HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
June 16, 2003 According to a June 13th story in the Arizona Republic, eight of the 11 priests criminally accused of sexual misconduct with minors in the Phoenix Diocese committed their offenses in parishes with predominant Hispanic -Spanish speaking populations. Six of those eight priests later were transferred to other parishes with large Hispanic populations and four of them were accused of re-offending minors after they were relocated. Why do priests with pedophile tendencies like to be assigned to a parish with heavy Hispanic populations? Traditionally Hispanic Catholics are extremely devout and less likely to question the authority of the church. Most of the parishioners have limited or no English skills and find it difficult or are embarrassed to try to a register a complaint against a priest with the proper authorities or discuss a problem with an Anglo Bishop - in this case, Bishop Thomas J. OBrien, head of the Phoenix Diocese who currently faces possible criminal indictment and has acknowledged he covered up allegations of sexual abuse by his priests for several decades. Forty of the 89 parishes, with 200,000 Hispanics of the 478,000 Catholics in the diocese, offer Mass in Spanish, a clear indication of the Hispanic influence in those congregations and all of the 11 priest indicted or convicted had spent part of their careers in at least of the those parishes and only one of the 11 is of Hispanic extraction. It would be helpful to the Hispanic community and ultimately the Church itself, if priests would spend as much time teaching their Hispanic parishioners how to speak English as they do in teaching religious studies. Conducting the Mass in Spanish, again, keeps the parishioners subservient to the Church, adds to the language barrier and caters to a group of people who should be learning English for their own health, welfare and safety. ------------ Bobbie Hart ONeill is a retired print media journalist, CSU-Sacramento, 74, with 40 years experience in the field. She has worked as a reporter, feature writer, columnist, public relations writer, magazine/newsletter editor and publisher. She is currently a freelance writer residing in Yuma, Arizona and has published a childrens book, written three screenplays and a novel. In addition, she is interested in civic affairs, politics, current events, ethnology and animals. Email Bobbie: bobbieo@digitaldune.net Comment on this column in the forum. ------------ |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
