I mean they know that the real percentage is very low and there are sexual abusers in every category of profession. So why not pay as much attention to teachers or coaches or rabbis or ministers?
2007-07-27 15:22:50 · 27 answers · asked by jakejr6 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Simply put, a priest, whose closeness to God is taught every Roman Catholic child, possesses control, power, position, strength over a child which teachers and coaches seldom have. You are right, Jake, it is a small number of the more than 400,000 priests in the world, but it is important even so. We must know about cases of child molestation--and you may have missed the newspaper coverage of abuses by teachers and coaches. Google it when you have the time. Another aspect is that the Roman Catholic Church's attempts to 'cover up' and even protect some of the priests who molested children. Once discovered, it became an even bigger story.
2007-07-27 15:55:53 · answer #1 · answered by Yank 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Because priests are a figure of authority, and while the number of teachers and coaches who have sexually abused children is slightly higher, there are like 10 times as many teachers and coaches.
2007-07-27 15:27:15 · answer #2 · answered by Citizen Justin 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
People in any leadership positions are held to a higher standard simply because of the trust issue. It's one thing the media is correct to expose, I think. Teachers, coaches , rabbis, ministers, and priests are all public figures with access to our children, women, and men and are to be held accountable for their violations of trust.
2007-07-27 15:27:34 · answer #3 · answered by Joyful Noise 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You know what? I thought about it for a moment and realized, that it really is not the fact of percentages that created the backlash against the Catholic Church. It is the fact that the knowledge came forth that the Catholic Church KNEW about the problem, and covered it up for more than t50 years that has created the media feeding frenzy.
The Catholic Church, has only itself to blame for this fact.
You know what is strange though, is that some people came forward to try and expose the JW's for the same type of coverup. They even had a big convention planned a few years back expecting an avalanch of abuse victims to come forward. Yet, at the location of the big convention planned to expose the witnesses, only a couple of hundred showed up. And of those, only a few were the victims of the "Silent Lambs" proclaimed masses of victims.
2007-07-27 15:26:42 · answer #4 · answered by Tim 47 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Because the catholic church was allowing such behavior. A priest would be exposed and they would just move him to another parish. They mainly just swept it under the rug. You say it is just a small percentage of the priest that engaged in this behavior? It was just a small percentage that got caught. It's like an iceberg. You only see a little bit that has surfaced above the water. The main part is still hidden. From what I have seen and heard of kids that have went to catholic schools there is an awful lot of horror stories including my own. I wasn't sexually abused but I sure was mentally and emotionally abuse by the nuns. Like Jesus said, "You will know them by their fruits."
2007-07-27 15:34:32 · answer #5 · answered by George 4 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Well, for one thing the Catholic denomination is a very LARGE one... and second, these are supposed men of God doing this horrid thing........ and third, they need to be exposed......... Would you ask this question if it was you are some one you loved who had been abused by one ??? I was abused sexualy, as a child, and as a part of that *club* I find it offensive that ppl think the way you do..... A person who claims to be close to God is trusted more than any profession in the world..... and that makes it 1000's of times worse than when it is done by others, and it is VERY ugly and *out of words here to discribe the horror* when anyone does it............ *sigh*............ God bless
2007-07-27 15:30:16 · answer #6 · answered by Annie 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They do. But with coaches and teachers, they have a background check. I'm not sure about ministers or rabbis, but with the priests, the church just covers it up and send them to a new location. They rarely if ever get sent to prison for the harm they cause.
2007-07-27 15:29:58 · answer #7 · answered by sweetgurl13069 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
I have also wondered this myself, not a day goes by that I dont read in my local paper about a school teacher or sports coach or police officer of firemen or protestant preachers and ministers being charged with molestation and its usually buried in the paper.
2007-07-27 15:39:17 · answer #8 · answered by tebone0315 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
And the next question is: Why are all the complaints 20 or 30 years old? And actually their are more public school teachers that commit this than Priests but the media likes public school teachers.
2007-07-27 15:31:54 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 2⤋
Because bad news sells better than good news.
It is the same all over. You do not hear about the good teachers, etc. , who spend a thousand dollars of their own money on students whose parents don't care. You don't hear when people do good things. However, if there is anything at all bad, it spreads like wildfire.
2007-07-27 15:26:35 · answer #10 · answered by batgirl2good 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋