SameSexAttraction among priests-Open Letter to the Bishops from Catholic Med Assoc

[GloriaPatri4]

[cathmed.org/publications/openletter.html](Catholic Medical Association - Catholic Medical Association : Catholic Medical Association)

Your Excellencies:

As a Catholic psychiatrist and psychologist who have treated a significant number of priests from various dioceses and religious communities over the past 25 years for same-sex attraction (SSA or homosexuality) and for pedophilia and ephebophilia (homosexual behavior with adolescents), we believe that our particular expertise and those of our colleagues in the Catholic Medical Association may be of help to the American bishops as they seek to create effective long term strategies to prevent the recurrence of the problems in which the Catholic Church in the United States now finds itself enmeshed.

Many have pointed out that solving the problem of sexual abuse by clergy will necessarily involve addressing the problem of SSA among priests. Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, admitted at a press conference in Rome on April 23 the existence of an ongoing struggle to ensure that the Catholic priesthood is not dominated by homosexual men.

As the revelations of abuse have become public it has become increasingly clear that almost all the victims are adolescent males, not prepubescent boys. The problem of priests with same-sex attractions (SSA) molesting adolescents or children must be addressed if future scandals are to be avoided

 

[Joe_Kelley]

Re As a Catholic psychiatrist and psychologist who have treated a significant number of priests from various dioceses and religious communities over the past 25 years for same-sex attraction (SSA or homosexuality) and for pedophilia and ephebophilia (homosexual behavior with adolescents), we believe that our particular expertise and those of our colleagues in the Catholic Medical Association may be of help to the American bishops as they seek to create effective long term strategies to prevent the recurrence of the problems in which the Catholic Church in the United States now finds itself enmeshed.

Aren’t these the good folk whose supposed cures got us into this situation? Maybe the bishops should take responsibility and go back to treating this as a moral problem where they, supposedly, have the expertise.

 

[m134e5]

Joe Kelley:

Maybe the bishops should take responsibility and go back to treating this as a moral problem where they, supposedly, have the expertise.

Because they don’t- homosexuality is not a sin in and of itself- therefore it is neither moral nor immoral- it just is.

 

[m134e5]

They just need better screening for the seminaries. The issue is not homosexuality- the issue is infidelity. The issue with homosexuality is psychological damage as a whole- which is not suitable for the priesthood, and while we all sin and are all weak in some area, it is important that priests have an authentic sense of masculinity (which is rare in men today). Just like depression and other emotional disorders, they can get out of control and cause serious problems, however, just like depression and other emotional disorders, they can be managed in such a way that people who struggle with these disorders can live normal lives- they may need a little extra help, but they can function normally.

 

[otm]

Joe Kelley:

Re As a Catholic psychiatrist and psychologist who have treated a significant number of priests from various dioceses and religious communities over the past 25 years for same-sex attraction (SSA or homosexuality) and for pedophilia and ephebophilia (homosexual behavior with adolescents), we believe that our particular expertise and those of our colleagues in the Catholic Medical Association may be of help to the American bishops as they seek to create effective long term strategies to prevent the recurrence of the problems in which the Catholic Church in the United States now finds itself enmeshed.

Aren’t these the good folk whose supposed cures got us into this situation? Maybe the bishops should take responsibility and go back to treating this as a moral problem where they, supposedly, have the expertise.

The psychiatrists who were saying that they could treat these disorders may or may not have belonged to this association; if they di, the issue was about 20 to 30 years ago. I don’t even know if this organization existed that long ago.

further, the science and the art of psychiatry and psychology knows more now today than it did 20 or 30 years ago. I fail to see any connection.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

Edward Teller once noted that after 20 years he still had no idea how to obtain controlled nuclear fusion - and added "But now I don’t know on the basis of much more complete information."

 

[otm]

Joe Kelley:

Edward Teller once noted that after 20 years he still had no idea how to obtain controlled nuclear fusion - and added "But now I don’t know on the basis of much more complete information."

That there were some serious mistakes and overestimates as to what could or could not be done by psychiatrists and psychologists should be pretty obvious. part of the difficulty in disucssing the issues is defining what issues are actually being discussed.

Pedophilia is much more difficult to deal with than was estimated 20 or 30 years ago, if it can even be dealt with through psychiatry or psychology.

The difficulty in the conversation is that the great majority of the abusers (about 80% according to the Jay Report) were not pedophiles. They were ephebophiles by adults with SSA. r to put it in plain English, they were homosexulas looking for sexual contact with teenage boys.

While pedophilia is not, according to almost all research, directly, or even much indirectly linked to homosexuality, ephebophilia is.

I would therefore be extremely cautious about trying to paint psychiatrists and psychologists who see this link with a group, 20 or 30 years ago, who did not see the links.

 

[Confiteor]

[cathmed.org/publications/openletter.html](Catholic Medical Association - Catholic Medical Association : Catholic Medical Association)

I looked at the link to the complete letter (dated 2002), and I’m not clear on why this is being posted here. Seems like old news, and it doen’t pertain directly to the Liturgy/Sacrament Forum(?) At this point, the Vatican is reportedly “working on a document.” Presumably they’ll consider this kind of (name removed by moderator)ut in formulating the policy.

 

[GloriaPatri4]

Confiteor:

I looked at the link to the complete letter (dated 2002), and I’m not clear on why this is being posted here. Seems like old news, and it doen’t pertain directly to the Liturgy/Sacrament Forum(?) At this point, the Vatican is reportedly “working on a document.” Presumably they’ll consider this kind of (name removed by moderator)ut in formulating the policy.

Because it is old news it doesn’t belong In The News and in the past when I have posted similar threads in Moral Theology the moderators usually move it to Liturgy and Sacraments. I thought this would be of interest to a few people and although the Vatican is working on a document there are still people out there that don’t know this stuff.

Thanks for pointing out the obvious.

 

[twhicke]

m134e5:

Because they don’t- homosexuality is not a sin in and of itself- therefore it is neither moral nor immoral- it just is.

How is homosexuality not a sin?

 

[convert_2000]

twhicke:

How is homosexuality not a sin?

A chaste homosexual is no more a sinner than a chaste heterosexual. I believe that’s what was meant. Of course active homosexuality would be a sin. I just think whether they are active or not, the disorder should be treated. If there weren’t so many psychiatrists and psychologist that prefered this lifestyle, there probably would be a good program by now and wouldn’t be all these problems.