Victims of Catholic clergy sex crimes testify in Baltimore federal court, bravely demonstrating how law enforcement and church bosses failed repeatedly to stop this depravity.
Quote:Eight men and women, who are survivors of child sex abuse by Catholic priests, attended a bankruptcy hearing held Monday morning for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, describing the torment they went through. A total of 14 people have since told their stories publicly.
Another survivor told the judge and a packed courtroom how helpless and trapped she felt after being raped by a priest. He told her it will be "our little secret."
A man who was abused explained he felt terrified that a highly regarded person of authority abused him and how that abuse turned his world upside down and into a life of solitude.
Another woman said a priest turned her into a human sex doll. She said: "He stole my innocence, my childhood. (I live) a life with no meaning, no hope."
A common theme thread through the testimony was that life stopped for the survivors. And, because of the church's influence, the survivors said they felt they couldn't tell anyone for fear no one would believe them.
Some of the survivors said it felt like a slap in the face when they complained to the archdiocese and the church offered counseling.
So far, as many as 320 people have filed a claim against the archdiocese. The deadline to do so is May 31.
https://www.wbaltv.com/article/clergy-se...y/60847568
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
