Sigh

I lived in the Altoona diocese during the 1990s and know a lot of people who lost their faith when they found out boys were being abused.

Two comments on this video:

One: Note they said the problem with priests is better  since the 2002 guidelines were passed: the problem now is the bishops and higherups.) I can't comment on this, since I moved to the Philippines in the early 2000s. 


Two: They discuss that the PA state report is exaggerated. This also is probably true.

30 year old cases before 1980 are hard to prove. 

Back then we docs were told by "experts" not to report sexual abuse to the authorities.

Under Freudian theory, these were considered as fantasies. (and some were: The McMartin preschool case is one example on how you can induce false memories into vulnerable people)

Another problem: Back in the 1980s, California decided they shouldn't jail non violent cases of sexual abuse.

then things changed.

I have examined quite a few girls and women who had been sexually abused back then, because before 1990 there were few women docs around in our rural area.

So most of the cases I saw were referred to me by social service to be checked, and I found half were false alarms or minor things and probably never got referred...but I saw quite a few cases... at least one horrific case blamed the wrong man to protect a relative who was doing the abuse. Several cases were fathers or step fathers who "Groomed" them. These were "non violent sexual abuse", not rape (of which I saw quite a few cases too). 

But all of the victims told me that the court case, and being cross examined and having their words twisted in front of the jury, was worse than the actual abuse.

so there was a reason that a lot of the bishops didn't report these cases to the cops.

And of course back then, the psychiatrists often told the bishops that it was a "lapse" by a good priest (who had fallen in love with a special person), so don't ruin his life by shaming him: Treat him and place him in a different parish where he can go back to worse. 

this worked for true lapses: But what happened was the sociopaths took over, and those who might have remained pure under social pressure now lived in a society where the lapses were seen as okay or even good.

(the same thing happened in the past to the church: St Peter Damian noticed the compassion led to complete breakdown here, and overreacted the other way).

Sigh... I couldn't stop abuse of employees that happened in our business, so how can I point fingers at strangers?

Sigh. In my prayers...