Archdiocese slammed over pedophile priest
A report by a retired judge is harsh on how the Catholic archdiocese failed to handle a pedophile priest. Brian Boucher is doing time, but the damage is done. The report lays out how the church looked away while the abuse occurred, and how it should proceed now if suspicions are raised about anyone in its ranks.
Update: CBC says Catholics are angry and sad. When I see a headline like this my first reaction is “there are still Catholics?”
Second update: Some people say penalties should be harsher not just for perpetrators but for those whose inaction enabled them.
Jack 09:36 on 2020-11-26 Permalink
According to the article Loyola High School would not let him hear confession. What did they know? How was he involved in the school? Anybody know anything about this?
Chris 09:43 on 2020-11-26 Permalink
Hard to be surprised. We’re talking about an organization founded on a lie, who’s main purpose is to propagate their lies. Further, they insist their priests live in an unnatural state of no sex and no masturbation even. Altogether predictable results alas. And we give them tax exemptions!
Kate 10:01 on 2020-11-26 Permalink
Chris, when you yell IT’S ALL LIES it’s comforting to you, but it doesn’t do anything for real analysis of why an organization turned a blind eye to abuse in this or similar cases. Churches flog mythology but so do corporations and politicians – it’s the nature of human organization that’s flawed, and regardless of the wares being sold, measures have to be put in place to reduce the potential for abuse.
walkerp 11:51 on 2020-11-26 Permalink
Yes, agreed, but the Catholic Church is an extreme and special case that has long benefited from extraordinary protections under the law. They have a history of evil across the planet and continue to perpetrate it to this day. At this point, it is beyond a question of measures. The whole thing needs to be shut down and many people put in jail, its property distributed to local governments and charities.
I mean these people enabled and supported a child rapist for decades and all they get is a report? Where are the names of the administrators who made these decisions? Why are we not investigating them as accomplices? I hope at least they will be hunted down in civil court for damages to the families.
This is very little grey area here. The only reason we get a lame duck response is because of the power of this institution.
Chris 20:57 on 2020-11-26 Permalink
Kate, why the kid’s gloves? 🙁 The catholic church has fought against so much of society’s progress since forever. In the last century or so, they’ve been against: woman’s suffrage, contraception, divorce, gay rights, sexual freedom, euthanasia, abortion, IVF, and that’s just off the top of my head. They *actively* fought/fight against those things. They have very few redeeming qualities in exchange.
Kate 10:26 on 2020-11-27 Permalink
Kid glove. Not children’s mittens.
I don’t think it’s kid gloves, not in Quebec. I think Quebec has largely put the Catholic church into a memory hole. Even though a lot of people were brought up in it, to one extent or another – religion, as in catechism, was still taught in most schools till 1997, and people over 50 were soaked in it – the whole idea makes us (as a society) so uncomfortable and itchy that we don’t even want to think about the Catholics and their methods, we outlaw signs of religious adherence and we pretend we’ve got a secular society. Huge chunks of denial prop this up. If Quebec were a person, they would need extensive therapy for their toxic relationship to religion. What’s the equivalent of therapy for a whole society?
Chris 10:50 on 2020-11-27 Permalink
>I don’t think it’s kid gloves, not in Quebec.
I case I was unclear, I meant your gentle criticism of the catholic church, comparing its malevolence to a run of the mill corporation.
>If Quebec was a person, they would need extensive therapy for their toxic relationship to religion.
You think that’s unique to Quebec? You don’t think the USA, Saudi Arabia, India, and just about everywhere need similar therapy? I think they need much more therapy than us!
Kate 11:11 on 2020-11-27 Permalink
What do you want me to do, Chris? Rant and rave?