It's like the Holocaust, no really

[kinvore.livejournal.com]

Wow. Pope Benedict's personal preacher Raniero Cantalamessa created a firestorm by comparing the scrutiny and pressure the Catholic Church has been experiencing lately in their molestation scandals to the "more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism."

This just further illustrates why the Roman Catholic Church will never take real steps to stop abuse. They aren't concerned with the children that are getting raped, they're only concerned with their own reputation. They see themselves as being wrongfully attacked, and never does it enter their minds that their actions (and lack thereof) contributed to what they are enduring now.

I hope the pressure never lets up but sooner or later the mainstream media will give up on it, only to flare up again down the road after more children have been raped, and the cycle will repeat again.

Pope Benedict, the only way this is going to end is if you take real steps towards stopping abuse. First of all stop protecting priests who molest children and treat it like the horrific sin (and crime) that it is. Throw them out of the Church and/or turn them in to law enforcement.

To help prevent this from happening as much you're going to have to allow priests to marry. Stop making excuses, stop covering up, and make a real effort to end this abuse.

Comments

[stewstewstewdio.livejournal.com]

But what it may inhibit is a sheltered and unimpaired worldwide child molestation ring that is sanctioned under the premise of a religion. Let's face it. It isn't so much the behavior that is being put in check by marriage as it is the opportunity for child molesters to gather and have the protection of the Catholic Church

[mrbogey.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure the Catholic church says child molestation is worse than wanting to get married.

Molesters don't join the priesthood because they want to molest children. They do it because they're sick and they want to purge themselves of their sin.

Same reason why people get shot at anti-violence events.

[stewstewstewdio.livejournal.com]

"Molesters don't join the priesthood because they want to molest children. They do it because they're sick and they want to purge themselves of their sin."

That makes the Church even more guilty than ever. If that is the case and the Church accepts that, then it is complicit in the crime by allowing the molesters access to the children. A priest is required to leave the Church in order to get married. The same is not true of a priest that molests children

[stewstewstewdio.livejournal.com]

Correction: Not leave the Church, but leave the priesthood.

[futurebird.livejournal.com]

If that is the case and the Church accepts that, then it is complicit in the crime by allowing the molesters access to the children.

You see if this is the case. If a person can have a record and they still take him then I take back my other comments they ARE totally at fault in the worst way-- but I have never heard of such a thing until today.

[mrbogey.livejournal.com]

'That makes the Church even more guilty than ever.'

How? They aren't looking for these people to recruit.

'The same is not true of a priest that molests children'

Because the church tells them not to molest kids either way.

[stewstewstewdio.livejournal.com]

If the Church is not screening for child molesters by asking them about it, then they are condoning this behavior. If the seminarian lies during screening, this would be cause to expel the priest from the priesthood on first occurrence.

Pedophilia has been an age old problem with the Church. It has been, at the very least, tolerated beyond the norms of society. Again, a priest must leave the Church to get married. Pedophilia just gets them relocated. An action beyond "No, no, naughty boy" must be taken or they will continue to actively attract pedophiles.

[ryder-p-moses.livejournal.com]

They are looking to recruit people who are willing to give up an ordinary adult sex life long-term in order to surround themselves with children in an insular, trusted role. It doesn't matter whether or not it's a conscious act, they're selecting in part for pedophiles. And they've certainly done nothing to select against them.

[qnetter]

Molesters don't join the priesthood because they want to molest children. They do it because they're sick and they want to purge themselves of their sin.

So they claim.

[mrbogey.livejournal.com]

If they wanted to molest kids, there's certainly a lot of private sector jobs that could help them.

[stewstewstewdio.livejournal.com]

I challenge you to name a legitimate private sector industry that condones and harbors pedophilia on a de facto basis like the Church does.

[futurebird.livejournal.com]

Molesters don't join the priesthood because they want to molest children.

Do known molesters often join the priesthood?

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

it is typical behaviour
http://www.victimsofviolence.on.ca/rev2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=355&Itemid=45

[ex-restless.livejournal.com]

Not known molesters, no. I would say it's probably true that in a time in the Church before such heavy psychological evaluation was required to be admitted into seminary or religious life that there may have been a significant number of men who recognized internally some sort of deviant sexual patterns in them, and saw the celibacy of the priesthood as a protection from themselves, which in reality led them to the sort of suppression that made it even more likely that they might molest or act out in some way.

In today's Church there is a really intense psychological evaluation required, much of it dealing with issues of sexuality, as well as a focus on formation that is much, much more likely to identify someone with this sort of deviant sexuality well before they ever are in a position to be around children. It's not foolproof, obviously, but to say that the Church has grown leaps and bounds in this area over the past decade or two would be an understatement.

Re: To help prevent this from happening as much you're going to have to allow priests to marry. Stop

[futurebird.livejournal.com]

co-sign.

Re: To help prevent this from happening as much you're going to have to allow priests to marry. Stop

[kinvore.livejournal.com]

But I'm also sick of reading that "abstinence" makes a child molester. WTF?
I never said this, that's a gross misinterpretation. I'm going to repeat something I said earlier.

There is nothing wrong with being celibate by choice. At least if you struggle with sexual tension you have options.

Priests have no options. Masturbation is forbidden, so here we have these men unable to relieve any sexual tension and yet they have access to children. You don't see how this leads to disaster?

I've known many devout Catholics who are deacons and the like but never became a priest because they wanted to marry. This would give such men a chance to become priests and also give options to those who already are priests. On top of all that it would help with the shortage of priests that the Catholic Church is presently experiencing. It's win win win.

I'm not saying this would solve everything. It's one step, another (and more important one) being they stop shielding priests from consequences of raping children. There needs to be a zero tolerance policy, one strike and you're out of the priesthood and turned over to the police.

Re: To help prevent this from happening as much you're going to have to allow priests to marry. Stop

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

...and turned over to the police

Very obvious reason why this hasn't happened and is unlikely to happen with the Catholic church... sanctuary.

Unlike other churches, Roman Catholic are emissary missions of the Vatican, a sovereign state. Just as they can harbour fugitives, they can offer sanctuary by international law, just as they could at any other embassy or consulate. Your law simply doesn't apply. What applies is the law of the Imperial Church of Rome and the recognized Sovereign State of Vatican City.

No other church, not even the Church of England, enjoys this aspect. However states often allow leeway courtesy of granting sanctuary to other churches, but cops can enforce the law within any Protestant Church or Mosque or Synagogue. They usually just don't. But the badge is null and void within a Catholic diocese.

If you're running from the cops, this is where you escape. The priests can turn you over to the authorities. They can even allow the cops in the church, but the actual arrest, being read your rights etc, had better take place outside church property for it to be legal.

Not sure if this works on Roman Catholic cemeteries. I know this doesn't apply to Catholic schools (which are gov't owned).

[stewstewstewdio.livejournal.com]

And so they would be married, molesting, and under the protection of the Catholic Church.
And that changes the playing field how?

It would attract a more socially mainstream personnel base for priests as opposed to the specialized one it is attracting now. Also, the priest's immediate family would provide another level of accountability. Any deviant behavior would be subject to the scrutiny of the family besides the Church.

There are going to be exceptions, of course. There always are. But unless you can provide an absolutely flawless reasonable solution for a deterrent, this is the best one I can think of.

[ex-restless.livejournal.com]

If this were true, then why is sexual molestation so prevalent in all institutions working with children, often times more prevalent in those institutions not demanding celibacy?

Or to put it another way, what studies or facts can you cite that support the notion that sexual molestation by priests would be ameliorated by the ending of the discipline of celibacy?

[stewstewstewdio.livejournal.com]

All you have to do is look at most Protestant faiths that allow marriage within their clergy. They don't seem to have the hailstorm that the Catholic Church seems to be going through.

The exception, it seems, are the Mormons who do forced youth marriages, but that is a completely different sexual abuse discussion. Unfortunately, it includes the religious culture and parental rights issues as well.

[ex-restless.livejournal.com]

What evidence do you have that ministers in Protestant religions sexually abuse at lesser percentages than Catholic priests? Because whenever studies have been done examining molestation of institutions where non-celibate persons work with children, those rates are always higher than in the Catholic Church. It's actually a very small percentage of Catholic priests who have ever been accused of these things, and that number has gone down dramatically in recent years, so much so that in 2009 there were only 6 cases of sexual abuse by priests worldwide. 6 out of 400,000.

The point is, you are making a statement that is not backed up by evidence. You've bought into a perception that just isn't justified by facts. If you cite a study that examines sexual abuse from Protestant ministers and shows how it is in any way lower than the percentage of Catholic priests who have been accused of abuse, then we can talk. But the facts tell a very different story.