I have great sympathy for victims of clergy sex abuse. More than anyone else, they have been the victims of the Scandal. But sometimes I get frustrated with some of them.
Yesterday, a group of female victims protested outside the Boston chancery against the new Instruction on ordaining homosexuals. They say that the new policy won’t prevent abuse against girls, saying that it wasn’t gay priests who abused them. Well, yes, but as we’ve seen the vast majority of victims were boys.
And even then this policy is not solely about stopping abuse, although that would be a side effect. The point of this policy is to make sure that the priesthood is filled with men who actually, you know, believe and integrate into their lives the Church’s teachings. It is intended to foster a healthy priesthood that effectively relates to the Church according to the Scriptural and theological imagery of the Christ and His Bride.
m afraid it is.
Some of these highly publicized meetings and protests are not really about abuse at all. They’re about dissent. It’s time we were honest about that.
The sexual abuse of minors, both children and adolescents, by those responsible for their care will never disappear but keeping homosexuals out of holy orders will certainly help – directly by drastically reducing buggery and indirectly by creating a more healthy environment for the formation of priests, one where pedophiles can be more easily identified.
At some point people who are serious about the welfare of children must deal with the toxic elements of popular culture that are corrupting all of our children and in some cases creating the deviants who prey on them.
I would ask these demonstrators if there is any evidence that pedophilia as opposed to buggery is special problem with Catholic clergy.
Well, and the other thing is that the instruction was not intended to be a comprehensive re-statement of ALL the characteristics of an appropriate candidate for the priesthood.
Criticizing it because it addressed a specific question is hardly fair. “Scapegoating gays” is the talking point of the day. Did anyone read Ellen Goodman’s dishonest column on the subject?
This Summer a teenaged girl walked into a McDonalds wearing a miniskirt so high that it was obvious that she was not wearing underwear. She was also wearing a bikini top. Naturally the men all looked at her. Most, or at least the ones I saw, looked and to their credit, turned their eyes. The only ones who kept looking were two teenaged boys and they, ironically were laughing at her.
If grown normal men are suddenly caught by the sight of an attractive young female how can anyone who’s not a fool assume that gay men aren’t doing the same? And another thing, most of the sexual crimes didn’t involved some kid being dragged into a basement and raped. Most involved seduction. It’s not scapegoating to want to keep a gay priest from temptation. He’s going to look at atractive young males of 17, 16 and 15 years of age and he’s going to be attracted. I’d rather not sit and hope that he will be sensible to turn his eyes away.
was sodom and gomorre destroyed because there were fervent,religous and loving people or because they were sinners that were not repentting? now, are we going to be allied to the sin of homosexuality?or are we going to make everything possible to live a life free of risks? and if so, isn,t prohibitting homosexuals to go into semiaries and convents a good step forewards to stop the risk of letting sin (or the devil) into those places?… if we all know the ansewer……Why all the fuss?… let the saints keep marching on and the sssstuborns let’em keep being sneakes. and in this case Catholics are and have saints and the rest just a bunch of snakes that God will crush their head.
delta 1, that doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. It’s no wonder we’re in the mess we’re in.
All of you, if you read delta’s post above, you’ll get a very fair look at what morals are about for approximately 50% of the population.
Expecting people to form their own moral norms is a pipe dream. Most people need to have the choices and reasons laid out, with some education and then they can choose. from those stated alternatives. They can’t get there by themselves.