Pennsylvania Priest Caught in Sex Scandal

  • Thread starter Thread starter LiberalPrincess
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Brendan said:
That is simply the medical definition of pedophilia; that of a post-pubescent attraction to pre pubescent children. I was not the one who created that definition. If you have a problem with the definition, talk to the APA.
Click to expand...
There is a new definition of Pedophilia-that is “anytime a catholic Priest has sex with a male of any age”
 
estesbob said:
**CONGREGATION FOR CATHOLIC EDUCATION

Instruction
Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations
with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies
in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders **

***In the light of such teaching, this Dicastery, in accord with the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, believes it necessary to state clearly that the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question[9], cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practise homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called “gay culture”[10].
vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20051104_istruzione_en.html
Click to expand...
A priest who happens to be SSA can serve clergy without practicing homosexuality and supporting the “gay culture.” For most, one’s identity is not defined by one’s sexuality.
 
SamH said:
Agreed.

While it is perfectly socially acceptable to claim “celibacy turns you into a pervert” try stating the same about about the gay life style without howls of protests.
Click to expand...
I am ignorant about Church justifications for Celibacy. Humans are sexual beings, hard wired. Its a “gift from God”, we are told and to be utilized in marriage. Fine. So how can priests and nuns reject a gift from God? It seems to me to be a contradiction of terms.

by contrast, I can think of many pros for the priesthood welcoming married men.
 
LiberalPrincess said:
I am ignorant about Church justifications for Celibacy. Humans are sexual beings, hard wired. Its a “gift from God”, we are told and to be utilized in marriage. Fine. So how can priests and nuns reject a gift from God? It seems to me to be a contradiction of terms.

by contrast, I can think of many pros for the priesthood welcoming married men.
Click to expand...
Sexuality is certainly a Natural Good, but it is possible, and even praiseworthy, to give up one Natural Good in favor of another.

This is what Christ meant when He said in Matt 19:12
“For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it.”
Click to expand...
 
LiberalPrincess said:
A priest who happens to be SSA can serve clergy without practicing homosexuality and supporting the “gay culture.” For most, one’s identity is not defined by one’s sexuality.
Click to expand...
Obviously the Priest in question was engaging in homosexual behavior. The Church is very careful now to screen out individuals who have been engaging in homosexual behavior and/or seem to embrace the homosexual culture. This is prudent given the overwhelming number of abuses in the recent scandals was homosexual rape of post-pubescent boys.

This screening was not done in the past. When i was in the seminary everyone knew who the homosexuals were and no impediment was placed on their continuing on to ordination. We are paying the price for that laxity today.
 
LiberalPrincess said:
I am ignorant about Church justifications for Celibacy. Humans are sexual beings, hard wired. Its a “gift from God”, we are told and to be utilized in marriage. Fine. So how can priests and nuns reject a gift from God? It seems to me to be a contradiction of terms.

by contrast, I can think of many pros for the priesthood welcoming married men.
Click to expand...
I personally support allowing Priests to marry. The celibate clergy is a discipline-not a doctrine and can be changed by the pope anytime he wants to.

We should be careful, however, to not look on this as a panacea for the abuse problems/ Abuse is more prevalent among denominations with married clergy than it is among Catholic clergy.
 
estesbob said:
We should be careful, however, to not look on this as a panacea for the abuse problems/ Abuse is more prevalent among denominations with married clergy than it is among Catholic clergy.
Click to expand...
But you’ll never hear MSM report this. Nor will you ever hear that more sexual abuse occures every year in public schools than has even been reported (much less confirmed) in the 50 years of the so called priest abuse scandal.

hofstra.edu/pdf/about/administration/provost/hofhrz/hofhrz_s03_shakeshaft.pdf

cbsnews.com/2100-215_162-1933687.html
 
SamH said:
But you’ll never hear MSM report this. Nor will you ever hear that more sexual abuse occures every year in public schools than has even been reported (much less confirmed) in the 50 years of the so called priest abuse scandal.

hofstra.edu/pdf/about/administration/provost/hofhrz/hofhrz_s03_shakeshaft.pdf

cbsnews.com/2100-215_162-1933687.html
Click to expand...
But we must be careful not to come across as making excuses or minimizing the the abuse scandal. A Catholic Priest should be held to a higher standards and those who covered up for them did great harm to the victims and the Church.

However when looking for a solution to a problem one must make sure they are identifying the problem. For instance if the church had been able to screen out every pedophile in the last 50 years it would have reduced the number of abuse cases by only a little over 10%. Likewise, as you show above ,a married clergy is not the solution. The single most common factor in the overwhelming majority of the cases was homosexuality.
 
estesbob said:
The celibate clergy is a discipline-not a doctrine and can be changed by the pope anytime he wants to.
Click to expand...
Well, that good to hear. The celibacy tradition seems like a relic from the antiquated past. It may have been compelling when monasteries were created, formed and organized so monks could withdraw from the world and focus entirely on transcribing the Bible, lighting candles, engaging in prayer and tending the gardens from which they eat, etc.

This is not the case today. Priests should not withdraw from the world. Also, I would imagine allowing married men into the priesthood would help the “screening” process you say now goes on tremendously.
 
Having lived in the Scranton area for a few years I can honestly say that it is one of the strangest places I have ever lived: there is a Catholic Church (and Pub) on virtually ever corner and most people that settled there were Irish, Italian, German and Polish Catholics, yet the current generation up there is largely disobedient and rebellious to the Catholic Church, especially as it relates to issues of sexual morality. The Occult also has a very strong presence up there, especially around Dunmore and I have met some seriously creepy characters there. I guess it makes sense though, when you think about it: where the Catholic Church has a strong presence, there also will Satan have a strong presence. In any case, the food is great in and around Scranton. In fact, the local joke is that people come to Scranton to eat and then go home to NYC.
 
Fr. Jeffrey Paulish grew up a block from me. He never palled around with any of the guys in town, and I think he went through parochial scools throughout his young years. He was an effeminite boy, and he never caused any trouble. This breaks my heart for members of his family, some of whom I know. They were very proud of him. 😦 Rob
 
I am very saddened to read about this. He was a pastor at a parish we attended for a few years when I was younger and we all very much liked him. He seemed to be so full of faith. I believe he was a bi-ritual priest as well. He really enlivened the younger people of the parish, including me. It’s really upsetting.
 
estesbob said:
I personally support allowing Priests to marry. The celibate clergy is a discipline-not a doctrine and can be changed by the pope anytime he wants to.
Click to expand...
Just a clarification. Priests may never marry, and no Pope can change this discipline. This has never been allowed in the Church. However, the Pope could change the discipline of allowing married men to become priests, and in fact this is already allowed for Eastern Rite Catholics as well as the Anglican Ordinariate (I just met a married priest this past Sunday).

Sorry, didn’t want there to be any confusion on the issue. Carry on with the discussion…
 
Craigslist makes such a fall extremely easy. Part of the reason why homosexual offenses are so common among priests is that – think about it – if you are a straight priest, where are you going to find the possibility of anonymous sex with women? Women usually have more self-respect than that. Men with SSA have thousands of other men, living nearby, willing to have sex with them at a moment’s notice.

This is not an excuse, of course, and the sin involved here is doubly troubling because it involves a young person. But I do think it is worth putting ourselves in the shoes of a person who is tempted in this way, so that we understand that a number of things in our sex-obsessed culture exacerbate the temptation.

For every sinner who falls grievously, there are hundreds of other sinners who did not do enough to share his burden.
 
estesbob said:
The person involved was not a child.
Click to expand...
Since when is 15 yrs old not a child? The priest was caught with a child; that = pedophilia. We can dress it up any way we want. I personally think that anyone who gets involved with a child and makes excuses to redefine them as adults is dangerously deluded.
 
Brendan said:
That is simply the medical definition of pedophilia; that of a post-pubescent attraction to pre pubescent children. I was not the one who created that definition. If you have a problem with the definition, talk to the APA.
Click to expand...
Post-pubescent children, pre-pubescent children, all = children. We know the social and moral norms, and we know very well the process of changing definitions within the APA. Remember when homosexual attraction was considered a ‘disorder’?
 
estesbob said:
There is a new definition of Pedophilia-that is “anytime a catholic Priest has sex with a male of any age”
Click to expand...
No, there seems to be a new definition of childhood: ‘any age before puberty’. Well in that case, roll out the voter registration forms for 8-9 yr old girls and toss them the car keys! :mad:
 
seekerz said:
Since when is 15 yrs old not a child? The priest was caught with a child; that = pedophilia. We can dress it up any way we want. I personally think that anyone who gets involved with a child and makes excuses to redefine them as adults is dangerously deluded.
Click to expand...
pedophiles are attracted to pre pubsecent children.The gender doesn’t matter to them
.A priest
having sex with a 15 year old boy is case of homosexual rape.It it not pedophilia by any definition of the word. Nobody said these children were adults.
 
seekerz said:
Post-pubescent children, pre-pubescent children, all = children. We know the social and moral norms, and we know very well the process of changing definitions within the APA. Remember when homosexual attraction was considered a ‘disorder’?
Click to expand...
Homosexual attraction is still considered a disorder by our Church The definition of"children" is irrelevant tho a discussion of pedophilia because
the pedophile is not attracted by age or gender-they are attracted by lack of sexual development-that is children who have not reached puberty.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top