Poll: Do you believe in the pedobear Catholic priest stereotype?

[mental_looney]

They aren't all pedophiles but the church really does like to cover it up when they are, and bully people into silence and move the priests so they have contact with children again that has lead to this. But they steal babies as well so overall these days the church is not really putting itself in a favourable light.

 

[Wintermoot]

I joke about it but no I don,t think that all Catholics are pedo,s.

 

[Togs]

Yes I do, I have family that grew up in Ireland and experienced it 1st hand.

There is also a large number of confirmed cases.

 

[Luke5515]

Not at all. I used to be in a youth group and the priest was really cool.
He did have a pretty bad comb over, but he was still really nice and interesting.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Considering the amount it was covered up, and when caught, they'd just move the priest to a new area, with lots of new young children to play with, I'd say it's entirely fair to at LEAST mock them.

If there hadn't been the cover ups all the way up to Vatican level, maybe there wouldn't be so little sympathy for the priests who are innocent, having to deal with such a horrible stereotype.

Still, until we stop teaching religion as fact in schools, we're fucking all children.

Also, doesn't the Vatican have the lowest age of consent of any European country?

I could go on, but I'll restrict myself to criticism related to the topic this time

 

[ph0b0s123]

I don't think the Pedo stereotype is fair. The stereo type of being white washers and covering things up, now that I would give. Not sure what the right simple adjective (like pedo), is for people guilty of covering stuff up. That is what I would like to see more mocking of as that was a lot more wide spread that in the abuse and potentially goes right to the top, with now Pope at one point being in charge of looking into these issues and doing nothing. The pedo stereotype is actually a bit of a smoke screen for what is really going on.

Other institutions cover stuff up, it just seems rather counter intuitive for the church to do it based on their reason for being....

 

[Twilight_guy]

No. A minority of the world is made of pedophillic people and somehow I doubt if they all simultaneously decided to become priests. All the priests I ever know are good guys so I would assume similar lines for most of them.

 

[WanderingFool]

Well, I was still an alter boy when the sterotype basically started, and I wasnt touched... (not sure if it was becuase priest wasnt a pedo or because I was a Do Not Want case but whatev.)

As a loose Catholic (loose as in not really devout), I dont believe in the sterotype, and feel that it persists because of various cases being blown way out of fucking proportions. I mostly blame the media and the internet... actually I blame most wrongs in the world on the internet.

*Edit*

Forgot to mention, I do find it troubling, as I am still a catholic, that the church is so keen on covering the whole ordeal up rather than allowing some kind of justice (not biblical justice, just, you know, regular justice) to be performed.

 

[Eternal_Lament]

Do I think the stereotype is true? No, not really. Having gone to Catholic school and going to Church I can say that neither me or anyone else I know has been molested by a priest. It happens of course, but then again you have so many priests in the world that some are sure to be pedos, I just don't think the act of becoming a priest makes one a pedo.

That said, the Catholic Chruch isn't helping it's image in this regard. If they dealt with these situations as soon as they were discovered in the proper way, then it would be hard to argue that the institution fosters pedophilac behaviour. Of course that isn't the case, so while I think it's unfair to think all priests are child molesters or that the Church trains one to become a pedophile, I'm not surprised that people think that way.

I don't think the stereotype is a dangerous one, although I think it will be a problem if we start to hear stories about innocent priests being attacked or harrassed because of the stereotype.

 

[MorgulMan]

No, I don't.

As to why the stereotype exists? Because the Church and her priests preach a moral standard, and this is a monstrous violation of that standard. Because Catholics trusted our children with the priests, and it was a violation of that trust. And I would not be surprised if there were a higher percentage of abusers in the priesthood than the general population, but not likely than among other careers or positions that feature contact with children. It's well known that positions that feature contact with children, especially authority positions, are attractive to people who intend or are compelled to abuse them. Teachers and clergy are probably the most obvious ones.

 

[Nuke_em_05]

Nope.

I think that the way the organization is setup and has behaved lends more opportunity and protection for abuse.

I don't see it as "priest becomes pedophile", I see it as "pedophile becomes priest". I guess I mean that being a priest doesn't lend itself to becoming a pedophile, but that pedophiles see a good opportunity in becoming a priest.

So while I am not weary of any particular priest being a pedophile simply because they are a priest, I am wary of an organization that provides so much opportunity and protection to pedophiles within their programs.

 

[shroomie]

Whilst I don't actually believe a Catholic priest is more likely to molest a young child than any other group, I don't have an objection to people mocking them about it. It's the same with race, sex and other labels for people.

 

[LuckyClover95]

Of course I don't believe that stereotype, stereotypes barely ever represent groups.

 

[winter2]

Believe that all catholic priests are pedophiles: No.

Believe that many abused children and the church did nothing about it: Yes

What he/she said.

 

[AugustFall]

All? No.

Have some? Yes.

Did the Catholic Church as an organisation cover up many of the scandals and repeatedly reassign the offending priests to new churches where they could do it again. Yes they did.

 

[ShadowsofHope]

I only bring it up when I'm teasing making little jabs about the whole ordeal with friends and co-workers. Otherwise, I recognize the diversity of population of pedophiles across all sorts of career pathways.

..But the current Pope's cover-up of the entire ordeal, and the willingness of the staff of the Vatican and the Catholic Church to follow suit - at the expense of the victims - for sake of their own PR, is what really sickens me more.