First of all, Jesusandyou, I want to commend you for the passion you have in wanting to protect children. Nevertheless, I still do not see that the criticisms you have posted here against the Catholic Church in Goa are warrented. But let us look at the things you brought up one by one.
How did Paul find that there is fornication among the members of the Church? I don't think there was any background checks available in AD 60.
And I am aware that there is sin going on in my community without the need for background checks. But the point is, how do I
specifically know that a person in my congregation has a criminal record involving crimes against children without a background check? You said that a priest should "make sure" that there aren't any pedophiles. But I'm sure that pedophiles don't go around talking about their crimes. They probably try to keep their crimes as secret as possible until they get discovered. Once they get the discovered, it becomes a matter for the police.
Furthermore, you seem to be implying that Paul set out to actively investigate his community to discern whether or not there were fornicators. But he probably found out about it the same way most people do - people openly talked about it.
I remember an incident of a Priest who was arrested in California for child abuse. Later the police found that he had some outstanding warrants in New York. My qn is can you find any criminal record on all of the Priests who were taken to jail for abusing the minors? So, background check can't solve the issue for all.
Background checks cannot fully solve the issue because no system is perfect. Furthermore, a background check will only show you if a person has been accused or convicted of a crime against children in the past. If they managed to operate in secrecy then they won't be on the list. But doing a background check is at least one concrete thing a parish can do to try to keep its children safe from potential predators.
What about confession stand? Won't any of your members confess about their sin.
Anything that is brought up within the Sacrament of Confession is protected under the Seal of Confession. A priest may not discuss it or act upon it. If a man comes goes to a priest for confession and tells the priest that he molests children, the priest can spiritually counsel this person and try to convince him to turn himself in, but the priest himself cannot go to the police. If he does then the following would happen:
1) The priest would automatically excommunicate himself and would have to cease his priestly duties until the matter was resolved by Rome.
2) The world media would gleefully report that a priest broke the Seal of Confession.
3) Everyone would hear about this news story and no one would ever confess the sin of molesting children to a priest again. Hence, they would not receive spiritually counseling from priests which could assist them in getting help and reforming their ways, and they would cut themselves off from the sanctifying graces of the sacraments which could empower them to do the same.
Having said that, let me point out that if a priest, through a method outside of the Sacrament of Penance, finds out about a case of child abuse, he is required to report it to the proper authorities. But here again, it becomes a matter for the police.
You can easily find the spiritual life by looking at their involvement in the communion.
I'm not sure what you meant. Did you mean "involvement in the community"? Yes, a person's involvement in the community can tell me something about their spiritual life, but it doesn't tell me that a person is specifically a pedophile, unless I see him actively abusing a child. If I actively see such a thing, I will put a stop to it and inform the police. But the topic of discussion is whether or not the priests in Goa were negilgent. Do you know for a fact that a priest in Goa actively saw someone abusing a child but decided to keep it a secret?
If you have 2000 member of families in your Church, you are a shepherd for all. If you can't lead them all, then you have to divide the big church to small and appoint priests for small parishes. So the priest of that small church can have attention towards all the family members.
It would be nice if there were enough priests and parishes to do that. Most dioceses in the U.S. are experiencing a priest shortage. But in any event, we are talking about concrete ways that a priest can "make sure" that there aren't any pedophiles in his congregation. How does giving my parishioners more attention help me discover that one of them is sneaking around molesting children? Furthermore, is there anything that a priest could do in this regard that any other person could not? Why is it specifically the Church's responsibility to protect children from pedohilia and not the rest of society?
Churches have counseling sections for Marriage. I believe an "awareness" session for sexually addicted people will help.
I agree. But let me state that the Church has marriage counseling sessions because marriage is a sacrament. I am a priest and a minister of the the sacraments and therefore I can speak to people regarding things such as marriage. But I am not a psychologist and I am not qualified to treat anyone afflcted with any kind of addiction. In the U.S. there are already orgainizations out there that do this, including those that help people with sexual related psychological problems.
So as a priest I can't treat people for any sort of psychological problem or addiction. My parish does, however, let Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous use our social hall for meetings. The priests don't run these meetings, we let the professionals take care of that.
If there were a prevailiant sort of crime in a community then I think it would be fine and proper for a parish to host a sort of town meeting to discuss the problem. This sort of thing happens all the time. But it doesn't specifically take a church to do this.
But I'm not sure how effective a pedophilia awareness program would be. Generally speaking, everyone knows that pedophilia is a crime and that it should be reported. Do they specifically
need the Church to tell them this? And if parents want to keep their children safe from pedophiles, they need to keep a proper eye on them. Once again, do people specifically
need the Church to tell them this? Furthermore, the Church has always been outspoken in condemning all forms of sexual sins. As I said earlier, I don't believe that there is a single pedophile in Goa that believes that the Church does not condemn what he's doing.
David mentioned in his message that there were members of the Portland Diocese testified that there were members who were aware of the sex abuse. That’s the reason you have the elders of the Church to monitor the sin in the Church.
Any person in the U.S. who is aware of a case of child abuse is required by law to report it. I don't know who these people in Portland were or why they failed to alert the police. But the Church cannot force people to report cases of pedophilia any more than it can force people not to sin.
The Catholic Church does not have "elders to moniter the sins of the Church" nor do I know of any church that does. Nor do I know exactly how anyone would go about doing such monitering. Every church and every religion is filled with sinners - that's a given. If it is discovered that among these sinners there are people actively commiting crimes then they should be turned over to the police. Once again, it is the police who are supposed to investigate crimes and bring criminals to justice, not the Church. The duty of the Church, as with all citizens, is to report crimes to the proper authority.
The greatest challenge in front of you is, are you willing to talk about this issue though somebody mention to you about this? It takes courage.
I am willing to talk about any issue. But the question remains as to whether or not the Church in Goa is being negligent and I still do not see that this is the case. You accused priests of closing their eyes to this crime but how do you know what they saw and did not see?
If pedophilia is a wide spread problem in Goa that has, as you say, existed for many generations, then it is a social problem involving all of Goa. Yes, that includes the Catholic Church but is in no way limited to it. Perhaps the Church could have done more in the past and perhaps the Church can do more today, but why single out the bishops and priests for negligence? What about the mayor (or whoever is the Indian equivalent to this poistion)? What about the police chief? What about the politicians? What about the OTHER religious leaders? What about the Muslims and the Hindus? What about the Protestants? And what about all the ordinary people who are in a better position to actually witness these crimes and report them? What about the parents who are neglecting their sacred duty to keep their children safe?
If you still believe that the Church is being negligent, then I ask you to give me one concrete practical example of something that the Church ought to be doing in Goa but has refused to. That is what it takes to be negligent. And being an American Catholic I know
fully well that the Catholic Church is capable of being negligent in matters of pedophilia. But before I agree that the priests in Goa should, as you say, be gotten rid of then I want to see some clear examples of their negligence. I would also like to know what your sources for this information is.
God bless,
-Rev. Eric
The Glorify God Community
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