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church & abuse : the catholic diocese of philadelphia

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one of my oldest friends steve sent me this, he is the only friend not blood relative, that reads the blog, so consider this a sorta guest post. the article is about the handling of abuse cases by the catholic diocese in philadelphia. this is news today because of a recent letter sent out to parishioners. there are some things in there that stagger the mind.

IF YOU’RE A Philadelphia-area Catholic, you may have received a
brochure in October explaining how the church has purged itself of pedophile priests and enhanced its outreach program for victims of clergy sex abuse. "With confidence I report that currently there are no Archdiocesan priests or deacons in ministry who are known to have sexually abused a
minor,"
…

Of 60 priests who the Archdiocese believes abused children, 15 are now dead. Twenty are among the residents at the Villa St. Joseph retirement home in Delaware County, participating in a sex-offender
treatment program under church supervision.

But what about the 25 others, who have been expelled from the priesthood amid allegations that they raped and molested schoolchildren?

A Daily News investigation has found that several of them are living in sunny climes such as the Jersey Shore and Florida, sometimes without their neighbors’ knowledge. In some cases, these ex-priests are even collecting a church pension.

…

Church officials, however, know where most of the defrocked priests are living – they just won’t say.

…

he Philadelphia Archdiocese provides more information than most. Its Web site includes photographs of all priests who have been credibly accused of abusing minors, and lists their previous church assignments.

But church officials say they don’t believe they can legally disclose defrocked priests’ addresses under civil and canon law.

it reminds me of the sbc conversations how those protestant churches deal with abuse cases. in there the big disclaimer is that there is no control over the individual churches and abusers can go unnoticed there.

here that control mechanism is in place.. but it seems that abusers can still go unnoticed. reminds me of this south park episode where the south park priest is the only clergy not abusing children.

my second life : the methodist cyberchurch

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so in one of my postings yesterday. revmom brought up checking out the cyber world of "second life." now i have never been a simulation game or virtual reality person.. i’ve never been a that person at all. so this world is quite foreign to me. however, i do see this coming as one of the next mission fields or the next social networking medium being avatar based.

so i followed her instructions.. and then got left on my own, i think i canceled the reminder/guide thing they give you for the orientation island. wandered aimlessly, lost my clothes, but then got my digs back on and made it out into the "real" world.

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now an interesting part was walking around and seeing people that you know are people somewhere out there in the actual world. i didn’t talk with anyone. i am shy that way. i didn’t mind bumping into them as i still had a hard time walking straight for some reason. i made it over to the koinonia church. it was quite pretty.. for something not real. i checked out the list of services and all that. i don’t know when, but i’d like to make it back to see the church in action. i had a seat in the cozy sanctuary area. after that i wandered

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i stumbled upon, not to far away from koinonia church was a methodist church. low and behold part of the british methodist church at that. they had some wesley stuff, organ, bell, the whole set up. i even tried to preach a sermon.. to no one of course. then it was over to some other really odd places..

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i ended my stop at a monastery.. a nice peaceful time to rest after teleporting and flying all over the place. yes, flying & teleporting, this is real you know. &:~D

i don’t see this being my thing. but in ways, this was engaging, fascinating and fun. time consuming as well, so maybe i can be quicker next time to get in and out. who knows. i do think if you have yourself some energy to take on a bit of a challenge it is worth it to familiarize yourself with this or another world. there are seeking people in all parts, even flying around in a second life.

what i told a youth : what ya think?

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one of my youth david has made a post on his myspace about shopping for books at the towns new B&N. when they were in the "christian" section a man got on their case for believing in god. if you can’t read his blog for one reason or another. a quote from it was something like, ‘too bad christianity is a load of crap. it’s nicely presented crap but it doesn’t mean god exists.’ he was bothered by it and one of his buddies, who is a cool kid i like a lot, but as i know is agnostic or atheist brought up the "contradiction" word for the christian faith.. so i got into rant mode.. for my better educated friends? anything i need to eat my words on or did i do okay for a non-academic to a teen audience response?

what i find funny is that if it is nicely presented, but it isn’t real and it is total crap & as jody mentions full of "contradictions" then i wonder what we are talking about? God? Science? the Economy? Patriotism? Politics? Faith? Global Warming? Atheism? Agnosticism? etc..

honestly, these argumentations seem to only have a magnifying glass on faith.. why? i don’t know, no one has ever told me they just shrug their shoulders..

eg. science has only been around since the 18th century (the scientific method as it is generally known, though some practice can date to middle ages), so in the idea of the world, it is a baby and has made many mistakes, contradicted it’s findings, and failed to deliver the goods in it’s aim to explain all things in a logical /explainable & repeatable manner. truth is they pull back on things all the time, contradicting oneself.

eg. economics obey certain "laws" but they are always conditional. if the economy operated under exact laws that never contradicted or moved on itself then we could tell everyone "this is how to ensure that all the economy will provide riches for everyone" (or provide stable living at the least) but no one is able to provide that because it is in-exact.

eg. agnosticism is contradicting of the self in many ways because you claim a diety or god, but you don’t know what that god is. so therefore you are in a position to contradict yourself on every whim of what that god looks like, acts like.. note: i say that lovingly for folks who claim agnosticism, i could claim that about once or twice a month, as well as atheism, for my faith falls on trying times..

so someone tell me why we always pick on those of the christian faith?..

is is cause we don’t do things we say we should do? is it that we hate when are told to love? is it that we care for ourselves when we are told to care for others? we got some old book that says some crazy stuff? things like that??? sure, we do that, but it is we as a people not God.

i cringe, and get really pissed off, at what some of my christian brothers and sisters say & do. i want to beat people who are a-holes in our church buildings and outside them & claim the same faith as i do then only remembering that i am supposed to love them too. i want to do all i can for the poor or marginalized get pissed at those that don’t share my same passion, but then i go and do very little or nothing at all for the cause i feel so "passionately" about. but this is me.. i am a person just trying to live my life

and in my life i have found, though i have given myself every chance, time and time again i have been unable to claim that their is no God or even that God is less significant than he is. this is my story.. and that book we claim is full of the same type of people living with the same struggles, contradictions, frailty, humility, care for the world, and desire to come to know this God they can’t get out of their soul.

so for people who want to impose those viewpoints, as christians will sometimes impose their own on others, i’d say "you need to earn the right to be heard" & a chance meeting in the bookstore is a bad way and only shows your brokeness and need to justify your own identity as a person.

you see david, all this to say. it hurt, and we as christians hurt others, because when you attack or disrepect a persons views on things like this you are attacking their identity as a person. and people have a natural need to defend their identity because in todays world more than any other.. it might be all they have. wars are fought over it & relationships are broken because of it. it is powerful.

ps: i have the same book on my shelf as my to be reads.. not sure when i’ll get there, but i am looking forward to reading it myself.