The Catholic Church and Pedophilia: Trafficking Children as Sex Slaves
Comments by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News
In the years we have covered the topic of “medical kidnapping” and child abductions through child social services, we have exposed the corruption behind these “legal” kidnappings, and the reasons why they happen.
Most of these foundational articles are found on our About Us page.
One of the reasons, tragically, that children are kidnapped and taken from their families is for child sex trafficking, which some have reported brings in more money than the illegal drugs and illegal gun trade, combined.
Sadly, religious institutions, many of which have their own child social services, can be among the worst offenders when it comes to trafficking and kidnapping children.
Health Impact News investigative reporter John Thomas takes an in-depth look into the child sex scandals of the Roman Catholic Church in this article, the first one of a three-part series on this topic.
The Truth About Pedophile Priests and Child Molestation in the Roman Catholic Church
by John P. Thomas
Health Impact News
The Roman Catholic Church is on the verge of an internal civil war.
The battleground is between those who would liberalize the traditional definition of immoral sexual behavior for its clergy, and those who want to restore the conservative values of the Catholic faith as it has been known for more than a thousand years.
The scandal involving pedophile priests and the cover-up of their crimes against children and young men is bringing the liberal/conservative clash into sharp focus. [17]
It is still a crime in the United States for an adult to have sexual encounters with boys and girls. Such crimes are called sexual assault or child molestation. [1] Those who commit such crimes are called pedophiles. [2] There are no exceptions granted by these laws for members of the clergy.
By focusing on the pedophile crimes committed by clergy of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) in this article, I am not overlooking the crimes other pedophile groups commit against children — Those acts are equally immoral and illegal!
The focus of this article is on the types of criminal charges levied by the Pennsylvania grand jury investigation against predator priests and the cover-up of those crimes by the Roman Catholic hierarchy of bishops and cardinals.
Clearly, Protestant churches also have clergy and staff that who have committed sex crimes [7], but the focus today is on the Roman Catholic Church (RCC).
This is the first of three articles on pedophilia in the Roman Catholic Church (RCC). This article goes much deeper than one on one sex crimes against children. It also looks at the systematic cover-up of those crimes by the Catholic hierarchy.
A future article will look at the trafficking of children for use as sex slaves and the use of children for ritualistic sacrifices. Another article will highlight the heroic Catholic priests and bishops who are risking their lives to tell the truth about what is happening in their church.
Some of these whistleblowers are now in hiding in fear for their lives, while others have been killed or blackballed from parish work.
The Consequences of Having been Sexually Molested as a Child are Devastating
The lives of thousands of children have been destroyed by the network of pedophile priests. It often breaks the capacity to trust other people and cripples the ability to have healthy adult relationships with spouses and their own children.
Some victims of child molestation find it impossible to hold down meaningful employment, because of their inability to interact with authority figures in the workplace.
Perhaps worst of all, for many, the victims of child sexual assault have lost their ability to have a positive relationship with God.
Sadly, many will never face the difficulty of marriage and employment, because the resulting shame, anxiety, and depression drove them to suicide.
Underneath the sexual abuse of children, whether homosexual or heterosexual, there is a fundamental devaluing of human life. Perpetrators arrogantly see children as expendable beings to be used for their pleasure regardless of the consequences to the child.
As a society, we have been learning to value our children and move beyond the notion that children are our expendable possessions. [8, 9]
Sadly, as we see in the scandal that is rocking the Catholic Church today, there are apparently many who do not agree with the principle that children should be protected and defended from harm as a first priority.
The long history of Catholic orders of priests and nuns taking care of widows and orphans — those who are sick, poor, disabled, or prisoners, and feeding the hungry — which goes back beyond the 14th century [23], is being marred by evil acts of child abuse.
The disclosure of rampant sexual molestation, torture, and neglect of children by priests and nuns has become commonplace in the Catholic institutions that were intended to serve children. [22, 24]
The widespread molestation of children by priests in local parishes throughout the United States [5, 11] has further broken the trust people once had in Catholic institutions.
Child Sexual Molestation Must be Reported to Police as a Crime
Most states require that incidences of child sexual abuse or molestation are to be reported to the police as a crime regardless of who commits the crime. [1]
The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect defines child sexual assault as:
“Contacts or interactions between a child and an adult when the child is being used for sexual stimulation of the perpetrator or another person when the perpetrator or another person is in a position of power or control over the victim.”
Sexual abuse has been defined to include:
“…inappropriate physical contact, making a child view sexual acts or pornography, using a child in making pornography, or exposing an adult’s genitals to a child.” [1]
Adults who commit repeated acts of child molestation are called pedophiles.
Pedophiles are sexually attracted to children and want to use their sexual power to dominate and control someone who is smaller and weaker. [25]
It’s about using children for sexual gratification and about the building up of self-esteem. All pedophile acts are illegal. [2]
Is Pedophilia a Crime or a Mental Illness?
From a mental health perspective, pedophilia is considered to be a mental illness.
An opinion article published in The New York Times reports there is a movement in the Unites States asking for a softer response to pedophiles and to treat them as unfortunate victims of an illness.
Some would even suggest that we consider pedophiles to have a disability that should provide them with protection by disability laws – since they can’t help being who they are. [3]
It may be true that some pedophiles experience sexual attraction to children and don’t act on their attraction (attraction is not a crime). However, for those who do act upon their impulses, pedophile acts still remain a heinous crime against innocent victims.
The Hierarchy of the RCC Treats Child Molestation as a Personnel Matter
Apparently, the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) has not considered child molestation of boys and girls by priests to be criminal activity.
Rather, officials of the RCC consider child molestation and child rape by priests to be confidential personnel matters. The hierarchy treats perpetrators more like victims of an illness rather than as perpetrators of crimes. [4, 5]
As we learned from the Pennsylvania grand jury report on sex crimes committed by priests in that state, priests were rarely disciplined for what is euphemistically called “inappropriate behavior” and were systematically moved from one church to another after being counseled and told to pray more when their sex crimes began to become public. [4, 5]
Statistics show that 82% of pedophile sex crimes identified in the Pennsylvania grand jury report were against boys and 18% were against girls. [6]
$4 Billion Payment of Damages for Sex Crimes didn’t Make the Problem Go Away
Sex crimes against children by RCC priests were sometimes resolved privately throughout the United States with large payouts of money in exchange for silence
Over 4 billion dollars was paid out to victims between 1950 and 2015 for crimes committed by priests. [10]
Reports from records kept by bishops of the RCC indicate that priests committed crimes against an estimated 15,000 children in these cities: Boston, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Bernardino CA, Oakland, San Francisco, San Diego, Lafayette LA, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Camden NJ, Bridgeport CT, Oklahoma City, Louisville KY, Chicago, Tucson, Seattle, Spokane, Fort Worth , Dallas, Omaha , Jackson MS, Milwaukee, Toledo, Davenport IA, Denver, Portland OR, Charleston SC, St. Petersburg FL, Miami, Orlando, St. Augustine, St. Louis, Fairbanks AK, Wilmington DE, Hartford CT, Burlington VT, Altoona-Johnstown PA , Manchester NH, Washington D.C., and in many other cities.
It is estimated that only one third of these victims have come forward to file for damages. [11]
The Problem is Actually Much Larger than the RCC Bishops Report
Priests actually accused of sex crimes against children total 5,700 to 10,000. Because of the statute of limitations, only a few hundred of these pedophile priests have been tried, convicted, and sentenced for their crimes. [11]
Criminal indictments in Pennsylvania for sex crimes against children have rocked the Catholic World including the Vatican. [12]
“More than 300 predator priests in Pennsylvania are accused of abusing over 1,000 children across seven decades,” a Pennsylvania Grand Jury reported in August of 2018.
Their report decried a systematic cover-up of these crimes by the hierarchy of the RCC.
“More than 1,000 child victims were identifiable, but the real number was ‘in the thousands,’ the grand jury estimated, given those children whose records were lost or who were afraid to ever come forward.” [13]
State Attorneys General in 10 states, including Missouri and Illinois, are investigating sex crimes committed by Catholic clergy in their states. In Nebraska, the state Attorney General is inviting people to come forward to tell him their stories of sex abuse in preparation for a possible investigation. [12, 14]
In Michigan, Attorney General Bill Schuette ordered simultaneous surprise raids on the offices for each of the seven Catholic Church dioceses. [14]
Archbishop Claims that he didn’t know that Sex with Children was a Crime
During a deposition about sex crimes against children, Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis, Missouri, claimed that he couldn’t remember when he realized that a priest having sex with a child was a crime.
He now knows, but can’t remember when he had this realization. [12]
The following clip from his testimony speaks volumes about how high-level Catholic clergy are trying to protect themselves and criminal priests who have sex with children.
See: Testimony of Archbishop Robert Carlson from 2014. Most pertinent information begins at 3:45:
... continued in following post ...
GETTY
www.express.co.uk
