L
lobster
Guest
Yes, women can be guilty of rape.
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S
Serap
Guest
S
Serap
Guest
a woman or child is never guilty of rape.
Today is the feast day of St. Agatha. She was a victim of rape. She is the patron saint of rape victims:
St. Agatha
Feastday: February 5
Although we have evidence that Agatha was venerated at least as far back as the sixth century, the only facts we have about her are that she was born in Sicily and died there a martyr.
In the legend of her life, we are told that she belonged to a rich, important family. When she was young, she dedicated her life to God and resisted any men who wanted to marry her or have sex with her. One of these men, Quintian, was of a high enough rank that he felt he could force her to acquiesce. Knowing she was a Christian in a time of persecution, he had her arrested and brought before the judge - - himself. He expected her to give in to when faced with torture and possible death, but she simply affirmed her belief in God by praying: “Jesus Christ, Lord of all, you see my heart, you know my desires. Possess all that I am. I am your sheep: make me worthy to overcome the devil.”
Legend tells us that Quintian imprisoned her in a brothel in order to get her to change her mind. Quintian brought her back before him after she had suffered a month of assault and humiliation in the brothel, but Agatha had never wavered, proclaiming that her freedom came from Jesus. Quintian sent her to prison, instead of back to the brothel – a move intended to make her more afraid, but which probably was a great relief to her. When she continued to profess her faith in Jesus, Quintian had her tortured. He refused her any medical care but God gave her all the care she needed in the form of a vision of St. Peter. When she was tortured again, she died after saying a final prayer: “Lord, my Creator, you have always protected me from the cradle; you have taken me from the love of the world and given me patience to suffer. Receive my soul.”
Because one of the tortures she supposedly suffered was to have her breasts cut off, she was often depicted carrying her breasts on a plate. It is thought that blessing of the bread that takes place on her feast may have come from the mistaken notion that she was carrying loaves of bread.
Because she was asked for help during the eruption of Mount Etna she is considered a protector against the outbreak of fire. She is also considered the patroness of bellmakers for an unknown reason – though some speculate it may have something to do with the fact that bells were used as fire alarms.
Prayer:
Saint Agatha, you suffered sexual assault and indignity because of your faith. Help heal all those who are survivors of sexual assault and protect those women who are in danger. Amen
Today is the feast day of St. Agatha. She was a victim of rape. She is the patron saint of rape victims:
St. Agatha
Feastday: February 5
Although we have evidence that Agatha was venerated at least as far back as the sixth century, the only facts we have about her are that she was born in Sicily and died there a martyr.
In the legend of her life, we are told that she belonged to a rich, important family. When she was young, she dedicated her life to God and resisted any men who wanted to marry her or have sex with her. One of these men, Quintian, was of a high enough rank that he felt he could force her to acquiesce. Knowing she was a Christian in a time of persecution, he had her arrested and brought before the judge - - himself. He expected her to give in to when faced with torture and possible death, but she simply affirmed her belief in God by praying: “Jesus Christ, Lord of all, you see my heart, you know my desires. Possess all that I am. I am your sheep: make me worthy to overcome the devil.”
Legend tells us that Quintian imprisoned her in a brothel in order to get her to change her mind. Quintian brought her back before him after she had suffered a month of assault and humiliation in the brothel, but Agatha had never wavered, proclaiming that her freedom came from Jesus. Quintian sent her to prison, instead of back to the brothel – a move intended to make her more afraid, but which probably was a great relief to her. When she continued to profess her faith in Jesus, Quintian had her tortured. He refused her any medical care but God gave her all the care she needed in the form of a vision of St. Peter. When she was tortured again, she died after saying a final prayer: “Lord, my Creator, you have always protected me from the cradle; you have taken me from the love of the world and given me patience to suffer. Receive my soul.”
Because one of the tortures she supposedly suffered was to have her breasts cut off, she was often depicted carrying her breasts on a plate. It is thought that blessing of the bread that takes place on her feast may have come from the mistaken notion that she was carrying loaves of bread.
Because she was asked for help during the eruption of Mount Etna she is considered a protector against the outbreak of fire. She is also considered the patroness of bellmakers for an unknown reason – though some speculate it may have something to do with the fact that bells were used as fire alarms.
Prayer:
Saint Agatha, you suffered sexual assault and indignity because of your faith. Help heal all those who are survivors of sexual assault and protect those women who are in danger. Amen
L
lobster
Guest
I understand where you are coming from, but myself having a close link to a woman who use to rape young adolescent boys, tragic as it is, indeed a woman most certainly can be guilty of rape. Please pray for her.
S
Serap
Guest
That’s just horrible! Women are supposed to be equipped with maternal instincts when it comes to the nurturing of children. I cannot even begin to understand!!
I pray all the time for the protection of children as I am a survivor myself. I offer my cross to God in turn for the safety of potential victims.
B
bilop
Guest
The “Enlightenment” was one of the worst things to happen to mankind.
It, along with the “Reformation” gave people the idea that they didn’t need to obey God, that they could come up with their own moral codes based on their “reason” alone.
This leads directly to Rousseau, the French Revolution, socialism, atheism, etc., etc.
All the modern terrors of totalitarianism, social darwinism, eugenics, etc. can be traced directly to the erroneous notions of the Enlightenment.
God Bless
L
lobster
Guest
I know, it is just awful, and makes me cry every time I think about it. Thank you for your prayers.
A
alongexpectedpa
Guest
I really hope you guys are kidding. Before the Enlightenment, humans were chained to superstition and religious fanaticism and used “God” as an answer to everything.
“Why did that mother die in childbirth?”
“Her father must have sinned a terrible sin.”
No, it was because the “doctors” had no access to any kind of modern medicine and she got infected.
“Is the Earth the center of the cosmos?”
“Of course it is, God wouldn’t have put humans second to any other creation.”
Sorry to break it to you, but He didn’t.
The Enlightenment can be thanked for helping to break down humans’ ego-centric view of themselves and Earth in God’s plan.
Hey, I’m not saying that nothing bad or evil came out of the Enlightenment. Bad things occasionally come out of every institution, whether it be the United States or the Catholic Church. But overall, we can trace a ridiculous amount of progress and knowledge to the time a few hundred years ago when people started asking tough questions and experimenting instead of just accepting “God” as the answer to everything.
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bilop
Guest
You are buying into to modernist, and Protestant propaganda about the Middle Ages.
Scientific and technological progress long preceded the “Enlightenment” and Catholic institutions were at the forefront, from Universities (all originally founded by the Church) to Abbys, to individual priests and monks (e.g Copernicus theorized heliocentrism long before the “Enlightenment”).
The Medieval Renaissance was a huge flowering of art, culture, philosophy and material progress in the 12-14th centuries, before the plague hit. Why do we never hear about that?
The “Enlightenment” was about the rich and powerful wanting to be free from the moral code and social compact of the Catholic Church. The scientific progress was completely incidental, and would have occurred w/o the ideological component.
God Bless
A
alongexpectedpa
Guest
What the person meant here was that the rape victim (who, in the vast, vast majority of cases are women or children) is never guilty of rape.
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Salonika
Guest
I find it amazing that people will condemn any movement because it doesn’t get EVERYTHING correct, that they will blame ALL the sins of the world on it and want to go back to a previous time which is seen as a “Golden Age” but actually wasn’t.
Why not take the good of it and throw out the bad?
B
bilop
Guest
If that’s aimed at me, it’s because I don’t think anything good came out of the “Enlightenment”. Biased (usually Protestant or atheist) historians love to demonize the Church. They want to claim the Church “held back” progress.
The material progress that followed was a coincidence and had very little to do with “Enlightenment” ideas. The Church and religious people had been at the forefront of technological progress and the furthering of knowledge throughout history. The Middle Ages had also been a period of rapid progress.
God Bless
S
Salonika
Guest
No, it’s a statement of my view that in nearly everything, including movements, there is good and bad. From 99.99% good to the same proportion bad with most in between.
B
bilop
Guest
That is certainly true. Of course, human discourse tends to speak in extremes. If you caveat an argument too much, it loses all force.
Even Hitler and Stalin probably had some redeeming features.
God Bless
C
chevalier
Guest
Easy with that. That sounds like an ideological standpoint.
That would not be consistent with Christianity because Our Lord teaches that misfortunes in life do not need to be consequences of our sins or sins of our ancestors. See for example Luke 13:1-5.
Actually, there are more possible medical causes of death in childbirth than merely infection, which you would probably not deny, since you likely used that as an example. Obviously, medicine was not as advanced as today, but it would be rather wrong if it were less advanced today than it was then or if we hadn’t done any progress.
Would you care to explain the link between the last sentence and the one before?
I think you forgot Copernicus discovered that the Earth was round and revolved around the sun. You do not need to believe me, but you ought to check the facts. You also seem to see our modern moon travels and survey of the space as a direct boon of the Enlightenment, which is a bit too far-fetched.
God is the beginning and the end, so ultimately He is the answer to everything. He is also the one who gave us reason and He gave it to us specifically so that we would use it. Nothing good - scientifically or elsewhere - comes from starting to make a premise of rejecting God - or, for that matter, from rejecting the premise of God. Rejecting or distancing ourselves from God is not a mark of progress. Progress is done by using the gift of reason which we received from God (without prejudice to the use of other gifts given from God, as all are necessary in our continued progress). Making simplistic answers and rejecting deeper thinking would halt progress. Accepting simple facts of physics as necessarily a divine intervention could be called superstition. However, a belief that God is the centre of the universe - which does not mean that the universe is greater than God, because strictly speaking the universe exists in God - is not superstition.
However, I don’t wish to deplore the Enlightenment here. What I wish is to prevent an undue idealisation of it. Our thought does not begin and end with the Enlightenment and progress is not something that happened in a way despite the Church.
A
AndyF
Guest
**Is being the victim of rape a sin?
No
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No
**
A
Arclight
Guest
Who could complain about the Hundred Years War? Or three simultaneous popes? or the Peasants Revolt (or even the existence of peasants)? or the absolutely brilliant idea of western Europeans sacking Constantinople? Or the social upheaval of the Great Famine in the decades before the plague?
Yes, the middle ages were a fantastic time. If you were rich, noble, or a high prelate or live in some other world on this planet.
C
chevalier
Guest
The middle ages were not a great time to live. Personally, I’m glad I don’t. My point with the Enlightenment is that it is overrated and often an example of progress being linked with a reduction of religious faith. I do not try to negate scientific progress or even say it’s a bad thing. Contrary, it’s a great thing and we all benefit from it, but we didn’t need to go against our faith to get it. It’s in no way certain that we’d have had no progress if it hadn’t been for a spread of anti-clericalism and masonic ideologies. I don’t see those as a prerequisite to progress.
V
vs_trumpet
Guest
I do not believe you have done any thing wrong. And what is important most of all is the journey upon which we are on.
You seem to want all perspectives, including the traditional Catholic one. The traditional perspective - NOT SHARED BY ME - would be:
- You may have sinned in choices you made leading up to the tragedy by acting imprudently or otherwise against justice.
- In the tragedy itself as well as outside of it, you may have sinned to the extent that this might apply to you: [Franciscan priest Heribert Jone in Moral Theology] “all directly voluntary sexual pleasure is mortally sinful outside of matrimony. This is true even if the pleasure is ever so brief and insignificant. Here there is no lightness of matter.” Keep in mind that in Jone’s moral theology, “voluntary” would apply to what he calls “delectation” in sexual pleasure. So someone who, totally innocently, gets herself in a situation where she spontaneously (w/out anyone else involved) climaxes would be committing mortal sin in his view if she were to “delect” in that pleasure, and he uses that kind of thing as an example. I don’t know if this is common, rare, or non-existent for a victim of rape to take any kind of delight in any physical sensation that might arise in the midst of tragedy.
C
chevalier
Guest
The “delectation” there represents a conscious choice, not a subjective sensation of delight. Remember about the requirement of knowledge and consent for a mortal sin.
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