This Week In Holy Crimes

From Joe.My.God. -- please follow link to original.

After posting this, and re-reading it, I wonder -- how do we stop this abuse? How do we stop these horrible people from making victims of damn near everyone they touch -- from the men, boys, girls, women they violate, to the folks they defraud?

Do you depend on the institution to "heal itself"? How can it do that when the institution tends to deny the facts before their eyes, or tries to bury them?

Can it be that the members of EVERY congregation, no matter what religion, must question the authority of these priests, pastors, rabbis, imans? Can it be the very structure of religion that leads to these abuses?

I'm not a believer, so perhaps I'm a bit prejudiced -- but, I do remember the phrase, "Every man a priest" -- the idea of directly speaking to your higher power. Wouldn't we do well to remember that these days when it seems many authority figures are not to be trusted?


This Week In Holy Crimes

Over the last seven days...

Texas: Pastor Earl Post arrested for stalking a teenage girl.
New York: Rabbi Victor Koltun pleads not guilty to ordering the murders of two men. Koltun was previously sentenced to five years for mail fraud.
Connecticut: Pastor David Pomales and his children arrested in church brawl.
Bangladesh: Imam Afsar Ali arrested in connection with the death of a woman who was publicly caned for adultery.
Kansas: Pastor Mark Holick arrested for attempting to force gospel tracts upon Muslims exiting a mosque.
Italy: Court upholds the seizure of $30M in Vatican assets used to launder money for the mafia. The Vatican claims it's all a "misunderstanding."
Texas: Pastor Sandra McGriff arrested for burglary after cops apprehended her stealing two fur coats from the home of a church member. Police also found three purses and a laptop in McGriff's Jaguar.
California: Father Joseph McCabe denied bail pending extradition to Ireland on numerous counts of child molestation.
Texas: Pastor Ivory McDaniels charged with multiple counts of sexual assaults on female minors.
Ireland: Report shows Dublin Archdiocese transferred Father Tony Walsh to cover up numerous sexual assaults on boys and girls. The church never reported Walsh to the police.
Iowa: Pastor Timothy Parker sentenced to 20 years in prison for sexual assault on a child.
Bolivia: Father Jose Ochua sentenced to 22 years in prison for sexually abusing at least 19 children in an orphanage.

This Week's Winners
Ireland: A newly released report shows that five Catholic priests formed an informal molesters network in which they enabled one another's crimes by providing rooms in which to commit the attacks and by organizing group excursions with their victims. The report is the first to show that the five accused priests all knew each other and worked together.