The Roman Catholic Church has for decades been rocked with scandals of sexual abuse. It has been faced with criminal law suits. These scandals have deeply damaged the creditability of the church. However, as an open institution the Roman Catholic will always be open to scrutiny. It has to maintain it’s creditability as a Holy Place of Worship. Most scandals relating to the Roman Catholic Church were sexual abuse cases against minors.
Here is a list of sexual abuse cases committed by Priests around the world. The list is not exhaustive.
1. May 2009 – There was a report that priests abused children for decades in Catholic run Institutions.
2. Nov 2009 – There was a report on child abuse cases in Dublin from 1995 to 2004. The Church Authorities covered up the cases of child abuses until the mid 1990’s.
3. Feb 2004 – Independent researchers said 10,667 people accused US priests of child sex abuse from 1950 to 2002. More than 17% of accusers had siblings that were abused.
4. Germany – More than 250 people in Germany were abused at church – run schools in past decades.
5. Switzerland – The Diocese of Chur in Eastern Switzerland was investigating around 10 complaints of abuse cases committed by at least 3 monks. No action was taken.
6. Netherlands – 3 priests from Salesian order abused pupils decades ago at a boarding school near Dutch – German border.
7. Austria – A wave of reports of child sexual abuses were reported in Austrian Catholic Institution. The arch – abbot of Salzburg’s St Peter’s monastery in March admitted to sexually a boy 40 years ago.
8. Mexico – Legionaries Of Christ founder was discovered to be a sexual molester. He fathered atleast a child with his mistress.
Some of these cases were unreported to the civil authorities. Some of the offenders were reassigned to other locations at which they again had contact with minors. Psychiatrists believed that people with pedophile behavior can be cured through counseling.The Church has compensated in monetary terms to those that were abused. The Vatican have asked the Church in US to Institute reforms to check on the backgrounds of priests, church employers and volunteers.
These reforms should have been implemented along time ago so that child sexual abuses might not have occurred. It has been very unfortunate that the Church has to face such scandals. However, I think these scandals are not only confined to the Church. It can happen at any organization. There have been cases of sexual abuses at child care centers as well. However, as the Roman Catholic Church is a symbol of place of Worship, the impact face by the church would be greater than other organizations.
The media also gives extensive coverage on such cases. This aggravates the damage done to the Church’s reputation and creditability. One of the reasons why priests sexually abuse children is due to the strict code of celibacy observed my them. It is believed that Priest would be able to live a life celibacy through pray and the trust in the Lord, Jesus Christ. Though this practice sits well with most priests, there are some priests that may be exceptional to the course. Priests are after all human. The temptation of the flesh would definitely affect them. As many priests are assigned to orphanages and catholic run child care centers, young children are their easiest target to relieve their sexual attention.
Covering up of child sexual abuses by Priests that hold high ranking positions can occur just like in any organization. If this cover up goes undiscovered, it will be detrimental to the reputation and creditability to the Church. It is good that reforms have been implemented to curb sexual abuses from occurring but it will not eradicate the problem totally. Why? Because, humans are a difficult subject to study. We cannot know a person in a few days. It takes months and years to study a person’s behavior.
There is a substantial amount of people that are very angry with the church for covering up child sexual abuses for a very long time. Due their anger with the church, some have left the catholic faith or wish not to be associated with the Catholic Church. They have blame the way Bishops are appointed in the church as a factor to the occurrence of child sexual abuses.
As the Pope appoints who is to be a bishop, there is no check on the Bishop’s background and behaviour because he has been with the church for a good period of time. They feel that the public should vote the appointment of Bishops. However, would it solve the problem of eradicating child sexual abuses? I do not think so. How would you know that the Bishop chosen by the people is not a pedophile or a homosexual. Humans can easily hide their behaviors. For example, gays nowadays portray normal heterosexual behavior in public as not to be discriminated.
Some of the child sexual abuse offenses occurred long time ago. I feel it is because that the catholic community were not prepared to face such circumstances that they were greatly shocked when child sexual abuses were made known publicly. The fact that it is still occurring makes one lose further confidence with the church. The Catholic Community ask questions like how could the church let such offenses happen? Have they learnt their lesson and have measure been implemented to prevent these offenses from happening?
The Catholic Church is doing their best to stop these offenses from happening. They have implemented measures like doing background checks on their staff and volunteers, however, whether these measures are carried out is another question. There are so many Catholic Institutions around the word. Whoever is running these institutes must be responsible in implementing the measures passed down ny the Vatican. Integrity must be observed. It is like what is happening in China. The central government can pass laws and reforms but the country is so huge. It is up to the officials in the other states in China to carry out the laws and reforms properly. However, this is not done so.
Now is the time for us as Catholics to unite and preserve the good name of the Catholic Church and spread the Lord's word. We should not abandon the church just because of the set back's that it is facing. These set back's are just cause by a few rotten hats. In which organisation are there no rotten hats? Do you just abandon the church because of these set backs? Where is our faith and loyalty towards the Catholic Church? If Jesus was around, he would be very sad and he would all want us to support him in his grieve.
Let's look at the Catholic Church in totality. It has done more good than bad. The goodness that it has done outweighs the plight that it is now facing. I think Catholics can contest to that. We need to continue be good catholics and defend the name of the Catholic Church whenever we are called upon. I have made with so many good and warm friends at the Catholic organisations that I have joined. One of them is called Choice. By joining these Catholic Organisations, my faith has also grown. I do agree that asians tend to place greater importance towards their catholic religion then westerners. Just go to the Catholic Churches in Asian countries and compare it to the western catholic churches and you will know what I am talking about. The congregation at Asian Churchs are usually alot but in Western churches it is only a handful. Even so, I think we must never stop losing our faith and keep on defending the Catholic Church's name.
On this note, I wish for the lord the always look and shower his blessings upon you and you family.
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