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Posted on 04/07/2010 8:23:33 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross
Don't blame celibacy. To fight the plague of sexual abuse, the church needs to become more Catholic, not less.
Throughout what U.S. Catholics called the "Long Lent" of 2002, when every week seemed to bring revelations of clerical sexual abuse and its mishandling by the church's bishops, some observers suggested that this crisis was the byproduct of some distinctive features of Catholic life: a celibate priesthood, a church governed by male bishops, a demanding sexual ethic. "Modernize" the church by changing all that, they argued, and these horrible problems would abate, even disappear.
Sexual abuse is indeed horrible, but there is no empirical evidence that it is a uniquely, predominantly, or even strikingly Catholic problem. The sexual abuse of the young is a global plague. In the United States, some 40 to 60 percent of such abuse takes place within families—often at the hands of live-in boyfriends or the second (or third, or fourth) husband of a child's mother; those cases have nothing to do with celibacy. The case of a married Wilmington, Dela., pediatrician charged with 471 counts of sexual abuse in February has nothing to do with celibacy. Neither did the 290,000 cases of sexual abuse in American public schools between 1991 and 2000, estimated by Charol Shakeshaft of Virginia Commonwealth University. And given the significant level of abuse problems in Christian denominations with married clergy, it's hard to accept the notion that marriage is somehow a barrier against sexually abusive clergy. (Indeed, the idea of reducing marriage to an abuse-prevention program ought to be repulsive.) Sexual abusers throughout the world are overwhelmingly noncelibates.
Too many of the church's bishops failed to grasp the drastic measures required to address the sexual abuse of the young ... (snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
The entirety of the sordid mess of the sex abuse scandal strikes me as the exact opposite of Winston Churchill's famous quote. The Catholic Church (the selected 'poster boy' for the MSM mob attack, which also pretends this is not the consequence of the deviance of homosexuality) and its 'so many' faithful adherents are demonized by the inexcusable actions of 'so few'.
Couldn’t be truer. Vatican II itself, we Catholics are required to believe, accomplished good. But once those windows were open, a lot more than fresh air rushed in; and far too many Catholics fail to understand that the Council spoke AGAINST the “fresh” ideas that still infect us all.
Homosexuality is the only cause of sexual abuse of children!
and the Catholic church is so vulnerable because its against abortion and its aganist homosexual marriage...officially....
plus its just so in vogue to attack the Catholic church.....
A sarcastic strawman. Obviously, as the article illuminates, "sexual abuse of the young is a global plague" and perpetrated by both hetero- and homo- sexuals.
What is a fact, though, is that for the Catholic Church over 80% of the cases of abuse by priests involved adolescent boys attacked by homosexual men (who were ordained priests in spite of their dissent with the Catholic Church over their own sexuality?).
I believe the article was by and large about the sexual abuse of little boys by Catholic priests. Since all Catholic priests are men my logical conclusion is that these men are homosexual!
HOWEVER the fact that, during the recent decades of scandal, high rates of ephebophilia — sex with post-pubescent young people, almost always males — does point to a “gay subculture” in the “celibate” Catholic priesthood.
Returning some married priests to active ministry would begin a solution to the problem.
IMO, it is payback for the Bishops standing up on 0bamacare over abortion and its reforms to curtail homosexuals in the priesthood. Two big no-no's to the secular world.
A married with children, local area rabbi, was recently arrested for sexually molesting children. Where's the outcry?
I disagree. There are a bunch of perverts who practice heterosexual abuse also. However, homosexuality is (by far)the main cause of sexual abuse of children by priests.
Without the sodomites in the church they'd have only extrememly rare incidents of any sort
Agreed! I should have been more specific in that I was referring to the priest pedophiles who abuse children.
To those of us with long enough memories, 2002 is a "re-do" of 1997. It's just that the earlier attack had shorter "legs".
Also, by the mid-80's, the problem had been pretty much resolved, as evidenced by the sharp drop in new accusations. (Notice that I said "accusations", as the presumption of innocence still applies, in both canon and civil law, even to Catholic priests.)
But why let objective data like that spoil a good trashing and looting? There's moral degeneracy to be enacted in law, after all, and the Church is in the way, so it has to go. Before the latest over-the-top accusations against Pope Benedict, the press had already given away their motivations. I remember one of their number saying words to the effect that they went after Enron, and brought it down, they went after Worldcom, and brought it down, then they went after the Catholic Church. He wondered why they had failed to bring it down, too.
I can think of a reason or two.
They think they are Gods with a capital G but they will find out that the Catholic Church isn’t Enron, it is protected by the Holy Spirit which is much more powerful than any of the gods of this world.
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