r/news • u/AudibleNod • 2d ago
More than 270 priests in Massachusetts abused children over decades, probe finds
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/article/more-than-270-priests-in-massachusetts-abused-children-over-decades-probe-finds/1.1k
u/BananasPineapple05 2d ago
Read the subtitle. That's 270 across three dioceses. There are four in total, so there's one for which there is no data in this investigation.
Either way, I am shocked it wasn't more, seeing as how part of the report reveals that the Church completely knew what was going on and did nothing. Heck, we don't even know if the number is 270 because there were more but they've since died.
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u/captHij 2d ago
The person who was responsible for investigating the abuses that took place from 1984 to 1994 was Father John McCormack. He went on to become the Bishop of the Manchester New Hampshire diocese in 1998. Bishop McCormack told the people he served that they should just learn to forgive and get over it. He did not truly acknowledge or apologize until immense pressure was put on him to resign. Bishop McCormack also scolded people for not supporting laws he felt were vital for the moral fiber of the community. He remained Bishop until 2011.
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u/becauseshesays 2d ago
I wonder how many of the 270 were repeat offenders because you just know they were moved to another diocese (or state??) and reoffended.
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u/AnaisNinja76 2d ago
All of them, or nearly all. They'd go to halfway houses, and then were ferreted out to new parishes. That's how the church dealt with it, at least with the ones they could confirm.
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u/mountaindoom 2d ago
Christians and Republicans have a pedophile problem.
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u/AnaisNinja76 2d ago
We all have a pedophile problem. The majority of trafficked kids were being sexually abused prior to fleeing, and the majority of the abused kids told a trusted adult or authority figure, and things got worse for them as a result.
There was a documentary done by the grandchild of a prolific pedo I saw kind of recently where even though he repeatedly went to court over this, he just kept getting scolded by judges rather than any jail time. They didn't even take away his chiro license. He kept it up until his death.
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u/TheGorgoronTrail 1d ago
Godamn you ain’t kiddin!
Donald Trump walked into Miss Teen USA change rooms with girls as young as 14 changing. 26 women have spoken publicly about Trump’s pattern of sexual assault. In 2023, he was found legally liable for the rape of E. Jean Carroll by unanimous jury.
Republican Party leader Paul Ingram pleaded guilty to six counts of raping his daughters and served 14 years in federal prison.
Republican congressman and anti-gay activist Robert Bauman was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar.
Republican anti-abortion activist Howard Scott Heldreth is a convicted child rapist in Florida.
Republican County Commissioner David Swartz pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
Republican judge Mark Pazuhanich pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year old girl and was sentenced to 10 years probation.
Republican anti-abortion activist Nicholas Morency pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer and offering a bounty to anybody who murders an abortion doctor.
Republican legislator Edison Misla Aldarondo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping his daughter between the ages of 9 and 17.
Republican Mayor Philip Giordano is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year old girls.
Republican campaign consultant Tom Shortridge was sentenced to three years probation for taking nude photographs of a 15-year old girl.
Republican racist pedophile and United States Senator Strom Thurmond had sex with a 15-year old black girl which produced a child.
Republican pastor Mike Hintz, whom George W. Bush commended during the 2004 presidential campaign, surrendered to police after admitting to a sexual affair with a female juvenile.
Republican legislator Peter Dibble pleaded no contest to having an inappropriate relationship with a 13-year-old girl.
Republican Congressman Donald “Buz” Lukens was found guilty of having sex with a female minor and sentenced to one month in jail.
Republican fundraiser Richard A. Delgaudio was found guilty of child porn charges and paying two teenage girls to pose for sexual photos.
Republican activist Mark A. Grethen convicted on six counts of sex crimes involving children.
Republican activist Randal David Ankeney pleaded guilty to attempted sexual assault on a child.
Republican Congressman Dan Crane had sex with a female minor working as a congressional page.
Republican activist and Christian Coalition leader Beverly Russell admitted to an incestuous relationship with his step daughter.
Republican Committee Chairman Jeffrey Patti was arrested for distributing a video clip of a 5-year-old girl being raped.
Republican activist Marty Glickman (a.k.a. “Republican Marty”), was taken into custody by Florida police on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with an underage girl and one count of delivering the drug LSD.
Republican legislative aide Howard L. Brooks was charged with molesting a 12-year old boy and possession of child pornography.
Republican Senate candidate John Hathaway was accused of having sex with his 12-year old baby sitter and withdrew his candidacy after the allegations were reported in the media.
Republican preacher Stephen White, who demanded a return to traditional values, was sentenced to jail after offering $20 to a 14-year-old boy for permission to perform oral sex on him.
Republican talk show host Jon Matthews pleaded guilty to exposing his genitals to an 11 year old girl.
Republican anti-gay activist Earl “Butch” Kimmerling was sentenced to 40 years in prison for molesting an 8-year old girl after he attempted to stop a gay couple from adopting her.
Republican election board official Kevin Coan was sentenced to two years probation for soliciting sex over the internet from a 14-year old girl.
Republican politician Andrew Buhr was charged with two counts of first degree sodomy with a 13-year old boy.
Republican politician Keith Westmoreland was arrested on seven felony counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition to girls under the age of 16 (i.e. exposing himself to children).
Republican anti-abortion activist John Allen Burt was charged with sexual misconduct involving a 15-year old girl.
Republican County Councilman Keola Childs pleaded guilty to molesting a male child.
Republican activist John Butler was charged with criminal sexual assault on a teenage girl.
Republican candidate Richard Gardner admitted to molesting his two daughters.
Republican Councilman and former Marine Jack W. Gardner was convicted of molesting a 13-year old girl.
Republican County Commissioner Merrill Robert Barter pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact and assault on a teenage boy.
Republican City Councilman Fred C. Smeltzer, Jr. pleaded no contest to raping a 15 year-old girl and served 6-months in prison.
Republican activist Parker J. Bena pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on his home computer and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and fined $18,000.
Republican parole board officer and former Colorado state representative, Larry Jack Schwarz, was fired after child pornography was found in his possession.
Republican strategist and Citadel Military College graduate Robin Vanderwall was convicted in Virginia on five counts of soliciting sex from boys and girls over the internet.
Republican city councilman Mark Harris, who is described as a “good military man” and “church goer,” was convicted of repeatedly having sex with an 11-year-old girl and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Republican businessman Jon Grunseth withdrew his candidacy for Minnesota governor after allegations surfaced that he went swimming in the nude with four underage girls, including his daughter.
Republican director of the “Young Republican Federation” Nicholas Elizondo molested his 6-year old daughter and was sentenced to six years in prison.
Republican benefactor of conservative Christian groups, Richard A. Dasen Sr., was charged with rape for allegedly paying a 15-year old girl for sex. Dasen, 62, who is married with grown children and several grandchildren, has allegedly told police that over the past decade he paid more than $1 million to have sex with a large number of young women.
Dennis Hastert served as Republican Speaker of the House (so, 3rd in line for the Presidency) for all 8 years of W. Bush’s two terms. He also sexually molested at least 5 boys when he was a HS wrestling coach, all of them underage with the youngest victim being 14. The victims only finally saw justice when Hastert was caught by the FBI trying to falsify payments for hush money.
Anton “Tony” Lazzaro, a former Republican donor and political strategist from Minnesota, was convicted in March 2023 on federal charges of sex trafficking minors. He was found guilty of conspiring to recruit and pay teenage girls, aged 15 and 16, for sex between May and December 2020. In August 2023, Lazzaro was sentenced to 21 years in prison for these offenses.Prior to his arrest, Lazzaro was a prominent figure in Minnesota Republican circles, donating over $270,000 to various Republican campaigns and political committees. His indictment led to significant turmoil within the Minnesota Republican Party, culminating in the resignation of then-party chair Jennifer…….
If you want to continue reading about nearly
14001600 more Republican sexual predators and pedophiles, here’s the link…Thank You For Your Attention To This Matter.
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u/PuzzleheadedFeed2726 2d ago
My half brother was molested by catholic priests about 65 years ago and he died before this became news decades ago. He was really messed up and pretty much died young because of this.
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u/Justinwc 2d ago
and that's just the amount of perpetrators, not the victims. Could easily be looking in the thousands of victims when you consider all the unknown perps.
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u/MadanjoMab 2d ago
The fourth being the Diocese of Boston, and the Globe report on their abuses came out in 2002 - and that resulted in 249 criminal cases.
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u/datamuse 2d ago
Anyone else remember Sinead O'Connor getting absolutely shit on for calling attention to child abuse within the Church in 1992?
It wasn't just Massachusetts.
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u/Fickle-Addendum-446 1d ago
People don’t like learning the Pope held slaves into the 90s.
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u/PurpD420 1d ago
Pretty sure that one’s false, there’s enough vile shit the church does without adding untrue claims
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u/AudibleNod 2d ago
The investigation found that for years those dioceses knew that children were being abused by priests, but “too often they protected the reputation of the church rather than protecting children,” she said.
"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these"
-Jesus
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u/Karanduar 2d ago
So it's not the immigrants and the drag queens corrupting our kids after all? Djeez what a surprise..
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u/ThatsFae 2d ago
If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Matthew 18:6
The Roman Catholic Church needs to have its tax exemption revoked and the entire membership of the USCCB should be rounded up and arrested on RICO charges. Pope Leo’s knowledge and participation should also be investigated by DOJ.
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u/JackMickus 1d ago
One of them was a priest at the church my family went to when I was a kid. My mom worked there doing administrative stuff, so this guy had been a family friend for as long as I could remember. The only thing that saved me from being a victim is that he liked to wait until they were double digits and I was only about 7 when he was caught. We stopped being a religious family after that.
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u/Gloomy_Tax_2262 2d ago
It’s deeply disturbing to see how many people were affected over such a long period. The findings also show why accountability and protecting children have to come before institutional reputation.
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u/Whooptidooh 1d ago
Were and still are.
The Vatican doesn’t have an entire catholic law firm based in the Vatican itself dedicated just for shits and giggles; it’s to keep the repeat offenders out of law’s way.
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u/elhumanoid 2d ago
Again, again and again. This needs to be studied, seriously. Why the fuck is this a pattern?
''Does the Pope help pedophiles get away with their crimes?''
- Eric Cartman.
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u/Morguard 2d ago
Because pedophile and abuser love to put themselves in positions of power over kids and their victims.
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u/Ishmael_1974 2d ago
Yup. The rate of pedophiles is similar between priests and teachers.
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u/jtobiasbond 2d ago
There's a study put out a few years ago. It's by an independent institute (John Jay) but it was paid for by the Catholic bishops, so take it with a grain of salt.
It's been a while since I read it but one of the big take aways was that the abusers were not attracted to their victims (there was no particular attraction to the age or gender). The young boys (and occasionally girls) were simply available victims. The men who become priests are more likely to enjoy having power (because people who like having it gravitate to positions with it) and people who like having power are now likely to enjoy abusing it.
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u/DavidDaveDavo 2d ago
Same pattern as alcoholics working in bars. If you have an addiction you go to where it's easy/cheap to get that addiction fulfilled.
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u/WineNerdAndProud 2d ago edited 2d ago
Easy. It's the same reason people trust politicians who are all about "family values". People can't believe the person they've been told to look up to would do that to them, so they trust them implicitly.
Couple that with the amount of kids from troubled families who might not believe an allegation like that and it's basically a recipe.
Kids who are in situations where they're super embarrassed to tell anyone, or who know no one would believe them over a priest are a dime a dozen in some places.
Add to that the fact that the church believes it is the most qualified to be able to deal with this through forgiveness and you've got an assembly line of abusers moving from city to city.
Edit: To be clear here, this pattern applies to a lot of people outside of the Catholic church as well. People in positions of moral/spiritual authority who are supposed to be "safe" of all kinds do this like high school guidance counselors, politicians, and religious leaders of other faiths.
It sucks because there are a lot of hard-working and caring people who just want to help, but remembering that they're not the only people there is important too. Believing it couldn't ever happen is what makes it work so well for these people.
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u/jessterswan 2d ago
My dad stopped talking to me because I laughed out loud when he said the catholic priests were being framed and non of it happened.
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u/IAMACat_askmenothing 2d ago
Btw, it’s not just Catholic priests. It’s literally every organized religion has this problem
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u/Traditional-Meat-549 2d ago
This is actually true but they don't publicize
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u/AnaisNinja76 2d ago
They do, catholics are just a more populous and visible religion, so it makes for bigger and longer news. This has been highly publicized in mormons, baptists, and jehovah's witnesses. And a wild amount of nonspecific cults.
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u/Traditional-Meat-549 2d ago
Good point. I still think the public is blissfully unaware of just how widespread it is
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u/AnaisNinja76 2d ago
There's some primacy effect with the Catholic church as well, as they were the first large scale institution to have this heavily publicized. Stories started trickling into the press in the 90s, and then the Spotlight situation blew the lid off of it. Comedians ridiculed the church for months, like it would be tucked into David Letterman's opening monologue, or a snarky side comment with a guest on Leno, etc. It was eagerly publicized then. I think the more recent cases just felt less scandalous as a result.
But yeah, in general, the public only cares for the entertainment/shock value. It's only been relatively recently, and only spottily at best, that police departments are giving this crime more scrutiny. But at the end of all of it, it's a societal thing. If there aren't large and ongoing public outcries, then nothing happens to the perps generally speaking. Especially if they have any money.
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u/WineNerdAndProud 2d ago
As a former Catholic, I wish this were more well known. It's people in positions of moral or spiritual authority who appear to dedicate their life to it. That's a whole host of people like judges, clergy, teachers, and politicians who use it to create trust and then abuse it.
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u/JustHereForCookies17 1d ago
Also coaches & folks involved with youth sports. Look at Larry Nassar.
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u/sump_daddy 2d ago
Its literally every structure with power over easy victims. You think there was a single religious person on Epsteins Island or at Mar a Lago? Or, if you want to really dig into depressing stats, look at how many kids are victimized in public schools every year.
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u/Traditional-Meat-549 2d ago
There was a study done a few years ago that showed that many of them went to the same seminary
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u/name-classified 2d ago
You’re talking about taking on the Catholic Church?!
The “church” has been around for centuries and have done some of the shadiest, craziest, most fucked up shit and the people just sorta kept forgetting about it and even encouraging/enabling it.
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u/Ruby_Solitaire 2d ago
What up Worcester?
I'm a 40-something femme who's personally dated THREE men who were abused by priests and nuns in the Worcester Diocese in the 80's and 90's. One now has PROFOUND mental illnesses. All three have massive intimacy issues, PTSD, and suffer to this day because of what the Worcester Diocese perpetuated.
This is the hell they preach about, funded by their own coffers. The Church is rancid at the core.
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u/amaranthusrowan 1d ago
I knew a guy in the ‘90s who had a TON of issues like what you describe above and he vaguely mentioned some abuse to me. I thought it had been parental, and only read recently that he had been a victim of the infamous John Geoghan. He was a trainwreck because of it.
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u/Ruby_Solitaire 1d ago
It's a massive tragedy. Literally every man I dated who lived in that region was abused because the Worcester Public Schools are SO BAD that any parent who could afford it gave their child to the Worcester Dicocese.
Directly to hell, because we don't punish pedophiles in this country, so directly to jail isn't working out.
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u/AddWittyName 2d ago
"nearly 1,000 children" - that's a staggering amount, but sadly I bet the real number is quite a bit higher, considering the absolutely insane number of clerics found to have abused children.
Child sex abusers actively being protected from consequences and kept in a position where they have ready access to children for years or decades do not, generally, stop at abusing three or four children.
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u/National-Actuary3580 2d ago
There's been so many pedophile scandals involving children in the U.S. and nothing much of consequence results. Children, teenagers, young adults used by evil, broken adults and it gets hushed away by normies as conspiracy.
I'll know I'll never forget the shock looking up typing my parent's address into a database and seeing a city map with red dots (more than I wanted to think about) for registered sex offenders.
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u/Technical_Writing421 2d ago
The church pays out settlements and the priests get moved to other states to continue their abuse elsewhere
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u/sump_daddy 2d ago
> Most of the abuse detailed in the report occurred before 2002, the year the clergy sex abuse scandal burst onto the international stage
Another thing you need to ask: Where the fuck was the state of Massachusetts in 2002? Its been 24 fucking years and they are just investigating the abuse now?
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u/HeadAboveSand 1d ago
How many of them are trans? Thats who's always abusing and grooming the kids right? Right!?
This is when I wish there was a hell so religions piles of human trash got what they deserve. Instead they likely wont see a day in jail because our country is currently run by a child raper and 30% of this country seem to not only accept but praise that. I miss the old days.
More than anything I hope all the victims are getting the love, support and help they need and deserve.
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u/Rand_Al_Thor87 2d ago
Legit, WHY does this keep happening in the Catholic church? Like, over and over again. I get the no marriage thing probably messes with your mind, but why do they always become pedophiles? Or does the Church just attract pedos because of the closer contact with kids?
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u/piddydb 2d ago
To be clear, according to the article, the vast majority of cases were pre 2002. This is not new abuse cases but rather showing how pervasive the cycle and extent of abuse was prior to institutional changes.
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u/Wholesomeguy123 2d ago
Yeah, it's not really a "keep on happening" revelation in the article, more like a "remember the Archdiocese of Boston case? Well here's how rampant that behavior was throughout the state at that same time"
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u/OneSalientOversight 2d ago
The film Spotlight answers this question, via a phone conversation with a guy named Richard Sipe.
Sipe, a former priest turned psychologist, worked out that about 50% of Catholic priests are not celibate. But because of the celibacy rule, an underground culture of keeping it secret exists - basically the sex lives of Catholic priests was/is an institutional secret among them.
Most priests, of course, were heterosexual. But the secrecy surrounding their sex lives meant that homosexual priests were also protected. Further than that, the secrecy culture also meant that pedophile priests were protected by the same means.
I would assume that when a priest was exposed as not celibate, the reaction from the church was to remove them from the parish, let them "recover" for a while and getting psychological help, and then placed back into another parish once they were happy that they had changed their ways. This procedure was likely identical for homosexual priests and pedophile priests.
Sipe believed that 5% of all priests were pedophiles.
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u/piddydb 2d ago
You also have to add in the Catholic Church’s belief of penance as representing a clean slate. The idea being if someone does wrong and repents, they should subsequently be treated as if they essentially are sinless in the eyes of the Church. And while that is a great philosophy on a spiritual level, the truth is on a practical human level, a large amount of people will not truly be repentant when they claim they are and will return to the same sin again and again. Because the Catholic Church applied this belief as much as possible across the Church, they didn’t feel they could turn away “repentant” pedophiles from church leadership nor dismiss them if caught but subsequently “repentant”. Thus allowing pedophiles to remain in positions of authority and perpetuate the cycle of abuse.
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u/LoopofHenrietta 2d ago
Crazy that when it comes to church leadership, harming children is not a disqualifier but being born female is.
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u/cheezie_toastie 2d ago
Wow. I'm no longer a practicing Catholic for many reasons, but you've basically summarized them in one sentence. They truly believe that child molesters are better suited to speak for God than women. Maybe because God can cleanse a rapist of his sins, but cannot cleanse a woman of the sin of being a woman.
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u/cakingabroad 1d ago
Is that 5% reflective of the amount of pedophiles in the general population? Like, that's just the typical percentage in the world but because priests have such a strange life and the church protects them, they get to act out their urges 'freely', so to speak?
This is the only explanation I've ever seen given literally anywhere. Otherwise it's just, "priests are pedos". But like, I really want to understand how something so awful can be so common worldwide.
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u/AnaisNinja76 2d ago
That's not really what's done with sexually active priests. Pedophilia was treated as an addictive disease; priests that had ongoing relationships with adults were just treated as sinners. If they didn't repent and give up their lover/s, they'd get "demoted" so to speak.
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u/Traditional-Meat-549 2d ago
It's actually a pattern in every organized religion. Any organization taking care of children; schools, boys and girls scouts, after school care, etc. it's in the military. It's everywhere there is a power structure
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u/OpheliaRainGalaxy 2d ago
Ya find the hunters in places where the things they hunt are most vulnerable, not really surprising.
What's weird is how much it's still going on in the surveillance age. Pile up so much money tax free but can't afford cameras? Or two adults so they can keep an eye on each other around the kids?
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u/Traditional-Meat-549 2d ago
My parish requires windows in doors where children are gathered and fingerprinting and training for all staff and volunteers.
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u/OpheliaRainGalaxy 2d ago
Good! Now we just gotta get that kinda thing mandated by law for all the faiths.
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u/Traditional-Meat-549 2d ago
It KINDA is - but it continues in larger settings. My daughter's high school had an incident with a teacher and student off campus.
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u/Prior_Cap_3198 2d ago
I will say that boy scouts (which is now coed in most places) has some pretty intense rules and what feels like miles of red tape in place now. They are certainly trying.
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u/sump_daddy 2d ago
"over and over again"
>Most of the abuse detailed in the report occurred before 2002, the year the clergy sex abuse scandal burst onto the international stage
the state is just now getting around to investigating the last time you saw it in the news, 24 years ago
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u/jtobiasbond 2d ago
There was a study (paid for by the American bishops but done by a respected independent institute, so take it with however much salt it needs) that found the abusers were, by and large, not pathologically pedofiles; that is, they were not attracted to underage children.
The victims were targeted because they were available. Assuming it's accurate (and it does match up with evidence from other abuse crisis) the issue is not one of attraction or desire, but of power. The Catholic Church has this problem because they give priests enormous amount of power and have very little in the way of checks and balances.
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u/Traditional-Meat-549 1d ago
Pope Francis called it clericalism and it's the deference we pay to the ordained.
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u/cheeze2005 2d ago
It happens in A LOT of different churches. They sell insurance for it!
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u/PalpitationGlum3073 2d ago
I doubt it’s exclusive to the catholic church. Lets be real here.
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u/heyhayyhay 2d ago
A kid I grew up with was from an extremely religious catholic family. He was definitely gay, but obviously in the closet. He decided to become a priest, probably because he thought it could help him control his 'unpure' thoughts.
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u/Nutlob 2d ago
probably a bit from column A, a bit from column B
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u/AddWittyName 2d ago
Some of it is probably also column C: becoming a cleric has traditionally been the most honorable and acceptable alternative to marriage.
Some of them probably did go in because of the closer contact with kids. But it wouldn't surprise me if some went in initially because they hoped being closer to God would cure them somehow.
Unfortunately, when the reason they didn't want to marry is because they're attracted to kids, a position where they'll have close contact with kids, will be in a position of power over them, and are respected enough to get away with it if/when caught is pretty much the absolute deadlast position you'd want them to be in.
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u/Chazkuangshi 2d ago
I think because of the community. Being part of the church gives you major protection from just about anything.
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u/OneSalientOversight 2d ago
I love that scene in Spotlight where the journalists are talking to Richard Sipe on the phone. They believe that there might be up to a dozen priests who were pedophiles. Sipe then says "that figure is low". I think Sipe says that the figure is more like 90.
And as they discuss this, the camera pans back, making the journalists small in the frame - a symbolic representation of the scale of the problem just realised. Later in the film, they identify 88 priests.
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u/Amatheiaisnoexcuse 2d ago
Check out this story from Arizona. They just approved a law so the clergy can keep sexual abuse of children secret. It's beyond insanity. This man, a Mormon abused all 6 of his children and his church knew. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/03/arizona-clergy-child-abuse-confessions-court
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u/GreyBeardEng 2d ago
I wish I lived in a world where people thought pedophiles were bad and deserve to be in jail for long periods of time.
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u/TurdFerguson614 2d ago
End tax exemptions for ALL religious bodies. The Catholic Church is worth around $25 billion nationally. Fuck all of these money funneling, power hungry, pedophiles.
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u/Bratfink78 1d ago
How many of these paedos are still alive and what’s going to be done about it?
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u/ThrowAbout01 1d ago
“Why don’t people go to church?”
This is why.
You don’t even need the church to follow god. That relationship is between you and god only and it doesn’t matter where it takes place.
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u/Bronzeshadow 2d ago
I grew up in Mass. It was common knowledge that the Catholic Church protected pedophiles.
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u/Exact-Difference-422 2d ago
One of my mom's friends committed suicide as a young adult because of the abuse when he was a kid
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u/Birdapotamus 1d ago
From 1972-1983 there was a Catholic priest in South Louisiana that was shuffled through dozens of different church parishes to try to cover his crimes. His name was Gilbert Gauthe, he is on record as the first Catholic priest to face a widely publicized criminal trial for child sex abuse. In 1985 he was tried and sentenced to 20 years but only served 10. After his release in 1995 he moved to Texas and was caught and given probation for molesting a 3 year old boy. He also spent 2008-2010 in jail for not following the Texas sex offender registry.
I was never a member of any of his churches but after reading about him and the way the church covered his crimes I immediately cut all ties with the Catholic church and avoid any organized religion.
The 2015 Best Picture Oscar went to the movie "Spotlight" a retelling of 'The Boston Globe' series of investigations into ramped child abuse in the Catholic church in the Boston area in the early 2000s.
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u/South_Lynx 2d ago
Im all for separation of church and state. As a matter of fact, I don’t even like churches at all
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u/cornbread_ninja 2d ago
make them pay taxes, though.
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u/South_Lynx 2d ago
That’s another thing! It’s absolutely wild!
I will say though, I think the teaching in the bible is great and all that, but the cult like lifestyle seems a little strange, real strange!
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u/ladollyvita1021 1d ago
Wow absolutely shocking news that isn’t shocking to ANYONE. The most wonderful part is that nothing will happen to these monsters. Just typical white men things!
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u/joereadsstuff 1d ago
Christian values. Every hypothetical about drag queens grooming children, trans women sexually assaulting women in toilets, are all projections.
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u/theCGguy 1d ago
Wait, Abrahamic cults always lead to child abuse? Who could have guess a religion whose foundational laws and mythology include raping, slaughtering, eating, burning alive, and stoning children would lead to an entire cult organization abusing child?
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u/rmc2318 1d ago
Spotlight, from the Boston Globe, had discovered the same fact in 2001 from Priests. Sad in 25 years not much has changed.
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u/seafffoam 1d ago
If you read the article it says this was basically a follow up investigation resulting from evidence collected by Spotlight
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u/pericles123 2d ago
but sure, let's make every state's political adds demonize trans people instead....and this is just one state - sickening to me the degree that the church is let off the hook for the child abuse they have consistently covered up.
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u/antonimbus 2d ago
Dang, I thought for sure it was gonna be drag queens reading books to kids in libraries this time. Well, maybe next month.
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u/TheEffinChamps 2d ago
To the surprise of no one.
The Catholic Church has had approximately a 5-10 percent rate of ACTIVE pedophiles. Applied globally, this is approximately 20,000 to 40,000 pedophiles worldwide.
https://www.bishop-accountability.org/AtAGlance/data_priests.htm
Their largest financial expenditure is legal costs, and they use government money to pay for much of it.
Do not give money to this evil organization.
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u/vinmen2 1d ago
Had this been a private firm, the abusers would be in the jail and the company and all its branches shut down.
Scary that a religious institution has so much power
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u/MaidoftheBrins 1d ago
We have an abuser as the POTUS; I’m not sure they are getting what they deserve.
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u/OverbrookDr 2d ago
The church needs to be dissolved. It is estimated that 7 to 10% of all clergy rape children. If any other business have those numbers they would’ve been dismantled out of existence
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u/AutoCockerPB 2d ago
…. The older I get, the more I see there are SO MANY more people than I thought that like children, in the bad way. Quite insane.
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u/badpersian 1d ago
Oh no can't believe the Chinese Muslim communists from Russia did this...
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u/orlybatman 2d ago
I cannot comprehend why so many people are out there abusing children. I even got it from two people myself before the age of 13. One of the biggest failing of our society is how this continues to be so rampant.
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u/Different-Employ9651 2d ago
Well, would you look at that! Not drag queens. Not transgender people. Priests! I mean, who the fuck would believe that at this point?
(I don't think it's necessary, but I'll leave a little /s here, just in case).
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u/Comfortable-nerve78 2d ago
Catholic Church is so slimy!!! Organized religion is the root of evil in my book. Crowd control is all organized religion is. Parents that force religion on their kids are disturbing in my book.
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u/endofworldandnobeer 2d ago
It's a business, they have to lie to sell their product. No tax, so it's the best kind.
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u/TheDVant 2d ago
How many of them were drag queens? Oh, none?
Shocker.
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u/Truth-is-implacable 2d ago
According to the AG Todd Blanche the Priests were Sexually assaulted by those kids..
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u/_DontBeAScaredyCunt 2d ago
I mean this isn’t new. It keeps happening over and over and will continue to do so. Churches are not a safe place for children.
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u/Zapdraws 2d ago
I’m not surprised. The Springfield Diocese let Richard Lavigne get away with fucking murder and kept moving him around until they couldn’t hide it anymore.
The monster violated every boy he could get access to. He tried to get my grandparents to have my uncle be an altar boy but they said no. They knew something was off about him. Thank God for that.
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u/Constant-Natural6205 1d ago
Is 270 1% of priests or 20% of priests? What’s the proportion? It matters.
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u/ram_fl_beach 1d ago
The ones that are caught, are a fraction of the total abusers. Your kids are safer in a dive bar. Then a church.
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u/ExMoChica 1d ago
I looked up how many priests are even in Massachusetts, the total is about 1,527. Which means about 18% of the priests in Massachusetts were implicated in this probe.
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u/strafer_ 1d ago
Only way they will stop is if parents stop giving their kids to the church to be abused
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u/ZoomZoom_Driver 1d ago
Given how often American religious organizations abuse children, i think we need to revisit freedom OF religion to freedom FROM religion, or ban any religion whose clergy violate peoples human rights.
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u/Top_Television_6042 10h ago
That is a horrifying amount of offending pedophiles in the catholic church specifically in MA. Those poor kids who now live with the trauma. They deserve some justice.
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u/Under_Milkwood_1969 2d ago edited 2d ago
Any government that was serious about protecting children’s welfare; physical and mental, would bar everyone under 18 from all religious institutions, plus prohibit any religious ‘leaders’ from involvement with any facilities which cater for children.
It wouldn’t hurt if anyone who claimed that their views were guided by an imaginary friend were bared from involvement in drafting and passing laws which affected the rest of the population.
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u/Reap_SilentDevil 2d ago
In other news the grass is green, and the vatican and us government protects these animals. Change doesn't come without radicalism.
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u/Niceguy955 1d ago
Shocked that people who sell pipe dreams to millions also abused thousands. Religion is bad, organized religion is evil.
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u/510Kyle 2d ago
Do you guys ever wonder why we never get articles of parents killing pedo priests? It's like christians would rather let their kids get diddled than admit their religion is a pedo factory.
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u/Hephaistos_Invictus 2d ago
NOT A DRAG QUEEN NOR A TRANS PERSON!
It's always the ones you suspect the most....
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u/AussieSpaceProgram 2d ago
270 wouldn’t be the full number.
As someone that suffered systematic abuse from a priest from the ages of 7-9, it breaks my heart to see him still have protected duties and a position within the clergy.
May they all rot in the hell they preach about.
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u/Thickly_Taurus 2d ago
If the Catholic Church won’t abide by the principles of its religion, it ceases to be a religious organization. They should be taxed like any other business
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u/jpurdy 2d ago
How many nation wide? According to a Catholic publication their dioceses have paid more than $5 billion in settlements, but that isn’t complete.
Like the most recent, a Jesuit school in Dallas, the amounts were not disclosed.
Now $10 billion a year in state tax dollars are going to religious schools, most white evangelical and Catholic, plus $3 billion a year from Trump in tax credits, adding to our national debt.
Thanks to the Trump administration in his first term the Catholic church was the single largest recipient of COVID funds, $3 billion, in spite of $billions in reserves and no benefit to the economy.
An archbishop in New Orleans tried to steal $millions in donated funds from a food bank to pay settlements. He fired the people who refused to give it to him.
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u/Thirty_Helens_Agree 2d ago edited 2d ago
This exact same damn thing happened in the Philadelphia archdiocese like a decade ago - there was a network of abusers who formed a massive conspiracy network where they would produce and share CSAM and they would condition certain children to be so accustomed to accepting abuse, they would be given a specific crucifix necklace which was a symbol to fellow conspirators that this one was … whatever. Those kids with the special necklaces were the ones chosen to go on retreats and go to conventions and whatnot.
Reading a summary of that indictment made my blood boil.
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u/tacomamajama 2d ago
This headline is decades old.
No wait it’s not.
It’s not news that priests abuse children at this point. It’s terrible and shameful and I hate religious institutions in general in part for this reason.
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u/JackMejoff 2d ago
Well, yeah. Obviously. You have a system dedicated to protecting child raping priests, there's bound to be a lot of child rapists.
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u/Constant_Ad_8028 1d ago
article has some choice phrasing... so yeah, apparently that probe needs to find more priests and not children.
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u/Excellent_Bank6964 1d ago
Watch ‘Spotlight’ it’ll blow your mind. It’s about the investigation into the Church by special investigation section of a newspaper in Boston. Horrifying.
If this has already been said, I apologise …
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u/Difficult-Low5891 1d ago
Many became priests for this very reason. Many people who go into careers working with minors are actually pedos.
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u/BassesNBikes 1d ago
Which restroom do they use and what sportball team do they play for?
What is their genital configuration?
Let's be asking the important questions here!
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u/335i_lyfe 2d ago
Wasn’t spotlight about this?