The Catholic Church's Abu Ghraib

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I debated whether to post this, but it seems to me that the scope and extent of this scandal must be dealt with decisively by church authorities. It is an inhibition to apologetics. As a potential convert to the faith, it weighs heavily on my soul.

Warning! Some of the photos in the article include photos of priests/seminarians kissing and groping. No nudity.
The Catholic Church’s Abu Ghraib
CruxNews.com
Michael S. Rose
7.16.2004

cruxnews.com/rose/rose-16july04.html

No, there was no torture or interrogation involved. No women either. They were all allegedly willing participants—and, to a man, they were men. One among their ranks also took photos that were published on Monday by the Austrian news magazine Profil.

The photos showed seminarians and priests from Austria’s Sankt Poelten seminary fondling and kissing one another and engaging in sex games. Profil also reported that some 40,000 pornographic images and films were downloaded to the seminary’s computers, including photographs depicting acts of pedophilia and bestiality.

Consequently, German-language media outlets have been saturated this week with reports of the Austrian seminary scandal chock o’block full of lurid details in what has become the Catholic Church’s Abu Ghraib. Headlines such as “Seminary orgy rocks Church in Austria” (Irish Examiner), “Church probes perverse pictures” (Toronto Star), and “Porn case could torpedo bishop” (The Guardian), made news from Britain to Australia to America.

. . . Reports in the U.S. media thus far have tended to downplay the gay sex parties and honed in on the charges of child pornography . . .

An open rift between Krenn and Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn has been ongoing for years, and judging from statements coming out of various Church officials in Austria, Krenn is not going to enjoy much support from his fellow churchmen. Homosexual orgies and child pornography at Krenn’s seminary is over the top—even for them.

There is, of course, a silver lining to this scandal, as with most that play out in this way: reasonable people can no longer deny the sickness. It’s exposed now and needs more exposure, until the situation heals properly. That means a thorough cleaning of the Augean stables.
 
I have not read any reports on this scandal…your description is sufficient reading, and I need not delve any deeper. This kind of thing in no way affects my faith, but it is certainly disheartening. I was also disheartened by the various scandals that have happened in non-catholic circles. Moreover, I get disheartened everytime I hear about the terrible things occuring in the secular segments of society world wide.

Satan is working overtime to run the world into the ground. While his immediate successes are plentiful, we need not lose heart. The victory has already been won…satan just hasn’t accepted defeat.

There will always be sin in the world. No matter how many sinners are revealed within the Church, there are still the many that remain faithful and will as Jesus says, “endure to the end.” These scandals are a cross we have to bear. They are painful and disgusting, but we cannot be deterred by them. There is a holiness and martyrdom associated with enduring the evils in our midst, and remaining faithful no matter what satan throws at us. Jesus keeps his promises to His Church and “the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”
 
This story is certainly disturbing and lends credence to the situations described in Michael Rose’s book, *Goodbye, Good Men. *It’s obvious that the priestly sexual abuse scandal is not limited to America. The Vatican will need to take an active oversight role with regard to problem seminaries. Lax and/or complicit bishops and rectors must be removed and disciplined. The radical feminist and homosexual influences at work in the seminary selection process must be eradicated. Seminary curricula and study materials must be reviewed for orthodoxy. Dissident theologians must be stomped on and booted out, if necessary. The Church is in crisis and it’s time for tough love. God is merciful and compassionate but He is also just and intolerant of sin. We must constantly pray that these troubled and misguided men see the light, repent of their sins, and amend their lives. The smoke of hell has indeed entered into the Church and the accompanying fires are burning more brightly. It’s time for faithful Catholics to join the bucket brigade.
 
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larryo:
The radical feminist and homosexual influences at work in the seminary selection process must be eradicated. Seminary curricula and study materials must be reviewed for orthodoxy. Dissident theologians must be stomped on and booted out, if necessary. The Church is in crisis and it’s time for tough love. God is merciful and compassionate but He is also just and intolerant of sin. We must constantly pray that these troubled and misguided men see the light, repent of their sins, and amend their lives. The smoke of hell has indeed entered into the Church and the accompanying fires are burning more brightly. It’s time for faithful Catholics to join the bucket brigade.
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It has got to stop.

When I see this, I’m sickened, absolutely sickened. It’s bad enough in the secular world but those who use the church as a “beard” are vile. I think back to the scene in The Passion of the Christ when the nails are driven through His hands and I think: He went through that for this?
 
There is something good - very good! - about such revelations: They are revealed!
My diocese, like some others, experienced a sex and money scandal that reached from the bishop down. When the scandal broke into the public media most of my deeply pious, orthodox Roman Catholic friends were beating their breasts and exclaiming “Oh, aren’t these revelations terrible?” Too which I replied, “No, it’s REFRESHING to have it out in the open so it can be healed!” And THAT is the ‘good’ in such news: it is - in fact! - news! Gone are the days when some Bishop could tell a layman to go away, ignore the problem, and then exacerbate it.

It’s also very odd that the super-pious, orthodox Roman Catholics who lament the loudest at such news are the first to tell those of us called to confront these issues to “Just sit, knit and pray,
and all the bad will go away!”

Every such ‘revelation’ shows me that the light of the Holy Spirit IS shining into our darkness - these ‘revelations’ are really a ‘revelation’ of God’s continuing care for His Church.
 
I bet any money that the hottest parts of Hell and its most terrible torments are specifically reserved for these type of Priests and religious… 😦
 
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thomist:
When the scandal broke into the public media most of my deeply pious, orthodox Roman Catholic friends were beating their breasts and exclaiming “Oh, aren’t these revelations terrible?”
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Father Nisbet, in discussing the Eighth Station, The Women of Jerusalem, commented that we tend to regret the effects of sin when we should be regretting the sin. We are not to bewail the sufferings of Jesus, but our sins which caused those sufferings.
 
Zenit reports that the Holy Father has appointed Bishop Klaus
Kung of Feldkirch, Austria as Apostolic Visitator for the Diocese of St.Polten, Austria and in particular for the diocesan seminary.

Many years,

Neil
 
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