Indeed. Never leave your kid alone with a priest. I was that kid.
this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2026
416 points (92.3% liked)
Showerthoughts
44266 readers
308 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
I'm sure there are some preists who are good people, but enough of them are predators that it ain't worth the risk
Most priests aren't paedophiles.
The problem is that the hierarchy actively protects and covers up those who are, to the extent of moving them to different parishes if people get suspicious. And to be clear, this isn't because popes are necessarily in favour of paedophilia (though I'm not saying none are...), it's because the clergy are more concerned with the prestige and survival of the institution than they are with the well-being of lay believers.
Also the seal of confession. Paedo priests would confess their abuse to all of their colleagues using it. Thus they can't do anything or they'd be accused of breaking said seal
It's been a trope since at least the 1500s that clergy are pedos, "Julius Excluded from Heaven" by Erasmus contains this exchange between Saint Peter and the recently deceased pope Julius:
PETER: [... ] I hope it won't be too tiresome for you to answer a few clumsy questions about the details. Who, for example, are these little curly-headed striplings? JULIUS: I brought them up for my diversion.
load more comments
(4 replies)
The position just attracts too many pedos to give any one of them the benefit of the doubt
How do you even apply for a job like that? If it’s like any other interview, surely there’s some sort of psychological assessment or a background check. Maybe you just need to wear a fanatic facade, and you’re hired… I just have no idea how Catholics roll.
Basically, you need to go to Catholic university to get a degree in theology. There is a while process of attending courses and getting additional qualifications to get higher ranks. Freemasonry was partly modelled on this.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
I'm so sorry, and I hope that you're okay now.
It's been over four decades. I think healing started this year when I was able to finally put it into words.
The secondary abuse from everyone else protecting the predators and blaming the victim also leaves deep scars. The Epstein stuff made me realize how extensive that network really is.
load more comments
(4 replies)
Not a priest, but a southern baptist youth minister, I was also that kid.
I don't know anybody, myself included certainly, who doesn't have a story about a youth pastor.
load more comments
(3 replies)
You could expand beyond just Catholics
Just one example
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/faqs-sexual-abuse-southern-baptist/
This. Ultimately, it's about people having a heavily trusted position (priest, teacher, babysitter, police whathaveyou) taking advantage of the utmost vulnerable: children.
Let's do another religion too
I do not trust pious people for this reason. The closer to god they claim they are, the further you should stay away from them.
Definitely sexual abuse is not limited to Catholicism, they just had an extraordinarily structured operation of it that was understood and tolerated at the highest levels. It was a system, not a pattern of instances. That’s why they’re irrevocably associated with this.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Recently had to file a report at a state-run insurance and they have a dedicated button on their webpage for "sexualized violence in churches".
I do wonder, is it the churches themselves that are insured that way? Because surely the victims get paid from the lawsuit, not from insurance.
But either way, that is fucking harrowing that they have a dedicated button for it.
I get that it's probably just a matter of "we offer insurance for this, so we'll have a button for it". But even that someone in a government-near position decided "kids get raped in churches so often, and we expect more cases to happen or be uncovered, so we should add an insurance for that to our portfolio", that concept just does not fit into my brain.
Former insurance agent here (personal lines, so I never dealt with churches, but still)
They almost certainly are. Liability insurance usually excludes intentional harm (including sexual assault of any kind), however there are usually ways to acquire coverage for those intentional actions. On a personal level, umbrella coverage will provide it.
They likely don't sell specific "Pastor sexually abusing a child coverage", that button is more there for the victims/their parents to have an easier time filing a claim. Helpful, but depressing.
Not to mention that no one brings their kids to drag shows. But everyone takes their kid to church, and a lot of churches even have daycares attached where you can leave them all day.
Drag performers sometimes do child friendly events such as story time, but there's nothing sexual about those events. In fact, it's no question why kids would be drawn to being read stories by someone in a whimsical costume.
Fwiw, even burlesque performers sometimes do family friendly events (for obvious reason they do an outfit change rather than a strip tease). Anyone who does adult shows is very aware of the line between family friendly and not, and likely knows the local blue laws better than anyone else
Yeah like there are definitely some drag shows you shouldn't take your kids to but there's also movies and concerts you shouldn't take your kids to. There's even kids horror movies vs the obvious r rated adult stuff. If they're old enough to know boys and girls are different they're old enough to understand that sometimes people do other shit for fun the same as they're able to watch fucking Casper and experiment with the idea of death. It's just a fucking genre.
Oh, really?
•music too loud
•choke on rhinestone that flew off during dancing
•crushed between two sweaty drag queens
•drugs sometimes
Oh, wait, you said safer. Yeah.
load more comments
(3 replies)
Kids have a blast at drag shows.
Any place where individuals hold a position of trust and authority is going to attract all kinds of abusers.
Which is why people in such positions should be held to a higher standard
Agreed
Well if dragshows were populated by powerful people getting heaps of tax free dollars and an opaque system that hides any accountability then kids would no longer be safe there.
Genuinely one of the kindest gentlest most wholesome environments I've been in.
Not that my experience is super broad or representative, but, maybe because there's so much misunderstanding, they're particularly patient and warm.
Would definitely bring my kid to a drag show before leaving him alone with a priest.
Yes, I know.
However, I would prefer them to be at drag story time.
Because there's no pretender in drag show.
Sprinkler thought, this is a no-brainer
maybe not a maga drag/ conservative dragqueen, these do exist.
i think evangelicals, and probably mormon churchs hides more pedophelia, SA.
better of with MS rachel.
Welcome to the mids 2010s, may I take your coat? This was a very common thing to say, down to the word, and was posted everywhere for years since that was the peak of when the American right-wingers had temper tantrums over kids being around lgbtq+ people (mainly drag shows etc.).
This isn't a shower thought, it's just a popular opinion.
In other news, water is wet.
view more: next ›