Jun. 19th, 2003 03:48 pm
Catholic education is a bad mistake
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muckefuckThis morning on the radio, I heard what might just be the most specious defence against clerical child molestation judgements to date. A lawyer representing the Roman Catholic Church pointed out that if the courts continue to rule again the various California dioceses in the dozens of outstanding cases, then the Church will do forced to close many parishes and suspend charitable services in others.
Well, boo fucking hoo.
Don't get me wrong, I think it sucks that simple parishoners are seeing their donations go into multi-million dollar abuse awards rather than re-roofing the rectory or keeping the food bank operating. But that's hardly an argument against compensation of victims. I mean, can you imagine applying this to other liability cases, like say the recent Firestone scandal? "Your honour, if you award this amount of damages, my client will have to close dozens of factories." Well, um, that's kind of the point, this being a punitive measure and all. Yes, it sucks that thousands of workers who can't be held responsible for making defective tires (including those in firms that supply and service the tire factories) will be thrown out of work. But that's hardly a reason not to pay money to the families of people who died because they bought those tires.
Somebody (and I've got a little list of names right here, most of 'em with "Bp." in front of 'em) should've used their damn head and seen this coming. "Hey, maybe if we let priests serially molest youngsters, sooner or later they'll stop taking hush money and just turn around and sue our asses off." And I don't completely excuse the laity either. Plenty of them knew this was going on and did little or nothing to publicise it or challenge the hierarchy to change its ways. Heck, I was in this category when I was a teenage Catholic.
I don't pretend it would've been easy. I was stymied by a lack of evidence and nerve.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
monshu agrees that Keating hit the nail on the head when he called the American bishops "la Cosa Nostra" (though he suggested calling it la Cosa Nostra clericale for clarity). The only way there's ever going to be accountability among the Catholic clergy is if parishoners get really, really furious--like they'll be when their parishes are closed while the architects of the coverup go scot free. The drop in donations is starting to hurt, but it's not enough. No, what should terrify the priestly establishment is what I heard from a Catholic father: That he's not sure whether he wants to raise his children in the Church. If that doesn't prompt reform, then there's basically no hope for the RCC. (Did I say "Boo fucking hoo" already?)
So, one way or another--by forcing the RCC to reform or by forcing its members into better-run organisations--these huge judgements will improve things. Not that I'm wild in my support for the kind of compensation that's being paid. One lawyer representing the molestation victims said, "What are the costs of someone whose childhood has been stolen? How do you even put a number on that?" You can't--and yet we do all the time. We regularly put a price on people's lives. We've done that for the victims of 9/11 and most of them weren't valued at nearly the sums of the "stolen childhoods" of a few select plaintiffs. (Again, our rampant fetishising of childhood yields some wildly disproportionate outcomes.)
Well, boo fucking hoo.
Don't get me wrong, I think it sucks that simple parishoners are seeing their donations go into multi-million dollar abuse awards rather than re-roofing the rectory or keeping the food bank operating. But that's hardly an argument against compensation of victims. I mean, can you imagine applying this to other liability cases, like say the recent Firestone scandal? "Your honour, if you award this amount of damages, my client will have to close dozens of factories." Well, um, that's kind of the point, this being a punitive measure and all. Yes, it sucks that thousands of workers who can't be held responsible for making defective tires (including those in firms that supply and service the tire factories) will be thrown out of work. But that's hardly a reason not to pay money to the families of people who died because they bought those tires.
Somebody (and I've got a little list of names right here, most of 'em with "Bp." in front of 'em) should've used their damn head and seen this coming. "Hey, maybe if we let priests serially molest youngsters, sooner or later they'll stop taking hush money and just turn around and sue our asses off." And I don't completely excuse the laity either. Plenty of them knew this was going on and did little or nothing to publicise it or challenge the hierarchy to change its ways. Heck, I was in this category when I was a teenage Catholic.
I don't pretend it would've been easy. I was stymied by a lack of evidence and nerve.
monshu agrees that Keating hit the nail on the head when he called the American bishops "la Cosa Nostra" (though he suggested calling it la Cosa Nostra clericale for clarity). The only way there's ever going to be accountability among the Catholic clergy is if parishoners get really, really furious--like they'll be when their parishes are closed while the architects of the coverup go scot free. The drop in donations is starting to hurt, but it's not enough. No, what should terrify the priestly establishment is what I heard from a Catholic father: That he's not sure whether he wants to raise his children in the Church. If that doesn't prompt reform, then there's basically no hope for the RCC. (Did I say "Boo fucking hoo" already?)So, one way or another--by forcing the RCC to reform or by forcing its members into better-run organisations--these huge judgements will improve things. Not that I'm wild in my support for the kind of compensation that's being paid. One lawyer representing the molestation victims said, "What are the costs of someone whose childhood has been stolen? How do you even put a number on that?" You can't--and yet we do all the time. We regularly put a price on people's lives. We've done that for the victims of 9/11 and most of them weren't valued at nearly the sums of the "stolen childhoods" of a few select plaintiffs. (Again, our rampant fetishising of childhood yields some wildly disproportionate outcomes.)