My heart is profoundly saddened to hear about nun's being raped by priests and in some cases used as sex slaves.

Mary Sue

Could you please link a source to this info.?

The Washington Post (J. Bezos, prop.)

https://www.washingtonpost.com...-members-abused-nuns

Yes, I heard about that. Very sad!

But we note from the link shared by Derek:

quote:

the Vatican on Wednesday clarified that remark, saying that Francis was referring instead to manipulation and the abuse of power.

Whatever the case - with tens of thousands of priests, bishops and sisters serving through the centuries, it's likely that all kinds of terrible things have happened.

- - -

And meanwhile, for a perspective on all this: we learn that Southern Baptist leaders and volunteers abused more than 700 over at 20 year period.
https://www.mysanantonio.com/n...outhern-13602419.php

This kind of problem is not unique to Catholic leaders, who do not evidence a higher preponderance of it than is found in the public. The largest group of perpetrators are domestic abusers: thousands of cases each year.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...in_the_United_States

https://www.nsvrc.org/statistics

Here are some other webpages. I'm raw with sadness. Somehow knowing that the RC is no worse than the general public isn't helping.

Neither is knowing that the Baptists are as guilty.


https://www.wnycstudios.org/st...buse-catholic-church

http://natcath.org/NCR_Online/...a/031601/031601a.htm

http://www.osservatoreromano.v..._febbraio_2019_1.pdf

(Vatican Nuns)


https://www.globalsistersrepor...-abuse-sisters-55800

Well, for sure, Mary Sue. One has a right to expect better from clergy.

But my larger point was that this kind of abuse points to widespread psychopathology, and it's not surprising that we find it in the ranks of the clergy. But they are doing a better job now in screening candidates for the priesthood, so that's progress.

quote:

Originally posted by Phil:
Well, for sure, Mary Sue. One has a right to expect better from clergy.

But my larger point was that this kind of abuse points to widespread psychopathology, and it's not surprising that we find it in the ranks of the clergy. But they are doing a better job now in screening candidates for the priesthood, so that's progress.

Thank you for your clarification Phil.

Yes this is progress. Not enough in my eyes.
I still believe this is more involved than
only the improvement of the screening process.
This is very important indeed. But this belief
within the heirarchy of the Church about protecting
those who do illegal activity must stop. Even the Church's ruling that sexual consent begins at age 16 is illegal. In the state where I live the legal age of consent is 18.