99.91% of Catholic priests were not defrocked for

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99.91% of Catholic priests were not defrocked for

99.91% of Catholic priests were not defrocked for sexual abuse of children in 2011 and 2012

By now you’ve likely read the headlines or heard the stories… then again, perhaps not… so here ye go:

The Vatican defrocked 260 priests for the sexual abuse of children in 2011 and 124 more in 2012 after the scandal exploded in Europe and beyond and bishops forwarded hundreds of cases to the Vatican, according to statistics compiled by The Associated Press.

The numbers were confirmed by the Vatican on Friday, and were based on statistics published in its annual reference books. Two
Vatican officials had the statistics in hand but never cited them when they defended the church’s handling of sexual abuse cases before a United Nations panel in Geneva on Thursday.

Experts on sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church say that the numbers represent a spike from previous years, but are not surprising given how the scandal has unfolded in a global organization with more than 412,000 priests.

In 2001, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, arranged for all abuse cases to be sent to his office at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome. After the sexual abuse scandal erupted anew in the United States in 2002, American bishops forwarded about 700 abuse cases to the Vatican during the next few years, said Nicholas P. Cafardi, the former dean of the Duquesne University School of Law, who wrote a book about the church’s response to sexual abuse.

“Since the American eruption, you’ve had eruptions in Ireland and Australia and a number of other European countries,” he said. “The cases could be decades old. So it’s certainly a large number, but when you think of the time frame involved, it’s less impressive.”

Any priest guilty of sexually abusing children should not only be defrocked but criminally prosecuted. The act is heinous and the proverbial book should be thrown against anyone, priest or not, who violates an innocent.

It is a tragic thing, an evil thing, when God’s shepherds prey on the innocent. But we must take into account that there are many of His shepherds who are leading His flock, being instruments and conduits for His mercy, grace and love.

God bless each and every one of those carrying out His purposes

Source: http://www.brutallyhonest.org/brutally_honest/2014/01/9991-of-catholic-priests-were-not-defrocked.html