abuse cases: Spotlight

Professor Podles has an article on spotlight. Read it first then come back and I'll tell you about what I have seen in 50 years of medicine.

When I was in Boston, we (myself and two professors) gave a "headsup" to the diocese on the NEJM pushing euthanasia in the early 1990's, and the promotion of euthanasia in medical schools. Many weeks later, we got a bland letter thanking us and saying they would arrange for their own expert to write about it in the Catholic newspaper (I guess because the two professors were not Catholic, and I was Catholic but only had an instructor status at the time), and again weeks after that was a bland hard to understand essay in the back pages of the paper.

My friend shrugged and said: Well that's because the office took care of it, and that the bishop rarely knew what was going on. The point is that he didn't want to know what was going on in the local universities, because confronting it might make him unpopular.

So my take is that Cardinal Law and the other bishops deserved their shame for not being shepherds and protecting the sheep.

However Boston's church was like a club, not a way to deepen your personal relationship with Jesus.

I lived longer in a western Pennsylvania diocese, (not Pittsburgh, although abuse there was a problem) where a lot of abuse went on, and my next door neighbor refused to go to mass because of it.

How bad was it? Well, when one young priest disappeared with a sunday school teacher, the pastor sighed and said: at least it was with a woman.

Just joking.

The ex bishop was in tears when he explained that the "doctors" told him the priests were cured by treatment and that he should replace them in a new parish.

More fool him, but then back in the 1970's and early 1980s the trend was not to jail these guys as "non violent sexual offenders" but to let them out.

But the next bishop was worse. He had a priest actually go to court in a lawsuit, because the priest had only abused a 17 year old boy who he met in a Pittsburgh gay bar, and it was legal. But the boy's family had the younger brother falsely claim abuse, and the priest didn't like young boys.

The locals just laughed when the jury gave the family oodles of money. Everyone knew it was a scam, but they figured the diocese had let so many get a way with it that the church needed to be punished.

Yet the rot was still there with the new bishop, even though he once bragged in the church newspaper that no abuse cases had happened on his watch.

Right.

But one nurse confided in me that her husband was asked by the church to talk a family out of suing the church after a "visiting" priest molested their 13 year old son. The priest was such a nice guy, they were told, don't ruin his life.

and I also remember the church newspaper for bragging that the Catholic establishment in StateCollege was gay friendly.

Years later, when the Sandusky affair came to light, I wonder if that attitude had anything to do with the failure to report this SOB...or that the university didn't take reports seriously.

Most of the abuse cases in the US were homosexuals who were predators on young boys.

This fact has been covered up because condemning gays is now taboo.

And yes, it occurs with girls and women: in the third world, most cases are actually with women or girls. Here in the Philippines, a priest who has a mistress is common but it is ignored.

What is bad is if happens in schools, especially boarding schools.

Yet in the 1960s, my college roommate had had an affair in high school with her teacher, and one of my brother's teachers was seen to visit a female student's family a lot, making people comment how cute it was (he married the mom, not the girl). And of course in college, girls went after the professors, in the same way women go after priests and physicians. I have been flirted with by male patients, but a few times, after avoiding a female patient who was trying to cross the line and get familiar with me, I was warned she was a lesbian. More fool me.

They estimate 10 percent of doctors have slept with patients: If you include affairs outside of the patient doctor relationship, I suspect it is much higher... but you have to watch out, because doctors too can be falsely accused of sexual harassment. I was threatened by one druggie for not giving her pain pills that she would report me for sexually harassing her (I had done a pap smear the week before, and since I was a woman, had no nurse present...after this occurred, I insisted on a nurse being there). What saved me was that four people overheard her threat to me.

And then we had a local OBGyn accused of sexual harassment...all the patients said they found him professional, and indeed, it was his mistress, a nurse at the hospital, doing payback.

But then we had a chiropractor who did feel up and worse...women who went to him said they felt uncomfortable so didn't go back.

Sigh.

Boarding school children are especially vulnerable: the Canadians had a big lawsuit because of this in their Native American schools. Michael O'Brien has testified on how a teacher groomed a group (he refused and was harassed) but no one cared. Of course, the British public school system is notorious for this: Richard Dawkins admits he was abused in two schools in the UK (one Anglican, one secular) but claims it has nothing to do with his anti religious views.

But of course, a lot of fake cases popped up too.

The gay aspect of this is taboo to talk about: but with "gay right" and "gay marriage" and the internet, there is a "you are okay to act on your impulses" idea out there. We see this in our family.

But of course, the fact he serial abuses his young male employees is okay because they are adults and agree. Duh. Marxism 202 please You are in a power relationship with them, and the one who refused you has been harassed and you still harass him.

The latest flame has convinced him they should marry, so he has moved out, so most of my husband's hard earned money is going to the paramour's family.

and of curse, it happens to young girls. I had a landlord who refused to go to church because his wife was abused by her priest back in the 1920's.

And as a woman doc, I saw one or two abuse cases per month in our area (half were nothing, half were serious, and only two or three went to court.).

Incest? Yup. I've know of five cases. Two went to jail, because they plea bargained after the evidence was so bad that they decided to admit a lesser charge, sparing the girls from the ordeal from testifying in court and being shamed in public. One case was by her clergyman father. We intervened with a new girlfriend he was dating who just happened to have five foster kids of the age he liked. I don't know if the girlfriend believed us, but hey, a conviction isn't just done for fun.

And later, he visited with his granddaughter, and her young daughter. I warned her to stay away from him, so she "unfriended" me on facebook.

Sigh. why couldn't I forgive that nice old man?

That is the dirty little secret: They are nice...and manipulate.

one writer noted that the "fifty shades of grey" series was a classi description of a serial abuser, on how he can manipulate people.

It says a lot about a sick society that this is a big hit.

On the other hand, I am old enough to remember when 16 year olds were considered mature enough to marry.

as for teachers and pupils: Depends if the relationship is tutor or continues outside of class.

However, I sort of agree with Mark Twain, who sardonically commented on the tragedy of Abelard. He said that the uncle did what any American father would have done.

and then there is that judgemental remark by a certain Jewish carpenter about a millstone...

No it's not a conspiracy

I ran across this from Lee Penn's book False Dawn:

Conspiracies are usually secretive associations with illegal objectives. New Age leaders and their utopian, globalist allies are open about their aims, and their activities are legal. The goals of the present-day New Agers and utopians match what radicals have sought since the French Revolution. This is not because of an organized plot among men that spans nations and decades. Rather, it shows the permanent vulnerability of mankind to temptation and sin.
God remains forever. He does not change; nor do his commandments. Human nature does not change, since mankind is created in God's image. The devil does not change; nor do the temptations he offers mankind. From the Garden of Eden to the séances of the Theosophists and the meeting-halls of Davos and New York, the message is the same: you will not die, and you will be like god. Human response to temptation does not change, either; apart from God's grace, we sin. The New Age and globalist movements offer bait that tempts many - freedom from the restrictions imposed by traditional morality, the ability to use spiritual power to attain worldly goals, and the delight of being in the inner circle of those who will create a new civilization.
Therefore, human rebellion against God follows a consistent pattern. People who wish to rebel against God will find collaborators and mentors to assist them, and to affirm that their choices are right. (Also, the religious and governmental authorities, by their oft-repeated injustices, put the same temptations, scandals, and stumbling blocks before their people, again and yet again.) What some over-enthusiastic observers see as multi-generational, international conspiracies are really just successive groups of fallen men following temptation to its logical conclusion.

the entire book can be downloaded from Internetarchive LINK

Heh. Francis tells the Germans to man up

well, not quite. But the church has meetings of the Pope with bishops from each region of the world, and Father Z reports that the Pope told them they aren't doing their job.

Turning now our attention to parochial communities, in which one experiences and lives the faith in a greater way, the sacramental life must be at the heart of the Bishop in a special way.  I would like to underscore only two points: confession and the Eucharist.  The Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, which is about to start, offers the opportunity to bring about the rediscovery of the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation. Confession is the place where one receives as a gift the forgiveness and the mercy of God.

here is what the Pope said:

In confession there begins the transformation of every single member of the faithful and the reform of the Church. I hope that greater attention will be given to this sacrament, so important for a spiritual renewal in diocesan and parochial pastoral planning, during the Holy Year and also after.

It is also necessary to put into evidence always the intimate connection between the Eucharist and priesthood. Pastoral plans that do not give adequate importance to priests in their ministry of governing teaching and sanctifying in regard to the structures and the sacramental life of the church, on the basis of experience are destined for failure. The precious collaboration of the lay faithful above all where vocations are lacking cannot become a surrogate for priestly ministry or make it even seem simply to be optional. Without the priest there is no Eucharist.

sounds like he got it right.

The bad news: You won't read about it in the local papers.

In the meanwhile, the BBC reports that the Vatican bureaucrats have their priorities straight: Arresting the whistleblowers and reporters instead of rooting out the evil there.

These Vatican bureaucrats opposed JP2 on many levels, and also probably were behind the resignation of Benedict, who had spent years rooting out heresy and later rooting out pedophilia cases that the bureaucrats were sitting on or ignoring.

In our prayers.

PIZZA!

So I was saying my evening prayers last night and all of a sudden it hit me: I was happy.  Or rather I should say I was joyful.

It seems that this was the first time I felt this way since my husband died.
So what had changed? Well, I was going to go buy some "3 in one" (coffee packets with creme and sugar) at the local grocery store but my granddaughter was here alone so I asked her to go with me. And then, since I needed cat litter, asked if she would go with me to the mall to buy it, even though I was only dressed in my grungie clothes.

So we bought cat litter, a few DVD's to back up my computer, and then passed the newly opened restaurant that served pizza, and the line was short.

So we bought a medium pizza with everything on it and came home and ate it.

Heh. Doesn't take a lot to make me happy.

On a less joyful note, I opened a checking account with Joy, who is busy selling rice: (not our rice since Chano took over the business and when he insisted his paramour run the farm and Joy work with him, she refused, so she is working with her family and their friends in the next province to grow organic rice...I should add the paramour convinced Chano to add chemicals to the rice and sell it as organic and Joy won't go along with this fraud).

So maybe my pension will stay a little more intact since Joy will support herself.

Finally, Lolo's will goes to court in two weeks. Chano is not making money and will complete the sale of an outside field that isn't our land traditionally but Lolo bought it because he felt sorry for the aging owner (whose kids decided they could earn more money in Manila and didn't want to farm).

This is not strictly legal either, but I can't see pushing to go to court to stop him. I just hope we can keep the family's traditional fields safe.

religion and materialism

Ace of Spades links to a nihilistic fantasy written by Tom Friedman (who years ago lived in civil war torn Lebanon). And he sees the modern multinational economy

Consider: It required the melding of three cultures, Brazilian, Japanese, and Egyptian, to produce the perforation in my Minnesota-made kidney. It was as if the grand viziers of thought and the great moguls of trade had conspired for years to come together into the red-tipped point of my itinerant assassin's dagger.

Heh. Actually he's probably wrong:  it was probably a knife imported from a Chinese factory, not a local one, because by manipulating their currency they can under price and bankrupt local factories.

But never mind. the point is that he only sees the Market. Fine, He writes on the economy a lot. But the world is more than the market.

Compare and contrast: Christian musician MarkMallet's real encounter:

“What would you do if the Americans were bombing your wife and children? What would you do?!” He went on to justify the suicide bombers who were attacking American targets overseas. He was coming a bit unglued in his anger actually, and so I prayed for a moment, and then changed the subject.
“Is it true,” I asked, “that Muslims honor the Blessed Virgin Mary?”
All of sudden, the cabby’s face that had been twisted in anger in the rear view mirror began to unwind, along with his tone and demeanour.
“Oh yes…”, he sighed. “She is the most beautiful of all women, a virgin, pure and holy.” As he continued to speak of her, it was clear that this man had more devotion to Mary than many Catholics.

and he goes on to give a nuanced religious discussion about the culture wars being between believers and the nihilists: between nihilistis of ISIS imposing the caliphate and the NWO imposing their world view that Stuff is God along with what JP2 called the culture of death (material things as being more important than people, along with hedonism, divorce, abortion, euthanasia).

All of us have a distorted view of God to one degree or another, and it is precisely this distortion that can affect not only our personal relationship with the Lord, but in the more spiritually blind, become the justification of violence “in the name of God.” Pope Francis rightly calls this “blasphemy”,[4] especially when such violence is being used to force others into the “sole thought” of the State—or caliphate.

StrategyPage discusses multiculturalism and the failed state. again with nuances.

One of the unique problems is opposition from some Islamic conservatives. This is made worse because many Arabs believe what al Qaeda preaches, that the world should be ruled by an Islamic religious dictatorship, and that this must be achieved by any means necessary (including force against non-Moslems and Moslems who don’t agree.) This sort of thinking has been popular with Islamic conservatives since Islam first appeared in the sixth century. Since then, it has periodically flared up into major outbreaks of religious inspired violence. But that’s not the only problem. 

 the other problems are the culture of paranoia when things are bad, scapegoating others, i.e. blaming others for all their problems including what they cause themselves. Also corruption and tribalism.

One tribe runs the place and keeps other from getting a share.

Sigh

Cultural imperialism

Pope Francis has noted the cultural imperialism that lets western countries spread immorality to poor third world countries, such as linking the abortion/sexual agenda to desperately needed aid for the poor.

Linked for later reading: A professor who is being sued for non PC thinking has a long analysis about the SJW movement, but it includes this paragraph:

In “Jephthah’s Daughters: Innocent Casualties in the War for Family ‘Equality,’” I included these points: 

The scope, depth, and purism of sexual movements may ultimately surpass the overreach and eventual implosion of the global movements for class equality. [LGBT activists] are creatures of overreach. Yet their modus operandi has ended up being even more invasive than Marxism, because what ligbitists regulate is intimate, pertaining to the pleasurable acts that were previously private.
When I am in France, I have to explain to countless Europeans why this ideology became so awful. America is to the ligbitist movement as the Soviet Union was to Communism. American universities articulated the theoretical framework for this movement in its most abstract form. Then the police state and financial power of the United States have kicked in to impose it nationwide, then globally. We can blame it partly on the Scandinavians, but honestly, how much could Sweden and Denmark have inflicted this on such a massive swath of the world? It’s Americans who unleashed this on the globe.

Many ironies surround the rise of LGBT/feminist ideology, not the least of which is the role of American exceptionalism. One could argue that the United States has been far more obnoxious about imposing its gender radicalism on the world than the Soviet Union was about forcing a vision of classless societies across the globe. 

------------------

I had to look up Jephtha's daughter: LINK includes a commentary on her obedience to her wicked father and a long discussion of how it is portrayed to show the moral chaos of the days of the Judges (the father was a militant gang leader who was drafted to fight Israel's enemies).

More bloody bible? Nah, probably a story told to tell a lesson: the story is similar to those found in other legends of the ancient world, (the commentary at the link mentions Cloelia)

But I thought it was similar to the story of how Agamemnon who sacrificed his daughter for victory at Troy, and she too, after protesting, willingly offers herself for her father's victory in the play by Euripides...

But note that the "followup" of Iphigenia is that years later, her mom took revenge on her husband for the death.

gimme that new age religion

brand new shiny do it yourself trendier than now "spirituality center" described at GetReligion.

sigh.

I really don't have a problem with churches giving classes in TaiChi or Yoga (which do not have to be associated with empowering your kudalani point). And meditation techniques of the centering prayer are fine if you know the difference. (one is meditation on your inner self to find God, but often just finding yourself; the other is learning to be quiet and concentrate on God).

But I remember one Indian reservation where they held a yoga class every Friday night, and I longed for Eucharistic adoration, which was not offered. I was half tempted to ask if I could join and the go upstairs and pray.

But never mind.

-----
 DavidWarren has an essay on the old out of date play "Catholics"....
he articulates what I could not: what really disturbed me about the play: no not the old fuddy duddy and the Latin Mass vs the shiny new church propaganda, but the fact that no one, especially the monk who was being "corrected"  in the play took God or the Eucharist seriously.

You expect the shiny new catholic to be clueless, but I agree with Warren that even if you have "lost your faith", if you pray and try to say the mass right and do the right thing, you will regain it.

I should note that Catholics think faith is a choice, not an emotion... so "not believing" as an emotional feeling is not the same as "not believing".

I explain it this way: The first time I traveled to Ireland, I could not believe I was there. It was in front of me, it was a reality, but I didn't "feel" I was in a foreign country.

Often "loss of faith" is similar to a depressed person thinking no one loves him or that his life was a failure. No, that is an emotional reaction.

The universe of Catholicism doesn't mean losing logic or rejecting science either: It means a world view where logic and faith are compatible and related.

So I have faith that if I jump off a building, I won't fly, and faith that the universe is not a meaningless bunch of atoms but is run by a loving creator.

It has been said that Tolkien did not view God as a thing he chose to believe in, but as a reality that was there.
and science's problem is when it insists only what science proclaims is the Truth, not the traditional idea that both faith and logic seek the truth.


You look at trees and label them just so,
(for trees are 'trees', and growing is 'to grow');
you walk the earth and tread with solemn pace
one of the many minor globes of Space:
a star's a star, some matter in a ball
compelled to courses mathematical
amid the regimented, cold, inane,
where destined atoms are each moment slain....

I will not walk with your progressive apes,
erect and sapient. Before them gapes
the dark abyss to which their progress tends
if by God's mercy progress ever ends,
and does not ceaselessly revolve the same
unfruitful course with changing of a name...

In Paradise perchance the eye may stray
from gazing upon everlasting Day
to see the day illumined, and renew
from mirrored truth the likeness of the True.
Then looking on the Blessed Land 'twill see
that all is as it is, and yet made free:
Salvation changes not, nor yet destroys,
garden nor gardener, children nor their toys.

bad press or intentional confusion?

I ran across a blog quoting a story saying that the US bishops approved of cross communion with Lutherans.

This was puzzling since the US Catholic bishops don't have this authority, nor was it discussed in their last meeting.

Ah yes: What happened is a small group under the bishops decided this was okay, and released a statement in the bishop's name. Similar ploys were done when the pro gay "all our children" document was released without anyone voting on it, when the POTC was criticized, when pro abortion organizations were funded by the bishops under helping the poor, and if you have a long memory, when the bishops supported unilateral disarmament by the US in the face of an aggressive communist USSR.

What is going on reminds me of Andrew Greeley's comments that the "church reform" was the revolt of the middle management against the bishops (and usually against the will of the ordinary catholics). These are professional agitators, often gay and/or feminist who got into the bureaucracy because they could wield power.

in a related matter: while Salon had a pedophile defend his sexual orientation and then printed a second letter complaining of the "hate" he got for his brave essay, we have a new film about the Catholic scandal.

I seem to remember that one of the worst Boston Pedophiles was left intact because the press was hailing him for his work with the homeless: Essentially if he was removed, his press contacts would insist it was a political move, not one of a "beloved" priest removed because of abuse. So now there is a film, which will alas result in a lot more money to the lawyers.

Yes, abuse happened, but was again according to Greeley's book memoirs of a parish priest, this was often because although most gay priests (which according to his sociology strict investigation was 20 percent, not the higher number by activists usually quoted in the press). and most were celibate, just like most heterosexual priests were celibate.

But when they "fell" often there was a coverup because of the over represented gay priests in the bishop's bureaucracy, not to mention bishops taking the hard line advice by their lawyers and the "we can cure them" advice by the psychiatrists (The advice by Johns Hopkins back then was to cure them).

So when the Pope again puts his foot in his mouth and tells a semi senile 90 year old reporter that, don't worry, eventually we will let all those adulterers receive communion, one can only say WTF.

Yes, like his earlier comments it was retracted as a misquote, but as Father Z and others point out, a lot of ordinary Catholics are wondering if he is planning to change the church doctrine that is based on the very quotes of Jesus.

Sigh.

Suicide for propaganda purposes

Spiked compares the propaganda behind justifying assisted suicide to the propaganda that portrays suicide bombers as heroic.

both suicide bombers and assisted-suicide bombers use their deaths for public, propagandistic ends. After all, it was Binner himself who decided to take his own life. It was Binner who decided that his suicide could be used to further the campaign for a change in the law. While normally it is difficult to judge the actions of individuals who kill themselves, individuals who have politicised their deaths are different. They have laid out the reasoning for their acts, made themselves part of a cause, and demanded that we support both their actions and their cause. They are there to be publicly judged.
Sainted for a suicideIt is possible to see in suicide bombers and assisted-suicide bombers a shared quest for significance. As philosopher and psychologist William James noted, ‘no matter what a man’s frailties otherwise may be, if he be willing to risk death, and still more if he suffers it heroically, in the service he has chosen, the fact consecrates him forever’. Here, I think, we have an answer to the question, ‘Why couldn’t he have committed suicide at home?’. Suicide is legal and Binner had the means and ability to make it happen. But martyrs are remembered not for their lives but for why they died. To die simply to avoid the depredations of disease lacks the significance of dying to further a cause.
We can expect many more assisted-suicide bombers to be paraded in front of us over the coming years. These tactics have always been important to organisations such as Dignity in Dying and the British Humanist Association.