PURGE. SANCTIFY. DEFEND
“ Go rebuild my Church, which you see is falling into ruins.”
The Facts
The diocese of Altoona Johnstown through it’s Bishops, Priests and lay employees have colluded for over 50 years to provide a safe haven for child molesters and sexually active priests and religious.
This is both the past and current direction of the church leadership which has disastrous effects on our church.
WHAT ARE THOSE EFFECTS?
Victims - What is a victim? When we speak of victims we primarily mean anyone who has suffered sexual abuse at the hands of priests or religious. This includes both children and adults and they number in the hundreds.
There are direct secondary victims which are the families of the primary victims. These families have been attacked by the diocese over the years both spiritually and financially in order to discredit their stories.
The third victims are the laity who have been scandalized both by the actions of their priests and the Bishops who tolerate, hide and defend their inappropriate and many times illegal actions.
In all we are talking thousands of victims who have been driven from the sacraments and Christ’s church by this continuing scandal.
The problem - Sexually active priests and religious.
The Catholic Church in the Roman rite calls for a celibate lifestyle. Within the teachings of the church priests and religious who fail to live this lifestyle are to be removed from service.
Over the past several decades this has not been done which has resulted in increasing sexual abuse.