Catholic Priests Abused around 1,000 Children in Pennsylvania
(Note: I know that all current events are about obviously government and politics but most of the really good stories are taken so I am doing this instead of copying)
Leaders of the Roman Catholic Chirch in Pennsylvania have recently been found guilty for covering up sexual abuse by more than 300 priests over a period of 70 years, according to a searing report issued by a grand jury on Tuesday. The leaders used law enforcement to not get investigated and persuaded victims not to report it.
Descriptions of Preists engaged in rape and child pornagraphy came out in the case. It is told that for decades they used, “whips, violence and sadism.” Even more painful, the report contained many accounts of the Bishops defending the Priests. “I think right now it’s really hard to be a Catholic.” said John Gehring, who is the Catholic program director of Faith in Public Life. Although very recently, the Bishop has apologized for not properly handling the allegations against Priests.
A Catholic school in Baltimore is now changing its name, the school was originally named after William H Keeler, who used to campaign for sexual abuse victims but was singled out in court for failing to take action when there was more than one priest accused of abuse.
Pennsylvania is surley suffering and trying to come together knowing what many of their priests have done. Citizens speak about how they do not know what all of this means for their faith, while mothers and fathers worry for their childrens faith and how they could explain all of this to them.
Discussion Questions
1. Should the Bishop who apologized be forgiven?
2. What should the people of the Church do knowing what their Priests have done?
3. Should all Priests mentioned in the cases be charged or put in prison?
After reading this post, I did more research about this issue and this ongoing problem of sexual abuse by priests in the Catholic churches. If a Bishop has any knowledge of abuse going on by a priest and he chooses to look the other way, the Bishop should not be forgiven. He should be prosecuted by the state and punished if found guilty. The issue with priests or any working member of the church when it comes to abuse of a child is more than "it's a sin and shame on them". It's more than just a religious issue. It's about committing a crime. No one is above the law. Covering up a crime or committing a crime is all the same. Those involved need to be held responsible for their actions even if it means jail time.
ReplyDeleteI feel that the bishop should not be forgiven, if you see something like child abuse and decide to ignore it and protect the people doing it, then you are equally as guilty as the priest doing it. I feel that people that commit rape and sexual abuse should be punished intensely, you can't just go around and ruin these innocent children. I feel that if I was attending a church and found out that the priest was sexually abuse kids, I would protest to get him fired and the put in jail or worse. Everybody that was apart of this needs to be punished, this is inhuman and not right. Even if they didn't actually touch the children and knew about it and let it pass, they need to be punished. And i do not believe that this a forgivable thing, the bishop is not forgiven in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteThe bishop should not be forgiven for what he did. He knew what all of the priests were doing and refused to stop it. If someone either sees sexual abuse or knows that it is going on, they should tell someone and end it immediately. But him knowing it was going on and not stopping it is wrong, therefore he should not be forgiven. The people of the church should most likely leave that church knowing that their priest did a terrible thing. Of course it is their decision if they should stay or not but in my opinion, their priest did a very bad thing to children and they should leave knowing that he did that. All priest that have committed these crimes of sexual child abuse should be punished. They should be charged with sexual abuse and child abuse. They should not be excused from this. They committed a very bad crime that have most likely scared children for life. They all should be put in prison. Child abuse along with sexual abuse is not okay and not forgivable.
ReplyDeleteEmily,
ReplyDeleteWhile I appreciate you trying to post something more original, your post needs to use a source for support. Simply, summarizing a current event and providing a quote from an unnamed source does not qualify as a source. Also, you need to develop your post and provide more background information for your classmates to use as evidence when they write comments.