The New York Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic church came up with a way to warn children against child abuse (and being alone with priests, perhaps):
At first glance, "Being Friends, Being Safe, Being Catholic" is what you'd expect from a Christian handout: lessons in loving thy neighbor and knowing we're all special in God's eyes, plus a fun word search with names of people whom kids can trust (parents, counselors, teachers). Many of the book's cartoon-sketch drawings, which were created by a church volunteer, are light in tone and narrated by an angel looming overhead. But on one page, the angel warns of an online predator—with
chest hair exposed—who attempts to chat with a child; on another (shown above), the angel implies that children should make sure they're never alone in a room with a priest.
Link - via Boing Boing, thanks Neal Ungerleider!
So, to be on the safe side, every adult should be regarded as a potential child molester until the opposite has been proven? That´s rather paranoid, is'nt it?
This is an example of an adult acting responsibly, since he is keeping the door open.
Who says you can trust parents, counsellors, and teachers? Maybe it's just the ones with no chest hair.
I mean it's always good for children to tell their parents where they are, but it shouldn't be for the express reason of preventing sexual assault from creepy old men...
Just another example of people freaking out over non issues. Somewhat similar to the poison in candies on Halloween. (only there are no evidence for this one)
It mostly looks like adult-at-the-door is keeping watch to ensure that adult-concealed-under-the-sheet isn't disturbed.
So much for never be alone with one adult!
The Church has to go through a lot of pains to clean house and and restore the itself universally to orthodoxy (the Vatican hasn't deviated from orthodoxy, but a lot of dioceses are run by bishops who do). While well-intended, the Vatican II conference of teh early 1960s paved the way for liberals to preach moral relativism within the Church and protect/make excuses for a small number of perverts and pederasts. In earlier years, the vast majority of these would have been rooted out while still in the seminaries. The excesses that followed Vatican II let them stay and even a small number were able to do tremendous damage when put in positions of trust.
That said, I think a large fraction of the abuse cases are certainly bogus. Although some people were unquestionably wronged, the majority are scammers lining up at the cash drawer. The problem is that because individual bishops protected a few of the perverts, the whole Church lost credibility to the public (and juries). It's going to take decades (at least) to recover, but I have confidence that no-nonsense orthodox leaders men like Benedict XVI will prevail.