Maybe it wasn't the final word! (Main Forum)

by Ian Lawther , Sunday, May 13, 2012, 00:26 (375 days ago) @ CathyT

- Cathy T wrote. -
It's strange, but I'd just posted a comment on my original thread about scapegoating, and I'd entitled it, "A final word on this scapegoating business". Then I noticed that another discussion had started on the topic! Maybe it hasn't slipped below the horizon after all. To reply to the point raised: I can understand how the attitude of priests being almost divine can add to the trauma of child abuse, and can cause even more outrage from the public. In a way, though, that's not really relevant to the point I was making: it was not about whether or not the Church deserved its reputation as a hotbed of child sexual abuse; my concern was/is that society could develop an attitude that sexual abuse ONLY happens in the Catholic Church, and, among other things, this could be disastrous for victims/survivors who had been abused in other circumstances. Please let me emphasise again that I was not trying to deny or downplay the suffering caused by child sexual abuse, and I apologise if I have given this impression.######
Cathy you don’t have anything to apologize for but for me to accept the word scape goating I would have to watch C.S.A. Sink into the Horizon, nothing achieved just forgotten. While I am sure the hierarchs would like that we as a society can not afford to let it happen. Because we would be condemning our children our grandchildren to more of the same old same old.past performance speaks for itself. Unfortunately Peoples emotions like water and electricity will take the path of least resistance every time and they will rush to get onto that path. A nation that cant protect its children does not deserve the title of nation hood ( words of Nelson Mandella). We as a nation need to stand up and do for our kids what we would like to be/to have been done for us.Simple but effective words thatcame from Christ and are as effective today as they were when first uttered by him. As you yourself pointed out Child Abuse has been around for a long time but it was not right then and it is not right now. Our children need to know they can count on their parents supportand that no man has the right to make them feel bad or uncomfortable about their own body.And they will not be dismissed with a “oh no Johny he is a man of god”.

Cheers Ian Lawther.