Catholic school's authority removed -extent of abuse revealed

[retroHelen]

Ealing Abbey's Benedict Monks have run a school of over a thousand pupils aged from 3 to 18 at St Benedicts Ealing West London. Top Barrister Lord Carlile launched an independent inquiry and catalogued events of abuse back to the 1970's. One Priest has been jailed another has absconded arrest to Rome. The Monks are to lose control of the school to two trusts. Read about Lord Carlile's findings on various BBC/Sky TV news sites tonight and news items:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2059318/London-Catholic-school-St-Benedicts-monks-stripped-control-sex-abuse.html

http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16106738

[retroHelen]

A while ago the Bishop of Tenerife made some controversial comments on the child abuse discovered among the priesthood- if they are actually what he said. He claimed that the underage/child victims, in some cases basically 'asked for it' by being provocative - in effect that they were consenting! Which is not how even secular law sees this. Even if any were precocious, this is no excuse for an adult priest to take advantage of them. How do they define Biblical fornication? They should not be condoning the actions of 'consenting' unmarried adults (yet the church has a long history of Priest's Lemans and there are at least 1000 people in Britain openly claiming to be priest's children), let alone - or even worse - excuses for adults with underage children.

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_14332.shtml

In view of all the abuse scandals they are debating the end of celibacy that has been with the priests of the church since 1039 as the universal rule:

Th Catholic Herald of Feb 7th 2011 (didn't want to link to the site, so just quote a bit of it) :"More than 140 Catholic theologians from universities in Austria, Germany and Switzerland have called for the Church to end priestly celibacy, ordain women and allow lay people to help select bishops, among other changes.

The 143 professors said their appeal was made in response to the clergy sexual abuse scandals that surfaced in Europe last year and that they no longer could remain silent in the face of what they say is a lingering crisis within the Catholic Church."

Another article Reuters : http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/13/us-ireland-church-celibacy-idUSTRE78C21E20110913

[LeslieDean]

Are you familiar with the old series (2007)---with Chris Hansen about Sexual Predators? It was like a 60 minutes/Dateline type of show. The police and volunteers would set up a chatroom and pose as young children and engage predators in a conversation--then they would set up meeting places and tell them to bring crtian things--like a Big Mac or a certian ice cream flavor that they liked. The decoy was a paid over the age of 21 who looked young. The predator would come to the house and bring the "gifts" inside. Several of these predators were priests, ministers, and rabbi's. All religious faiths. __Never saw any JW's on there! ;>) These men would be arreted booked and the one that stands out was caught the VERY NEXT day at a McDonalds. He said he could not believe his "bad luck". Had no remorse for his conduct or saw that his conduct contributed to his "run of bad luck". It was shcking the amount of this stuff that goes on. Shameful indeed.

[Rosalie4u]

I know that I saw a series of this not too long ago on something like 20/20. Very shameful ... like you said, they are not remorseful, just upset they got caught.

[bohemian]

All religious faiths. __Never saw any JW's on there! ;>)

An elder in a neighbouring congregation to my first cong was arrested and convicted of sexual abuse of children, some of them even while out in the ministry! He is now in prison. It had been going on for many years.

I was going to copy the news report here, but decided against it. I can PM if anyone wants to see the facts.

We mustn't fall into the trap of thinking that Jehovah's Witnesses are immune from these things, but I think it is safe to say that the scale of wrongdoing is very different. "Consequently let him that thinks he is standing beware that he does not fall." 1 Cor 10:12

[retroHelen]

Such things happen to all organisations where manipulative persons think they can work their way in just so they can abuse their position for their own ends, but at least the elder has been dealt with.

He is no longer an elder now.He will not be kept in his position and moved to be an elder in another congregation to prey on the vulnerable there like certain churches have done. If he was fined for his activities, the organisation would never ask the congregation to help pay the fine like some churches have done!

He will never make even the work of Ministerial Servant or pioneer in any congregation of our organisation.These denial of privileges are the consequences for his betrayal of trust that he has to live with.As such ones are made aware of this, it often shows up where their heart really is. If they are humble they will seek treatment and accept their consequences, but if they are not and see they can no longer do what they want in our environment, they may be bitter, but leave us and go away. We have to then 'give them up to the world' as scripture says and hope the World's authorities can keep them from trying their nastiness elsewhere.

We strive to keep Jehovah's name above reproach and protect the inexperienced from such a person.

[Sunnyside]

I think it calls for all of us to be vigilant! Satan is not sleeping and we too need to stay awake without and within the congregation.

It is no wonder, judgement will start in Jehovah's house!

[Rosalie4u]

I am glad that it was properly taken care of. I know that some apostates acuse elders and others of the JW congregation of this and that no one does anything about it ... I believe the apostates that spout this stuff are actually the ones who are guilty of it and got DF and then they have to find others to lie to and join apostate groups, seeking new victims. It always makes me feel good to know when the congregation is cleansed, although I feel sad that those individuals strayed. I just remember what Jesus went through, knowing Judas was going to betray him. The worst kind of straying leads to someone's death like that. We recently had a young "brother" who was not much in the faith anymore since he grew up into his later teens, came to a meeting or two every so often, became a paramedic and volunteer firefighter. Suddenly his face is all over the news as having caused the death of his girlfriend's handicapped daughter! He said that he was "playing" with her when she got very sick and died. He either dropped her while swinging her or something. I did not look into it very much as it was so sad (his father, a faithful man and elder in our congregation, died with kidney failure when this young man was only like 8 or 10). He is now in prison for having caused the girl's death. He finally admitted to hurting her when they kept interviewing him and also they looked into the past where the girl had injuries and he admitted to breaking her arm 2 weeks before her death (she still had a cast on). His anger came out on this little handicapped girl while his girlfriend was at work ... apparently several times. His mother was just devastated. She can't even visit him because he is several hours away! At least she is holding firm to the faith. I am so glad they did not say on the news that he was a JW (since he was not really, just came with his mother until he got older).