Religious orders - sometimes "independent," sometimes not
Bishops consistently claim they aren't responsible for child sex crimes and cover ups committed by religious order clerics. "They're totally separate from us," bishops repeatedly say about the Jesuits, Salesians, Benedictines and the like.
And Vatican officials consistently claim they aren't responsible for clergy sex crimes and cover ups across the globe. (Their jurisdiction, they want us to believe, is limited to the actual, tiny, physical Vatican city/state.)
But today, the National Catholic Reporter is disclosing that hundreds of treasurers of religious orders have been summoned to Rome by the bishop of Rome, Pope Francis, to talk about money.
Once again, church officials say they're A, until that's disadvantageous. Then, they say they're actually B. And when claiming to be B becomes disadvantageous, then they go back to claiming to be A.
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If there were “too much human morality and decency in existence,” then citizens of all religions, denominations, the police, teachers, doctors and nurses, social workers, civic organizations, etc., would be demanding justice. Instead, pastors and rabbis are afraid to embarrass priests, and lay citizenry is so ashamed of the very mention of pedophilia that they lower their eyes, shake their heads, and walk away. I’ve been told by editors of major publishing houses in their rejection letters to me, “We really want to help you with this, but we’ve been trying to avoid publishing on this subject…”. Nothing will change until the abuse is confronted openly and repeatedly.
When we were young, we read stacks of books from libraries. Now, the message must be disseminated through the Internet, social media, and electronic books, because many libraries are as empty and quiet as mausoleums.
Lani, our goals, you and I, are the same: justice, recovery, and change. It is evident that you hold enough anger to motivate you. Now, put the energy of that anger to use by getting the word out through modern means of communication, and by helping in state chapters of SNAP to litigate these crimes, so we can collectively pressure the Catholic church to STOP THE ABUSE, as you desire.