The systematic sexual abuse of children has been the church's dirty little secret for centuries. The church hierarchy had to be fully aware of it, and until these horrors began getting the media exposure they deserve, the church protected the priests and blamed their victims. I suspect this diocese has moved the majority of their cash assets off shore. The Vatican bank was created to launder money for Mussolini, and they're capable of anything.
“Staggering legal fees and large settlements or jury awards for a few victim-survivors would have depleted our financial resources, leaving the vast majority of victim-survivors without compensation, while ending ministries that families across Maryland rely on for material and spiritual support.“
What material support can people get that secular organizations (that don’t rape children) can better provide? Are these services worth the abuse of children? We really have to decide as a society that they are not.
I don’t value spiritual support, I know others do, however the question remains. Is the spiritual support important enough to pay for with the lives and innocence and torture of thousands of children?
Deny the bankruptcy. Allow the victim-survivors their say in court, show the world how truly horrifying the crimes are so that people can see the true value of the services they think they need and what they are really paying for them. Any other industry/business would have been wiped out ages ago. Well, maybe not football, but anything else.
I shouldn't be at all surprised to discover that this tactic is part of a playbook, formulated by the Catholic Church, to stave off any meaningful action or response until such becomes unavoidable. On top of which, as stated in the article:
Which means, as I read it, NO PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. I'm not even a lapsed Catholic, and I cannot begin to tell you how tired I am that there have been no substantial criminal penalties paid by individual priests, as regards the Catholic pedophile scandal. There are likely not just hundreds but thousands of collared perpetrators who have yet to be called to task for their heinous actions and very likely never will be.
Knew what I wanted to say when I first saw the article headline but once again Hemant waits until the very last paragraph and beats me to it.
*shakes fist at Hemant*
It's amazing that these enablers...er, parishioners can sleep with a clear conscience. And they wonder why people find them vile. Do they not worry about their own children being near these child diddlers/rapists? Christians love to claim they're pro-life. Time after time, they prove the opposite is true. Guess we shouldn't be surprised considering who they worship. A man who stated that anyone who loved their son or daughter more than him was not worthy of him.
Bullshit. They've got all the money in the fucking world. The Vatican just needs to crack open that vault and start handing out all the shit they've stolen over the centuries.
I've said it before but it bears repeating. They were complicit in CRIMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why have they not been arrested and indicted? Why are those who covered it up almost never punished?
It seems to me that the diocese has a couple of ways of looking at being made to pay out:
On the one hand, they could believe their protection of the church's reputation was a 'greater good' sort of thing and therefore righteous. In which case, they are being persecuted for their righteousness, which is a blessing, according to a certain religious figure.
On the other, if what they were doing wasn't righteous... then they are correctly being punished for being unrighteous and should accept the penalty as righteous people.
Gripping hand is, of course, that fact that you know, and I know, and they know, and everyone else knows, that this has nothing to do with righteousness at all and is strictly about money and power.
And if anyone needs proof of that, they should ask themselves if the money spent lobbying legislators to prevent victims from coming forward might have been better set aside to compensate said victims. Just a thought.
I honestly don't understand why anyone would still claim to be Catholic. I just don't get it.
In all truth, this is what the RCC has always done. They circle the proverbial wagons and try to protect Holy Mother Church. This is just the latest iteration of that; the Vatican probably has the money to make payouts to victims/survivors for years to come. They don't want to do that, it might interfere with their ability to buy those expensive robes and such. If they'd had the spine to start actually insisting these abusive priests cease-and-desist posthaste, they wouldn't be in this situation now. So sorry, no sympathy left for a group of wealthy whiners who apparently can't police their own.
As for the more standard member of the Catholic faith - seriously, you deserve better than this. Find a new church if you must, but get out. For your own spiritual health, leave before you become a monster, too.
Until they've had to put Fluffy's fancy hat in hock and trade the Popemobile in for a used moped, no tentacle of the RCC should 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 be allowed to claim bankruptcy.
No drag queens involved in all of this.
The systematic sexual abuse of children has been the church's dirty little secret for centuries. The church hierarchy had to be fully aware of it, and until these horrors began getting the media exposure they deserve, the church protected the priests and blamed their victims. I suspect this diocese has moved the majority of their cash assets off shore. The Vatican bank was created to launder money for Mussolini, and they're capable of anything.
“Staggering legal fees and large settlements or jury awards for a few victim-survivors would have depleted our financial resources, leaving the vast majority of victim-survivors without compensation, while ending ministries that families across Maryland rely on for material and spiritual support.“
What material support can people get that secular organizations (that don’t rape children) can better provide? Are these services worth the abuse of children? We really have to decide as a society that they are not.
I don’t value spiritual support, I know others do, however the question remains. Is the spiritual support important enough to pay for with the lives and innocence and torture of thousands of children?
Deny the bankruptcy. Allow the victim-survivors their say in court, show the world how truly horrifying the crimes are so that people can see the true value of the services they think they need and what they are really paying for them. Any other industry/business would have been wiped out ages ago. Well, maybe not football, but anything else.
𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛, 𝑚𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶ℎ𝑢𝑟𝑐ℎ’𝑠 ℎ𝑖𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑙𝑒𝑑𝑔𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑 𝑠𝑒𝑥𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑏𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎𝑠 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑠 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒.
I shouldn't be at all surprised to discover that this tactic is part of a playbook, formulated by the Catholic Church, to stave off any meaningful action or response until such becomes unavoidable. On top of which, as stated in the article:
𝐵𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑛𝑜 𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑝𝑜𝑒𝑛𝑎𝑠 𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐 𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑦 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑎 𝑗𝑢𝑟𝑦, 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑣𝑜𝑟𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑡𝑜 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎 𝑐𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠.
Which means, as I read it, NO PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. I'm not even a lapsed Catholic, and I cannot begin to tell you how tired I am that there have been no substantial criminal penalties paid by individual priests, as regards the Catholic pedophile scandal. There are likely not just hundreds but thousands of collared perpetrators who have yet to be called to task for their heinous actions and very likely never will be.
And that badly needs to CHANGE.
Knew what I wanted to say when I first saw the article headline but once again Hemant waits until the very last paragraph and beats me to it.
*shakes fist at Hemant*
It's amazing that these enablers...er, parishioners can sleep with a clear conscience. And they wonder why people find them vile. Do they not worry about their own children being near these child diddlers/rapists? Christians love to claim they're pro-life. Time after time, they prove the opposite is true. Guess we shouldn't be surprised considering who they worship. A man who stated that anyone who loved their son or daughter more than him was not worthy of him.
Bullshit. They've got all the money in the fucking world. The Vatican just needs to crack open that vault and start handing out all the shit they've stolen over the centuries.
> "Staggering legal fees and large settlements or jury awards for a few victim-survivors would have depleted our financial resources..."
Translation: "We might have to sell off one or two of the plush purple cushions I sit my pious ass on. Ain't that just such an awful pity?"
I've said it before but it bears repeating. They were complicit in CRIMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why have they not been arrested and indicted? Why are those who covered it up almost never punished?
It seems to me that the diocese has a couple of ways of looking at being made to pay out:
On the one hand, they could believe their protection of the church's reputation was a 'greater good' sort of thing and therefore righteous. In which case, they are being persecuted for their righteousness, which is a blessing, according to a certain religious figure.
On the other, if what they were doing wasn't righteous... then they are correctly being punished for being unrighteous and should accept the penalty as righteous people.
Gripping hand is, of course, that fact that you know, and I know, and they know, and everyone else knows, that this has nothing to do with righteousness at all and is strictly about money and power.
And if anyone needs proof of that, they should ask themselves if the money spent lobbying legislators to prevent victims from coming forward might have been better set aside to compensate said victims. Just a thought.
Catholics are usually not biblical literalists but they sure do take “suffer the little children” to heart.
I honestly don't understand why anyone would still claim to be Catholic. I just don't get it.
In all truth, this is what the RCC has always done. They circle the proverbial wagons and try to protect Holy Mother Church. This is just the latest iteration of that; the Vatican probably has the money to make payouts to victims/survivors for years to come. They don't want to do that, it might interfere with their ability to buy those expensive robes and such. If they'd had the spine to start actually insisting these abusive priests cease-and-desist posthaste, they wouldn't be in this situation now. So sorry, no sympathy left for a group of wealthy whiners who apparently can't police their own.
As for the more standard member of the Catholic faith - seriously, you deserve better than this. Find a new church if you must, but get out. For your own spiritual health, leave before you become a monster, too.
what a shame
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2023/09/29/michigan-republican-party-faces-financial-turmoil-bank-records-show/71003017007/
That they can do this makes me SO. FUCKING. MAD.
Jesus said: "give away all that you have and follow me."
Religious hucksters say: "give us all that you have and follow Jesus."
The Baltimore archdiocese says: "let's pretend we don't have anything and we will blame it on Satan."
Gold! gold! Glorious gold!
Nothing quite like it! It never gets old!
So follow me! follow!
Down to the hollow
And there let us wallow
In Glowingly Glorious gold!
Until they've had to put Fluffy's fancy hat in hock and trade the Popemobile in for a used moped, no tentacle of the RCC should 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 be allowed to claim bankruptcy.
OT: Terrific, this will add fuel to the fire of the I nearly died and I saw God crowd.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkamgm/people-experience-new-dimensions-of-reality-when-dying-groundbreaking-study-reports