Concerns in the Catholic Church
Sexual abuse is a growing concern in society today. So many people are hurt by the actions of other people when they abuse them, especially in a sexual manner. The Catholic Church is also now being targeted for sexual offenders. Priests have been charged with sexually abusing young boys that are involved with the church.
This essay discusses the link between the Roman Catholic Church, child sexual abuse and the possibility of a cover-up. Are the Archdiocese and the Catholic Church guilty of covering up accusations of child sexual abuse? If so, could the church have stopped the abuse before it became an epidemic? And why have multiple victims come forth alleging sexual abuse after so many years? In order to answer these questions, we must first identify the circumstances surrounding the scandal.
The History of The Church
The Church had held sway over medieval society for centuries, but it began to lose its grip in the fourteenth century. It was not only that it could not explain nor prevent the calamities that swept through the century, it was enduring its own calamities.
The Church was at its strongest in the thirteenth century, but within a few years of entering the fourteenth it entered a series of crises that would all but destroy it (and certainly destroyed its hold over the minds and hearts of many Europeans).
In the article “Christianity and child abuse – the survivors’ voice leading to change”, Kennedy (2000) argued how children’s Christianity background can cause additional concerns in the issue of child sexual abuse. Kennedy justified her argument by presenting the fact how spiritual concepts like “the evil/sin of being abused” (126,127,129), “God’s will” (127,129), “sources of God’s grace” (128) have been wrongly used to warrant perpetrators’ inhumane acts. Moreover, she pointed out that both the subliminal messages children perceived of these concepts (128) and “silencing factors”, such as “the doctrine of forgiveness” (131) and no pre-marital sex (130) in Christian context, lead to further shame and guilt in children (131,132,133,134). Apart from the spiritual side, Kennedy also criticized Christian churches’ intention of protecting its own reputation rather than solving the issue (133). Christian communities practiced an unjust demand of forgiveness from the victim and a patriarchal culture (135). Also, Christian communities failed in offering objective policy guidance (136) and ensuring active implementation of the policy document (137). Kennedy ends the passage by prompting the idea that state and church should tackle the problem hand in hand (139), and the engagement of more practitioners with sound religious and psychology understanding (139).
In a recent scandal at Penn State University defensive line Coach Jerry Sandusky was accused of having sexual relations with ten young boys while working at Penn State. In trial it came out to be very clear that over the course of many years Mr. Sandusky had been sexually assaulting members from his foster home that was meant to help troubled boys. It is so hard for people to speak out and ask someone for help, because many don’t believe anyone will understand their situation. However, many of the boys knew each other from the group home and had been going through the same terrifying experience. It’s a shame that it can take decades for just one person to get caught instead of days in this case it took fifteen years.
Addressing the issue of pedophilia in an ethical manner towards the patient which can often times prove to problematic, as no conclusive remedy can be offered. Acco...
In the United States, we have many different culture groups and traditions. Inside those culture groups they have their own beliefs. Some are accepted and some are not. One belief that is not accepted in all races is child molestation. In this paper, these topics will be discussed: the definition of child molestation, the persons who are usually the perpetrators, the signs and effects of child molestation, and the consequences if one is caught doing this act.
Lynn Malone, is currently the senior pastor at First United Methodist Church in Monroe, Louisiana. On June 13, 2008, Malone gave a homily that entailed a very key component of the Christian faith, the church. In this homily, the main concept of the homily is the church as being one whole entity. Throughout the homily, numerous examples are given that exemplify this concept. I will be discussing two themes more in depth throughout this paper, the Christian Church as one entity, and the universality of Christianity and Christ’s teachings.
The Church in the Middle Ages
By The Middle Ages, one understands a relatively long historical period extending from the end of the Roman Empire to the 1500's. The conquest of The Roman Empire by Germanic tribes, and synthesis of Germanic and Roman ways of life formed the civilization which we call medieval (medieval-from Latin words; medium (middle) and aevum (age)). Medieval civilization was greatly influenced by the Muslims in Spain and The Middle East, and by Byzantine Empire and Christians in Southeast Europe.
The power of The Church, in The Middle Ages, was enormous.
The Pastor’s Role
I must say that I learned a lot from this class both through the readings and through class discussion. I really, honestly do not have anything that I starkly disagreed with in either. I found it all to be very valuable information for me and this class was extremely helpful in assisting me to better understand the current paradigm shift the church is going through. There are three take-a-ways in particular that helped me to better understand the post modern shift in the church and my role as a minister in this changing paradigm. The first take-a-way is the understanding that there is a shift occurring towards focusing more on the congregational life of the church with more attention on the laity and its formation.