US Catholic Church study blames 1960s permissiveness for rise in sexual abuse
May 18, 2011 No Comment
Report claims less than 5% of abusive priests were paedophiles as critics accuse it of ‘garbage in, garbage out’ exoneration A report on the child abuse scandal in the US Catholic Church has provoked condemnation for concluding that the permissive society of the 1960s was to blame for the rise in sexual offences by priests. The investigation commissioned by Catholic bishops said that the peak incidence of sexual abuse by priests in the 1960s and 70s reflected the increased level of other deviant behaviours in American society in the period, including “drug use and crime, as well as social changes, such as an increase in premarital sex and divorce.” Researchers at John Jay College of Criminal Justice said most of the abusive priests were ordained in the 1940s and 50s and were not properly trained to confront the social upheavals of the 1960s. David O’Brien, a historian of American Catholicism at the University of Dayton, said the report, Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010 , was dangerous because it seemed to exonerate bishops. “This recalls an old tabloid banner headline from an early pre-Boston stage of this crisis: ‘Bishops Blame Society’,” said O’Brien, referring to the sexual abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston in 2002. The study said there was no single cause of the abuse and concluded that few of the abusive priests were paedophiles, as their victims were not all pre-pubescent. Less than 5% of the abusive priests could be defined as paedophiles because the majority of victims were aged between 11 and 14. “There’s no indication in our data that priests are any more likely to abuse children than anyone else in society,” said lead researcher Karen Terry. But the finding was criticised by victims because the American Psychiatric Association defines paedophilia as an attraction to children aged 13 or younger. The researchers added that their vow of celibacy did not make priests any more likely to become sex offenders. Nor was homosexuality to blame as the victims were of both genders. The authors said the majority of abusive priests were “generalists” – sex offenders who do not specialise in a type of victim by age or gender or other characteristics. Terry said this was exemplified by the case of the founder of the Legion of Christ religious order, the late Reverend Marcial Maciel, who sexually abused young seminarians and also fathered three children. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests dismissed the report as “garbage in, garbage out” because the bishops providing much of the funding for the report. But Terry defended the independence of the findings: “This is our report. None of the bishops had any influence on the findings of the study.” Researchers spoke with victims and their advocates, conducted surveys of bishops and diocesan officials who work with victims, and reviewed thousands of records, including a 1970s-era study on the psychology of priests and more than 1,000 case files of three treatment centres where abusive priests received counselling. The researchers called the crisis “history” as they found abuse claims peaked in the 1970s then began declining sharply in 1985, as general awareness of child sexual abuse and its impact grew and bishops began to respond to reported cases. But the study noted that church leaders remained more concerned with rehabilitating priests than with helping victims until 20 years later after those who suffered abuse mounted legal action. Catholicism Religion Christianity United States David Batty guardian.co.uk
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President pledges cash to support Egypt and Tunisia after criticism US has been too slow to support uprisings Barack Obama is to announce that the United States and the west will pour billions of dollars into the Middle East in support of Egypt, Tunisia and other countries embracing democracy, a move the White House portrayed as being on the scale of aid to former communist countries after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Speaking in Washington, the president will attempt to reposition the US as a champion of the newly-emerging Arab democracies. His speech comes amid criticism that the US has been too slow to support the uprisings, and has adopted contradictory approaches in its dealings with different countries. It is his most important speech on the Middle East since Cairo in 2009, when he called for a new beginning in relations between the US and the Muslim world. The support for Obama in the Arab world in 2009 has since dropped sharply. The speech will deal mainly with the Arab spring, hailing the benefits of democracy and respect for human rights, in spite of America’s long-time support for authoritarian regimes in the region. Senior Obama administration officials, briefing on the speech, said he will take a fresh look at the Middle East after a decade of tension and division. With the winding down of the Iraq war and the death of Osama bin Laden, “we are turning a page”, one official said, adding that the democracy movements reinforced this. The official suggested that the best way to support democracy was through economic reform, and drew comparisons with the massive injection of American aid to Europe after the war, and with the support given to central and eastern Europe in 1989. The US is to relieve Egypt of up to $1bn in debt and lend or guarantee up to $1bn. The World Bank, the IMF and other multilateral institutions to provide a further $2bn-3bn. The official described Tunisia and Egypt as beacons, models to encourage others to pursue democracy. “It is the beginning of a long-term effort,” an official said. The speech is expected to last 45 minutes, a long one by Obama’s standards. He is to devote a big portion to castigating countries such as Iran and Syria. The US Treasury announced sanctions on Wednesday targeted for the first time at Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad over the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. Six other Syrian officials were also added to the sanctions list. “The actions the administration has taken today send an unequivocal message to President Assad, the Syrian leadership, and regime insiders that they will be held accountable for the ongoing violence and repression in Syria,” said David Cohen, the acting Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. The European Union on Tuesday imposed fresh sanctions against Syria but did not include Assad. The US assets freeze on Assad is mainly symbolic as the Syrian leader has few assets in the country but it is a sign the US has lost patience with a president it once hoped might initiate reforms. The US is facing criticism for engaging in military action to bring down the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, but refusing to become sucked into similar action in Syria. It has also faced criticism for being slow to cut ties with traditional US allies such as the former Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak. The US issued only a mild rebuke over the violent suppression by another ally, Bahrain, of pro-democracy protesters. Obama’s speech comes after intensive debate within the White House between those arguing that the US should be at the forefront of the democracy movement, and those whose concern is US national security and protection of oil supplies. The few billion dollars proposed so far is not comparable to the vast sums the US sent to Europe after 1945, and some of it has already been announced by the World Bank and the IMF. Obama will next week urge the leaders of the G8 rich countries to provide aid when he meets them at a European summit. On Tuesday, Obama pledged several hundred millions of dollars in aid to King Abdullah of Jordan, even though that country has not been at the forefront of the democracy movement. This could raise questions about the value of the billions of dollars to Egypt and Tunisia as incentives to the democracy movement. The White House spokesman, Jay Carney, said that the president saw a historic moment of opportunity. “In the last decade, our focus in the region was largely on Iraq, which was a military effort, and on the hunt for Osama bin Laden and the fight against al -Qaida,” Carney told reporters. “That fight against al-Qaida continues, but there is an opportunity in that region to focus on advancing our values and enhancing our security, and that’s what the president looks forward to discussing in his speech.” As part of the attempt to portray the US as fully behind the reform movement, the White House yesterday released details of a call between John Brennan, a White House adviser on national security, and President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, urging him to sign a political agreement that would allow Yemen “to move forward immediately with its political transition”. Obama will also express his continued hopes for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. He will discuss the issue with the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, at the White House tomorrow, and is to address the conference of the Israeli lobbying organisation Aipac on Sunday before leaving for Ireland and Britain. A poll published on Tuesday by the Washington-based Pew organisation found that President Obama remains unpopular among countries polled in the Middle East and elsewhere in the Muslim world, except Indonesia. US foreign policy Barack Obama Arab and Middle East unrest Egypt Middle East Tunisia United States Africa Aid Ewen MacAskill guardian.co.uk
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Some San Francisco activists have suceeded in getting a controversial measure on the November ballot that would make it a misdemeanor to perform circumcision in the city on males under 18. Violators could face a fine and a year in jail. (May 18)
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For those in the path of waters let loose by the Morganza spillway, a tense waiting game has begun. Butte Larose, a small community in Louisiana, is almost empty of residents and most homes have been boarded up. (May 18)
Continue reading …Job Creation Over Deficit Reduction – Traditional Media Keeps Missing The Point
May 18, 2011 No Comment
enlarge Credit: Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s Website Derek Thompson from the Atlantic is pushing back a bit against recent series of posts from Greg Sargent at the Plumline arguing that the political media establishment in the Beltway bubble are trapped in a “Beltway Deficit Feedback Loop .” Sargent’s case was bolstered yesterday when the National Journal offered up datapoints that supported contentions that increased traditional media obsession with deficit is lurching our national conversations on economic issues to extreme right. Thompson essentially offers the argument that the traditional media should get a pass for not covering unemployment issues because no one is trying to fix it. There are number of problems with Thompson’s argument. First, his argument that no one is trying to fix the job issues is just of base. Congressional Democrats for their part have remained focus on the jobs. He should specifically look through the “ Make it in America ” section of Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s website and learn more about the Democratic agenda which is all about jobs . The “ People’s Budget ” presented by the Congressional Progressive Caucus , which was described as a “ courageous ” by the Economist , also focuses how to “ put America back to work .” He should pay close attention to leaders such as Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY) one of the most effective spokesperson for progressive vision in U.S. Congress have been hammering away on how to make “job creation” the “number 1 focus” for our Congress. And just days ago President Barack Obama tied trade pacts to aid for US workers who lose jobs . So the insinuation that our elected officials – specifically Democrats in Congress – have not focused on how to fix jobs issues does not fly. More after the split. Second, he fails to note Americans are more concerned about jobs than anything else . This is not some kind of convenient Democratic and progressive talking point. This is backed up by recent poll numbers. As noted by the Pew Research Center on May 4, while most Americans “see addressing the deficit as a top priority, concern about jobs and prices remains more widespread among the general public.” PEW specifically noted the following: In fact, only among Staunch Conservatives and Libertarians do even half rate the budget deficit as the economic issue that worries them most (50% and 49%, respectively). While 34% of Main Street Republicans rate the deficit as their top concern – which is higher than the national average – about half cite either jobs (24%) or rising prices (26%) as their top concern. Not surprisingly, given how hard they were hit by the recession, Disaffecteds are mostly concerned about the job situation (43%) and rising prices (36%) – just 9% cite the deficit as their top concern. Similarly, nearly as many Hard-Pressed Democrats say the job situation (33%) worries them most as say rising prices (42%). New Coalition Democrats and Solid Liberals are more worried about the job situation than other national economic issues (42% and 46%, respectively). Get that – even a sizeable chunk of “Main Street Republicans” are more concerned about jobs as their top concern. Yet somehow we don’t see these concerns being fleshed in today’s traditional media coverage which is completely obsessed with deficit reduction. Third, Thompson forgets that it has been his colleagues from the traditional media, who have a track record of building their coverage based on right wing frame that has never been really concerned about the jobs. Many of us remember the right wing traditional slanted media coverage from two years ago when despite warnings from many economists that stimulus package being debated on the Hill was too small, the networks rarely raised the issue. So I don’t think the excuse that traditional media should get a pass for not covering unemployment issues because no one is trying to fix it has a lot of merit. I hope for the sake of majority of Americans who are concerned about getting back to work and keeping our country’s economy moving in the right direction, the beltway media wake up and cut through the their echo chamber all framed within extreme right wing talking points.
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Ted Rall's cartoons and opinion pieces were all the rage when he was attacking George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and American soldiers. But now that there's a man in the White House the press absolutely adore, the once syndicated polemicist claims he's having a hard time getting anyone to publish his work: In the past, editorial rejections had numerous causes: low budgets, lack of space, an editor who simply preferred another creator's work over yours. Now there' s a new cause for refusal: Too tough on the president. I've heard that from enough “liberal” websites and print publications to consider it a significant trend. A sample of recent rejections, each from editors at different left-of-center media outlets:
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Young adults who carry a so-called Alzheimer’s risk gene show disruption in their brains as early as their 20s, according to new research.
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No raw meat for you! That’s the current rule for restaurant patrons in North Carolina. In an effort to make sure everyone knows the proper way to kill all possible bacteria, the state has regulated for over a decade now that restaurants can’t serve beef rare or medium rare. But is Big Brother going to
Continue reading …The US has taken the dramatic step of personally sanctioning Syria’s president and a number of his top aides, in an attempt to pressure him to stop his ongoing violent crackdown on dissent. The Treasury Department will freeze all of Bashar al-Assad’s assets that are within US jurisdiction, and bar…
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Most mosquito bites cause just redness, swelling, and itching. But mosquitoes can carry West Nile virus. Here’s what to watch for.
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