44,000 Catholic Women Demand Answers From Pope Francis Over Sex Abuse Crisis

[Eugene]

Source: Huffington Post

WOMEN 09/11/2018 09:01 pm ET

44,000 Catholic Women Demand Answers From Pope Francis Over Sex Abuse Crisis

They seek to hold the church hierarchy accountable for how it handled allegations against ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

By Carol Kuruvilla

More than 44,000 Catholic women have signed a letter pressing Pope Francis to explain exactly when and how he found out about sexual abuse and misconduct allegations against a high-ranking former cardinal.

“Our hearts are broken, our faith tested, by the escalating crisis engulfing our beloved Church,” states the passionately worded letter organized by the Catholic Women’s Forum. “We are angry, betrayed and disillusioned.”

“We, your flock, deserve your answers now.”

For the past two weeks, Francis’ papacy has been thrown into crisis by claims that U.S. cardinals and Vatican officials covered up for then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Even though the Vatican has known about his allegedly abusive behavior with seminarians since at least 2000, McCarrick received clerical promotions and continued publicly representing the church, The Associated Press reports.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/catholic-women-pope-francis-sex-abuse-crisis_us_5b96d4dbe4b0511db3e53b30

[3Hotdogs]

1. The best thing they can do is to stop going to the corrupt institution.

[trotsky]

2. Yep, pull their time and money out of that rotten church.

That's the only thing that will get their attention.

[sprinkleeninow]

3. That's a drastic last resort. They want accountability and answers mb first.

But, don't look at me. I am not of their tradition of faith.

[MineralMan]

4. Of what tradition of faith are you?

I have no sense of it.

[sprinkleeninow]

6. I was thinking you knew. Eastern Orthodox.

I am not to be expected to defend ['apologize' for] anything untoward that 'may' be connected to our Faith.

I judge no one for the tradition of faith they follow. Except when they use that faith to do harm to or damage others.

[MineralMan]

9. I didn't know, but I often find it difficult to figure out

whether your posts are serious or attempts at humor. So, there is that.

[marylandblue]

10. She is usually doing both at the same time

[MineralMan]

12. Well, I quit paying much attention to that DUer's posts.

Too many googly eyes aimed at one person here. I don't have any interest in trying to interpret odd posts.

[sprinkleeninow]

18. Well then, I will you.

I am fond of 'him' for reasons of a spiritual nature you may not have the privilege of knowing.

See how this happens?

Peace be unto you.

[sprinkleeninow]

17. At times I come across as a (having been labeled) folksy country bumpkin, but mostly attempting

to be serious.

What did I say where it was questionable? [Oh, here we go.]

While not being a part of the crisis currently in the RC church, nevertheless I have thoughts, but not of the shut the whole thing down response. It's out of my jurisdiction to say. Plus some of my thoughts are better left not posting.

[marylandblue]

16. Well attendance is down over the longer term

https://news.gallup.com/poll/232226/church-attendance-among-catholics-resumes-downward-slide.aspx

And I can't imagine this will reverse the trend.

[Permanut]

5. Why would a church whose leaders do these things be "beloved"? n/t

[3Hotdogs]

8. From youth on, you are told that a certain group of people are leading lives that are exemplary.

They lead lives of sacrifice. They pray for your sorry ass, ALL DAY LONG. The way they live their lives is a way that you must admire for the conditions of their sacrifices and on and on.

Some, maybe the majority, are sincere. For instance, the horse's ass who died after flipping a rattlesnake because Jesus thought it was a good idea.... I get that he wasn't out for money or buggering or whatever.

As for the rest.... Don't you wish Hell was real?

[Act_of_Reparation]

7. Have these 44,000 Catholic Women been in a coma the past twenty years?

Just sayin.

[trotsky]

11. Makes you wonder what it will take for them to get upset enough to leave.

Hundreds of priests and thousands of raped children aren't enough, so I kind of question how concerned they are.

[MineralMan]

13. Well, many petitions and things like that are created.

An equal number of them are ignored. I don't think the Vatican operates based on letters from anyone or any group. The last estimate I saw indicated that there were about 1.2 billion Catholics, worldwide. 44,000 is an insignificant percentage of them.

[Act_of_Reparation]

14. This story is screwed up in so many ways.

Last edited Thu Sep 13, 2018, 11:29 AM - Edit history (1)

We have a letter written by a statiscially insignificant sample of Catholics, though the story presents it like 44,000 is a huge number. That doesn't really matter, though, because even if the 44,000 was a statistically signifcant sample the Catholic Church is not a democratic organization. And as long as those 44,000 keep showing up to Church on Sunday to toss their blood money into the collection plate, there's no incentive for the old men at the top to make changes. And, lastly, you don't get to act surprised about the Vatican's handling of sexual abuses when it's been in the news more or less without interruption since I was in high school.

This story and HuffPo deserve each other.

[MineralMan]

15. Exactly. But, as Bobby Dylan wrote:

If you don't think twice, it's all right.

We're constantly presented with numbers, but not in any sort of relationship to other numbers. 44,000 sounds like a lot of people, until you look at the number in relation to the number of Catholics there are. Then, it's a meaninglessly small number.

I remember a story I first heard when I was in high school, about a sexual scandal in a boy's choir somewhere in Europe. I don't remember anything else about it, but it was my first exposure to adults sexually abusing children. I've been hearing similar stories ever since. They're still shocking, but not surprising any longer.

I do wish that people learned just a little bit about statistical relevance in school. We get presented with so many unrelated numbers these days, and most people don't seem to get it at all.