US Catholic Bishops - Pedophile Proposal

by Amazing 2 Replies latest jw friends

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  Amazing

  Today the news reported that the US Catholic Conference of Bishops will be taking the following steps regarding the pedophile issue in their church:

  1. They will be issuing a formal public apology to the victims and their family, taking responsibility as a Church.

  2. They call for the defrocking of any priest who commits an act of pedophilia, and kicked out of the church. (This will allow a one time exemption for a single past act (Prior to this announcement only) if certain specific conditions are met. Details forthcoming.

  3. They call for, and will require mandatory reporting of ANY pedophile to the authorities. The confessional privilege will not apply to pedophiles.

  OKAY ... NOW ... maybe this US Catholic proposal still needs a little fine tuning ... cause I get uncomfortable with these little 'exemptions' sandwiched in the broad picture ... nevetheless ... on the surface it looks damn good ...

  Can the Watchtower / Jehovah's Witness Governing Body at least match what the US Catholic Conference of Bishops is proposing? Can the pure clean religion of the Watchtower at least keep up with good efforts of Babylon the Great, Mother of all Harlots? Time will tell.
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  sf

  {{{{{HUGS}}}}}

  How are you feeling today? Thanks for the news. It came through MSNBC alert today too:

  < http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=29377&site=3

  Take good care now.

  Sincerely, sKally

  
  Too many 'lambs'!
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  Hmmm

  http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&ncid=716&e=5&u=/ap/20020604/ap_on_re_us/catholics_church_abuse

  It just showed up in Yahoo's news (and we know it doesn't get any more reliable than that)

  This proposal has not been approved. It will be voted on by a council of Bishops in Dallas June 13-15.

  From the article;

  For priests accused of just one offense in the past, a diocesan review board — comprised mainly of lay people — would determine whether the cleric would return to public ministry.

  The clergyman would have to undergo treatment and evaluation to determine that he was not a pedophile. The review board would also have to consider whether the priest was free of criminal or civil claims, whether he continued to receive counseling and accepted public disclosure of his misconduct.

  And JWs are defending their "strong" policy which says victims now have the right to go to the authorities.

  Hmmm