Is It Safer for Kids to Fly or Go to Church?

Patrick J. Wall
October 31, 2012

http://patrickjwall.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/is-it-safer-for-kids-to-fly-or-go-to-church/

Patrick Doyle wrote an intriguing piece in the Boston Daily after interviewing a number of seminarians. After reading it, I now am more afraid than ever for the future safety of children in the Church.

The formators (priests in charge of seminarian formation) in the Roman Catholic Church in Boston are analogizing millennia-old child sexual abuse crimes to the airline industry.  I do not think the folks at Boston Logan, Delta airlines or Boeing would concur.

From the article:

“As Father Chris O’Connor, the Vice-Rector at Saint John Seminary (Boston) is fond of saying, Priests are like airplanes.  Most of them take off and land, take off and land, and everything is fine.  You only hear about the ones who crash.”  

It’s delusion at its highest form.

So let’s look at the numbers. If you compare and contrast what the National Transportatio  Safety Board (NTSB) reports with the Roman Catholic Church National Review Board (NRB) here is what you find:

NTSB                                                                        NRB

www.ntsb.gov                                                         www.usccb.org/news/2012/

crash rate is eight million to one                       crash rate is 4-10%

62 major crashes since 1950                              6,115 priests since 1950

910,000 licensed US pilots                                 39,718 active US priests.

accident data base available                               accident data base is secret

Is it safer for a child to fly on an airplane in the United States or to attend the Roman Catholic Church?  You do the math.