VICTORIA Police has called for sweeping changes to the way Melbourne’s Catholic Church deals with sex crime allegations, as The Age reveals that only one priest has been defrocked for abuse in the past 14 years.
Nearly 300 allegations of sexual abuse have been substantiated by church investigations since 1996, when the ”Melbourne Response” was set up to deal with complaints. It is believed the abuses were perpetrated by approximately 100 priests, a figure the church will not confirm. Just one priest has been defrocked as a result. Some other priests lost their role serving a parish full-time.
Church sources say police are pushing for change because they do not want accused priests told about covert criminal investigations. Last year detectives feared the church’s independent commissioner, Peter O’Callaghan, QC, may have compromised two covert investigations when he told two priests, through their lawyers, that they were being investigated. He did this without the consent of detectives, who had not yet interviewed the priests. Mr O’Callaghan’s investigation is suspended when police begin theirs – and he argues that priests have a right to know.
[…]
The Age can now reveal that in August last year Mr O’Callaghan told an alleged victim that his alleged groping by a priest was unlikely to constitute a crime. In a letter he said: ”Without seeking to dissuade you from reporting the matter to police if you so desire, I must say that the conduct you described is unlikely to be held by a court as criminal conduct.”
What an utter disgrace.
Peter O’Callaghan’s bar association web page. He is allowed to practise law in Ireland and Australia.
http://vicbar.com.au/c.1.3.aspx?RollNumber=622
Job security.
I just want to know why the hell we don’t start taxing these church organizations till they get their crap together and start handing to authorities the thousands of kiddie fiddlers currently under their protection.
Would that stop them, damn right it would.
You can take that to the bank!!
The ONLY way to make any large corporate or commercial entity (coz that exactly what a church is) behave is to cost them money.
The Roman Catholic Church has lost any hope of respect.
On the other hand, I suspect many “men of the cloth” of all ilks take advantage. I know of one in my area that became a “preacher”. There’s no way he has forsaken his ways preying on women that are looking for support.
Even if Benedict would miraculously reverse modern tradition of no marriage, there would still be issues for those that guide the flock.
Priests are people too,abuse happens everywhere.This news is not news.But Liberals love to bash Catholics.
It’s the in thing today for generation Y idiots!
Any sin a Catholic priest commits is publicized and spreads, but funny how all the abuse, sin, etc etc etc in the protestant religions isn’t even mentioned… Priests are definitely human just like the rest of us.
300 REPORTED cases but maybe 2000 or 3000 total victims.
– – – – –
•The typical offender is male, begins molesting by age 15, engages in a variety of deviant behavior, and molests an average of 117 youngsters, most of whom do not report the offense.
-Dr. Gene Abel in a National Institute of Mental Health Study.
http://tinyurl.com/5jmxox
>> EvilPoliticians said, on April 21st, 2010 at 5:28 pm
>> On the other hand, I suspect many “men of the cloth” of all ilks take advantage. I know of one in my area that became a “preacher”.
Let’s put this in perspective:
I grew up in several (Protestant) churches and had close relationships with pastors, youth group sponsors, camp counselors, scout leaders, choir directors, Sunday school teachers, etc — maybe 100 or more, mostly men.
Not one single person did anything immoral, sexual or exploitative to me. Nothing at all.
I was raised by a single mother and it was very helpful to have these men in my life during my youth.
>> zybch said, on April 21st, 2010 at 5:23 pm
>> I just want to know why the hell we don’t start taxing these church organizations till they get their crap together and start handing to authorities the thousands of kiddie fiddlers currently under their protection.
My church feeds _literally_ TENS OF THOUSANDS of hungry people a year. We have a food pantry for families and we offer hot lunches to street people.
They just said that we have given out 15,000 bags of foot so far this year – our previous record was 20,000 bags for the whole year.
We do no preaching to these people and we do absolutely not politics. As far as I’m aware we’ve had no pedophilia issues or even charges. The only “business” we have is a small book store that sells to our own parishioners.
Our church is not that big and, this year, we chose cut back on staff rather than cut back on food for the hungry and now we are at a minimum level. It was sad to send these good people into the job market but we couldn’t stand turning hungry people away.
So, if we are taxed, you would be _literally_ taking food from the hungry.
You OK with that?
(and BTW, this is only ONE thing we do. We also have adopted a village in Central America where we have been building clean water and sanitation projects.)
The Victorian police should be reviewing why it has not charged these people. They are to be presumed innocent until proven otherwise. Do they have evidence? If so why have they neglected their duty to charge them and present them to a jury of their peers.
The Australian Senate would not even investigate reports of abuse by the Church of Scientology (not child rape related) seemingly because they did not want to question a ‘religious’ institution, maybe that tells you something about why the two major churches, Anglican and Catholic, have felt free to protect child rapists without fear of official scrutiny. Teachers are legally obliged to report suspected abuse.
The Catholic Church (and Anglican) is morally bankrupt (the leaders not the people). I don’t know why anyone is surprised (repeatedly), blind devotion and sectarianism I guess.
If the allegation is true (about informing those under investigation) and it constitutes a crime (which I don’t think it does), charge them with obstruction of justice or conspiracy, if not get on with your job and charge the actual criminals.
I expect the elected representatives to enact the law, I expect the police to enforce it (along with the courts and prisons), I expect nothing from the proven perpetrators and enablers but for them to go to jail for a very long time.
#10 LDA
Agreed. The cover ups are clearly being facilitated by institutions outside of the Church.
#5 Upyours
Of course priests are only human, but humans that sexually or physically abuse other humans, especially vulnerable humans called children, should be prosecuted by the law. The Catholic Church, as illustrated by this article, appears to be actively covering up such abuse and preventing priests who are accused of abuse from facing the law.
These priests and bishops should not be held above the law, they should be prosecutable. It isn’t in the Catholic church’s interest to cover this up, either! Keeping people like this within a church that is supposed to represent God on Earth just doesn’t spread that message.
Is this common in other churches (i.e. Anglican, Presbyterian, Greek Orthodox, Southern Baptist)? Although sex scandals aren’t really anything new to Christian leaders, we really only hear about these pedophilia cases happening in the Catholic church.
I’m pretty sure that if another protestant church leader like Billy Graham or James Dobson (formerly of Focus on the Family) did something like this he would not still have his job. I seem to remember some big time preacher resigning last year because a man accused him of buying meth from him and then having sex with him!
I would hate to bash on the Catholic church though because they do a lot of good things too. Even though every day we’re hearing another story like this, probably most of the priests and workers out there are trying to do good work at their jobs.
I don’t think taxation would solve anything either. It wouldn’t help the victims any. Besides, what are you taxing? Most of the money a church brings in is gifts or offerings. It also prevents the churches from doing social programs that many of them do.
#5 upyours (ironic) & #6 maiawinter
Take off your blinders. Protestant and liberal rapists and those that protect them should be charged too. Don’t let sectarianism twist you.
This is like the stupid Democrat / Republican hypocrisy. If you had any dignity you would go after any institution that lets this happen, even if it is your own sacred cow and even if it is someone who claims to represent Jesus on earth (what terribly nauseating irony).
Isn’t it funny how the Church and both of you used the “this happens everywhere” and “anti-Catholic bias” excuse to defend widespread child rape and cover-up. Talking points? Very cult like.
Most people are really just anti-child rape actually. I would have thought that was something almost everyone could support. How about you?
#8/#9 Greg Allen
I went to Scouts too and we had a pedophile, he was whisked away and replaced by a local cop. I do not know if he was charged but I am sure you would agree he should have been and if the organization protected him they should be too. That is really the issue. I went many other places with no sign of child rapists, so that is good.
A lot of people in churches (Catholics included) do good work. So do non-church people. The tax issue is really about equality before the law and everyone should be taxed equally (and probably less, get rid of the Fed. and save on interest to the private syndicate).
#5 upyours
I like your reasoning. 300 humped altar boys is an acceptable statistical average. In fact they should feel lucky they got only got buggered so little.
#5 upyours, re “Priests are people too,abuse happens everywhere.This news is not news.
Shame on you upyours, and you too #6 maiawinter. This IS news that is happening way too often in an institution that is supposed to cherish trust and love, but instead has been preying on thousands of our most innocent and defenseless.
This is not about a few unrelated ordinary ‘people’. They were presented by the church as representatives of your almighty God, some of the most respected and trusted in the Christian faith… certainly not capable of such horrible deeds… and if one were to fall it should have been an extreme rarity.
Well we all know that is utter bullshit now. Those that you now deem just people, trying to distance yourselves… are backed by an organization that has been perverted for some time, hiding their dirty deeds while continuing to abuse children. The Catholic Church is evil to the core.
What is most sickening is that most of these fu*king representatives of your God are still working for the church. That says a lot about the Christian god.
The Vatican should be demolished and some of the proceeds distributed among the victims and the rest put to good use.
Oh, and Greg… keep up the good work! 🙂
#8 Were you a fat kid?
Anyway, why shouldn’t they be taxed like every other MONEY MAKING organization?
The Cathloic church could eradicate world hunger tomorrow if they wanted to, but they won’t because the poor and desperate are far more likely to grasp onto any slim chance there is, including religion.
Sure, this life might totally suck for them, but they are given the completely unsubstantiated belief that when they die they’ll go to a place where everything will be perfect.
Christianity, especially varieties like Catholicism are death-cults. You pay and pay and pay for your whole life on the premise that you’ll receive your benefits after you die.
Face it, organized religion is a total scam, and a haven for those too mentally unstable or morally bankrupt to survive in the real world.
The church should have sent these guys to a monastery and left them there.
lets pray they stop.
#19 sure, because placing undeserved respect and faith in a particular religion didn’t help cause the problem in the first place. Right…
#8
I disagree. Churches should pay taxes. That is scripturally correct for them to do so and further is told by Jesus Christ what should be done.
Further, acts of charity/alms are supposed to be done in secret said Jesus and they would be rewarded openly by God.
But few, if any Modern Christians wish to conform to such ideals. Just like praying in prayer closets not openly before men as THAT is your reward (having men believe you are pious) and few if any Christians follow the Two Great Commands (Matthew 22: 34-40). For IF they did they would NOT molest children.
As far as I am concerned the modern church is nothing more than the old Levite Order with a different face.
But Jesus warned that people will not go to New Wine quickly. After 2000 years and still not much New Wine.
Cursor_
Should “churches” be taxed in the USA? Realistically, they could be with little impact on them and properly managed very little difference in how they “should” operate. If they actually expended most of their contributions on charitable activities, and created funds to do the same with the excess, their actual yearly tax owed should approach zero, year after year.
But compliance to tax law and the necessary reporting and auditing that should flow from that was seen as an unnecessary entanglement that the Feds wanted to distance themselves from. And that makes sense from several viewpoints.
More interesting than exemption from taxation is exemption from anti-discrimination statutes that apply to all non-religious affiliated organizations. Like women can’t be ordained, or priests can’t marry. Thats actually much more important and hardly mentioned as a legal matter.
Unlike protestant churches, the Catholic Churches ((no matter what they say to the infidels)) is a monolith. A protestant priest molests a kiddie and the solution is to cover it up in that one church or remove the priest. Not so with the Catholics and their world wide ministry==the priest gets shuffled around and hidden. Much more powerful===and we know what comes with power.
I cannot believe how many stupid Catholic’s still defend this. I am appalled that none of these priest have been put on trial! If these were average citizen’s everybody would be screaming for justice. Religion seems to put blinders on people.
Oh God, I just threw up a little at my own alias.
Religion does weird things to people. Lately I’ve noticed a trend where guys who go to those big box suburban Evangelical churches are turning into weepy soccer Moms without the balls.
upyours: No, abuse does NOT happen everywhere. It happens–but not often–when parents don’t pay attention to authority figures who are automatically trusted.
Fortunately, most all of these current stories are about old abuse. Both the Catholic Church and Boy Scouts are two groups I know of that have taken the issue seriously for some time now. Scouts for at least a couple decades, so well that the culture of the organization now revolves around protecting youth from this crap. Don’t know how seriously the Catholics follow their program though.
Greg Allen,
People think about the tax problem as an all or nothing. It sounds like your church is doing terrific work. I am not a Christian but I give money to a local downtown ministry who does similar work and I consider that a charitable donation. No question, and I think about your church the same way.
Does the support of the facility and the money spent on staff at a large church that does little charitable count as a tax deduction? That’s what rubs people the wrong way.
The problem with all this is that it becomes an accounting nightmare. For example, is religious education tax deductible? Icky stuff. I think the regulation and legal stuff is the stopper.
But overall, people who favor taxing religious institutions are saying they just want them to play by the same rules. For example, your ministry is doing honest to God charitable work. Obviously tax deductible just like any other organization. Money spent keeping the Roman Curia in Gucci slippers shouldn’t be tax deductible. Make sense?
Why isn’t Mark posting these threads now? Is he in hiding for supporting the pope previously? Just curious.
Follow the money.
Without that, nobody would claim anything.
#29, you just proved that you are a waste of skin. Bye.