Patrick Doyle wrote an intriguing piece in the Boston Daily after interviewing a number of seminarians. After reading it, I now am more afraid than ever for the future safety of children in the Church.
The formators (priests in charge of seminarian formation) in the Roman Catholic Church in Boston are analogizing millennia-old child sexual abuse crimes to the airline industry. I do not think the folks at Boston Logan, Delta airlines or Boeing would concur.
From the article:
It’s delusion at its highest form.
So let’s look at the numbers. If you compare and contrast what the National Transportatio Safety Board (NTSB) reports with the Roman Catholic Church National Review Board (NRB) here is what you find:
NTSB NRB
http://www.ntsb.gov http://www.usccb.org/news/2012/
crash rate is eight million to one crash rate is 4-10%
62 major crashes since 1950 6,115 priests since 1950
910,000 licensed US pilots 39,718 active US priests.
accident data base available accident data base is secret
Is it safer for a child to fly on an airplane in the United States or to attend the Roman Catholic Church? You do the math.
I think it’s safer for children to play with matches; run with scissors in their hands; take candy from strangers; join a biker’s gang; wrestle with an alligator or crocidile; tease and torment a junkyard dog; snitch on the mob; climb trees during a lightning storm; etc., than go to a catholic church or spend time with a catholic priest.
Nice one, Pat. It beats the socks off me how fully-grown adults can smirk disapprovingly when a third-grader says, “the dog ate my homework,” and yet listen with attentive solemnity to the escapist metaphors and similes used by those in clerical garb. Lord love a duck!
– adam fisher