*** g95 4/22 p. 6 Are We Living in the Last Days? ***
But some of the most ungodly acts take place under the veil of religion. A tragic example is the sexual abuse of children by the clergy... Truly, any form or pretense of godly devotion these clergymen display is exposed as mere hypocrisy by their wicked works.
*** g94 1/8 p. 28 Watching the World ***
According to a support group for the victims, sexual abuse by the clergy is more widespread than the church admits. A spokesman for the group said he believes the church’s focus is more on protecting the clergy than helping the victims. He added that the message “at the very core of the church’s documents is, don’t tell the truth.”
*** g93 4/8 p. 31 Victims of Pedophile Priests Speak Out ***
According to Richard Sipe, a former priest turned psychotherapist and expert on sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, all this institutional denial reveals “a deep, desperate and knowing personal involvement in the problem.” He added: “The church knows and has known for a long time a great deal about the sexual activity of its priests. It has looked the other way, tolerated, covered up and simply lied about the broad spectrum of sexual activity of its priests.”
*** g93 3/8 p. 28 Watching the World ***
Dark Side of United Church
“Most of us come from a rather naive assumption that such things as sex abuse would not occur in the church and would never be committed by clergy,” said United Church minister Sylvia Hamilton. However, Hamilton suggests that “it is a major problem.” According to Canada’s Toronto Star, sexual abuse “ranging from jokes to forced sexual activities—is as prevalent, if not more prevalent, in the church as in society as a whole.” Peter Lougheed, a United Church task-group member, confessed that “the church is a less safe place for the parishioner and for women than the secular workplace.” The Star report adds: “After years of denial and cover-up, the problem is only now percolating to the surface like bubbles in a swamp.”
*** g92 8/8 p. 28 Watching the World ***
The Clergy and Sexual Abuse
Australian National Television recently broadcast a documentary entitled “The Ultimate Betrayal.” The program claimed that 15 percent of clergymen in Australia had committed sexual offenses, ranging from the molestation of children to the rape of women parishioners. Within hours of the television program, various centers set up to handle complaints of sexual assault were inundated with telephone calls from alleged victims. Many callers said they had kept their experience secret for many years. One woman said that she was speaking about her ordeal as a child for the first time in 40 years! Another said that after her clergyman had sexually abused her as a child, he threatened her with hellfire punishment if she dared to tell anyone.