We all hear about sexual abuse on children by the Catholics?

The U.S. Department of health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families report "Child Maltreatment 2006" states that sexual abuse by Catholic clergy was less than one-half of one percent of all cases.

The report states that the perpetrators relationship to the victim was:

29.1% were Other Relatives

26.2% were Parents

24.4% were Others

6.9% were Unknown or Missing People

6.1% were Unmarried Partners of Parent

4.4% were Friends or Neighbors

1.8% were Child Daycare Providers

0.5% were Other Professionals

0.3% were Foster Parents

0.3% were Residential Facility Staff

0.1% were Legal Guardians

All clergy is a subset of Other Professionals and Catholic clergy is a subset of all clergy. http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm06/table...

Here is the complete document: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm06/cm06....

The 2007 Annual Report prepared by the Catholic bishops identifies 15 allegations of childhood sexual abuse in the U.S. Catholic Church from 2000 to 2007. Please note that there were 64,800,000 Catholics in the U.S. in 2005. http://cara.georgetown.edu/bulletin/index.htm

The 2007 Associated Press investigation identifies 2,570 public school teachers who, from 2001 through 2005, had their teaching licenses "taken away, denied, surrendered voluntarily, or restricted" because of sexual misconduct with minors.

With love in Christ.

It was "the way" they handled the situation. They covered the problem up. Here in Canada the priests that committed sexual abuse where sent to the First Nations Reserves and they continued to abuse children there. The thing is they were sent there because it was thought it didn't matter what happened to the natives. Now whenever someone talks to natives here and even mentions they are Christian, the natives do not want to talk or have anything to do with any Christian. It gave such a bad name to Christians all over. It is still a very touchy subject in much of Canada.

Other Christians denominations have other ways of dealing with it, but the only way to deal with it according to the Bible is to report the abuse to authorities when there is a confession, and to disassociate any unrepentant wrongdoer. There are also many warnings that should be given once a person has committed this, so that the congregation can be safe.

Ladys Man... "Do you think the catholic church has a strong anti-abuse policy, or do you think the clergy could have or could do more to make their priests responsible?" --- Obviously, in hindsight, there is always more that one can do. However, if you look at what the RCC has done thus far, they have implemented... -Background checks for clergy -Counseling for those who were involved -Education for those who remain -Audits of many diocese -Spot checks on many diocese -Removal from office, once proven guilty as a result of trial and/or investigations What have others done in the secular world to combat the same issues? "Have you taken into account the fact the catholic church has paid over $1 billion in out of court financial settlements for abuse victims?" -- Have you taken into account that at least 19% of those who have accused the Church, have been proven to be false accusations? Have you taken into account that less than 2% of the clergy is involved in such improprieties? Compare that to the secular world or ANY other organization, and you will see the numbers are far lower in the Church. However, even at 2%, that is still too much, BUT, society seems to focus on the RCC and not on the rest of society. Ironic, huh? "Did you know Pope Benedict XVI was involved in a cover up of sexual abuse in the church and was granted immunity by Bush?" -- Did you know that you are trying to push hype where there is no solid PROOF of this. No court has been able to validate these claims which you are making. "Did you know the church has also been aware of many acts of abuse and has only responded by protecting the involved clergy?" -- Did you know that again, you are responding to the hype? Do your research, then maybe we can have an intelligent conversation. GOD BLESS...

It is Catholics who cause Catholics to be targeted, by exposing their dirty laundry to the world.

The bible says, it is a DISGRACE for Christians (of the same faith) to take each other to court. Is there no one among them that can judge these matters. The injustice of the Catholic church has caused her members to turn on her. If these complains were not shoved under the rug...this would not have made world news.

On the other hand, we have Jehovah's Witnesses who do do something about the situation when they are told, however members who feel that the punishment was not sufficient decide to air their dirty laundry to the world..which has led to some members being disfellowshiped for trying to sue the religion. It is one thing to sue the person who molested a child but to sue the religion! Come on! Some have gone too far!

If there is one thing I know and it is this, people who have been molested cannot judge rightly. The only thing they want is the head of the person who molested them on a silver platter. Anything else and it is not sufficient. They seem to forget that God forgive us when we error and unless the molestation is serious (vaginal or anal penetration occurs, or oral copulation) Jehovah's Witnesses will not put the person out to be hanged (call the police). They will deal with it.

Child molestation is a problem in every religion, and in many families as well. Some believe Jehovah's Witnesses (males)as well as Catholics priest are at a greater risk because they try to abide by Bible principles to have sex only in marriage whereas with other Christian faiths their men believe in premarital sex. Their reasons for having premarital sex is to prevent them from being child molesters or from becoming gay. They can tell God their reasons for disobeying his command on premarital sex while he hurls them into the lake of fire for failing to control their own bodies. (fall over laughing)

I am a Jehovah's Witnesses

With Catholics, there are simply more of them and the circumstances for them are better for such acts. Standards are lax or not there at all. Also making laws not of God as 1 Timothy 4:1-3 demonstrates.

"However, the inspired utterance says definitely that in later periods of time some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to misleading inspired utterances and teachings of demons, 2 by the hypocrisy of men who speak lies, marked in their conscience as with a branding iron; 3 forbidding to marry, commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be partaken of with thanksgiving by those who have faith and accurately know the truth. "

Note verse 3, the first thing.

Now Jehovah's Witnesses are all human--not angels. A few bad apples do show up. Sometimes they sincerely repent, sometimes they do not. When they do not, they are expelled from the organization to keep it spiritually clean as 1 Cor. 5:11-13 orders.

However note what 6:9-12 said right after that. All the things they had formerly done. Verse 11 shows they had been forgiven and no longer did any of those things.

Of course when wrongdoing is done within the congregation, it is not covered up. Neither is it broadcast all over. Neither are these people exempt from the world's Police forces and its legal system.

You are correct, child molesting happens no matter what faith, no matter where in the world, no matter rich or poor or so on...

But the difference is that the Catholic Church is:

1. Very well known.

2. Very old--2,000 years old.

3. The priests are supposed to take a vow of celibacy.

It is the third one that makes the media go into a frenzy. They have decided that because of this vow of celibacy that the priests take, it causes them to be sexually oppressed and therefore it comes out when they molest children.

The media has decided that this is the reason for the molestations and nothing else could be the cause.

Therefore, reporting the Methodist Church's problems, the Church of Christ's problems, the Pentecostal Church's problems, the Jehovah's Witnesses and so on would cause a problem for the media: Married priests/pastors.

Because it doesn't work, they don't want to report it. You might see a little blurb, but no where near the coverage given to the Catholic Church.

Just recently Tony Alamo was placed in jail on 10 counts of child molestation, abuse and rape. I couldn't find it on the news ANYWHERE. Why not? It was a priest of a Hollywood church called the Alamo Church and many celebrities were part of it for a while. He promoted polygamy, was for arranged marriages, married an 8 year old girl and raped her before she was 10 and there were others too that this happened to.

Yet not a word. Why? Because he was a married priest and again, that ruins their entire ideal of celibacy causes child molestations.

It's a shame too, because this just puts blinders on people and instead of them seeing what this is: a nation-wide, world-wide, problem. All they see is it is a Catholic priest problem. And that's dangerous...because so many people aren't aware.

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Added:

To the one who said that Catholic priests are gay because no straight man would give up sex, you obviously have no idea. Many devout men live celibate lives until they are married and some are still virgins at 40 years old.

Also, your reasoning still does not work because many men who are married--to a woman--molest children, many times THEIR OWN CHILDREN. It is not just gay men who are molesting children, it's married men. Single men. Straight men. Bi men. Gay men. It is a perversion, but it is not limited to one type of man.

Catholics are not the only ones, in fact, your child is safer with a Catholic priest than a Protestant clergyman.

According to statistics, Protestant clergy have been convicted of pedophilia at a rate of 10% compared to 1.7% of Catholic priests.

The reason the Church is targeted is because it makes great headline news for celibate men of God to be "caught' doing something horrific like sexual child abuse. Additionally, the Catholic Church is a large global organization and can be sued, unlike the tens of thousands of little religious groups across the country. If Pastor Bob molests a little boy in his congregation of 50 people, he may be arrested and eventually run out of town, but it isn't going to make the national news.

The Catholic Church is the true Church of God. This fact alone makes her a great target of Satan. There have been child molesters who have infiltrated the priesthood, and this is a sad and horrible crime that unfortunately hurts the entire priesthood. Many good priests have suffered because of the crimes of a few.

To Zanthus: The statement that "no straight man would give up sex" is an assumption. In fact, there are many straight men who did give up sex for a greater good, a love for God and his Church.

The other statement that only gay men become priests, again lacks any real logic if thought through. The assumption is that straight men don't become priests because they'd never take a vow of celibacy, yet gay men do become priests and do take a vow of celibacy and yet molest children. That just doesn't add up. A vow of celibacy and chastity includes not molesting children...ever...as it is a sin, it breaks their vow and it's against the law. So the logic implies that straight men never love God enough to give up sex, and gay men pretend to do so, but lie, and enter the priesthood in order to molest children. That is just unfounded, anti-Catholic, garbage.

This is What Jehovah God Says: "DO NOT"

“Do not put your trust in nobles, nor in the son of earthling man, to whom no salvation belongs.” (Psalm 146:3) This means any Human!

This Man made Doctrine of Forbidding to Marry....Canadian bishop has been charged with distributing and selling child pornography after airport officials examined his laptop computer, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. said on Wednesday.TORONTO -- A Roman Catholic bishop who oversaw his diocese's settlement with victims of sex abuse is facing child pornography charges, police said Wednesday.

http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1101ap_cn_canada...

Based on the Bible’s unfailing prophecies, conditions of this age would worsen, until God stepped in and replaced all human rulerships with his Kingdom.—Daniel 2:44; Matthew 24:6-8, 14.

Believe me it isn't only Catholics but it everywhere. Not just Catholics because once you hear the media about it then people become label them so easy.

It is just like when people blaming on you for doing wrong thing then later FBI tell people that it was the wrong guy but what will people said to that person? THINK ABOUT IT.

You are right, EVERY church out there, as well as every organization that includes adults and children together, has those who go against the teachings and rules of the various entities, and abuse their authority, causing pain. Family groups are not exempt, either, as we all well know.

My personal belief about why the Catholic church has gotten such a bad reputation for it, is because it's part and parcel of the religion itself, that their clergy be celibate; which opens the door for natural feelings of sexuality to be perverted when they are suppressed, and the most available victim for that suppressed feeling is a child. They can be manipulated, and threatened. They also have a great deal of trust that perverted thinkers are able to take advantage of.

Satan has infected the minds of people to such a degree, that child abuse is something we can't escape from,and it's something that is difficult, if not impossible to 'cure'.

Certainly NO church that I am aware of condones child abuse, and when it is found, the various groups do what they can to avoid it, and protect their children.

If anyone on this forum has a solution, I'd love to hear it, because for myself, I am waiting on God to take some vengeance.