By Kathy Kane, guest blogger
When our children are young, we baby proof our homes. We strap them into car seats. They wear helmets to ride their bikes. We take them to the doctors and immunize them against disease.
From the moment you become a parent , your life is never the same. Protect your young. It is a primal feeling. We see it even in the animal kingdom. Protect the youngest of the group. We don’t need civil law, canon law or Archdiocesan review boards to point this out. Protect the children.
As parents we want so much for our children – academic success, social interaction, happiness. Without basic safety, none of these things matter.
In the last few weeks there have been many thoughts expressed and people weighing in. Today I responded to a commenter on the site who pointed out that we all might be forgetting about the innocent clergy.
I think what we all are forgetting is the innocent children of the Archdiocese, thousands of them.
I have written and expressed my own feelings about how my faith has been shaken. It is important to share your feelings – especially in times of crisis.
Last week after the rally, a woman emerged from the Archdiocese building and approached me and a friend. It was a confusing interaction, we exchanged a few pleasantries and she gave me a book. It was titled “Rediscovering Catholicism.” My friend who is also a practicing Catholic, made a statement that still stays with me. She said “I was here today to protect children.”
Why do we find ourselves defending our position within the Church, when advocating for children? It is what my religion has taught me. Protect the vulnerable – the innocent.
Protect the young. Not one more child, not one more victim, not one more life shattered. Protect the children.
Thank you Kathy for your thoughts on protecting our children. I have such sadness in my heart and confusion. I love all children and want them cared for & protected.
I love all our honest priests but feel anger toward all those evil men and their cover up protectors.
Kathy, The Church doesn’t need any of you to protect them, they only need you to continue to fill their coffers. They have had the highly paid lawyers on their side in the past and will have for many many years to come in the future. I fail to understand Catholics4Change and the term “respectfully”. Who deserves the respect when you’re dealing in dirty ugly gutters? The ugly gutters of oral sodomy, anal sodomy, and rape? Who do you want to really protect? Your children? Your church? I’m sorry but to me you can’t have it both ways!!
Obviously Carol,I want to protect the children. Would I have joined Susan and publicly voiced my concerns if I wanted anything else than protecting the children? NO.
I did not harm children,I did not cover up crimes.I did not do anything wrong. Susan and I are TRYING for all involved to have these crimes against children stop,once and for all.If the approach does not fit your needs ,that is fine. Anyone can start their own website and use the approach that suits them.
I am going to return to making my phone calls to legislators ,about the House Bills that need to be passed concerning statute of limitations and the protection of children. That is where I feel productive. Arguing with someone on a website who constantly slams others,does nothing to resolve anything. I am not the enemy Carol,save your anger for those who are to blame.
Great article, and the whole concept is astonishing to me, but one thing is clear. The church is a tough enemy on this front, and God couldn’t have made that fact more clear.
It is a fact that Catholic priests raped over 10,000 children in the United States, and the number is probably 2 to 3 times that, since most child rape victims don’t come forward. They are less likely to come forward in this church when they see the backlash that they still get from the church, its powerful legal team, and the remaining congregation
It is a fact that the church leaders lied and fought viciously to cover it up, completely overriding the guideline of “What Would Jesus Do?”
It is a fact that even after these church leaders were exposed by a grand jury, and the disgusting details were brought to the church leadership, they refused to act on it to save the children. Just read the first 6 pages of the Grand Jury report at http://www.philadelphiadistrictattorney.com/images/Grand_Jury_Report.pdf to see how horrifying these cases were, and how indifferent the church STILL is today.
This is a vicious enemy for us to fight, and it’s a vicious enemy of God. He couldn’t make it more clear or more obvious. There may be innocent priests, but if any of them practiced “What Would Jesus Do?”, they would be screaming from the mountain tops to expose the truth. They are all very quiet, which means they are part of the problem. They can’t all be child rapists, but they know problem is much bigger than we’ve seen, and are helping their leaders hide it.
Your faith should be shaken. Why would God allow this to happen? Why would He not give his leaders the wisdom to do the simplest, most obvious thing, which is to completely admit the truth, protect the children, welcome them back and give them whatever therapy they need, and sell every church in the land if that’s what it takes to pay for it. God would rather have us worshipping in gymnasiums and garages and doing the right thing than protecting money and ignoring the children that its satanic priests raped. It’s very obvious to me – God wants you to know that these aren’t His leaders. They are the false prophets – they are God’s frauds. He wants us to band together to get rid of everyone who didn’t stand up loudly and do the right thing.
God made it obvious. How hard are you willing to fight? Make no mistake about it, He has shown that you are up against a persistently sinful, vicious enemy, who will hide the truth, protect their reputation and their money, even if it means discrediting and ignoring children that they raped.
It is a sad truth that the innocent clergy are also victims but their suffering should not be used to muddle the issue of the children’s suffering.I am appalled but not surprized at how the Church is handling this.
It is deeply painful to contemplate the agony expressed by Catholic mothers and fathers over the abuse situation, but that agony is rivaled by that of those of us who realize that much of the agony is the result of those same parents being deceived from infancy to adulthood by the counterfeit of the gospel that is Catholicism. From a father who was such until age 44, now 78.
Most Catholics have not read the Grand Jury report. Why? Because the truth, whether you reveal it or receive it, means responsibility. That is why everyone dreads it. We have a very long journey ahead. Let’s hope and pray that we can handle the truth as it is revealed.