GreenGemsOmally

I love this city so much.

Having been in this recent situation, of removing my Dad from life support and remembering that exact moment, in a way it was comforting because the process of his death was so hard. Having had some medical training, I was pretty much able to identify when it happened, and when I looked at my older brother, who is a physician, he nodded in agreement. No words were needed. My brother just closed my Dad's eyes and as terrible as it was, it was a relief. They're no longer suffering or in pain. You might be, because of the anguish, but they are no longer hurting and that's a comfort. At least it was to me.

OP you have my utmost respect and admiration for what you did. It's a terrible situation but you showed that humanity and caring for others are the most important things in life, and during the end of life especially. Thank you for being there for your friend.

You won't answer this, but you need to know and hear that your answer is the exact attitude that has driven me (and many, many others) permanently away from the Catholic Church when the Church decided to abdicate its duty in protecting the most precious of its flock from predators. I was raised a practicing Catholic, attended Jesuit universities for both Undergraduate and Graduate school. It's been a huge part of my life for the 30 years I've been on this planet. But this is infuriating to read.

Every time, for YEARS across a countless number of cases, we hear the same thing from senior Catholic leadership:

"It's not our fault, it's those individual's fault. They sinned! We can survive this through God's grace and forgiveness."

...

"But we're also going to do everything we can to cover it up, suppress the victims' stories, move the priests around so they don't get arrested, etc."

I blame YOU (being the Catholic leadership) for not doing enough to protect people being raped. I blame the human element of the Catholic Church that continues to refuse to do anything about this systematic abuse of children within their churches.

I lost all faith in any sort of divine authority the Catholic Church has because they've repeatedly failed in upholding a very basic moral value we have as a society: don't rape and abuse children and those that do should not be sheltered from consequences within the law. An organization like that does not speak for God if they're willing to turn a blind eye to raped children.

I'm not 100% sure I agree. I mean, I absolutely think his firing was wrong and that those other members were outstanding people to support him by leaving, BUT having worked at a summer camp, sometimes this is the only escape these kids have from abusive and poverty stricken homes. I can't count the number of times I had a kid tell me that they were abused at home and wanted to stay at camp because it was the only place that he or she felt safe. For the few years I worked there, I saw numerous children get help from child protective services directly because of what happened at camp, and meeting the kids years later they often said that that experience made them better and helped them get out of hell. Not saying that going to summer camp means you get out of home abuse, but it had such a strong impact on me that I hate the idea of taking away a child's escape just because of the politics of adults. It's a really complex problem to be sure.

Holy shit. I had this when I was a baby (~24 years ago) and this is the first time hearing about somebody else having it! I hope treatment all goes well and you do just fine!