Joined on
02-18-2011
NORTHEAST OHIO 6398336160543871
Posts: 632
First: 3/7/2011
Last: 5/14/2012
|
I think that "we" now, currently, are dealing with it quite well. A little too well, in fact. I have a priest who I am very close with, confide to me (well, it's not private information, but not something that most priests would talk about in public,) about how terrified he is that someone would accuse him of anything sex-related, because for that to happen to a priest literally means the end of his career/vocation/life. At this point, if a priest gets accused, he is assumed to be guilty.
DH had a wonderful priest while he was in middle school/early high school at his parish. He still talks about how much this priest affected his life, and inspired other young men to be priests. But apparently this priest was accused by a teenager. (DH says that his knowledge of this young man, he was just a jerk and nobody liked him, and DH has theories that he was just "out to get" the priest, after some public incident where the youth didn't get his own way about something or other.) DH says that while the accusations were ongoing, the priest was pretty publicly denying he had done anything, and there never was any actual evidence (at least made public anyway.) Anyhow, basically the priest disappeared off the face of the planet. Well, DH says for a few years he knows the music director said he could be reached through his mother's house, but now he's just gone. His life as a priest, at least a parish priest in this diocese where he had built wonderful relationships, seems to be over. (DH is also convinced that there is NO WAY the priest would have ever done anything innappropriate, and he was an altar server at the time of the accusations, and knew the priest pretty well!)
And that certainly isn't the only situation like that.
Anyhow, so, OOT, I'm not sure what you mean by "the Church should be dealing with this better," or even your mention of "the whole truth," so I think you should explain what you're trying to say. And, if you're saying what I think you're saying, then I think you should substantiate it a little more.
|