![]() ![]() He added that, sadly, many priests involved in sex-abuse cases "were good people, who served God 95 percent of the time."īut regardless of why the abuse occurred, sickness or criminality, the impact on Catholics has been overwhelming. "All the priests committing these crimes were sick, but the church's decision to cover it all up hurt people even more, especially after the church became aware of what actually was going on in the 1980s and 1990s." "Every priest knows the sex-abuse cases were a terrible violation of trust," Tobin said. In short, priests have little choice but to follow Tobin's lead and address the crisis forthrightly, with honesty and compassion. Obviously, defections hit the church's pocketbook hard, because all parishes rely on donations to subsidize facilities and their priests. What is clear, however, is that regardless of the number of cases occurring in central Florida, all Catholics have been shaken, even if their parishes have not been directly affected.Īcross Brevard, other priests are comforting parishioners, doing what they can to prevent people from leaving the church. The report, prepared by researchers at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, does not break down the Orlando figures by county, so there is no precise way of know how many sexual-abuse incidents occurred in Brevard. In the Orlando diocese, which includes 15 churches in Brevard County, 36 victims claimed sexual abuse, and 12 priests were relieved of their duties since the diocese began in1968, said officials who compiled statistics for the report. The church hierarchy, for its part, made it all worse by covering up many of the cases, often transferring sex-abuse priests from one parish to another. ![]() Conference of Catholic Bishops is expected to disclose that numerous priests nationwide shattered parishioners' trust by abusing thousands of children from 1950 to 2002. He now is a priest in the United States, where a sex-abuse scandal has stirred up a storm of its own throughout the American church.Īnd today, a report prepared for the U.S. But the 57-year-old priest is far from the Ireland of his youth. "This weather reminds me of Ireland," he said, his brogue thickening at the mere thought of being back home. The church, founded in the late 1950s, now has more than the 3,000 families. Eamon Tobin said the other day, recalling the impact the church has had on his life.Īs he talked, ominous storm clouds accumulated outside his office window at the Ascension Catholic Church, where he is pastor. "When I was growing up in Ireland, the church was the center of our lives, and I looked at priests as representatives of God," the Rev. To Catholics, priests are advisers and confessors, from birth to death, and expected to be far better people than the rest of us. MELBOURNE - Call it a sacred trust, this bond between priest and parish.Įven amid scandal, many Catholics trust their clergy more than they do friends and family. Scandal Strains Bond between Priests, FlockĬhurch Braces for Release of Abuse Report Scandal Strains Bond between Priests, Flock Church Braces for Release of Abuse Report
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