German priest admits 280 counts of sexual abuse

[wendy_w]

You know its like every time the church starts to move on from this nightmare it pops up somewhere else, when is it going to pass. Our kids need to be safe to worship and we all need to have a church we can be proud of. The Vatican must get serious in rooting out these corrupted priests once and for all.

 

[kama3]

Moreover, I don’t care who says what: the abuse by priests has been by far male/male adolescent or post-adolescent… at and after a time when seminarians were complaining about a flamboyantly homosexual atmosphere at the seminaries. Hello? Does this sound like homosexuality?

Ahem. So, if there’s a flamboyantly homosexual atmosphere at the seminaries, and the abuse is homosexual, then the obvious conclusion is that the institution is deeply infested with homosexuality… Yet it preaches against homosexuality!

Pharisees.

 

[kama3]

This case is about pederasty, a man molesting adolescent boys. Always morally wrong. It doesn’t matter what some societies allowed sometime in history, they were wrong.

Molesting anyone is wrong. That’s a very simple concept that this priest was apparently unable to grasp. It would be good that everyone had a firm understanding of that before we move to discussing morality of victimless acts between consenting adults.

 

[kama3]

If their real concern were the abuse of children, they’d be ranting every day about ALL the sexual abuse of children, not the .2% (point 2 percent) that occurs in our society through priests.

Because the remaining 99.8% of child molesters do not claim to be infallible teachers of morality, devoid of earthly passions. Hypocrisy always makes a good story.

 

[Ana_v]

Molesting anyone is wrong.

I don’t mind the pedophilia vs ephebophilia nuance per se (with regards to clerical acts of abuse against minors) and in fact, for the purposes of psychological and sociological research this is pertinent information. However, one needs to be extremely careful in the manner in which this nuance is presented, because it can unfortunately come off as though one is trying to downplay the abuse.

As to the priest (in the article) being unable to perceive the lack of consent on the part of his victims. How infuriating on two counts. First off, unless the priest had a pre-existing mental illness, it is difficult to believe that his perception ability was that deficient. Secondly, with or without consent of the other person, he has *no business * engaging in lewd/sexual activity with anyone. He is supposed to be chaste.

 

[CatholicBoy1957]

I don’t mind the pedophilia vs ephebophilia nuance per se (with regards to clerical acts of abuse against minors) and in fact, for the purposes of psychological and sociological research this is pertinent information. However, one needs to be extremely careful in the manner in which this nuance is presented, because it can unfortunately come off as though one is trying to downplay the abuse.

As to the priest (in the article) being unable to perceive the lack of consent on the part of his victims. How infuriating on two counts. First off, unless the priest had a pre-existing mental illness, it is difficult to believe that his perception ability was that deficient. Secondly, with or without consent of the other person, he has *no business * engaging in lewd/sexual activity with anyone. He is supposed to be chaste.

he has *no business * engaging in lewd/sexual activity with anyone

The left-wing won’t say that though. They like sins against the sixth commandment. If a priest sins with a person of the age of consent, they’re hunky dory with that. It bolsters their own immorality. “Pedophiles”, as they call them, are the scapegoats, the route of blame and distraction, the dodge and weave.

 

[incense]

Ahem. So, if there’s a flamboyantly homosexual atmosphere at the seminaries, and the abuse is homosexual, then the obvious conclusion is that the institution is deeply infested with homosexuality… Yet it preaches against homosexuality!

Pharisees.

I’m not sure you want to go there. There’s been a lot of people who have come forward and documented that during the 50-80s there was a push to get homosexual seminarians and to send home the devout heterosexual. I’ve been reading them for years. I remember going to hear a speaker who wrote a book about this and having so many people in the audience stand up and add their eye witness testimony.

Now why did the bishops and professors go along with the infiltration? Lots of reasons, but my personal favorite is that it’s easy for evil people to fool good people. They just aren’t expecting it because they would never imagine doing it.

 

[incense]

As to the priest (in the article) being unable to perceive the lack of consent on the part of his victims. How infuriating on two counts. First off, unless the priest had a pre-existing mental illness, it is difficult to believe that his perception ability was that deficient. Secondly, with or without consent of the other person, he has *no business * engaging in lewd/sexual activity with anyone. He is supposed to be chaste.

Agreed. And might I add that these priests don’t just usually suddenly, forcefully rape the kids, they slowly work on them. Usually they find the ones who can keep a secret. Then they ply them with alcohol and pornography. The one in our parish taught them dirty songs and stories. Then they ease into the sex. So some might even say that they get consent. They might call it wooing. I call it molestation. And you can see the damage on these young men decades later.

 

[Scoobyshme]

Because the remaining 99.8% of child molesters do not claim to be infallible teachers of morality, devoid of earthly passions. Hypocrisy always makes a good story.

Hypocrasy is all over the place. Every individual who claims to be Christian who sins is a hypocrite. That’s nothing new.

But the media isn’t really interested in the hypocrasy viewpoint. They have an agenda to take the Catholic Church down so we will stop preaching against morality and they can more successfully promote their pro-abortion, pro-gay, anti-God agenda.

 

[kama3]

They have an agenda to take the Catholic Church down

The Church is doing an excellent job at taking herself down. After all, it wasn’t the media who enacted Crimen solicitationis. It wasn’t the media who got the idea to shuffle accused priests around with no oversight. It isn’t the media who is unable to identify serial molesters in its own organization.

 

[Scoobyshme]

The Church is doing an excellent job at taking herself down. After all, it wasn’t the media who enacted Crimen solicitationis. It wasn’t the media who got the idea to shuffle accused priests around with no oversight. It isn’t the media who is unable to identify serial molesters in its own organization.

Nothing will ever take the Church down because the Church is, and always will be, indefectibly holy. Not because of the Pope, the bishops, the priests and religious, or us. But because the Church is the Body of Christ. It has, as its head, Jesus, Himself. And as its soul, the Holy Spirit. Hard as everyone may try, it will still be standing tall when Jesus returns. Bet the house on it.

The Church has ALWAYS had sinners among its ranks, even among the Apostles (Judas betrayed Jesus; Peter denied Him; the rest, except for St. John, deserted Him like cowards during His passion). This is absolutely nothing new or earth shattering. It’s how it’s always been. The Church is not a museum of Saints, and has never claimed to be. It is a hospital for sinners and its sole purpose is the salvation of souls.

There are those within and without the Church who do not like the teachings of the Church and would be very happy to do the Church in if they could. They would like to subjectively and arbitrarily make up their own rules to follow. In other words, they would like to be their own gods. I have bad news for them, though. There is only one God, and He makes up the rules. Not us.

 

[cmforte]

I think the negative effect of such scandals is not what causes people to leave the Church. In my childhood there were enough whispers about certain priests and nobody left the Church over that. The real problem causing people to beak with the Church, in my mind, is not the offenses but the way they were initially handled by authorities. Also, now that they’re being handled better by Church authorities, us continuing to blame the devil and the media just offends victims and their families as well as those who were wavering to begin with. Why can’t we simply take our flak without whining or seeking scapegoats?

 

[cmforte]

Semantics and pschological wordplay are stale and unsatisfying in their attepts at finding understanding where there is none. What we have here are abominations, severe corruptions that crack the sense of purity within the priesthood itself. These things confound us because reason never can penetrate evil, nor explain it away. These are wounds that seep and never seem to heal. An apostasy within the priesthood is buckling the very foundations of the Church.

Personally, I used to struggle with the pain that these things wrought upon my soul, as if a dagger was being thrust into my heart, then bitterly turned; as if I was under assuault. These reports of abuse would slice me to the core. I prayed for a way in which to cope with such heartache, and what I discerned was that my pain was as if I were watching the Lord being scourged, and that the severity of my angst represented the depth of my love for Jesus Christ. These abominations hurt me so deeply because the Lord means so much to me. That has been a revelation to me. My suffering regarding these horrors has affirmed the breadth of my faith to myself.

Perhaps, the Church needs a new sort of internal “Inquisition”, in the purest sense of that term. Maybe, from the Horn of Africa to the Arctic Circle, every priest should be reevaluated, and be candidly re-appraised for their virtues, and vices. We must remove the corruption from the priesthood, before more damage can be done. It sounds extreme, but this current state of affairs cannot continue. The hierarchy must excise the cancer now, before it consumes the entire Church.

My hope for the Church in this time of trial reflects upon the tribulations of Saint Peter. He knew Jesus was the Son of God, yet he denied Him three times. Imagine the depths of despair this man must have endured during Christ’s Passion. But, the Holy Spirit buttressed him, just as Christ had foretold, and he perservered. Judas killed himself, but Peter was sustained. He was restored through grace.

The bones of Peter, the “Rock” of our religion, rest beneath the alter of the Basilca which bears his name (more than two-thousand years after his sin). Let us hope, that even through these dark days of the Clerical Sex Abuse Scandal, that the Roman Catholic Church will regain Herself, as Saint Peter did, and once again lead the world toward its only hope…Jesus Christ.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[Gift_from_God]

The left-wing won’t say that though. They like sins against the sixth commandment. If a priest sins with a person of the age of consent, they’re hunky dory with that. It bolsters their own immorality. “Pedophiles”, as they call them, are the scapegoats, the route of blame and distraction, the dodge and weave.

Your comment is disrespectful and incorrect. You are generalizing an entire group of people with no facts. If you don’t want to be liberal and prefer to view yourself as conservative, fine, go ahead, but don’t make these insulting claims about people like myself “liking” sins.