The Lavender Mafia???

[le Voyageur]

The current scandal affecting the Roman Catholic Church seems to keep growing and growing. If this article has merit, then it's indication shows a much deeper problem that will require major changes, not by the Pope or Bishops, but by the laity at large. If not, then no parent in their right mind would ever trust their child with a priest...

 

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/4/4/192430.shtml

 

[do hope this links work, as the edit function won't]

[Bob Russell]

The disgraceful situation the Catholic Church has put itself in is one the Boy Scouts long ago wisely avoided. Our two-deep leadership requirement, when followed religiously (pun intended) will not allow this disgrace from happening to us. Priests, just like scoutmasters, are role models who parents want and need to trust. This crisis shows that evil can lurk even in those that the public trusts. I am Catholic, and my family is a regular church-attending family, and it pains me to see this disgrace occurring. The evil committed by the priests is bad enough, but the coverups and denials are even worse. As much as it hurts, I look forward to the criminal and civil court proceedings which will serve to flush out this evil.

[KoreaScouter]

I'm a lifelong Catholic myself, and although we were on the receiving end of lots of corporal punishment in school (most of it well-deserved in my case), nobody in the clergy or the convent ever got out of line with any of the kids, and we were in those places all the time alone -- the parish was a huge part of the community -- my troop's CO, in fact. What's in the news now is shocking to us, too.

 

The irony here is that since becoming a Scouter, I've got YP so ingrained in me that I feel impending doom if I'm anywhere kids are (sunday school, school, youth center, sports, library) and I see things that don't conform with BSA YP policies -- and it's commonplace.

 

 

[slontwovvy]

First of all, I would like to express my deepest sympathy for those who have been harmed by these deviants. They were victims of something no one should ever have to face.

 

However, I do believe that this crisis is a bit overblown. According to a study by the Archdiocese of Chicago a couple of years ago, only 2% of priests were found to even be accused of pedophilia, a substantially lesser number than in other professions, including psychiatry, coaching, teaching, etc.

 

Not trying to make apologies here, but you also have to look at the context of many of these moves. By today's standards, they are abhorrent. Yet in the 60's and 70's (when many actually took place), pedophilia was considered the same as alcoholism: it was a deviation, but if you could get treatment, you could be off forever. My bishop (who at the time was in Boston) has said that two expert psychiatrists who interviewed the first deviant told him that this man was perfectly safe to return to parish duty.

 

With sympathy,

 

slontwovvy

[evmori]

The two deep leadership requirement the BSA has in place is there to prevent this from happening.

 

I don't feel this will adversly affect Scouting in Catholic churches. While this abuse seems to be everywhere, I feel it isn't. Everyone is now "Catholic bashing" because of this. It is our job as adult leaders to ensure our Scouts are safe.

 

I was raised Catholic & attended Catholic grade school for 6 years. I saw no sexual abuse nor was I sexually abused during this time. I left the Catholic church for other reasons that are not pertenent to this topic. I was also a Cubmaster of a Pack chartered by a Catholic church & there was never a problem with any of the clergy.

 

At times, we tend to jump on the bandwagon before we have all the facts. We also jump to the conslusion that if this happened elsewhere, it happened in our area. I feel as Scouters, we need to try to curb this. We are role models for our Scouts & they look to us in these situations to see how we handle them.

 

Ed Mori

Scoutmaster

Troop 1

[jmcquillan]

Pardon me, but I simply can not resist the temptation here. An article in this mornings (4/18/02) Boston Globe regarding the upcoming meeting of the American Cardinals and the Pope caught my eye. The article speaks to the suspicions and guesses about what the meeting may and may not accomplish. What specifically got my attention was the paragraphs with which the article ended...

 

''I don't expect much from this meeting,'' said the Rev. Donald B. Cozzens, a former seminary rector and author of ''The Changing Face of the Priesthood.''

 

''My hunch is that they will be told to face `the moral laxity in the priesthood and in our seminaries' and to exclude gays from admission,'' he said. ''This is a moral problem in the eyes of the Vatican. To admit it has systemic/structural dimensions is almost unthinkable to them.''

 

Did you see it yet? Excuse me? Exclude gays from admission? Where have we seen and heard those words recently? What beneficial organization that deals with children has been summarily chastized and castigated for it's support of "Freedom of Association"? Any hint yet?

 

I find it almost unbelievable that the BSA may very well find itself sitting in the same seat as the Catholic Church on one singular issue, which has cost the BSA much in the public eye. One wonders...one does...if the public eye (and mouth) will voice criticism of the church in similar fashion to that cast upon the BSA.

 

My money is on the feeling that no one will dare criticize the church as they did the BSA. My money is on the feeling that they'll find a reason to say ...it's different.

 

Different!? Yeah, right!

 

[slontwovvy]

All I can say--so true, so true.

[eisely]

I too am a more or less lapsed Catholic, also for reasons that have nothing to do with this issue.

 

I think this has become another Media Hobby Horse to a certain extent. The actual number of pedophile priests probably is no larger than the proportion in the population as a whole, and perhaps less. The scandal is not the fact that some priests engaged in this behavior. Some of this has always happened and will happen in the future. The scandal is the response of the hierarchy in some parts of the country, most notably Boston. I hope the Pope demotes Cardinal Law, but I don't expect it. Churches of all varieties have difficulties dealing with these types of scandals, and there is always the tendency of the clergy to circle the wagons. This is particularly true in the Roman Catholic Church. The behavior of the hierarchy in some dioceses is truly shameful. The church will survive however. The protestant evangelical movement has survived Jimmy Swaggert, et al.

 

Scouting could indirectly benefit from this scandal as a counter example of how to do things right. Scouting has always recognized this threat and has sound policies in place. The lesson for the public is to wake up to this reality and stop kidding itself.

[eisely]

For those who may wish to read more on this scandal, I recommend a recent article in National Review online. The article is by Rod Dreher and is entitled "The Gay Question." It was posted on April 22, 2002. Go to www.natinalreview.com and look it up.

[eisely]

Oops. I believe the correct link is nationalreview.com