A dark shadow has been on the Catholic Church, almost overwhelming it in the past few years. Because of the sex scandals in particular, they have been almost forced into church reform. The outcry of parishoners and victims, in combination with a generation that is more vocal than not about shameful and hidden things, forced The Church's hand in taking a position on reform, on priest abuse, on sexuality, and on the harm the church has done. It isn't, of course, the first time The Church has done more harm than good, but it is the first time in my first hand recollection.
Because of the sex scandal in the Catholic church, organizations like the Church in the 21st Century Center at Boston College have been formed. The Church in the 21st Century Center at Boston College seeks to be a catalyst and resource for the renewal of the Catholic Church in the United States by engaging critical issues facing the Catholic community. Drawing from both the Boston College community and others, its activities currently are focused on four challenges: <b>handing on and sharing the Catholic faith, especially with younger Catholics; fostering relationships built on mutual trust and support among lay men and women, vowed religious, deacons, priests, and bishops; developing an approach to sexuality mindful of human experience and reflective of Catholic tradition; and advancing contemporary reflection on the Catholic intellectual tradition.</b>
The Catholic Church and other churches, because of the example set by the Catholic church, have incorporated abuse prevention training, have educated their leaders and members, and have educated their children on what sexual abuse is; giving them for the first time, permission to speak and a voice to speak up about abuse. The Church is almost singlehandedly responsible for the recognition and programs that are now available to victims of sexual abuse - church and otherwise. They have made "Sexual abuse" a household term. While this isn't necessarily a good thing for the church, it is an excellent thing for those abuse victims. While certainly all sexual abuse victims might not have been abused by the church, the church's recognition of the abuse and thier action to correct it, has validated the abuse, not only for their own victims, but for sexual abuse vicitms from all background.
I wanted to address the issue of priest abuse at the beginning of this project so it would not be the elephant in the room, so to speak, for the duration of this segment of my project, so I would like to point out a few statistics, to put the abuse in perspective:
More than 1.25 million children were abused in some way in 2006. - 44% of those children were victims of physical abuse (including sexual).
- 135,000 of them were abused sexually.
- The John Jay report, commissioned in 2004 by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, ascertained that some 11,000 allegations of abuse had been made against 4,392 priests in the U.S. between 1950 and 2002, which constituted about 4% of the population of priests during that period.
- 6,700 of the allegations were substantiated.
- 78% of the abused that was substantiated occured to children between the ages of 11 and 17
- If all of the allegations of abuse had occured in a single year, it will still add up to less than 10% of the total sexual abuse that occurs in the United States annually.
- As it is, sexual abuse by a priest within the Catholic Church occurs in less than 1% of cases of child sexual abuse yearly.
Bottom line: The Church is an easy target. It is easy to make The Church a villian, and, yes, they have had a disturbing history: beyond the priest abuse, you have witch trials, burnings at the stake, Irish car bombings and years of war in Belfast, the Crusades, politics and crime. But, lets be fair: every religious group older than 6 months is going to have a history of some sort; and the Catholic Church is among the oldest religious groups in the world.
As I approach this religion, I plan to address as many preconceptions as I can, but I also want to look at the religion as openly as possible, because, when it comes down to it, they are people like me and you, and they make mistakes, and they have issues with corruption and greed and controlling selfish desires... my point is, people make mistakes, but that only makes them more human.
But many Catholics aspire to more - they aspire to unselfishness, they aspire to love, they aspire to make a difference in the world around them. They have the Mother Theresa's, and Saint Augustines, and the St. Francises of the world. They have artists and writers and passion... and they are, above all Human.
Human like me.
Human like everyone I know.
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