In Reply to: our regrets posted by Sophie (reposted) on March 20, 2005 at 21:40:39:
I was a lay pastoral minister in a parish where a priest perpetrator was removed from his pastorateby the Archbishop after allegations were made and substantiated. This priest subsequently admitted to participating in an "inappropriate intimacy" with the adolescent whose family complained to the Archbishop. He also stated that the "inappropriate intimacy" had NOT adversely affected this young person's development. (How would he know?)
What was amazing to me--and this had quite a lot to do with my decision to leave the RC Church--were the number of parishioners ("simple believers") who argued for a reinstatement of their pedophilic pastor with rationalizations like, "Priests are only human," and "It didn't cause any harm," and "He admitted his sin."
These kinds of rationalizations showed me that a whole lot of simple believers didn't understand the extent to which they collude with and empower child abuse through ignorance. If they had bothered to become educated about pedophilia, they would have realized that this man should NEVER, EVER be put in a position of spiritual authority over families with children.
Point is, Family leadership were able to get away with the stuff they did and continue to do because ordinary believers choose to be ignorant about many things of great importance to their the safety and well-being of their children. The reason people choose to be ignorant about child abuse and the ways in which dysfunctional family systems empower and perpetuate child abuse is because knowledge brings a sense of responsibility for allowing it to happen.
It's difficult to take a hard, honest look at the ways in which individuals, families, and society as a whole collude with the victimization and abuse of children. I do not agree that "If leadership was abusive physically, emotionally, spiritually, ect, it had nothing to do with the simple believers..." It has everything to do with simple believers choosing to be simple-minded rather than wise and responsible.