Home Forums Everything Else Sexual abuse not limited to celibates

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  • #1070

    While this is a sad story I’m glad it’s making the news. I was sick of the argument that the Catholic Church has a bunch of problems because priests aren’t allowed to marry.

    [quote:1vgsg7b6]CNN.com[/url]”]Police: Church sex abuse case may involve 24 children
    Louisiana pastor arrested and charged with child rape

    Monday, May 23, 2005 Posted: 6:15 AM EDT (1015 GMT)

    (CNN) — Police have arrested the pastor of a defunct church in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, his wife and six former congregants in a sexual abuse case involving as many as 24 children, authorities said.

    Authorities said they have interviewed five possible victims in the case. Victims may range in age from toddlers to teens, authorities said.

    CNN does not identify children involved in sex abuse cases and has chosen not to identify adult defendants because they may share family names with the alleged victims.

    Investigators believe the abuse took place between 1999 and 2002 and involved a “select few” congregants of the now-defunct Hosanna Church, Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s spokeswoman Laura Covington said.

    On Saturday, law enforcement authorities issued an arrest warrant for a ninth person in the case, said sheriff’s deputies in Tangipahoa Parish, where the church was located.

    The church’s former pastor told deputies Tuesday in nearby Livingston Parish — where the pastor lives — that adults were sexually abusing children, parish sheriff’s Detective Stan Carpenter said.

    The former pastor told deputies he had been having sex with children for many years and “also educated the children as to how to perform sexual acts with each other and with animals,” Carpenter said.

    Carpenter said the pastor unwittingly implicated himself while talking to investigators. He was arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated rape of a child under age 13 and one count of crimes against humanity for alleged sexual acts involving animals, the detective said.

    Among those the pastor allegedly implicated were his 45-year-old wife — also charged with aggravated rape of a juvenile under age 13, Carpenter said.

    Law enforcement authorities conducting the investigation include sheriff’s deputies from Tangipahoa Parish, Livingston Parish, officers of the Ponchatoula Police Department and the FBI.

    On Friday, a police search of two homes resulted in confiscation of three vehicles, computers and other items that authorities said may be connected to the case. The FBI took custody of the vehicles. Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Daniel Edwards said some of the crimes are believed to have been committed in the vehicles.

    All but one of the defendants in the case are jailed without bond. They are charged with aggravated rape of a child under 13 — a charge which, if convicted, can carry a death sentence in Louisiana, authorities said.

    Also in police custody — in addition to the pastor and his wife — are a sheriff’s deputy and a woman who tipped off investigators by telephoning them from Ohio, authorities said.

    About six weeks before the pastor spoke with Livingston Parish sheriff’s deputies, a former church member phoned the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff and tipped off deputies, sheriff’s spokesperson Covington said. The 36-year-old woman was taken into custody in Ohio on a Louisiana warrant charging her with aggravated rape of a child under age 13, Covington said.

    [i:1vgsg7b6]CNN’s Stacia Deshishku contributed to this report.[/i:1vgsg7b6][/quote:1vgsg7b6]

    #4722
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Its about time some non-Catholic sex-abuse problems hit the news. Although I doubt this will be very publicised.

    #4723
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I would add, though, that this is still terribly sad, and I’m not glad that it HAPPENED, only that people actually KNOW about it…

    #4729

    [quote:lxocreqb]I would add, though, that this is still terribly sad, and I’m not glad that it HAPPENED, only that people actually KNOW about it…[/quote:lxocreqb]
    Yes, that is the same sentiment that I was having. Although people could still counter that there wasn’t a larger organization covering it up. I think that’s what really irks people about the whole priest sex abuse thing.

    #4730
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    This is nothing new. It’s the “large corporation” mentality that has the media focusing on Catholicism. I have personally talked to protestants who themselves said “Victor, don’t think for a second this is a Catholic problem only”. The best thing would be that it not be a problem at all. But sadly it is. I wonder what many of those people attacking celibacy have to say about this now?

    ~Victor

    #4733
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Oh they have some ridiculous excuses.

    “Yeah, but celibacy just makes this all [i:2c68wy1j]worse[/i:2c68wy1j].”

    And the like.

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