Imagine my surprise when I read the other day that the Church now blames me for its priest-pedophilia scandal. Me 'n the 600,000 others who attended Woodstock. And who favored tie-dyed tees. And rode that train, whether or not we were high on cocaine.
And, hard as I try, I can't recall seeing a single inverted collar up in Max Yasgur's loft, swaying to Joan Baez, jumping to Country Joe, or plodding along in those muddy-muddy port-o-potty lines. And yet here I am, smack in the youth of my middle-age, and I'm to blame, I, and all those who were part of the Sixties' sexual revolution.
Sound a bit off? (Go ask Alice; I think she'll know.)
Or ask the Church and read the report it now endorses blaming
'mymymy gennnnneraaaation'
for its failures of oversight and for its systematic moving onward (and typically upward) the pedophiles in its charge.
The report, written by John Jay College and commissioned and accepted by the Conference of Bishops here, may help those actually responsible for the rapes and abuse of countless thousands of children to rest more easily. Yet it does nothing to further anything like a needed no-tolerance era in Church-parish relations. It does nothing to push the Church to deeper, more sincere reflection, let alone serious partnership with secular, criminal authority to make certain that the guilty are actually punished (and not simply hidden), to ensure that these men are kept from anyone under twenty-one for life. And that's what's necessary. Far from doing what's needed to better recruit, train, and monitor all priests, this report, while it foolishly lays the Church's serious, resistant problems at the feet of secular societal change, slaps in the face all those it has already harmed.
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But that, even if there's truth there, cannot be a full explanation, bc even if the conservatives are suggesting John XXIII's reforms were/are akin to secular society, the report itself is unremittingly clear: it lays the pedophilia/sexual assault problem squarely at the door of secular society w.o the slightest bit of metaphor.
Catholic people deserve more; at the very least they deserve to be served by an institution fully preared to face itself and its recent history and by doing so, showing that it has the capacity/willingness, to protect its children. Those children function, those families live, in the Church, but also in the wider society. Those children are our children, too.
Feel so free to drop me.
And it's the Church bashing itself that's so sad, bc it has done some remarkably progressive things (and yes; I've written abt those here, too, such as it's wise and decent position on the evils of capital punishment.)
Why it chooses this, however, is beyond me, and I guarantee beyond the ken of its Founder. That remarkable Rabbi would never, ever countenance this, His Church's continual choice to favor corrupt men and hierarchies over its children.
"Suffer the children to come unto me."? To Him? Sure. To those who do this in His Name? Forget it.
JW
My practicing relatives, blame this all on "the Catholic haters".
Yet when I tell them of my own experience forty some years ago, they dismiss me as making it up. I long ago gave up on the hypocrisy of "mother church"!
(Psssst, I personally blame you for everything bad that has happened or will happen! It's just easier that way!! 'all Jonathan's fault don't you know, he listened to some music back in 1969, caused a whole bunch of bad stuff!!!! Wars too!! Bad Jonathan!! :D)
Nuns didn't molest children because they were too busy violently assaulting them. I was an eyewitness, and victim, of this abhorrent behavior on more than one occasion.
Patricia,
Aren't you tired of defending a hypocritical and morally bankrupt institution?
There are really two Catholic churches: one is the church of the believers, those that have a connection with a religion which dates back to the earliest days of Christianity and has in many ways changed very little in its basic belief system.
The other church is its leadership which, like the belief system itself, is little changed from it imperial Roman model of leadership. (The pope as Caesar, the curia as an obedient Roman senate, etc.) It is authoritarian, autocratic, and out of touch with the people it supposedly leads. It may have worked 1800 years ago, but no more.
When the bishops make such goofy pronouncements such as this it just shines a light on how totally out of step they are with the 21st century.
♥R
I also want to emphasize that I think, as I have said above, that the Church has done numbers of good works.
Yes the church has done some good things.
Ted Bundy worked on a suicide prevention hotline. That doesn't mean we should forgive him for his crimes.
And as the church has shown yet again with this ridiculous report, there is no true contrition on its part.
R
Rated/Buddy
Furthermore you taught them to adopt many bigoted beliefs about sex indicating that if they don’t adopt the strict beliefs of those that refuse to act as they tell others to behave they will go to hell.
Then you went to Woodstock in a lame attempt to create an alibi!!
You don’t fool me anymore!!
;-)
Lezlie
The report, of course, never mentions "Jonathan Wolfman." It never mentions or refers to "Woodstock." There is one section of the report -- less than one page out of over 140 pages -- that discusses "Social Influences on Sexuality: Period Effects." This appears to be what you're talking about.
But the post fails to mention or even refer to the other 139 pages, and it also manages to misrepresent the content of that one page. One might hope that a post discussing a single page out of a 140 page report would get that one page right, but in this case one would be disappointed. It is not clear that you even read that one page.
While you neglect over 99 percent of the report, you chastise the report for not pushing the church to "deeper, more sincere reflection." If you haven't read the report, how do you know what it does or does not push the church to do? If you have read the report, why do you not discuss the recommendations in the report?
In short, your post is so flawed that I don't think it even qualifies as propaganda. You ignore almost all of the report. You misrepresent the one page that you do reference. You ignore all the recommendations in the report, and then criticize it for not "pushing the church." Outside of the report, you ignore the many reforms that the church has already implemented. You neglect to mention that abuse cases have now fallen to a tiny fraction of what they once were.
This is not personal. But I have to say that you've written a very poor-quality post, inaccurate and misleading, utterly lacking in facts, and horribly incomplete. You have every right to publish such a post, but why you would is beyond me. I probably would have ignored it, but when it ends up on the cover, I feel like I have to say something. Of course, it is not your fault that it's on the cover, and I cannot even imagine why it was selected for the cover. Perhaps the editor could enlighten us.
My Q for you is Is there no deravity to which the Church leadership can sink which ou won't excuse?
PS Do not bother--I already know the answer.
Me, I was just too young. I was, in fact, in summer camp in the Catskills at the time. The counselors kept leaving in the evening for some event or other.....
luv ya Jon...R
They need to do whatever they can, and as aggressively as possible, to get these evil men in jail and ensure that it not happen again.
The number of priests invoved in this scandal is something like 3% of the entire catholic priesthood. Amazingly you never head of nuns trying to do anything to the kids except hitting them hard with a wooden ruler.
Lately the Orthodox Jewish community has owned up to what is going on there. Despite some cover ups some have come to light. I'm sure you've read about that rabbi who molested a young Israeli soldier girl on a plane and claimed he was sleeping.
http://open.salon.com/blog/the_shadow_of_light/2011/05/17/organized_begging_doing_very_well_by_doing_good_for_a_few
You're not sure what I'm talking about?
It is exactly that willful ignorance of reality that allows the Catholic church to continue to fill its coffers.