The Catholic Church in Victoria has revised up the number of children it acknowledges were sexually abused by Catholic clergy and staff.

In its original submission to the Victorian child abuse inquiry, the church confirmed it had paid compensation to 620 victims.

But after analysing documents held by various orders of brothers and nuns it now says that since the 1950s at least 849 children have been abused.

In a new submission to the inquiry, the Catholic Church also includes more information on the number of offenders within its ranks.

It says 269 men and women, the majority of whom are are priests and brothers, have been found guilty of child sexual abuse.

The breakdown of those found guilty includes 114 brothers, 98 priests, nine nuns, two seminarians, 42 lay people and two listed as 'unknown'.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-06/catholic-church-revises-up-number-of-abuse-victims/4738776

Notor has a massive hard on about this.

I work for the Catholics and this is so hush hush atm.

-PB

Regardless of your beliefs, one has to realise the utterly dreadful impact on those 849 children as well those in other states.

I think the most disturbing thing is that 849 victims is just the tip of the iceberg, 1000's of people have been affected in varying degrees, I don't think we will ever know the true tally of people damaged by child abuse...and yes the Catholic Church is rightly being called to account but this goes far deeper than any one religious faith.

Edited by Joffa: 7/6/2013 12:57:38 PM

I take it these are people involved in the church community but not in an official capacity?

FACTBOX: Facts and figures on child marriage in Tanzania

Source: Fri, 7 Jun 2013 03:55 PM

Author: Kizito Makoye
More news from our correspondents


Women and girls collect seaweed from tidal pools near the village of Bwejuu on Zanzibar island, Tanzania, December 3, 2007. Picture taken December 3, 2007. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly


DAR ES SALAAM (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Tanzania has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world. On average, some two out of five girls will be married before their 18th birthday. In 2010, about 37 percent of women aged 20-24 were married or in a union before they turned 18.

The country’s marriage law, which dates from 1971, allows girls aged 14 to get married with parental consent and, according to the United Nations Population Fund, between 20 percent and 40 percent of girls do so before reaching adulthood.

CHILD MARRIAGES WORLDWIDE

Between 2011 and 2020, more than 140 million girls will become child brides, according to the United Nations Population Fund. If current levels of child marriages remain unchanged, 14.2 million girls annually or 39,000 daily will marry too young.
POVERTY

Poor families in Tanzania force their children into marriage either to settle debts or to make money and escape the cycle of poverty. Child marriage increases poverty and girls who marry young are likely to miss out on education.
Girls living in poor families are more likely to marry before the age of 18 than girls in families with a higher income.
EDUCATION

In most cases, young girls find themselves unable to complete their education due to family pressures to marry, sexual harassment, or an unwanted pregnancy. According to a survey carried out by Tanzania’s Ministry of Education, more than 16,000 girls dropped out of school from 2008 to 2010 due to pregnancy. Parents and families actively discouraged some girls to enrol in secondary school and instructed others to try to fail so they could drop out without arousing suspicion.
HEALTH

Medical practitioners and nutritionists have made it clear that a girl aged 14 or 15 is still growing and her body needs more nutritional care to achieve appropriate growth in order to pass from the child to adult stage.
Girls younger than 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s. Pregnancy is the leading cause of death worldwide for women ages 15 to 19. According to the Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey (2010), a quarter of women aged 15 to 19 are pregnant or have given birth.
Young maternal age is associated with prolonged or obstructed labour, which can lead to obstetric fistula - a hole in the birth canal. In Tanzania, there are roughly 2500-3000 new cases of obstetric fistula each year.
Pregnancy is the leading cause of girls dropping out of school in Tanzania. In January 2010, a new law was passed that allowed girls to return to school after pregnancy.
The Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey (2010) found that about 20 percent of 15 to 19 year old women had given birth to at least one child in Tanzania.
Child brides face a higher risk of contracting HIV because they often marry an older man with more sexual experience. Girls ages 15 to 19 are between 2 and 6 times more likely to contract HIV than boys of the same age in sub-Saharan Africa.
DISCRIMINATION

Child marriage is a product of cultures that devalue women and girls and discriminate against them. "The discrimination often manifests itself in the form of domestic violence, marital rape, and deprivation of food, lack of access to information, education, and healthcare” according to a UNICEF report entitled Child Marriage and the Law.
Child brides often show symptoms of sexual abuse and post-traumatic stress such as feelings of hopelessness, helplessness and severe depression.
OTHER FACTS

Tanzania has launched an all-encompassing social media campaign aimed at raising awareness about the need to reverse the fate of girls who are often married off at a very young age. Although Tanzania has seen some progress over the last few years, reducing child marriage by as much as 13 percent, today one in six girls aged 15 to 19 years is married.

http://www.trust.org/item/20130607155550-50lgt/?source=search

Horrible stuff. It's hard to believe that some of these men could fall so far from grace (excuse to pun).

I don't think they 'fell' anywhere, they were never really close to grace.

You wouldn't become a priest if you didn't have the right intentions. If you weren't fully committed to the cause there is just no way you'd commit yourself to that life...

However, if you hit 50 without so much as a boob grab, those young boys would be looking mightyyyy fine.

You're a disgusting human being.

What is really annoying is the implication is that it's always 'just' the Catholics when, in reality, a paedophile is a paedophile. It gets lost in the discourse of child abuse.

Never thought I'd see the day where you defend Catholicism.

I know, must be god's will. :lol: ;)

So I'm not the only one wondering where the investigation into the Scouts and other youth organisations is.

i agree with tsf as well. why is it only the catholic church ? what about the anglican church,the doctors police,scouts etc etc ??

Sports coaches would have to be up there too... Nasty stuff really

I have no doubt we'll see a Sandusky-esque case in the next few years.

No other organisation has systematically covered up their crimes like the Catholic Church.

There's ignorance, and there's explicit inhumanity.

That people still makes excuses for this tax-free cesspool of hate despite what they are finally admitting to is astonishing.

Just out of interest, who do you think is making excuses for the tax-free cesspool of hate?

No other organisation has been caught systematically covering up their crimes. That doesn't mean it hasn't happened.

Deflecting well deserved attention away from the Catholic Church by talking about organisations without the history of explicitly covering up the crimes of its people, harassing and paying off victims and retaining the services of sex offenders is a form of making excuses in my opinion.

yes, but the Catholics have deliberately and systematically covered up thousands of cases worldwide. That, and the worldwide respect the Catholic church used to have is why they are particularly in the spotlight, and quite rightly.

Anyway, I'd like to see someone ask Pell, his associates and the paedophiles they covered for if they think they're going to heaven or hell, given the trauma and suicides their actions have directly caused.

I'm not sure TSF was deflecting well deserved attention away. I'm sure by no means is he in denial about the situation.

I think he was merely pointing out that the focus of retaliation linked with sexual offences seems to be directed at the Catholic Church, and that perhaps it should be more wide spread.

So have the Scouts. Why aren't they being investigated?

No.

Cut off the biggest head first.

I guess that's fair enough, However TSFs point is still completely valid...

And you should actually respond to Afro like a normal person. Giving irrelevant, one word responses does your argument little good, particularly when it's already looking shaky in this case.

In what way is it a shaky case?