UNI88 wrote:JoltinJoe wrote:Just to give some perspective, a diocese the size of Joliet probably operated something in the neighborhood of 10 high schools and 30 grammar schools, circa 1980. Each high school would have about 500 students and each grammar school about 800 (900 if there was a kindergarten). So you would have nearly 30,000 students in Catholic school in a given year. Plus, it would have another 25,000 in CCD programs.
So to claim that 2 cases of abuse a year is a lot is just ridiculous.
(I'm basing this on my first-hand knowledge of the school system of the Newark, NJ diocese (which is about twice the size of Joliet).
Joe, there is still not enough information to state that 2 is not a lot. I'm no expert but I believe that abuse is typically not just a one year thing, it can go on for years so that's 2 new cases per year. To get a better feel for it statistically, you would need to account for that. Additionally, we haven't seen actual numbers from an independent study showing what is typical for an institution that deals with children on a regular basis. We have opinions but no actual data for comparison.
Joe and other catholic apologists claim there's no difference between a catholic diocese and say a school district or public school conference. This is not true. Even if we grant him that teachers, janitors, coaches, employees in both scenarios rape children at similar rates, we still have the issue of "priests" which only exist in catholic operations. There is no similar character in a public school distric or regional YMCA or Boy's and Girl's Club.
Public schools don't have this powerful, religious, male with carte blanche who is welcome and revered in every school and who has not had a background check and whose personal file is for the most part, secret. Also this priest may or may not have a criminal background that includes abuse and little is ultimately known about him, from outside sources. This alone puts a catholic operation in a higher risk group.
Now lets talk about governance. An issue the church admits is a major problem
In the case of a business or of a non-profit organization, governance relates to consistent management, cohesive policies, guidance, processes and decision-rights for a given area of responsibility. For example, managing at a corporate level might involve evolving policies on privacy, on internal investment, and on the use of data
If you get caught fucking a kid in a public school or at the Boy's and Girl's club, you will be reported to the police and will be in jail very soon - and you will never get a job in that org again. It is the policy of the catholic church to keep these things secret and fiercely defend the perpetrators and move them, serepticiously into other parishes, schools or hospitals - or even promote them. If a child tells a Boy's and Girl's Club counselor that Mr. John raped her, that counselor is mandated by law to report it to authorities. If a child tells a priest the same thing, he will not go to jail for not reporting. If it involves another priest, he is mandated to only tell the bishop, if he even says anything at all.
Sex and celibacy - another major difference between secular and catholic orgs at the important administrative level. Secular orgs do not mandate that administrators be celibate for the rest of their lives. As we've seen in the headlines lately, catholic priests, bishops and cardinals are freaks, predominatly gay and actively engaged in sex with each other. This has been identified as major issue as priests are reluctant to rat on each other for fucking kids cuz chances are that pedophile fuck knows something about that priest thus creating a conspiracy of silence.
These are but a few of the reasons the catholic church has a much bigger sex abuse problem than public school districts and secular orgs.
