r/atheism Strong Atheist 3d ago

A new report by the Polish government reveals that one-third of child sex abuse in Poland is committed by priests.

https://international.la-croix.com/news/religion/one-third-of-child-sex-abuse-in-poland-is-committed-by-priests/14732
1.4k Upvotes

33 comments sorted by

126

u/Yaguajay 3d ago

It’s almost like there is some kind of Catholic global competition for pedophile medals and prizes. Poland has replaced old Ireland.

13

u/MasterofAcorns 2d ago

I guarantee you my country has more…fucking hell, I hate my country.

6

u/CookbooksRUs 2d ago

It’s more a case that if you make foregoing a standard married sex life part of the job description you will draw a disproportionate number of people for whom that was not a draw in the first place.

53

u/hadenxcharm 3d ago

The sad part is that another significant chunk is committed by family members.

The white van with the candy thing we were taught in school about stranger danger almost never happens. It's almost always a trusted adult.

16

u/PistolGrace 2d ago

My mother was so scared that I would get kidnapped in the 80s. Little did she know, she kept me locked inside the house with the monster she married.

It's also not a drag queen.

56

u/Zippier92 3d ago

A Belgian with knowledge of history told me that periodically, every 100 years of so, the peasants stormed the churches and purged the leaders.

Left the buildings intact, just got rid of the skum.

It’s time guido!

20

u/Freakears De-Facto Atheist 3d ago

Only a third?

16

u/AvengerBear 2d ago

I mean, if you compare number of priests to the rest of the population I feel that's pretty insane.

4

u/lIllIllIllIllIllIII Secular Humanist 2d ago

Honestly it seems impossible that such a small cohort of the population would perpetrate nearly a third of all child sex abuse. Catholic clergy are 0.18% of the adult male population in Poland. The 30% figure was based on a sample size of 345 reported cases between 2017 and 2020, with 100 of those cases perpetrated by clergy; 30% is an incredibly high outlier compared to other stats on CSA perpetrated by clergy. Is it due to a major discrepancy in the reporting of CSA perpetrated by non-clergy maybe?

Globally, intrafamilial CSA is usually significantly more prevalent, with something like 75% of CSA cases being perpetrated by a relative.

3

u/AlabasterPelican Secular Humanist 2d ago

I would hazard a guess that it's because it is based on reported cases. For 2023 the US dept of state (based on Polish governmental data) puts the percentage of the Polish population that is Catholic at 85%. I would be much more skeptical of the clergy perpetrated CSA statistics presented in the article OP posted, but it's coming from a Catholic newspaper & I see no reason for them to inflate the statistics they are reporting.

2

u/grathad Anti-Theist 2d ago

The rest is family, or family acquaintances, statistically still religious but for one I would claim it is the root cause

14

u/Maris-Otter 2d ago

The Google tells me that there are 29,600 priests in Poland. It also tells me that there were approximately 12,000 child sex abuse incidents in Poland per year. The adult male population of Poland is 19.9 million.

Priests as percentage of males: .15%

Average rate of sex abuse: .006%

Priest average rate of sex abuse: 13.51%

Priest sex abuse index: 2240.99

18

u/galtpunk67 3d ago edited 1d ago

obligatory r/PastorArrested for those of you unaware

edit..   thanks lemonqueasy

7

u/cgricsch 2d ago

Why can’t the priests just fuck each other? Problem solved.

5

u/Low-Astronomer-3440 2d ago

The other 2/3 are bishops

4

u/MattGdr 2d ago

And priests are what percent of the population? JFC.

4

u/_meaty_ochre_ 2d ago

Despite making up 0.08% of the population…

3

u/leftoverinspiration Strong Atheist 2d ago

That one bad priest sure is prolific.

1

u/Realistic-Yard2196 1d ago

Just a few bad apples is all

Lmao.

3

u/Tonythecritic 2d ago

That they know of....

3

u/Aeroncastle Jedi 2d ago

And remember that they are organized so they are less likely to be found compared to a random pedophile

2

u/kent_eh Agnostic Atheist 2d ago

Anyone who subscribes to /r/PastorArrested is not surprised in the least.

2

u/Imnotchoosinaname 2d ago

Wow surprising /s

2

u/Nutshack_Queen357 2d ago

And they're also a 3rd of the fuckfaces lying about who's the perpetrator to cover their own asses.

2

u/StrangeCharmVote Anti-theist 2d ago

Of note, this would be only 1/3 of discovered abuse.

Given the occurrences globally, it's almost certainly more than that which are simply not discovered.

2

u/CookbooksRUs 2d ago

Call me a crayon and color me shocked.

2

u/shitnotalkforyours18 2d ago

So those priests teach us "to respect" one another and then they take advantage of their own disciple I mean according to me religion is a formal version of a "Cult" .You can also go and find similar things from "Osho" and "Sadhguru"..

2

u/Wilkham 2d ago

Honestly, I am kinda surprised a little. That's so extreme of an index I might become priestphobic.

2

u/RamJamR Atheist 2d ago

It's such an abusable position because nobody wants to question the sanctity of the position of a priest, so everyone close to these priests are always so surprised when they're found guilty of sexual crimes.

2

u/Mo_Jack 2d ago

If they can back up these stats, the numbers are completely damning --just staggering. 36.6 million population with only 29.6k priests. 8 hundredths of one percent of the population involved in 33% of child sex abuse cases?!?!?!?! Is my math wrong?

2

u/pat9714 1d ago

Never leave your child alone with anyone who is part of the religious clergy. Regardless of your faith affiliation.

2

u/brnjenkn 1d ago

That number seems low...