Are All Priests Child Molesters? (Immorality in the Church)

I have heard for years about the things that go on in Catholic churches.. I am not Catholic so I do not know the whole inter-workings of the Church or the priests there. I do believe, however, that there has been a lot of cover up of molestation because of the "image" that the Church wants to uphold.

I do not believe that these reports weaken my faith even though my beliefs are not of those that the Catholic church upholds. I think so many people are caught up in "worshipping" or praying to the priest or pope that they loose sight that these are human beings. From the few details I do know about the Church, it seems as though people pray and confess to the priests which puts them in the position of God, so they are heartbroken when they realize that these men are just that- men (as in human).. I am Christian and there are times when preachers and Christian entertainers (i.e Kirk Franklin) have been found to "fall short of the glory" but that does not weaken my faith because at the end of the day, Christianity preaches your relationship with GOD, not man because we know man is subject to failure.

I also heard that these men look to boys (and sometimes girls) as sexual relief from the pressures of taking a vow of celibacy. It has been said they start off in seminary at really young ages and to vow to do something that is perfectly natural is something that they dont realize what they are getting into. I dont know if this is the sole reason but I believe that this COULD contribute to it..

I do believe the Church covers it up, which makes sense if you perceive the Church as an institution created to set standards and rules upon masses. Which, I am leaning towards myself. This could also be why they don't seem to be proactive or doing their part in eliminating these people from their system.

I expect spiritual leaders to be role models and lead by the examples/lessons they are teaching... but at the same time, I understand we're all human and capable of mistakes no matter how divine or "chosen" we are.

I've tried to see a pattern in why this seems to have happened so much in the Catholic church and the only thing I can theorize is that the denouncing of something human and natural leads to such a deviant expression (for consenting adults).

Molestation though is more than a mistake, it's a sickness. I think a lot of times the molesters have been victims themselves so just go on to repeat the cycle. In Toledo there was also a case a some years back about a priest who killed a nun in 1980. Actually, he's still trying to appeal his sentence I believe. That of course is beyond a mistake also and I wouldn't even know how to psychoanalyze that situation either.

It's possible these people are driven to church because they're trying to purge their past/traumas, but it could also just be the sickness giving them an easy access to more victims.

This is why I am more and more becoming of the notion that I don't need a middle-man between me and God, which is basically what I look at religion as...

The church, and this is just my opinion, is what a lot of people use as a mechanism for power with a lot of ill intent. I'm not Catholic, but I'm sure this goes for any denomination.

All Clergy are suspect, Catholic or otherwise. May not be child molestation, but something else like adultery, extortion, or just plain corrupt. Any Clergy, pope who are bajilllionaires and still can look at poor people give in the baskets are hypocrites. And (pun intended) they are all just watching their own asses. Sadly enough, another bajillion people support these organized molestation corrupt pools as their base of faith. So sad, so sad.

I did 12 years of Catholic school time too and one of the conclusions I arrived at was not to let these folks get too close. I had a wonderful education but I had enough sense of self that I could resist the "mind fuck" of their indoctrination and thus made me a poor candidate for any actual fucking.

Like Marcooseler says, "All clergy are suspect", I agree wholeheartedly. Religious groups by virtue of their requirement of blind fidelity are breeding grounds for exploitation. Chid molestation by Catholic clergy does not surprise me the least, I always had a sense that some of the clergy people I came in contact with all those years in school weren't all right. I could never pinpoint what it was exactly but my spidey sense kept tingling around some individuals.

From my parents down, I have always seen authority figures as the enemy in some ways and so I was probably a poor candidate for any exploitation along with being the resident atheist. Wanna be a outcast, try being an aethist in a religous school.

The true crime in my view is the lengths to which the church leadership went to protect the pedophile priest. There have been reports of child abuse in every type of religious organization, the catholic church are apparently the only ones who felt it necessary to shield the individual clergy folks from prosecution and worst of all move them around to other areas to again commit the same crimes. Those acts are not about religion those are about corruption. Any student of history know the Roman Catholic church has a long tradition of institutional corruption and criminality.

No trust here, anyone who has trust does so out of massive ignorance. They choose to be blind because it suits there purpose.

My theory on the disposition to molest within the clergy is 2 fold. Pedophilles want unfettered access to children and the insular nature of religious organizattion promote the necessary cloak of secrecy for those types of behavior. I think religious communities provide both of those.

The inaction of so many of the parents of the children molested has surprised me more often than anything the catholic church has done. some took payoffs and some in their blind faith have basically sacraficed their children to preserve their own personal beliefs. You molest my child and there is no way u walking around footloose and fancy free, it would be "A Time To Kill". Nuff said.

There is a tendency to react as if this is happening ALL the time and everywhere, but it really is a small minority of priests that are engaged in this type of stuff, so I do not think it is prudent of US to 'side-eye' all priests and pastors any more than we typically would/should. It is most disappointing that churches react as MOST institutions do when they encounter employee corruption that project negative images: they engage in cover-ups: That goes for the military, judiciary, commercial businesses and all manner of government institutions. Mankind does not naturally face controversy that likely will result in negative attitudes and publicity head on--we tend to try to "manage it" to retain our good image and name, but it often back fires and the "truth" sees the light of day. Men run the church and though we want to hold them to a higher standard--they're still men at the end of the day.

Look past the wrongs that ppl are committing and know that the bible does not preach these things...

Its terrible that members of this group have been doing these crimes for X number of years?, decades?, centuries? Is this a conspiracy? Are they really going to protect the Catholic church?

After 12 yrs of being mind fucked (lol@Rastraman) by the Catholic church...I went through a period of denial about EVERYTHING that was associated w/ Jesus & God. I studied different religions and went from agnostic to atheist... So I understand some of these view points.

But later I realized that God was not at fault... He gave ppl a choice. And they made their own decision. Whether we like it or not.

At the end of the day...the old saying is true.

"Whats done in the dark will come to light!"

I have to agree with DC Man With a Plan; these are the acts of a minority, let's not be so quick to generalize. With that said, leaders within the Catholic church clearly conspired to cover up the misdeeds of the priests. What's more disgusting is that this has occurred all over the world. Church leaders need to be held accountable, and it's time for the church to take a good look at itself and make some changes.

This simply confirms how less logical and more hypocritical the teachings of the Catholic Church are. I truly believe it would do most of these kids a world of good if the church was to revise its stance on celibacy among the priests; remaining strictly within the parameters set out centuries ago seems ridiculous IMO, and clearly this hasn’t been working.

The Catholic Church and all of Christianity need to let go of their age-old ideologies; I do have an ideological and other substantial disagreements with virtually all religions. However, I’m neither an atheist nor agnostic; I do believe in a higher power, karma, cause and effect. These are what I live by.

Quoteman makes a good point I want to second. The notion that priests in the Catholic church must remain celibate seems ridiculous to me. It's one thing to accept celibacy on a personal basis for one reason or another at different points in your life, but to be required to live that way in order to be “called?” And to not allow ANY married men to serve as a Catholic Priest? Something is VERY wrong with that picture. You're looking at women all day long, counseling women, have SOME trying to "temp you" into breaking your vow and you can't marry? THEN you have all of these molestation cases and STILL crickets on the subject of priests and celibacy? smdh