You would think that a long-term member of a religious order would recognize that raping a child is fundamentally a sinful behavior to be repented of, instead of an aberrational behavior to be "treated". Reading that Fr. Groeschel is a psychologist certainly puts his comments into a new light.
Exactly.
The "framing" of homosexuality, as well as pedophilia/pederasty, has traveled an arc from sin to:
--> crime --> sickness --> orientation --> identity --> human right
(Over-simplified and in need of definition, but you see what I'm getting at.)
Many people in and out of the Church have attitudes scattered somewhere along this spectrum. This huge turning away from moral truth has caused incalculable damage.
This is not to say that psychology has nothing whatsoever to offer in terms of understanding healing human mental and emotional ills. But it must never be allowed to supplant or contradict the primary moral judgment.
I'd go further.
If this report is accurate, it's clear that young men (and some women too) were abused precisely because of poor diagnoses and advice provided by Fr. Groeschel. He knows this and his conscience must accuse him.
That being the case, I'd day the strange comments which he made in a recent interview were largely self-serving and aimed at minimizing his own culpability in this scandal.
Recent times have seen a purging of high-profile Catholic talking heads, including Corapi, Euteneuer and Pavone. Fr. Groeschel needs to go join them and take his half-baked psychological theories with him.