Catholic Church of the Pedophile Priest

Introduction

I really don't mean to offend Catholics. They have a lot of good points other than their pedophile priest issue, but the scriptural-requirements for church-leadership are clear. The scriptures say church-leadership is supposed to be "married with children" -- not members of NAMBLA (the North American Man Boy Love Association).

God in His wisdom, through His anointed prophet, the Apostle Paul, gave us His divine guidelines for choosing a church pastor in 1st Timothy Chapter 3:1-6, which specifies that he should be married with children, and have a good reputation that can be verified.

Even in human terms the reasoning is fairly obvious:
1) a married minister has more accountability because of a wife and a family.
2) a married minister has an outlet for his sexual drive with a wife.
3) a married minister with a family has more to lose from foul play.
4) a married minister brings more history with him that can be examined by talking to the wife and his children.
5) a married minister with children has more eyes watching his daily conduct.

Here is where the RCC has gone wrong with their ministry:

1) Catholic leadership is not allowed to marry, and hence ALL of these aforementioned safeguards are forfeited.
2) Furthermore, the secrecy, authority, trust, and access to children are like a magnet for child predators that have no interest whatsoever in marrying another adult. They are only interested in child sex.
3) They disguise themselves as trustworthy priests when they are criminals.
4) Furthermore, the catholic hierarchy knowingly breaks the law by harboring these known felons from justice.

Background

Many centuries ago, the Catholic Church departed from God's plan for church-leadership. Today, in the information age, where everything is out in the open, the Catholic Church continues to make the news with sexual abuse law suits. Here we see ordained priests that are MARRIED to NO ONE, and molesting someone else's CHILDREN while their superiors look on with indifference. These pedophile priests are criminals. They bring shame and reproach to the entire church body. The reputation extends far beyond the RCC (Catholic Church) to all of Christendom. I'm sorry, but as Christians, we can't just ignore it and call it a catholic issue, because it tarnishes the name of Christ.

From pedophile to priest -- a "pedo-priest" as it were -- this is not what God intended for the ministry, for the church body, or for sexual conduct PERIOD. We often hear about sex scandals in other church denominations, whether it be Haggard, Bakker, or Swaggart, but the RCC takes the unique spotlight for child sexual abuse -- in particular man-boy sexual abuse.

In 1st Timothy Chapter 3, the apostle Paul (who was not married) gave the blue print specifications for a bishop:

1 This is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.
2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;
3 Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;
4 One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;
5 (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)

As verse 5 says, the bishop can not take care of the church if he can't even take care of his own family. The "husband of one bride", having a "blameless" reputation, known for "good behavior." This doesn't sound like a pedophile catholic priest AT ALL.

The catholic denomination claims the bishop is "married" to the church; however Christ does not share His bride with anyone. That would be adultery. Besides that, Peter was married, and he was supposedly the first pope of the Catholic Church.

The catholic interpretation and requirements DO NOT compare to scriptures. Unmarried priests help the Catholic Church save money, so I hear, with no inheritance going to a spouse or to children. Economically convenient -- but the bible blue print has been altered -- and the plan is not founded in God's Word.

News and Commentary

So we read the news headlines and see stories like this:

"LOS ANGELES - The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will settle its clergy abuse cases for at least $600 million, by far the largest payout in the church's sexual abuse scandal. "

"The settlement would be the largest ever by a Roman Catholic archdiocese since the clergy sexual abuse scandal erupted in Boston in 2002. Among the largest total payouts was $100 million in 2004 by the Diocese of Orange, Calif., to settle 90 claims. The Archdiocese of Boston agreed in 2003 to pay $84 million for 552 cases, roughly the same figure the Diocese of Covington, Ky., agreed last year to pay to settle about 360 claims. Facing a flood of abuse claims, five dioceses — Tucson, Ariz.; Spokane, Wash.; Portland, Ore.; Davenport, Iowa, and San Diego — sought bankruptcy protection.Last month, the Archdiocese of Portland agreed to pay about $52 million to 175 people, while setting aside another $20 million for anyone who comes forward in the future.The Diocese of Spokane, Wash., also recently emerged from bankruptcy protection after agreeing to pay $48 million to settle about 150 claims. "

"The largest of those came in December, when the archdiocese reached a $60 million settlement with 45 people whose claims dated from before the mid-1950s and after 1987 — periods when it had little or no sexual abuse insurance. Several religious orders in California have also reached multimillion dollar settlements in recent months, including the Carmelites, the Franciscans and the Jesuits."

Note that the RCC has sexual abuse insurance for its clergy. That is truly amazing! While everyone else thinks about medical insurance or life insurance, their leadership needs sexual abuse insurance. Wow!

Sadly, the story doesn't end with the priests, but we read their leadership covered it up, shuffling the pedo-priests from parish to parish where they did the same thing all over again. The leadership became negligent accessories to the crimes, and a legal battle looms over their records. Yet they aren't honest enough to admit guilt, so who is supposed to believe them when they say they are sorry? They were aware of the problem all along, which has gone on for decades and possibly even centuries.

News Analysis

The following analysis is posted courtesy of the Boston Globe. In summary, the pedophile priest abuse is a catholic phenomenon. It has been researched in many Protestant denominations, but the Catholic Church is in a class by itself on this issue. There is no comparison.

News Commentary from:

http://www.boston.com/globe/spotlight/abuse/stories/031302_abuse.htm

All faiths question handling of abuse
Debate over celibacy as factor is rancorous
By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff, 3/13/2002

''There are absolutely no Protestant equivalents,'' said Anson D. Shupe, a professor of sociology at Indiana University-Purdue University in Fort Wayne who researches clergy misconduct. ''If I could find some spectacular cases, that would help my career, but I can't. You don't have rapacious serial predators, and the Protestant establishment doesn't tolerate it the way the Catholic establishment has.''

"By contrast, Protestant and non-Christian denominations have had so few reported cases that their leaders can generally count them on one hand. A 1999 study of clergy misconduct, in which academics with the Hartford Institute for Religion Research spoke with 76 ministers who had, over the last 40 years, served 532 different congregations in 14 different denominations, turned up no instances of sexual abuse of children in the Protestant congregations studied."

"But, as diocese after diocese around the United States acknowledges that it has employed multiple priests accused of molesting children over the last several decades - the contrast with other denominations seems to be growing."

''The Catholic hierarchy has stonewalled any attempts to do any kind of study on this issue, and they've had offers to do it,'' said Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, a Catholic Air Force chaplain, who, as a canon lawyer working at the Vatican Embassy in Washington in 1985, wrote a report on the problem of clergy sexual abuse that he says was ignored by the bishops. "

"Priests are more able to abuse children because of the extraordinary amount of authority and reverence they enjoy within the Catholic Church. Protestant and Jewish clergy are generally less powerful within their congregations, and can often be fired by laypeople."

"The only non-Catholic denomination that has been plagued with allegations of widespread child sexual abuse is the Hare Krishna movement, a small Hindu-like sect. Scores of people have alleged that they were sexually abused as children at Hare Krishna boarding schools in the 1970s and 1980s."


Biblical Rebuttal

In the gospels, Jesus Christ tells us what He thinks about child-molesters that target the church body:

Matthew 18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
Mark 9:42 And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.
Luke 17:2 It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

According to scriptures the shepherds of the RCC flock did a really poor job:

John Chapter 10:

11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. 13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.

The hireling flees because he doesn't care for the sheep. A hireling doesn't look out for the sheep -- a hireling looks out for himself. Catholic clergy claim they are "married" to the church, but the pedophile priests look more like the wolf, and the negligent bishops look more like the hireling shepherd that fled.

Conclusion

Some RCC members tell us that ALL the church denominations are involved in pedophilia, and they should ALL share equally in the blame. Unfortunately other Christians ARE sharing in the blame, and it's NOT because they are guilty. We just can't trust God's plan -- so we're told by some Catholics. Come on, we're not buying it! The Lord told us how to choose church-leadership, and somebody failed to do it right.

The Lord gave us the blue-print for building church-leadership, and somebody isn't using it. No wonder there are flaws. God is the architect and He gave us the specifications through the apostle Paul. The specifications say: MARRIED WITH CHILDREN. God knows best. Good day to you.

UPDATE 4/18/08

Pope Benedict XVI working to clean up the priesthood
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080419/ap_on_re_us/pope_us

While visiting in the USA, Pope Benedict has committed to work on the Catholic priest abuse issues. Stating he wants quality over quantity, he proposed an overhaul of administrative procedures to make it easier to purge out pedophile priests. He also met privately with abuse victims.

"He spoke privately with victims — in what is believed to be the first time a pope has met with people who had been abused by priests. He also told bishops the problem had sometimes been very "badly handled" — an indirect but clear papal admonition. Benedict could take up the issue again Saturday in a Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral with priests from around the country.
So far, Benedict has offered support to America's clergy during his visit.

He said priests who had done nothing wrong had been unfairly tarred by the crisis. More than 4,000 clergy have been accused of molesting minors in the U.S. since 1950. Abuse-related costs have surpassed $2 billion in that period, with much of the payouts in just the last six years."

UPDATE 9/21/08

The vatican used a policy known as the Crimen Sollicitationis to control sex-abuse scandals to the advantage of the catholic church. It was issued by the vatican and used world-wide as a play book for priest sex-abuse cover-ups.

The document is also known as The Manner of Proceeding in Cases of Solicitation.

Article from the BBC:

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/5389684.stm

"It instructs them how to deal with priests who solicit sex from the confessional. It also deals with "any obscene external act ... with youths of either sex." "

Quotes form Article:

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news5/2003_07_29_Shaw_VaticanDocument.htm

Should an accused priest go before a church trial, "in every way the judge is to remember that it is never right for him to bind the accused by an oath to tell the truth."

The directive also says the person who is solicited in the confessional must report the incident to the bishop within a month or to the Holy Office. The accused confessor is required to warn the person confessing of this duty. A person who knowingly failed to denounce the priest incurs excommunication.

I just have to ask, why is a priest-offender (an adult) held to a lower standard of accountability than his emotionally-tramautized child-sex-abuse-victim? This is horrific.

ADDENDUM LINKS

Catholic Priest Offenders:
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/priestdb/#map

Additional Information:
http://www.silentlambs.org/
http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/PUBLICATIONS/factsheet/fsabuse1.htm

Pedophile Criminal Profile:
http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/psychology/pedophiles/7.html