re: Vatican investigating Diocese of Baton Rouge

The story was broken earlier in the week by "the pillar", and the accusations went public even before that.

Here's the original Pillar Article from May 1.

LINK


As someone who came back to the church, this is so frustrating. The fact that Duca could (allegedly) be stupid enough to tell a potential victim NOT to call the police is asinine. If as reported, I would completely support the removal of Duca and Jamin. No confidence.

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How could that ever possibly be measured and honestly compared the extra weight of being husband/father?

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when the priest’s wife is in labor and he’s called to give last rites to someone - what should he do?

If the priest’s son is on the travel ball team and throughout the season all the games are scheduled at the same time as Sunday Masses?

A choice has to be made. It’s easier for the priest to not have to make that choice.

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I can’t imagine having to suppress my horniness in those years

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don’t we have to suppress our ‘horniness’ as it is? The priests knew this going into the seminary - if they couldn’t handle it then or now - then they need to be reevaluated. (Although some seminaries probably need an overhaul) Most men and women can’t act upon every horny impulse they get, anyway. A married man shouldn’t sleep with every woman they find attractive, nor should married women.

The expectations are very similar.

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an emotionally healthy man who has displayed an ability to regulate and be in charge of his emotions. Might not that man actually be more likely to put the Church 1st?

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We’re very close with a Catholic priest that was part of the very small group of Episcopal priests that converted in the 90’s. He describes how difficult it is/was to choose between his family obligations and ministering to his Parish.

The day to day stuff (finances & admin) was easy. That’s stuff all men with children manage. It’s the true ministry that complicated things.

The Rule now in the Catholic Church is this: anybody who hears a child make an allegation of any kind of sexual touching by anybody is to respond by immediately calling 911 and reporting the crime of sexual contact with a child. The police will dispatch detectives and the allegations will be investigated by law enforcement.

Apparently in this case, the police investigated and found that no criminal activity occurred.

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He was pretty unique already amongst that group by being a highly successful, respected, and heralded, multi-millionaire college football defensive coordinator with a tremendous amount to lose, no?

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I think that's another reason to doubt his guilt. He also was heavily involved with the management of a pretty large charity. "When would he have had time to do all these things?" is a very valid question.

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Well yeah, outliers are rare. That’s why they’re called “outliers.” They lie outside the average or mean. They have to exist in any defined group that’s not completely equal.

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Don't over-complicate things. The things about Sandusky that are almost unheard of among pedophiles in general don't prove he isn't one, but they do tend to indicate that. How strong that indication is is debatable, but the fact that these things point in the direction of innocence is not.

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For someone whose argument boils down to “not enough evidence,” you too, did not provide enough evidence in your prosecution of his prosecution. And subsequent conviction. IMO. Mark me as unswayed.

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It's hard to sway people on this topic because of the large number of putative victims.

I can tell you that at least three of the eight victims identified by the Commonwealth at trial claimed to have recovered repressed memories. There's no good scientific evidence that people actually do repress memories of sexual abuse. In fact, I remember my own sexual abuse vividly. And how would humanity have survived this long if we did not internalize valuable lessons from situations of great fear or distress, but instead simply forgot them as a coping mechanism?

That still leaves five purported victims. I can go on to tell you that the supposed victim from the "shower incident" maintained that nothing sexual had ever happened with Sandusky throughout his trial, only claiming abuse years later after Sandusky's situation had become hopeless and settlements were being handed out administratively.

Most people can probably be convinced that at least a few of the supposed victims were lying for money, but to really sway someone in a meaningful way, you really have to take apart every one of their stories, and that's very difficult. I don't mean that any of the victims' stories are particularly airtight- none of them are. I just mean that the time and energy it takes to do all that is something most people don't have, at least not for this.

That's why I lean pretty hard on the things I originally mentioned. They don't pertain to any one of the purported victims, but rather to the yes/no question of "is it plausible that Sandusky did the sort of things he is accused of?".

I also think this is a difficult topic because of the emotion people expended on the idea of Sandusky as a monster. Like I said before, I never really went "all in" on that. The whole thing seemed off to me from the start.

Duca always gave me the ick feeling. Of course he is protecting pedophile priests. Gross.

How does this still happen after the massive scandal of the 2000s? It would be like letting muslims still have access to the cockpit after 9/11.

when are Nuns like this gonna get caught?

The article in the OP is poorly written imo. The Pillar article the OP article mentions gives a lot more context.

Pillar Article