The problem is that the hierarchy actively protects and covers up those who are, to the extent of moving them to different parishes if people get suspicious. And to be clear, this isn’t because popes are necessarily in favour of paedophilia (though I’m not saying none are…), it’s because the clergy are more concerned with the prestige and survival of the institution than they are with the well-being of lay believers.
It’s been a trope since at least the 1500s that clergy are pedos, “Julius Excluded from Heaven” by Erasmus contains this exchange between Saint Peter and the recently deceased pope Julius:
PETER: [… ] I hope it won’t be too tiresome for you to answer a few clumsy questions about the details. Who, for example, are these little curly-headed striplings?
JULIUS: I brought them up for my diversion.
Also the seal of confession. Paedo priests would confess their abuse to all of their colleagues using it. Thus they can’t do anything or they’d be accused of breaking said seal
Most priests aren’t paedophiles.
The problem is that the hierarchy actively protects and covers up those who are, to the extent of moving them to different parishes if people get suspicious. And to be clear, this isn’t because popes are necessarily in favour of paedophilia (though I’m not saying none are…), it’s because the clergy are more concerned with the prestige and survival of the institution than they are with the well-being of lay believers.
It’s been a trope since at least the 1500s that clergy are pedos, “Julius Excluded from Heaven” by Erasmus contains this exchange between Saint Peter and the recently deceased pope Julius:
https://web.archive.org/web/20090326073147/www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/lansing/classes/hist4b/materials/Week7.pdf
Yes but statistics indicate priests are not more likely to be pedophiles than any other profession that works regularly with children.
Statistics need someone to report them, and someone to record them.
If you haven’t experienced it you don’t know how tightly faith communities protect the people they worship.
Also the seal of confession. Paedo priests would confess their abuse to all of their colleagues using it. Thus they can’t do anything or they’d be accused of breaking said seal