Posted on 08/04/2005 9:37:09 AM PDT by AMTRepub
One reason for the reluctance is that the Catholic Church has to endure a lot of blackmail attempts over this.
We on the Protestant side have no hierarchical protection from our denominations (speaking for my own). So if we were to commit a felony, most of our congregations would send us down river to the appropriate authorities (which is a good thing). It seems to me, and I'm not Catholic-bashing here, that the RCC's vast network of world-wide communities would make it easier to just shuffle one bad-priest to some monastary in Italy instead of just canning him.
That report, and the greatly deflated numbers, are from the Catholic Church's investigation into the problem.
How about a true study of the magnitude of the problem.
BTW: Teachers are not preachers, you cannot ask them to behave like Christians. That is why my kids go to a private Christian School.
I have to answer to God someday for putting them into hands of Godly people, not the sodomites that run the public schools today.
That is really good advice.
I could not follow the link to the full article, but going only from the blurb he has only been charged. If he committed statutory rape (even if the girls were "willing" (no 14 year old can have true understanding, and therefore cannot be really willing, in my opinion)) with either of these girls he should be locked up, after the girls fathers and mothers have some quality time with him. However, we supposedly believe in innocent until proven guilty. Everyone here seems to have already found him guilty
Not only is that true (that congregations would not try to protect the pervert), but I have a hard time understanding the reactions of the parents of past victims that did not go to authorities and file a complaint. I can't imagine parents going ONLY to the church and doing nothing in the legal sense when they found out what had been done to their child. If that had happened to me, my parents would have gone to the church first to warn them about the person, and then would go to the police immediately to have criminal charges filed. They wouldn't have accepted it if someone at the church had told them to sit tight and let the Church handle it internally.
Here's just an intersting tidbit. When I was a youth pastor back in Michigan and if a teen confided in me that he was being abused by his parents, I would have to, by law, notify the authorities. RCC priests are forbidden to divulge any info under their system of confession. So the system itself contributes to a culture of secrecy.
I am aware Satan corrupts Protestants as well.
But, we deal with the problem.
"We've just been targetted for destruction by the secular establishment."
This is absurd, Catholicism is the wealthiest organization on the face of the planet. How on earth can it be destryoed by man?
After all it will have a huge part to play come very soon.
" I work with youth and I have never been alone with any of them."
Thats good advice for anyone.
Celibacy:
[1 Timothy 4:1-3]
Celicacy is taught by people who have turned away from the truth [verse 1], that it is taught by "liars" [verse 2], that is it taught by liars whose consciences have been rendered useless -- un-working -- because they have been "seared as with a hot iron" [verse 2].
Then, the Apostle Paul states that one of these teachings is "forbidding people to marry" and teaching them to "abstain from certain kinds of food which God created to be received with thanksgiving" [verse 3].
...Celibacy has consistently produced a moral disaster in the Catholic Church for many hundreds of years....
...former priest Lucien Vinet states:
"Forced celibacy, auricular confession and some aspects of the priest's training, render a Roman priest a sexually-abnormal person or a sex pervert."...
..properly distinguish God's rare gift of Celibacy to His elected few, versus Satan's counterfeit of a Forced Celibacy upon an entire class of individuals called priests...
... since Celibacy was forced upon the entire priesthood in 1123 AD, Satan has been able to exploit natural human weakness and sweep so many of the priests into such a "sex-starved" state that most of them became sexual perverted. By choosing 1123, we have demonstrated that sexual perversion has been an integral part of the Roman Catholic priesthood for almost 900 years, and during the entire time of the Inquisition!...
...quoted former Father Vinet, in his book, "I Was A Priest",as saying:
"Forced celibacy, auricular confession and some aspects of the priest's training, render a Roman priest a sexually-abnormal person or a sex pervert." ...
...In other words, the priests were forced by their human nature to become "professional hypocrites", and their parishioners could see that they did not "walk the talk"; thus, the young men and women of the parish felt free to indulge their fleshly desires just as they saw the priests indulge theirs. Thus, society at large became looser in morals as time rolled on.
Bishop Feijo' returns to this subject at the end of the book: "Now it is certain, from the uninterrupted experience of fifteen centuries, that the law enjoining celibacy has produced immorality in a class of citizens charged with instructing the public in morality and religion. For this cause, their office, beside being useless, becomes prejudicial, whenever the people find their conduct giving the lie to their doctrines and precepts, immorality in society being thus encouraged." [Page 110]
When a Roman Catholic bishop concludes that the priesthood is "useless", that is strong opinion, because this man clearly loves the Catholic Church and believes it to the be true church in the world! Feijo no where demonstrates a hatred toward the Catholic Church, just toward the institution of Forced Celibacy...
...Father Venet stated that the vast majority of priests learn to become "professional hypocrites", in order to deceive their parishioners with an exterior piety and normalcy, while retaining the wicked inner heart of sexual perversion!...
...Listen to Bishop Feijo' --
"... priests married with impunity in the greater share of dioceses, even with the permission of their respective bishops." [Page 93]....
...Paul has just given us a very, very important understanding in this regard: Celibacy is a Gift from God! It is not given to everyone, nor does Paul ever indicate that God gives celibacy to each minister of the Gospel. In fact, we know that most of the Apostles were married men! Even Peter was married. Bishop Feijo' speaks to this very point:
"It has now been proven that this institution [Celibacy] is neither divine nor apostolic in its origin; that up to the close of the third century Christian ministers were at liberty to marry, and live a conjugal life ..." [Page 93]
"We have further demonstrated that clerical celibacy was neither enjoined by Christ and his apostles upon ministers of religion, nor was it exclusively recommended to them." [Page 96]...
... While the Apostle Paul noted that he had been given the gift of celibacy, he never commanded the ministers whom he controlled to observe celibacy! Why? Because Paul knew that God had not given them the gift of celibacy; therefore, they were better off to get married....
... How much more do you need to hear... a wise person can only come to one conclusion from the facts...
...The societal difference is equally huge! Remember what Bishop Feijo noted?
"Here is also the reason why the greater share of impartial historians bestow so much praise on the Greek and Protestant clergy, when they compare their morality with that of Catholic priests in general." [Page 58]
In a book just released, entitled, "Betrayal", written by the Investigative Staff of the Boston Globe, we read: "There is absolutely no parallel between this [Catholic] scandal in the Protestant clergy".
This is the real reason we see such a morally depraved scandal amongst the Roman Catholic priests today, where pedophile priests have preyed upon so many thousands of innocent children in their care, and the bishops and cardinals have protected the pedophiles!...
..."It is now proved, that from the moment clerical celibacy was instituted, the law requiring it has been violated;...
...In other words, the morality the priest is trying to preach and teach is discredited and undermined by that priest's own actions, of which the members of the congregation are usually well aware! Thus, many of the parishioners will turn to licentiousness simply because they see their priest doing it! Further, if they see the priest acting so hypocritically, they will disregard his other teachings on other matters; thus, hypocrisy in sexual matters breeds other sin within the congregation, i.e., stealing, lying, murder. Is it any wonder the Mafia is deeply Catholic?...
..."St. Clement of Alexandria, that father who was acquainted with the immediate disciples of the apostles ... When he combated the enemies of matrimony, who alleged the example of Jesus Christ, who never married, he replied, that the Savior had no need of a helpmate, that it was not his object during his sojourn on earth to train up children, but that the church was his bride. He attacked his adversaries with the example of St. Peter and St. Philip, who had wives and children ...
...Bishop Feijo' continues, telling us how heart of hear the average parishioner is, and how easy it is for them to accept the spiritual illusions than to face up to the truth:
"Such is the power of prejudice that even among us a large proportion of the common people would have less aversion to hear mass and receive the sacraments from a priest living in notorious concubinage than from one who was married, but led an acknowledgedly virtuous life. So greatly does the pretence of perfection imposed upon the ignorant. We ought, however, to desire truth and not imposture." [Page 77]...
...While I find it incredible to believe that a high proportion of Catholic faithful would really prefer the hypocritical pretensions of celibate spiritual perfection over the reality of a married priest living in honor, I can only take this good Bishop Feijo' at his word. Does this wicked attitude prevail amongst the Catholic faithful today?...
..."Things have become no better", writes Bishop Feijo' in 1828, but he might as well have been writing in 2002! Such an understanding speaks directly and loudly to the present priestly pedophilia, does it not? ...
...If a large building were built on such a faulty foundation as the Roman Catholic Church is built upon, that building would fall, and great would be the fall of it!
..As the religions of the world head into the final stretch where they will become globally united in the religion of Antichrist and his False Prophet, are we seeing the deliberate weakening of the Roman Catholic Church so it can be incorporated with the rest of the world's religions? After all, a global uniting of all religions is not possible if one of them is so powerful...
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:iWe5_MMqNJMJ:www.cuttingedge.org/news/n1679.cfm+kjv+celibacy&hl=en
I've never heard about a circumstance such as you described, only actual sins commited. I spent last summer with two priests who were adamant that they would not could not divulge any information regarding dialogue between themselves and a parisioner. The Navy Chaplain Corps concept of privileged communication is based on the RCC model.
You may be right though, I've just never heard that as an exception.
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