Child abuse and clergy

I had a long post about the abuse scandal in the Catholic church but the more I wrote the angrier I became, at both the clergy responsible for the abuse and those who help cover it up as well as those members of society who are ready to paint the church with such broad strokes. As a member of the church it very mush pisses me off that some Priests would abuse their positions to commit such disgusting crimes. I believe that all people who abuse children, regardless of their status and position should be locked up and the key thrown away.

I also find that people who like to wag their finger at the church as a whole without knowing all the facts are despicable. They are the ones who forget that innocent until proven guilty applies to everyone, clergy included.

In their rush to jump on the bandwagon before it leaves them behind they forgot to read up on all the facts involving not just the Catholic church but all the church's. In fact abuse among all clergy, whether they are Rabbi's, Priests, Imam's and so on is about the same. And again, I do not condone these actions by anyone, abuse among clergy on average is less then that of the general population.

As a parent I find it sad that these actions occur at any level any anyone. How we put a stop to it is almost impossible but what we can do is love our children and keep our eyes out for them. Talk to them and let them know they can tell you anything, it is sometimes the only way to find out about abuse that is going on. Many times the abuse is by someone in a position of trust to the child. Priests, teachers, friends parents and so on and by making sure you know where your children are and who they are with you can minimize the risk.

Here is a great site with information on child abuse as well as some statistics that I find disturbing. It is sad to see so many children being hurt. Worse is knowing that those numbers are that high because some children are reporting more the one incident.

A quick search of google for child abuse and clergy brings up some very disturbing pages. While the Catholic church scandal certainly is still running on some of the top hits you will find pages for all denominations as well as statistics showing how sad this story really is.

As a parent I can only say that if someone were to hurt my child in that manner they would regret the day they made that choice.