What If John Mark Karr Were A Catholic Priest?

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Forensic evidence has excluded John Mark Karr from being JonBenet Ramsey's killer. DNA analysis has shown that Mr. Karr's claim to being her killer were further evidence that he is seriously deranged an dangerous to children.

Here's the story on the charges being dropped: Prosecutors Drop Case in Ramsey Slaying

The Smoking Gun reports that prosecuters had nothing to go on except Karr's bizarre claims: Case Against JonBenet Suspect Collapses

Those things being said, Mr. Karr taught at a Catholic school and reportedly converted to Catholicism, but what if Mr. Karr had been a Catholic priest? Would the story have ben another indictment against the Catholic Church? Most likely, it would have been. Which leads one to wonder why the media has largely ignored the epidemic of sexual abuse in the public school system?

Salacious stories of male and female teachers engaging in sexual misconduct with students have, to this point, presented more as tabloid fodder than a serious problem. Where is the outrage? Where are the cries for accountability?

Here are two editorials that discuss the issue: Has Media Ignored Sex Abuse In School?

Shakedown: How Catholics Are Getting Ripped Off in the Name of Justice

Here's some more background in the issue:

Is there a Debra LaFave in your child's school?

Sexual misconduct in U.S. schools measured

What are your thoughts?

Comments

[A Simple Sinner]

In some of these cases where vicitims of absuse are suing and winning $10M awards.. well I am flabergasted.

Not really sure where that number comes from.

$1M in most parts of the country would be a good amount to go back to school, buy or pay off your house, but some money in your IRA, have enough money to see a good therapist if you wanted.

$2M, to be fair, might be a little better as most attorneys take 33% leaving a client with around $1.32M. That would be a good deal of money for therapy, it would pay off debts, it would be well over 15 times what most americans make in a year...

Yet the folks who are going after these MONSTERS are going after settlements well in excess of what would be reasonable compensations.

One wonders if this is not a situation where too many folks have been overcome by greed, and are also interested in financially crippling the church.

[Dude]

Of course part of the M.O. is to financially cripple the church...in an effort to make them think twice when passing abusers to another parish, in order to sidestep justice.

I guess if I were abused, I would not be able to set a number, I would just want it realy high...as high as it gets. For me it would not be in order to make me feel better, but in order to hit them hard, where it hurts. Unfortunatly what many in the pew don't realize, is the bucks to pay off the law suits aren't payed by the abusers, or the homo-comrade-bishops who protect and agitate for normalization of homosexuality. They just keep up their lifestyle, and make us pay the bills. When a bunch of parishes have to close...does the bishop lose his job or diocese? No.
Do the faithful in the pews get hit? Yes.

I think the Catholic Church is unfairly maligned on this issue, but the heart of the matter is something else entirely. It is this: Should we expect something different from our priests and bishops than the 'norms' of society - especially in matters of morality and honesty? Abso@#*^%#lutely yes! Do I expect them to be sinless? No. Do I expect them to be better than the average secularist...I don't think I need to answer this one.

Beware of those trying to push the sins of our gay priesthood and bishops under the rug.

Believe me, if I could erase or undo anything our church has had to go through, it would be the gay sex abuse/pedophelia scandal. BTW, it is a homosexual and a pedophelia problem. I know the John Jay stats and the ortho attempt to say it is not pedophilia, but I will contradict each time, because it is a smattering and combination of both.

We need to work on cleaning out our refuse before we jump to pointing out other groups similar problems, even if they are worse, and we are unfairly maligned. I suspect we have not even seen the last of the gay abuse issue yet. I have seen and met a number of newer, supposed 'orthodox' seminarians and new priests. Not one I have seen yet strikes me as a sturdy, straight man. Not one.

Wait until the RICO lawsuit goes through on the gay East Coast bishops. Read that story online, it is truly horrible. It will make you forget about the public school problem for a while. It will make you challenge why we have a closed discipline on clerical celibacy. Mind all it is not a doctrine, but a discipline. We have created the perfect gay storm with compulsory celibacy. I also challenge the notion that it is new, since WWII.
I challenge all, look this one up.
http://www.rcf.org/pdfs/Hoatson.pdf
Beware weak in faith, don't read this one if you are having a difficult time.

[Dude]

P.S.
Of course the lawyers are taking this one for a ride. And yes, they too are wrong for doing so.

I may ask a question though...at what point did the church take this centuries-old problem up publicly? - Only when the lawyers got involved.

It sucks.

[Theresa]

I think this type of abuse can ruin somebody's life.....so no number is going to do it justice......or take away the pain. As for the media's role.....I think they've done their job with exposing abuse in our schools and places of worship. Sadly, it seems I read about some new incident every day. But it is the organizations that need to make the changes......more thorough background checks, increased monitoring.....and zero tolerance for offenders. Until they make the changes, I'm in favor of the big settlements.....sometimes you need to hit an organization where it hurts to make them get the preventative measures in place that should have been there in the first place.

[Theresa]

Ps. The Catholic Church is an organization based on the teachings of Jesus Christ and society is right to expect more from us than from some random public school system. We are supposed to have higher standards.....that's why the backlash is so great.

[hermengeld]

Actually, if John Mark Karr were a catholic priest, he would currently be weighing a job offer from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to be the new director of vocations. But even he probably wouldn't want to be mixed up with that bunch.