Living, as I do, in Ireland, I feel obliged to correct a common misconception: that priests are more likely to be pedophiles has been general knowledge since long before this recent wave of scandals. The same is true of boy scout leaders, primary school teachers and so on, of course; you can find jokes floating around from that period, on this topic, that can have various roles swapped in . But if you went to anyone about abuse, then you were told to shut your lying mouth. This was due, basically, to the low status of children and high status of the accuser; Catholic priests had abnormally inflated status at the time the abuse that is now coming to light. Of course, this high status was due to … the low sanity waterline! As embodied by the frankly insane culture of the time.
Hmm, I didn’t expect that rant to come around to my original comment. *shrugs*
Not claiming either you are or aren’t ware of all this, of course. Just addressing the most common view I encounter, which is both wrong and compatible with your statement. Doing my bit for the sanity waterline :)
Excellent comment. However …
Living, as I do, in Ireland, I feel obliged to correct a common misconception: that priests are more likely to be pedophiles has been general knowledge since long before this recent wave of scandals. The same is true of boy scout leaders, primary school teachers and so on, of course; you can find jokes floating around from that period, on this topic, that can have various roles swapped in . But if you went to anyone about abuse, then you were told to shut your lying mouth. This was due, basically, to the low status of children and high status of the accuser; Catholic priests had abnormally inflated status at the time the abuse that is now coming to light. Of course, this high status was due to … the low sanity waterline! As embodied by the frankly insane culture of the time.
Hmm, I didn’t expect that rant to come around to my original comment. *shrugs*
Not claiming either you are or aren’t ware of all this, of course. Just addressing the most common view I encounter, which is both wrong and compatible with your statement. Doing my bit for the sanity waterline :)