I was watching MSNBC on the coverage of the Pope’s visit to the United States. I found this trip to be entirely fascinating. In any case, I thought that the coverage was mostly pretty good other than the constant chatter over some very fine music.
In any case, MSNBC had a commentator who was a priest from the Diocese of Erie, Pennsylvania and he made a very foolish statement. He observed that Roman Catholic churches, now, are the safest place for children in the world. This was, obviously, in response to the whole crisis that the Roman Catholic church had with pedophiles.
It would be a nice thought, but it was an incredibly foolish and arrogant statement to make. It is that kind of foolishness and arrogance that got the Roman Catholic church in trouble in the first place, and the kind of foolishness and arrogance that all places that serve children can be vulnerable to.
Children should be safe. It is up to churches and any place that has children to assure that. It requires some due diligence in who children are with, the environment that they are in, accessibility to others, etc.
The problem the Roman Catholic church had was that they weren’t diligent in the past. I was never sexually abused or approached in any way, shape, or form and I did spend time with priests. I was fortunate, however, that the priests with whom I associated were not predators. Safeguards were not in place and parents readily dropped their children off for altar boy practice, etc. After all, what would be safer than having children spend time with clergy? Actually, nothing should be safe, but, sadly, we’ve found out that not all clergy ought to be alone with children. We found it out sadly and tragically.
I hope that this guy is right that the children are safer in churches than ever before. I do wish, however, he’d be a bit more cautious in that and remind all of us that diligence and safety are not innate, but worked at.
1 comment:
I absolutely agree about diligence! And I feel it's sad we need to be skeptical even of those who should be deemed trustworthy. It's not just a current topic though. This was brought home to me personally long before the RC abuse scandal. Permit me to relate a story . . .
In the early '80s I was a divorced mom of two, aged 3 and 6, living on a quiet court in SE Louisville, where the neighborhood kids could safely play outside, riding their Big Wheels, etc., easily visible to the watchful eyes of all the court moms.
One Saturday, a scant few weeks after Ann Gottleib disappeared from Bashford Manor Mall, my 2 kiddos were happily playing outside with the neighbors' kids, when they suddenly burst into the house, each clutching a fistful of candy and a flyer--"Mommy, Mommy, can we go to vacation Bible School? This man said it was really fun!"
Questioning revealed that some guy approached them, passing out the candy & flyers. Though I was NOT happy with what I thought was the inappropriateness of proselytizing small children, my first reaction was a heart-gripping fear. Maybe this man was totally upright and harmless, but, given recent events, his (and his church's) methods were incredibly stupid, as I saw it.
After a strong lesson with my kids about how to deal with strangers, I felt passionate enough to write a letter to the editor of the local community paper. I did not include my opinions re: approaching kids vs. parents on religion, church attendance, etc., focusing only on the VBS promotion approach, pointing out that distributing candy to kids was not the wisest tactic given recent incidents, and encouraging them to rethink their approach. My letter was published, including my name & address (per paper's policy then), and to my horror, I was inundated with mail (and a few phone messages from those incensed enough to find my number). Every one of the letters & messages accused me of being everything from un-Christian to evil to downright Satanic--even one from a minister's wife.
I've no doubt these folks were convinced of their righteousness and meant no harm in trying to fill their VBS classes. But given their vitriolic reaction & inability to see that I had an issue with their approach rather than their message, from then on, any person on a "mission" knocking on my door has met a polite, yet definitive dismissal.
Though my children are now grown, I'm blessed with a granddaughter, and can only hope that those organizations with children's programs have adopted an approach that "markets" to parents not directly to kids--and that includes churches. It's unfortunate, but when it comes to protecting children, there is no free pass for anyone anymore--we must be vigilant & prudent at all times.
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