Letterman Joke

Doug · Post by **Doug** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 9:08 pm

"There's a lot of tension in the world. Over the weekend, Pope Benedict apologized to the Muslims. Altar boys, on the other hand, are still waiting for their apology." -- David Letterman

Barbara Fitzpatrick · Post by **Barbara Fitzpatrick** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 9:33 am

That's not much of a joke - nor is the continued targeting ALL priests for the transgressions of a relatively few (as a percentage of priests). It has an unfortunate similarity to the targeting of ALL Muslims for the terroristic acts of a relative few.

Post by **Savonarola** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 3:11 pm

Barbara Fitzpatrick wrote:That's not much of a joke - nor is the continued targeting ALL priests for the transgressions of a relatively few (as a percentage of priests). It has an unfortunate similarity to the targeting of ALL Muslims for the terroristic acts of a relative few.

Perhaps the joke was more at the expense of the community of Catholic leaders as a whole, who has largely swept the problem under the rug for no telling how long?

Doug · Post by **Doug** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 9:08 pm

Savonarola wrote:
Barbara Fitzpatrick wrote:That's not much of a joke - nor is the continued targeting ALL priests for the transgressions of a relatively few (as a percentage of priests). It has an unfortunate similarity to the targeting of ALL Muslims for the terroristic acts of a relative few.
Perhaps the joke was more at the expense of the community of Catholic leaders as a whole, who has largely swept the problem under the rug for no telling how long?

DOUG
Yes. The actions of a few became the actions of the status quo when the Catholic church institutionalized molestation by institutionalizing the cover-up procedure. And not just a cover-up (transferring priests caught to unsuspecting parishes), but also wilfull endangerment of other parishes when they would send known pedophiles there. That would be like Muslims keeping secret terrorists who work in one area to another area.

Barbara Fitzpatrick · Mon Sep 25, 2006 11:35 am

True - as with Watergate and Gitmo - the coverup leads to actions worse than the original crime. It still doesn't make it much of a joke.

Doug · Post by **Doug** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 1:42 pm

Barbara Fitzpatrick wrote:True - as with Watergate and Gitmo - the coverup leads to actions worse than the original crime. It still doesn't make it much of a joke.

DOUG
Maybe not much of a joke, but it makes a really good point. Where is the apology for ruining the lives of hundreds of children by rape?

Post by **Dardedar** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 9:27 pm

Where is the apology for ruining the lives of hundreds of children by rape?

DAR
They may have apologized but hundreds is no doubt low. Especially if you consider the world.
This is way out of date, April 2002. Excerpts:

***
Catholic Church Still Offers "Sanctuary for Perverts"?

...

The New York Times, quoting attorneys for victims, reported that in the past two decades, dioceses have reached more than 1,000 settlements in priest sex abuse cases, many of them sealed.

The revelation that the Boston archdiocese--and four other church officials besides Law who are now bishops--directly covered up for molesting priests for 20 or 30 years has set off aftershocks in diocese after diocese.

...

The diocese in Portland, Me., initially took no stand against two parish priests who are admitted molesters. Portland's new policy, according to the Globe, permits a priest who has molested a "single minor" multiple times to stay on the job, but not a priest who molests more than one minor once!

The Archdiocese of New York, publicly exposed by a New York Times columnist for its policy to keep such scandals in-house, announced in March that for the first time it would report new incidents of child sexual abuse directly to law enforcement authorities, if victims agree. The diocese ruled out reporting old cases.

...

"There have been 1,800 priests named in civil and criminal proceedings over the last 15 years, and there are 47,000 priests in the U.S. That approaches 4 percent, and that is a staggering number," says Catholic reporter Jason Berry, author of Lead Us Not into Temptation.

FFRF

Barbara Fitzpatrick · Post by **Barbara Fitzpatrick** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 8:47 am

Apologies from the priests who committed the crimes absolutely, and from the bishops that covered up the "scandal" certainly - I'm not sure about the Church entirely. That would sort of be like all parents apologizing to all children for the fact that there are parents (and they are protected & covered by a whole slew of Republican-based laws) who abuse - physically and sexually (we won't go into emotionally) - their children. All of the priests in question need counseling - and certainly to be removed from any parish work (this is where the Church has it over the rest of American society) but there are cloister environments that would keep them from damaging others without just tossing them out on the street. You may think they deserve that, and they probably do, but on the street they could do as much damage as they did as priests, and cloistered they will no longer be a danger to children, while having the "support" of the Church (a foundation that is quite probably necessary for any possible healing of the sickness that caused them to do it in the first place). If we are not going off people for sexual child abuse (and we aren't because the largest number of offenders aren't priest, they're parents or other close relative of the children in question), then we need to find a way to separate them from children and do any healing of the illness possible. Too bad we can't "cloister" parents and grandparents.