UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on December 06, 2012
Watch closely the language that Catholic officials use when they try to distance themselves from accused clerics.
Bishops recruit, educate, train, ordain, hire, supervise, and often transfer and protect predator priests. But once allegations surface, top church staff often pretend they’ve never even met the accused. In many church notices, he was “Fr. Smith” on Tuesday, but suddenly, on Wednesday, became “Smith” or “Mr. Smith” the minute child sex abuse allegations arose.
It almost always takes years for the Catholic hierarchy to defrock a priest. So when one goes from being Fr. Jones to Mr. Jones in a matter of hours, it’s just a public relations maneuver.
Independent statistics are hard to come by, but we’re pretty convinced that the overwhelming majority of pedophile priests – even many of those who are convicted and imprisoned – are never defrocked.
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