Recently, a report that is over 1,000 pages long about 300 Catholic priests who were preying on children for over 70 years. This was only among six dioceses in Pennsylvania. Let me repeat that: 300 Catholic priests sexually abused nearly 1,000 children over 70 years and the Catholic Church covered it up to save the predators.
This, on the surface, is disgusting and awful but when you dig deeper, its so much more corrupt than you can imagine. What's being reported is almost 1,000 children having been abused, but the grand jury believes that the number could be in the multiple thousands and that there are missing records or people too afraid to come forward.
One of the most despicable parts of this, to me, is the fact that most of those who were abused and came forward can't press charges or hold their abusers responsible due to how much time has passed since they were taken advantage of.
But what exactly happened? Well, in the Diocese of Allentown, Pennsylvania, administrators regularly put priests in the ministry after getting a complaint about sexual misconduct. Multiple occasions showed up where a priest was undeniably guilty and got shuffled around to different dioceses across the country. Using euphemisms instead of saying what actually happened (saying 'inappropriate contact' or 'boundary issues' instead of rape). That is all just in one diocese, but these things happened in almost all, if not all of the dioceses that were investigated.
Often, the church forced victims and their families into staying quiet about the incidents, making them agree not to talk about it. There's so much more in the report, but it's impossible to cover 1,000+ pages in this article. Entire families were assaulted, siblings being all sexually abused at one point or another by the same priests. There are even reports of when a child was assaulted, they were given a very specific necklace with a cross on it, unlike any others. Only children who had been abused had this necklace. These priests created a sex ring of children in this space that they were supposed to feel safe in. These grown men took advantage of children for years and years unchecked.
The Catholic church as a whole does not care about children--or anyone else that won't be giving them money. There are multiple reports of abuse being reported, and instead of seeking to help the victims, the leaders of the churches dug up any dirt they could prove or make believable to undermine and belittle the victim, not help them.
The Catholic church does not care about anyone who is not giving them money. You should not be supporting them. If you've given them money, you've supported the pedophiles silencing their victims. Now, if you didn't know, you didn't know. But if you continue to support the church and pretend like you don't know that they support pedophiles almost 100% of the time, I don't know what to say. The church should not be getting your support anymore.
People also will say "well there's always a few bad apples." In my community, this has happened, though. We recently had a local priest get arrested and he's been found out to have sexually abused boys in the community. he was shuffled around from church to church because he consistently sexually abused children. It happens literally everywhere.
If you truly care about your family or kids in general, you'll top supporting Catholic churches until there is some MAJOR reform that takes place.
