JW or Catholic scandal worse?

by JH 18 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Seven

  I believe ours to be much worse because of the everything mentioned in Lady Lee's post.

  Some interesting stats:

  Catholic Pedophile Priests:
  The Effect on U.S. Society

  By Tom Economus

  +

  HOME <index.html> + ARCHIVES <archive.html> +

  Current estimates of Roman Catholic priests in the U.S.= 49,000 to 50,000

  Estimates of pedophile priests = 3,000 (6.1%) to 8,000 (16.3%)

  188 Dioceses in the U.S. Divide 3,000 by 188 = 16 perpetrators per diocese
  Divide 8,000 by 188 = 42 perpetrators per diocese

  Current experts claim a pedophile could abuse 200-265 children in a lifetime.
  200 x 16 perps/diocese = 3,200 victims/diocese
  200 x 42 perps/diocese = 8,400 victims/diocese
  3,200 victims/diocese x 188 dioceses = 601,600 victims in U.S.
  8,400 victims/diocese x 188 dioceses = 1,579,200 victims in U.S.

  Average American family consists of 4-6 people
  (3,200 victims/diocese) 601,600 victims x 4 family members = 2,406,400 indirect victims
  60l,000 victims x 6 family members = 3,609,600 indirect victims
  (8,400 victims/diocese) 1,579,200 x 4 family members = 6,316,800 indirect victims
  1,579,200 x 6 family members = 9,475,200 indirect victims

  These numbers are a reflection of immediate family only and do not reflect the indirect victims within the parishes that are affected.

  188 Bishops are responsible for the pain of at least 601,600 direct victims and as many as 9,475,200 indirect victims a total of as many as 10,076,800 people. Clearly, something is wrong.

  Additional information:

  Using the lower numbers the number of direct victims and survivors alone could populate a city larger than Boston. Using the higher numbers, it would be the fourth largest city in the U.S. one between the size of Houston and Chicago.

  Note

  : These figures were compiled by the late Linkup president from many sources, and unfortunately, he did not cite all of them. The number of dioceses and priests in the country are widely known. The percentage that are pedophile priests remains controversial; AW Richard Sipe, one of the leading experts, estimates around 6%.

  Four in 10 US Catholic nuns report having experienced sexual abuse, (a rate equivalent to that reported by American women in general), a study by Catholic researchers supported by major religious orders, has found. The study found that sisters have known sexual abuse less in childhood, dispelling what the authors call an "anti-Catholic" canard that girls fled to convents to escape sexual advances. During religious life, close to 30% of the nation's 85,000 nuns experienced "sexual trauma," ranging from rape to exploitation to harassment. A total of 40% reported a least one experience of that kind. NCR, 1/15/99
  See The Nuns' Stories <nuns.html> for more information.

  The Wisconsin Psychological Association's survey found offenders distributed among the following professions: Psychiatrists 34%, Psychologists 19%, Social Workers 13%, Clergy 11%, Physicians 6%, Marriage Counselors 4%, and Others 14%.

  The Center for Domestic Violence found that 12.6% of clergy said they had sex with church members. 47% of clergy women were harassed by clergy colleagues.

  The Presbyterian Church stated that 10-23% of clergy have "inappropriate sexual behavior or contact" with clergy and employees.

  The United Methodist research (1990) showed 38.6% of Ministers had sexual contact with church members and that 77% of church workers experienced some type of sexual harassment.

  The United Church of Christ found that 48% of the women in the work place have been sexually harassed by male clergy.

  The Southern Baptists claim 14.1% of their clergy have sexually abused members.

  In the Roman Catholic Church there are over 800 priests that have been removed from ministry as a result of allegations against them. We also know of 1,400 insurance claims on the books and that the Church has paid out over $1 billion in liability with an estimated $500 million pending. One noted expert claims that there are over 5,000 priests with some type of allegation against them. If this is true, then there are at least 1,000,000 direct victims of clergy sexual abuse and between 4-6 million indirect victims in the U.S.

  Our institutional churches, who have proclaimed themselves to be the moral backbone of society, have failed all of us. We need to continue to bring them to moral and civil accountability. I think we might want to pray for them as well.
• 

  meadow77

  Both are awful. I think that most have already made the point thought that the Catholic church has been taking their lumps like men so to speak. As if there were anyway to make up for such a thing, but moving foward to try to keep it from happening again is a step in the right direction. The JW's seem to want to just close ranks and pretend nothing ever happened. But as they pound it into their members head so effectivly that they are God's org and are so unlike the Catholic church, how could their members admit that this could happen to them too? The powers that be know that they have a lot more to lose than the Catholic church. The Catholic church may have some issues, but I don't know if mind control is one of them. Catholics can be very diversed in some of their beliefs and lifestyles, therefor it isn't really hard for them to move on from something like this, but well I think it goes without saying that the WTS is very different. It's members faith is held together by some very precarious strings that can be easily severed with the right ammo.
• 

  Wolfgirl

  Both are disgusting, but in my mind, JWs are worse because they condemned the Catholic church for doing the same thing they did.
• 

  jws

  I think in terms of the public, the Catholic thing is getting a lot more press and people are a lot more aware of it. If it weren't for this board and knowing when things were coming on to watch, I'd have never heard of a JW scandal. Whenever something happens with the Catholics, it's front page news. So in terms of the public awareness, it seems to me the Catholics are taking a much bigger hit.

  In terms of members, however, I think maybe the JWs are going to lose more faith in their religion. I don't know whether the recent scandal with the Catholics was so shocking. The whole priest and alter boys thing was a stereotype of catholic priests for as far back as I can remember. The fact that the church helped hide it was the scandal. On the other hand, with the JWs, I don't think they ever had that reputation. Not only does it come out that it is occuring on a wide scale, it also comes out that it's being covered up. To the average JW, finding out it's happening so widely has got to shake your faith. Whereas I'd have to guess that Catholics have gotten somewhat prepared for it.
• 

  Yerusalyim

  It all depends on HOW one defines "worse". If by worse you mean sheer numbers, then it's the Catholic Church. If by worse you mean who is handling it worse, the Society is the winner. (So far the Catholic Church isn't excommunicating those that come forward, or victims and their families). If you mean by percentage of the population who is worse, NEITHER. Parents and family are still the number one molestors of kids (unfortunately).
• 

  lv4fer

  Catholic is a much bigger problem. (more Catholics than JW) Not worse. Both are horrible. And with the Catholic you have people in authority using their authority to their advantage. Priests, Nuns etc. With the JW's it just the people within, some may be elders but that isn't the same as a Priest. But the JW's disfellowship those who come forward, at least the Catholics don't do that.
• 

  Joker10

  Both are very importannt, but must say that morale among catholics are much worse.
• 

  Scully

  I'd like to add that in terms of how insidious the problem is, JWs also have a worse problem on their hands. After all, if you're a Catholic you have to actually GO IN the church to get molested. JWs send their pedophiles right to your front door.

  If that's not a sign of arrogance at how they believe their "way" changes people's behaviour (despite the fact that pedophiles are notorious repeat offenders and extremely resistant to rehabilitation), then I don't know what arrogance is.

  Love, Scully
• 

  ARoarer

  Definitely, the sexual abuse issues within Jehovah's Witnesses is far worse than the Catholic Church. Why? Because the offending priests, although have done great damage to their victims, they are in reality, as if "paid employees" of their church community. The sexual abuse that victims suffer within the JW community is extremely much more multi-faceted because the offenders are not only trusted leaders of thier church community but most often are family members, fathers, grandfathers, brothers, uncles and cousins, and if this isn't damaging enough for the victim, there are also co-dependent family members in the JW community who also, will pressure the victim into silence either because of denial, or to keep the family name from being smeared. This is especially so when, as in my own case when my daughter was molested by her grandfather, their were other family members, elders who were not only related to the offender but were related to other victims who they were encouraging to be silent. In the JW community, the whole ugly issue of incest crops up because the congregations are often ruled by family members, wanting to keep the secret and silence the victims.