholic church should i be weary?
I think we’re all a little bit weary to be honest with you.
You should not give them your kids
You’re too old for them.
Ive honestly thought that there is a distinct possiblity that hundreds of years ago the church was the unspoken way to dispose of your children who had no interest in breeding and furthering the family line. They are your kids, and you love them but if they arent carrying their weight in the family…
So off to the dark building full of shadowy alcoves, loose fitting clothing and lots of secrecy full of other men “cut of a similar cloth”.
There was a pretty good episode of Always Sunny where Mac wants to become a priest because he is trying to hide him being gay. Their priest that is trying to convince Mac to join turns out to be a pedophile.
We found out about it because those people are still alive. The Catholic church has been at this for centuries
Priest clothing vs nun clothing isn’t enough for some people?
Well, priests aren’t supposed to get married or have kids. I guess they found a loophole to “still get into heaven”, or something. Who knows. It’s all fucked up.
The best explanation i’ve seen is this:
Places that put children under the authority of adults (schools, camps, etc) are appealing for child predators; but where most will kick them out when/if found, the Catholic Church makes it easier for them to stay in.
This is because of a religious belief that God judges men for their sins, eventually rehabilitates them, and the job of mere mortals is to forgive and forget.
I really like this explanation because it doesn’t flatter my atheist sentiment and provides a very neat and rational cause-and-effect relation, it’s a thing that’s specific about the Church compared to other institutions.
Priests also take a vow of chastity, in people’s minds they’re supposed to be above sexual desire; and they have an extra aura of authority compared to the average teacher or summer camp instructor. Both of these things makes it harder for children and parents to question them.
And once they do question them, the Church gets a similar behavior to other institutions where they’ll try to protect their reputation by burying the case. I’m not sure which positions are supposed to be held for life, i assume most of them, and so that makes firing someone (or whatever the right word is in this context) a bigger deal.
Thems my attempted explanations
Priests also take a vow of chastity, in people’s minds they’re supposed to be above sexual desire; and they have an extra aura of authority compared to the average teacher or summer camp instructor. Both of these things makes it harder for children and parents to question them.
I would imagine that the vow of chastity thing also attracts some paedophiles trying to fight it. Some of them will then inevitably give in to the temptation if an opportunity arises.
BTW, it is not just the catholic church having those issues. This happens everywhere when people have a position of power over children.
Hundreds and hundreds of years.
Appropriate username
In Germany there has been a court ruling that it is allowed to call the catholic church a “Kinderfickersekte” which translates to “child raping cult”.
It was only a lower court and the church choose to not object against it probably because they were smart enough to fear the additional publicity this would get if a higher court would confirm it. https://taz.de/Gotteslaesterung-ist-kein-Problem/!5067953/?t
Germans really need permits for everything.
Here we don’t need to be allowed to call them that, we just can.
We say in Germany everything that is not explicitly allowed is forbidden. And this is just a little bit exaggerated, but not much.
I mean that’s completely wrong as far as laws go. Socially that’s pretty much true
I think in most countries the church would hit you with a cease and desist notice if you called them a child raping cult.
That’s not exclusively German.
They could try to get cease and desist all they want, there’s a constitutional right in most countries that protects such speech.
By “most countries” I’m pretty sure you mean “the United States”, and your constitutional right does not protect you from civil slander or libel cases.
Most countries don’t have a “the church”
If there’s “a” church then there’s “the” church.
It doesn’t need to be an international organisation headquartered in the vatican city. It could be equivalent to your local knitting club. If you say mean things about an organisation you can expect them to take legal action to stop you.
If they don’t like being called that they could always… stop raping children.
I’m not defending the church in any way, merely pointing out that they are a litigious organisation and it’s probably easier to take legal action than to stop raping children.
With allowed it doesn’t literally mean allowed. It means being able to publicly call them that without the church being able to sue for defamation.
Free speech is a thing in Germany, you can say pretty much what you want. But if you go around and accusing people of fucking kids, there’s going to be consequences.
Thousand plus years.
I don’t know exactly when sneaky catholic scribes changed up the wording to make being gay bad except when they’re being gay with children. But it’s definitely their doing.
Pretty sure there isn’t a single Catholic among them that would tell you such actions weren’t sinning…
Who cares if it’s a sin if you can confess and wipe the state clean or get an indulgence beforehand. And everybody sins, so don’t cast the first stone, etc etc. They’ll come up with some way to excuse, sweep under the rug, whatever.
Totally. You think they parade around at NAMBLA marches or something?
They would if they were honest.
But don’t worry. Catholics don’t have a monopoly on child abuse. Evangelical youth pastors are gunning for the crown. (They’ll never get close. But they’re trying)
It surprises me how often that point is lost… that said, of all people, you’d hope a priest would know better :(
Catholics did not write the scripture that says being gay is bad; that’s from the Torah - the Old Testament. Christianity came after Judaism and believes in both the old and new testaments.
You could look up the exact text for it easily. It’s basically “he who lies with a man as with a woman…” and something about him being an abomination and should be put to death or something like that.
