Is this supposed to indicate something unique about the Catholic Church?
It is commonly believed that clergy sexual abuse is an exclusively Catholic problem that does not happen in other churches. In a 1983 doctoral thesis by Richard Blackmon, 12% of the 300 Protestant clergy surveyed admitted to sexual intercourse with a parishioner and 38% admitted to other sexualized contact with a parishioner.
No current theological breakdown of offending pastors exists, but a 1984 Fuller Seminary survey of 1,200 ministers showed one in five theologically conservative pastors admitting to some sexual contact outside of marriage with a church member, while over two-fifths of "moderate" and half of "liberal" pastors owned up to the same
i. You're citing statistics about sex. the article was talking about rape and abuse.
ii. The issue of institutional control is different for the RCC. "Protestants" simply don't make the same claims for their church as Roman Catholics do. This is relevant for these seemingly church-wide patterns of conduct.
iii. Once again, as with the child abuse cases, we are talking about cover-up. This flows from the RCC view of the church mentioned above.
This is what the Vatican "confirms." No telling what they are hiding. And they do have a history and practice of hiding such things.
Louis is right. Even if all the sexual abuse numbers on the Protestant and Catholic sides were equivalent (and they're not), the RCC still has that extra layer of "official cover-up" that is totally above and beyond the offenses of any Protestants.
I don't know why this point cannot be grasped by Catholics. It is just pure denial.
I looked at the date of the story...
ReplyDeleteAnd it says March 2001.
Then I looked at the date of the comment below the story and it says February 2010.
It's kinda weird to see a comment 9 years after the story broke.
Is this supposed to indicate something unique about the Catholic Church?
ReplyDeleteIt is commonly believed that clergy sexual abuse is an exclusively Catholic problem that does not happen in other churches. In a 1983 doctoral thesis by Richard Blackmon, 12% of the 300 Protestant clergy surveyed admitted to sexual intercourse with a parishioner and 38% admitted to other sexualized contact with a parishioner.
No current theological breakdown of offending pastors exists, but a 1984 Fuller Seminary survey of 1,200 ministers showed one in five theologically conservative pastors admitting to some sexual contact outside of marriage with a church member, while over two-fifths of "moderate" and half of "liberal" pastors owned up to the same
http://www.chnetwork.org/forum/moral-and-social-doctrine/%27it-ain%27t-just-catholic-priests%27-resources-on-shocking-statistics-of-clergy-sexu/?wap2
Rob, a few thoughts:
ReplyDeletei. You're citing statistics about sex. the article was talking about rape and abuse.
ii. The issue of institutional control is different for the RCC. "Protestants" simply don't make the same claims for their church as Roman Catholics do. This is relevant for these seemingly church-wide patterns of conduct.
iii. Once again, as with the child abuse cases, we are talking about cover-up. This flows from the RCC view of the church mentioned above.
I have a couple of more thoughts:
ReplyDeleteThis is what the Vatican "confirms." No telling what they are hiding. And they do have a history and practice of hiding such things.
Louis is right. Even if all the sexual abuse numbers on the Protestant and Catholic sides were equivalent (and they're not), the RCC still has that extra layer of "official cover-up" that is totally above and beyond the offenses of any Protestants.
I don't know why this point cannot be grasped by Catholics. It is just pure denial.