Sam Miller, prominent Cleveland businessman - Jewish, not Catholic - is fighting mad about the seemingly concentrated effort by the media to disparage the Catholic Church in the United States. The following are excerpts of a speech by well-known Cleveland businessman Mr. Miller at the City Club of Cleveland, given on Thursday, March 6. Even though of the Jewish faith, Miller has been a staunch supporter of the Cleveland Diocese and Bishop Anthony Pilla. It was published in the May-June issue of the Buckeye Bulletin. (Reprinted excerpts with permission of the Buckeye Bulletin - courtesy of Brookside Council #3297, Cleveland Diocese.)(Picture: St. Andrew's Roman Catholic Church, Roanoke , VA)
Why would newspapers carry on a vendetta on one of the most important institutions that we have today in the United States, namely the Catholic Church?
Do you know - the Catholic Church educates 2.6 million students everyday at the cost to your Church of 10 billion dollars, and a savings on the other hand to the American taxpayer of 18 billion dollars. Your graduates go on to graduate studies at the rate of 92%, all at a cost to you. To the rest of the Americans it’s free.
The Church has 230 colleges and universities in the U.S. with an enrollment of 700,000 students. The Catholic Church has a non-profit hospital system of 637 hospitals, which account for hospital treatment of 1 out of every 5 people - not just Catholics - in the United States today.
But the press is vindictive and trying to totally denigrate in every way the Catholic Church in this country. They have blamed the disease of pedophilia on the Catholic Church, which is as irresponsible as blaming adultery on the institution of marriage. Let me give you some figures that you as Catholics should know and remember. For example, 12% of the 300 Protestant clergy surveyed admitted to sexual intercourse with a parishioner; 38% acknowledged other inappropriate sexual contact in a study by the United Methodist Church, 41.8 % of clergywomen reported unwanted sexual behavior; 17% of laywomen have been sexually harassed. Meanwhile, 1.7% of the Catholic clergy has been found guilty of pedophilia. 10% of the Protestant ministers have been found guilty of pedophilia. This is not a Catholic Problem. [See CORRECTION from Rob Pollack and my comment following his in the Comments Box below. This 10% number may not be substantiated and is evidently not a quote from Mr. Miller. But the point is substantiated with other information. The number I'd like to track down is what percent of parents are guilty of child abuse of any type. - s.w.]
A study of American priests showed that most are happy in the priesthood and find it even better than they had expected, and that most, if given the choice, would choose to be priests again in face of all this obnoxious PR the church has been receiving.
The Catholic Church is bleeding from self-inflicted wounds. The agony that Catholics have felt and suffered is not necessarily the fault of the Church. You have been hurt by a small number of wayward priests that have probably been totally weeded out by now.
Walk with your shoulders high and you head higher. Be a proud member of the most important non-governmental agency in the United States. Then remember what Jeremiah said: “Stand by the roads, and look and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is and walk in it, and find rest for your souls”. Be proud to speak up for your faith with pride and reverence and learn what your Church does for all other religions. Be proud that you’re a Catholic.
My Miller is a wise and considerate man whose learned theology is a blessing to the entire world around us. When we read Matthew 16:18 - 19, we see a footnote that leads us to Isaiah 22:22 which virtually illustrates how the Christian New Testament co-incides with the Old Testament from the House of David - validating the spirituality of the Papacy. Mr. Miller would have no problem outlining this from a Jewish standpoint.
ReplyDeleteStan,
ReplyDeleteAlthough this was posted a few years back you should know the truth about Mr. Miller's numbers. At least with respect to Protestant clergy.
The statement "10% of the Protestant ministers have been found guilty of pedophilia" has no basis in fact. It was refuted in 2002 when this claim was first made and it remains untrue today.
In his original 2003 speech Mr. Miller cites and reads extensively from a July/August 2002 Sojourners article by Rose Marie Berger in which she misinterprets statements from Penn. State Prof. Philip Jenkins regarding sexual abuse by Protestant ministers.
In the original article Berger writes...
"Philip Jenkins concludes in his book "Pedophiles and Priests" that while 1.7 percent of Catholic clergy have been found guilty of pedophilia (specifically of boys), 10 percent of Protestant ministers have been found guilty of pedophilia." (This quote is used in Miller's speech)
To which Philip Jenkins responds (Sept/Oct 2002)...
"I regret to say that the statement is baloney. I never said it, and it's not true!... Every time this ten percent statement appears attributed to me, I try to debunk it, but these things have a life of their own. I have no idea what the actual proportion of pedophile protestant clergy is, but I would be amazed if it was more than a fraction of one percent."
Sojourner Article... http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0207&article=020741d
Sojourners apologized to its readers for passing on erroneous information and revised the article, removing the incorrect and defamatory information. But not before Sam Miller got a hold of it!
I don't know why Mr. Miller chose to make his points by dumping on the Protestants. It seems like a good healthy pride is founded on the good things done by oneself and not the wrong done by others.
Regrettably, a much condensed version of Miller's speech,such as the one you received and posted, has spread like wildfire within the Catholic community by way of the internet and e-mail (April 2010). There are now hundreds, if not thousands, of websites, blogs, forums, facebook pages, and news services that have posted this condensed version of Mr. Miller's speech.
In the interest of honesty and ecumenical respect this post should really be removed or edited to correct the record.
Your brother in Christ...
Rev. Rob Pollock
A Protestant Minister
Vancouver, BC
CANADA
Dear Rev. Rob:
ReplyDeleteThanks for the correction. I've posted your comment. My prejudice against Sojourners continues to deepen with your citation.
Statistics are dangerous things in the hands of the politically motivated. (I include myself.)
The point to be emphasized here is that sexual abuse by priests is likely to be much smaller in percentage than sexual abuse by similar demographic groups.
Here, for example are some 2007 statistics from the U.S. Government; and in writing that the numbers should be suspect because statistics are hard to collect accurately and even harder to extended to the general population). But they can give an indication:
=== Begin quotation=======
Who abused and neglected children?
In 2007, nearly 80 percent of perpetrators of child maltreatment (79.9%) were parents, and another 6.6 percent were other relatives of the victim. Women comprised a larger percentage of all perpetrators than men, 56.5 percent compared to 42.4 percent. Nearly 75 percent (74.8%) of all perpetrators were younger than age 40.
* Of the perpetrators who were child daycare providers, nearly 24 percent (23.9%) committed sexual abuse.
* Of the perpetrators who were parents, nearly 90 percent (87.7%) were the biological parent of the victim.
====End Quotation ======
Citation: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm07/summary.htm
I didn't look very hard for that. A GREAT problem about all this is that Child Protective Services (who in part collected those statistics) can be biased. A good friend's life was cut short because of the false accusations by our local CPS and a over zealous police detective who removed him from his home due to a false sexual abuse accusation. I'm sure his case is part of the above statistics. See: http://crossingnineveh.blogspot.com/2008/09/gestapo-child-protective-services.html