If only. The problem is actually much worse than that.
Not all of the men ordaining priests were "divinely inspired". In fact, the evidence shows that many of them may have been under the inspiration of a completely different spirit.
Posted on 04/14/2010 6:49:02 AM PDT by NYer
Gay rights groups have condemned the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, for claiming that the Catholic church's sexual abuse crisis was linked to homosexuality and paedophilia and not celibacy among priests.
Bertone, who is considered Pope Benedict's number two, sparked the controversy on a visit to Chile when he suggested gay sexuality was to blame for the church's child abuse scandals.
Homosexual associations in Italy reacted with anger and indignation. The biggest group, Arcigay, called the cardinal's words "shocking and irresponsible". The president of the gay media service, Gaynet, said if senior church officials "feel constrained to dump the blame on homosexuals, it says a lot about the current state of desperation in the Vatican".
Gay rights advocates in Chile also waded in. "Neither Bertone nor the Vatican has the moral authority to give lessons on sexuality," Rolando Jiménez, president of the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation in Chile, told AP.
No reputable study exists to support the cardinal's claims, said Jiménez added. "This is a perverse strategy by the Vatican to shirk its own ethical and legal responsibility by making a spurious and disgusting connection."
The cardinal, who is known for his blunt and sometimes tactless manner, made the remarks at a televised press conference in Chile's capital Santiago.
He said: "Many psychologists and psychiatrists have shown that there is no link between celibacy and paedophilia but many others have shown, I have recently been told, that there is a relationship between homosexuality and paedophilia. This pathology is one that touches all categories of people, and priests to a lesser degree in percentage terms. The behaviour of the priests in this case, the negative behaviour, is very serious, is scandalous."
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
I may simply be looking at this too much from a religious perspective, rather than a political one. I don’t know.
But it seems that the point of church governance is to protect the Faith from those who wish to deliberately lie about their goals and motives.
I mean, we certainly expect that Pope didn’t lie his way into the position, right? There are policies in place at every level to check for a sincere belief, a true heart, before putting people into the Priesthood.
I know from an earthly perspective that bad people get to be Pastors. We even tend to expect that in churches where there is little oversight, but where every congregation does their own thing — it’s easy for a man to deceive a laity.
But in churches like the Catholic church, there are men of proven faith (like the Pope) who are in charge, and that control filters down to the ordination of individual Priests. You would expect that this policy would make it much less likely for liars and people without conscience to be put in charge of flocks of the laity who count on the Church to protect them from wolves.
Seriously. I have absolutely no idea what that term means. I've never heard it before.
And yes, you do blame the bad people for doing bad things, and you blame the supposedly good people for failing to do their job, if indeed they did so fail. You cannot properly do the latter, though, if you do not understand what their job is. Specifically, you have to understand the limits of their job, and how the organization is organized.
The point of this article is that the good people are identifying what sort of bad people they're dealing with, and what steps they're taking against the bad people. IOW they're doing their jobs.
Even one (there may be more) of the Kennedys is trying to bring down the Pope. Heard Kathleen Kennedy Townsend on the Barbara Simpson radio program say that she would like the Pope to resign!
You wrote:
“It sure sounds like an excuse.”
How? The comments he made explained why the abuse started. It did not in any way excuse why the bishops so often poorly dealt with it. Explain to me how, therefore, it sounds like an excuse?
“And the news seems to report it as an excuse.”
Is that surprising? These reproters are the same people who make things up out of thin air or lie to you in other ways EVERY DAY.
“In public relations, perception is reality.”
Thank goodness I’m not in public relations. I deal with reality. Real reality.
“We aren’t supposed to win the public relations game, we are supposed to preach God’s word and follow his commands.”
And that’s what he was doing - by telling the truth about the link between homosexuality and abuse. Homosexuality is an abomination.
No Catholic will ever defend the indefensible. Most of the sex abuse that took place dates back to the 50's and earlier, long before JPII. I would ask you, however, what is being done in non-Catholic communities to stop predatory sex abuse of children? This is not limited to the Catholic Church.
Sex Abuse of Children by Protestant Clergy.
The Catholic Church here, through its bishops in the USCCB, have implemented a program to prevent future occurrences. This includes all members of the community who come in contact with children, from janitors in the schools to volunteers who teach children at the parish level. We all are subjected to fingerprinting and a police background check. We are also required to attend classes on how to identify sexual predators and what actions to take. This is possible because of the centralized nature of the Catholic Church. It is also the reason why the media have been able to focus a laser beam on us. This is not possible in the non-Catholic denominations where there is no one to take responsibility.
Report: Protestant Church Insurers Handle 260 Sex Abuse Cases a Year
Worse still, is the sex abuse of children in the education system.
WHEN BOYS ARE MOLESTED BY TEACHERS AND OTHERS IN POSITIONS OF AUTHORITY
And then there are the camp counselors, Big Brothers of America and the list goes on and on. There is plenty of guilt to go around.
What are you doing to stop these abuses?
Are there men doing that? Seriously?
Yep... we have to have full time perimeter security... they show up day one.. and just sort of wander around, by day two or three they are wandering around in clothes that look very much like the adult volunteers... Happens EVERY year.
My goodness. Someone at the Vatican said the truth and is getting to the root of the issue concerning the priests who molest little boys. Same sex attraction and molestation is called homosexuality or the homosexual expression of bi-sexuality!
The tolerance of homosexuality in the seminaries and priesthood has been a disaster for the church. Either the church is going to protect kids from perverts or the church is going to protect it’s sexual perverts. So far the perverts have won out.
They are doing even worse in public schools. In ten years will will have thousands of public school abused boys coming forward as men.
The tolerance of homosexuality in the society at large has been a disaster for all. Why do we expect the Church to be different when we, the society at large, celebrate pederasty with laws. entertainment and street parades?!
Predatory single moms have been known to attempt to entice married Cub Scout leaders away from day camp ... seriously.
But it’s never occurred to me to think strange men would just show up. I’ll give my son who’s volunteering this year a heads-up to keep a close eye on the little boys.
Have sentries patrol in pairs, one with a video camera, and follow them back to wherever they came from. Name em & shame em.
Oh we call the cops on em, more often than not the cops know who they are. Kid yourself not folks, homosexuality is a mental disorder... no they aren’t all pedophiles, but they are nearly 50 times more likely to be one than the typical straight person. That’s just reality.
That is right.
I can only speak to what my church would do, not “protestants” in general. Except I can’t speak to what my denomination does, because I haven’t really looked into it. Fortunately, we haven’t managed to make the news in this regard (not saying we don’t have abuse, just that I don’t know about it because the media didn’t focus on us).
I don’t think the Catholic church means to make excuses. It’s just that when you have something that is so indefensible, no matter how much you apologize and take steps to correct it, if you make any statements that sound like a justification, it comes out badly.
I disagree with the Catholic Church’s emphasis on celibacy, and in fact think married Priests are the biblical norm — but I don’t think celibacy itself is the reason for abuse, as there is plenty of abuse by married people.
I do think that you would greatly reduce the problem of Priests turning out to be gay if you had only married Priests. But if you believe in Celibacy, there’s no reason you would adopt a marriage rule simply to avoid sex abuse. God’s rules are the rules, regardless of the problems they might cause.
Years ago, I lived in an inner-city neighborhood that had an 'adult' theater & a couple of 'adult' bookstores. Just-regular-citizens closed those businesses down by filming the people going in and out and writing down their license numbers. Shame does work.
Nowadays of course it's all available on the internet, but I guess eventually just images aren't enough and that's what drives people to act out.
/armchair-shrink-mode
Haven’t seen you for a while. Excellent post.
You are right, but as the general population isn't celibate, the priests are doing better than the gp. Not up to God's standards, I agree.
What about your local school district? Schools are our responsibility, right? The Catholic Church is dealing with the 0.3% of sex abusers, most of whom are dead. You can donate to SESAME to assist with costs for teachers who have abused minors.
Shun the truth like vampires shun the sun, or the cross.
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