OT: Saints caught in a scandal that will stain the franchise (link)

[upstater1]

The same thing happened in Buffalo. Nuns aren't allowed to marry a man so the Catholic church will attract a bunch of women to be nuns that don't want to marry a man and instead were going after young women and girls. You're making my point for me with that article.

She was raped by a man.
I mean, I've studied this and it's pretty well known that all over the world you have massive amounts of rapes of girls by priests.
There are almost as many cases of priests raping boys AND girls, Caldey Island abuse report: monks agree to ‘no touch’ policy for visitors.
And the truly shocking thing is that the Catholic Church's rate of rape of children is very high (5 % of priests) but this is similar rate to other churches (you see a daily dose of it in scandals all over the country).
There have been cases of some priests who raped 30-50+ girls and were only sentenced to 1 year in prison in Europe.
As for nuns, you're right that nuns have abused girls, in horrific ways even, but many of these nuns themselves were raped by priests: Abused nuns reveal stories of rape, forced abortions
The problem is the Catholic Church cover up, as in this Saints story. Or dismissing rape altogether as in this from Poland: https://web.archive.org/web/2019051...-panned-for-excusing-priest-who-abused-girls/

 

[NormZauchin]

The Catholic Church made a big mistake making an unbiblical requirement that their priests can't marry a woman. The problem with that is they have attracted a ton of priests who go after other men and underage boys.

The requirement for celibacy was not imposed until the 12th century, largely because the Church was afraid that children of the clergy would inherit Church property. Given the scandals of the past fifty years, the Church should drop it.

 

[Urgent]

Agree that celibacy was a specific Catholic reaction to clergy amassing wealth, a restriction that has caused far more harm than good and is not biblical, and probably won't be resolved in a Patriots fan forum.
For the Saints - the real smoking gun seems to be the he said/some-other-he said disagreement on whether the Saints had any influence in removing names from the list. Providing PR support for horrific crimes is questionable, but maybe not sanctionable. Having a hand in covering up abuse has to non-negotiable.

 

[raduray]

This stories been out there for a while. Just waited until Super Bowl week to become national news.

I'm fine with that. This institutional corruption needs as much daylight as possible. Still wondering why Cardinal Law got a cushy posting in Rome instead of having to face the music here.

 

[raduray]

According to Florio, these were leaked in violation of a court order.

Good. As we read in the article, the court was anything but impartial.

 

[PancakeBlockPaul]

Pedogate! Nothing will happen. Herr Goodell will say this doesn’t affect the lol “integrity “ of the game. Awards the saints 3 firsts.

 

[Froob]

Not any drag queens? Almost like we spend zero amount of time looking for the real predators.

 

[NormZauchin]

Agree that celibacy was a specific Catholic reaction to clergy amassing wealth, a restriction that has caused far more harm than good and is not biblical, and probably won't be resolved in a Patriots fan forum.
For the Saints - the real smoking gun seems to be the he said/some-other-he said disagreement on whether the Saints had any influence in removing names from the list. Providing PR support for horrific crimes is questionable, but maybe not sanctionable. Having a hand in covering up abuse has to non-negotiable.

I thought that the Patriot fan forum has resolved many national and even international issues.

 

[reflexblue]

Shes gonna need to sell the Saints and the Pelicans. Full stop.

Did a grilled cheese tell you that?

 

[XLIX]

I thought that the Patriot fan forum has resolved many national and even international issues.

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." - Ian, first post ever on patsfans.com

 

[Ross12]

Okay but how much “smoke” was there about this before it came out?

 

[lancerman]

I thought that the Patriot fan forum has resolved many national and even international issues.

Multiple choice question

Will Patsfans.com solve this current societal issue?
A) No
B) No
C) RLKAG

 

[lancerman]

Okay but how much “smoke” was there about this before it came out?

A lot but the smoke only counts when it's white.

 

[ahmed]

I read some of the details and it made me sick to my stomach.

I have never understood why thousands of priests have not been put in jail over the last 10+ years for child rape and aiding and abetting said rapists.

 

[ahmed]

A lot but the smoke only counts when it's white.

Took me some time to get it.

 

[PancakeBlockPaul]

Okay but how much “smoke” was there about this before it came out?

Only smoke was from when Pulled Pork Sandwich cooked up their pork. Though this “gate” seems more likely than the cheese’s less than likely MayoGate. At least this has an article compared to an X “aggregator”/reposter/bot. It’s “more likely than not” PedoGate happened in NOLA.

 

[BennyBledsoe]

.....what the hell is Grilled Cheese referencing?

 

[catent]

I don't buy that these cases of abuse have anything to do with celibacy or homosexuality.

We understand that these priests are not celibate, right? They're sexually abusing individuals and presumably experiencing sexual gratification as a result; that's not someone practicing celibacy. If they were actually celibate, this issue wouldn't exist. And as has already been pointed out, there is documented history of priests abusing all individuals, including women/girls, not exclusively men/boys.

The issue, imho, is that such roles attract and self-select for a particular type of person, one who is often manipulative and derives personal fulfillment from controlling others and telling them what to do, as this is basically the definition of many (not all) religious leaders' jobs.

I'd imagine a big part, too, is that this behavior has been normalized within various religious institutions. And none of that touches on the fact that American society has largely assumed religious leaders (or, at least christian/catholic religious leaders) are inherently good, which has created some robust sociocultural buffers/protections that may allow these abusers to feel comfortable committing these transgressions, as they feel they are safe/protected from suspicion and/or prosecution.

 

[lancerman]

I don't buy that these cases of abuse have anything to do with celibacy or homosexuality.

We understand that these priests are not celibate, right? They're sexually abusing individuals and presumably experiencing sexual gratification as a result; that's not someone practicing celibacy. If they were actually celibate, this issue wouldn't exist. And as has already been pointed out, there is documented history of priests abusing all individuals, including women/girls, not exclusively men/boys.

The issue, imho, is that such roles attract and self-select for a particular type of person, one who is often manipulative and derives personal fulfillment from controlling others and telling them what to do, as this is basically the definition of many (not all) religious leaders' jobs.

I'd imagine a big part, too, is that this behavior has been normalized within various religious institutions. And none of that touches on the fact that American society has largely assumed religious leaders (or, at least christian/catholic religious leaders) are inherently good, which has created some robust sociocultural buffers/protections that may allow these abusers to feel comfortable committing these transgressions, as they feel they are safe/protected from suspicion and/or prosecution.

The Church has always had abuse of power issues going back over a thousand years. It's almost like when you say that someone speaks for God and can't be questioned and should also be by default trusted as a spiritual leader that is above reproach that you can confide with you darkest secrets and look to an a mentor and example that it's going to have some people run with that an abuse the position.

 

[jmt57]

Shes gonna need to sell the Saints and the Pelicans. Full stop.

That should happen, but I'm not counting on it.

At all.



From the article in the original post, here is what Mr. Integrity had to say.

Asked whether the league intended to investigate the team's actions, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters Monday that Benson and Saints' officials are "very involved in this community and they are great corporate citizens."

"I'm confident that they are playing nothing more than a supportive role to help be more transparent," Goodell said

Emails detail Saints' assistance to New Orleans Archdiocese in sexual abuse scandal

Emails detail the efforts made by Saints team officials to assist New Orleans church leaders in handling the fallout from a sexual abuse crisis within the archdiocese.

www.espn.com

And the courts themselves are tilting the scales of justice.

Taken together, the emails portray a coalescing of several New Orleans institutions. U.S. District Court Judge Jay Zainey, who was copied by the Saints on the public relations efforts, cheered Bensel on from his personal email account, thanking the team's spokesman "for the wonderful advice." A newspaper editor similarly thanked Bensel for getting involved.

"You have hit all the points," Zainey, a fellow Catholic, wrote in another email to Bensel, praising a lengthy note the Saints spokesman sent to local newspaper editors. "By his example and leadership, Archbishop Aymond, our shepherd, will continue to lead our Church in the right direction -- helping us to learn and to rebuild from the mistakes of the past."

Zainey later struck down a Louisiana law, vigorously opposed by the church, that would have allowed victims to bring civil claims irrespective of how long ago the alleged sex abuse took place. He declined to comment.



'Nothing to see here folks, move along'. . .



What is more disgusting - the acts themselves, or those in power (judge, church, team, Saints ownership and executives, NFL) that are doing everything they can to make this story disappear?