Look what kind of letter the Strib Letters Editor pulled at random from the pile that probably showed up on his desk responding to Archbishop Harry Flynn's response to the anti-Catholic Star Tribune Editorial claiming that the Church deserves abuse!
Where Floyd Keller got his number for the number of children alleged to be abused by Church employees over the past 60 years is unknown. What is known about them is that over 80% of them were male and post-pubescent (age ca. 11-17) and were abused by adult males.
11,000 charges of child abuse over 60 years is about 180 cases per year. Researchers into all kinds of child abuse indicate that there are over 2,000,000 cases per year in the United States.
Catholics and the Church are horrified at the amount of abuse that has been inflicted by Church employees . Billions have been paid in damages and drastic measures have been taken to prevent their occurrence again.
And probably another billion will be paid, of course 30% or more going to public spirited attorneys willing to make a sacrifice for their cut.
You may ask why school districts and cities and counties don't get sued. That's because government won't let itself be sued except for very limited amounts.
During this same time period, Catholic Charities, individual dioceses and parishes and religious organizations and apostolates in the United States and around the world have spent tens of billions for saving and improving the lives and living conditions of millions of the dying, the ill, the handicapped and the poverty stricken. And it continues to do so. At the same time, the Church's subsidy of education in the U.S. along, probably saves U.S. citizens even more billions.
For the record, even though I have lived in Minneapolis since 1980, I cancelled my subscription to the Strib (and rarely purchase it) when they removed the Boy Scouts of America from their corporate contribution list because the Scouts refused to hire homosexuals as leaders in the BSA. While not on the record, I'm sure the Strib also despises the Church because it refuses to admit active homosexuals to its seminaries. The same types as were responsible for the 11,000 child abuse cases.
Letters in a batch for Wednesday, Dec. 13
Published: December 13, 2006
'THE POPE AND THE WITCH'
Good PR for the play
The damage of this play has got to be minuscule compared to the 11,000-plus children molested by church clergy (by the church's own account) and the huge sums that the church has had to pay.
FLOYD KELLER, BAYPORT, MN
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