By Brogan Miller
Since 2002, the Catholic church has been under fire for its ongoing sexual abuse scandals within the church. These allegations are coming out more consistently as victims and the families of victims are beginning to challenge the hegemony that has been occurring in the Catholic church. Any church is supposed to be a place where people can feel safe, and those who hold positions in the hierarchy of the church are meant to be trusted. Unfortunately, this state of mind is changing very quickly within the Catholic church. The Catholic church is trying to do things to fix these ongoing issues by enforcing new laws and claiming that the people responsible for these scandals are simply "rotten apples" (White & Terry, 2008). Our class examined this issue earlier in the semester and compared it to police brutality. As the abuse within the Catholic church has been dated back decades, ruling it out as a few "rotten apples" responsible is a disgrace.
In 2002, the Catholic church was put under a microscope due to allegations that multiple priests were sexually abusing young kids in their church. These cases have grown in numbers, as well as cost throughout the past fifteen plus years. Since 2002, the church has paid over two billion dollars to victims' families in legal settlements (White & Terry, 2008). The Catholic church was not willing to work with people accusing the priests of doing their heinous acts. If a priest was accused of abusing a child, the church would allow them to keep their position as a Catholic priest and move them to another parish. Even though the church condemned these types of acts, they would still work to cover them up simply because of the reputation they would lose if people found out. The U.S. government has stepped in and applied a law requiring all parishes to provide safe environment training for young children, as well as inputting a zero-tolerance policy for abusers. I believe this should have been something done years ago. One of the biggest cases that brought light to the problems in the Catholic Church was the John Geoghan case. Geoghan had abused around 130 children, and 86 of those children received a settlement from Boston's Archdioceses. The worst part about the case was that the church authorities knew about his abusive behaviors and still did not remove him from the church. In more recent news, bishop John Jenik has been removed from his public duties, this is a milestone in the ever-expanding abuse scandal in the United States. Jenik is the first bishop in the Catholic church to be accused of sexual abuse. His case is ongoing today.
Media also plays a large role in covering the severity of the Catholic church’s scandals. Multiple news outlets, such as TV, newspapers, online articles, and even more are doing their best to shine a light on what is happening in the Catholic church. This has required officials within the Catholic church to be held accountable and more recently has led to the removal of priests and even a bishop. As more news regarding the abuse within the church comes out every day, one can only hope the media continues their valiant efforts to reveal what really lies beneath the grimy surface within the Catholic church.
References
White, M. D., & Terry, K. J. (2008). Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 35(5), 658-678. doi:10.1177/0093854808314470
Word Count: 550
Word Count: 550
Brogan,
ReplyDeleteGood job on your post! I thought it was a very interesting topic that happens more often than people think but is rarely spoken on. You start off your post with the term "rotten apples" to identify the handful of priests participating in these acts and then you relate it to police brutality. I think that term "rotten apples" can be applied to many concepts not only for priests and police officers but also with sexual offenders in order to distract people from the larger societal issue. Rather than addressing the root of these problems it is putting the blame on the individuals that partake in them. Oftentimes you hear that someone who commits a crime was just a "rotten apple", however, in the Catholic church it is increasingly seeming that there are more than just a handful of "rotten apple" priests. You end your blog with the role media plays in addressing the misconduct of priests and how it implies accountability on the Catholic church. Not only do outlets such as the news and popular press address this topic, but the Netflix documentary The Keepers also elaborates on this topic suggesting it is a growing topic of interest. Overall, I enjoyed your post and appreciated that you shed light on an issue that is typically silenced.
Brogan,
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you take up this issue. As your title suggests, the notion that are few "bad apples" are responsible for sexual assault obscures institutional complicity in these crimes. What you're getting at here is a matter of "framing" and the role this discursive practice plays in public understanding of news events and assigning blame.
With that in mind, you might want to frame your essay accordingly. In other words, the bulk of your post relates the recent history of the church abuse scandal. But you all but drop the notion of framing, as indicated in your title. Equally important, you don't get around to news media's role in any of this until the very last paragraph of your essay.
That's not to say that this post is inconsequential. Some of your classmates might be unfamiliar with this systemic problem in the Catholic Church; your post brings awareness to this shameful history. But for our purposes, we need a more focused post on media's role in all of this.
A few thoughts on your writing. First and foremost, work on concision and avoid repetition. You use the phrase "Catholic church" repeatedly when you could "mix it up" a bit. Second, while your source seems relevant, you haven't made very productive use of it. In future, be sure to engage this material in more substantive fashion.
Finally, your use of APA reference style is a bit off (i.e., UpPer and lOwEr case in the title of your article.) Consult the OWL as you prepare your reference list.
In sum, my strong suggestion is to take this essay to the Writing Center, sooner rather than later, with an eye toward refining your work for clarity and concision.
26 pts.
Brogan-
ReplyDeleteThe comparison you draw between the "rotten apples" in the Catholic church and the ever-growing issue of police brutality is a novel one. My class did not make this connection, so I appreciated being able to get a glimpse at your class's discussion. I applaud you for taking on a topic that tends to be minimized within the media and everyday discourse.
However, this post lacks a strong connection to media and our class. You don't touch on the role media plays in the ongoing sexual abuse scandal until the last paragraph, and even then your analysis is not very insightful. There are several directions you could have taken this post such as analyzing the television show "The Keepers" that Tess mentioned or the documentary "Spotlight." This post would have been stronger had you made a more solid connection to media.
Brogan-
ReplyDeleteThe sexual abuse of young children in the Catholic Church is something that happens often, but no one likes to talk about. I'm glad that you made this important discussion the center of your blog post. Discussing the fact that some people try to lessen the severity of the issue by claiming it's only a few priests doing this or a couple of "rotten apples", was a smart move. When talking about issues that make others uncomfortable generally people will try to suggest that a problem is only happening due to a couple of select actions, but the issue is often much bigger than that. I would have liked to see you relate this issue more heavily to the media. The movie Spotlight is specifically dedicated to how a group of investigative journalists uncovered sexual abuse happening at a catholic church in Boston. The resources to make a stronger media connection are out there, you just have to look for them. Overall, good effort :)