What Can We Expect From the Vatican Summit?

[OraLabora]

it hasn’t always been wise to place secular clergy on the same celibate pedestal that the ancient Church associated only with monastic life

Indeed I think that celibacy is much more appropriate for monastic life. First of all, a monk or nun doesn’t have to go it alone in a big old rectory once used to house several priests, in some backwater. One cannot underestimate the importance of the support of a community. It’s why the Communauté St. Martin in France has undertaken to never send out its newly formed priests into parishes alone. They go in twos or threes. They have had some success. Not having to stare at a wall at the dinner table would have incalculable benefits in the life of priests. Whether another cleric, or a wife.

The thing with the Quebec Jansenist issue, it could not have worked without being hand-in-hand with clericalism. And clericalism comes from an artificially exalted state. It is the opposite of humble servant.

 

[twf]

In small towns or rural areas it’s definitely a tough situation for priests. At our local parish, the parish pastor “rooms” with the local Melkite priest. Apparently the Canadian Melkite bishop asked that his priest in Vancouver not live alone, so he lives in our parish Rectory.
The cathedral Rectory is usually home to 7 or 8 priests at any given time. The religious tend to live in communities - all the Dominicans at one parish, etc. But there are still a lot of parishes with a single priest in a big Rectory…

 

[I_trust]

A fine piece on The Catholic Thing…

https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/02/24/celibacy-is-the-answer-not-the-problem/

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Many Catholics, even the most faithful, seem to have given up on priestly celibacy. In our post-sexual revolutionary age, many view celibacy as an unhealthy repression of sexual drives, fostering the epidemic of clergy abuse today. According to this line of thinking, if we want to get rid of clerical abuse, we must get rid of celibacy.

It is a solution that, in the words of one literary critic, is “neat, plausible, and wrong.”

Celibacy is not the problem. Clerical sexual abuse is no more caused by celibacy than adultery is caused by marriage. Both are violations of sacred promises, promises for which the Lord guarantees his help to live faithfully. To put it differently, allowing priests to marry would not prevent sexual transgressions. Marriage is regrettably no stranger to scandal or sexual abuse.

The problem is not celibacy but celibacy lived badly . It is caused by priests not living chastely . The proper response is not eliminating celibacy but demanding that priests, like married people, live up to their vocation.
In fact, celibacy itself is a precious and irreplaceable gift to the Church. It is usually defined negatively as “not getting married.” But it is a positive choice, a powerful way of loving with a singleness of purpose and a unique openness of heart. It enables a priest to live his spiritual fatherhood with particular force and efficacy.
…
Medieval doctors, with the best of intentions, often treated diseases by draining the blood of their patients, unwittingly depriving them of the very nutrients that they needed to get well. Those looking to cure the disease of sexual abuse in the Church by draining her of the grace of celibacy would do little to cure the disease, and yet deprive the Body of Christ of spiritual nutrients needed to return to health.

If we wish to address the problem of clergy sexual abuse, we should begin by expecting the same fidelity from our priests that we expect from everyone else, and call them to embrace, through the gift of celibacy, the blessings of priestly fatherhood that we need today more than ever.

 

[I_trust]

Also worth reading…

https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/02/24/the-end-of-a-beginning/

# The End of a Beginning

For that and many other reasons, the vademecum – the basic manual for how to handle abuse cases from beginning to end – which appeared as the very first of Pope Francis’ “21 Points for Reflection” the other day, is essential. Scicluna claims to have already seen a draft of that document and expects it will be released shortly. In principle, bishops’ conferences and individual bishops will now have a basic guide that they may further adapt to their circumstances

 

[DMorgan56]

Saying celibacy creates or somehow opens the door for abuse and pederasty is like saying Marriage leads to or opens the door for adultery. Celibacy and Marriage incur certain requirements which must be lived with the help of Divine Grace. abandon that Grace, and the results are tragic.

 

[OraLabora]

Saying celibacy creates or somehow opens the door for abuse and pederasty is like saying Marriage leads to or opens the door for adultery. Celibacy and Marriage incur certain requirements which must be lived with the help of Divine Grace. abandon that Grace, and the results are tragic.

Perhaps the relation of celibacy to abuse is less direct and more related to the coverups. It is a difficult rule, perhaps too often followed in the breach rather than the observance. As a result too many clerics have something to hide, which makes them too likely to coverup to avoid exposing their own skeletons in the closet, be it homosexual encounters, or repeatedly impregnating and aborting a teen girl as we heard happened in Africa.

There appears to be an unhealthy culture up to the highest levels. It appears to be multi-factorial. Celibacy may be one factor. It needs to be studied honestly along with trying to identify other factors.

Simplistic “zero-tolerance” policies will not get to the roots of the needed culture changes. They will only make new rules to break, and 10 years from now we will still be dealing with this scourge.

 

[DMorgan56]

Well, with 80% + of the victims being post pubescent males I do not believe Celibacy to be the issue, rather Chastity seems to be the problem. And, quite obviously homosexual clergy. That said, when one studies the history of the Church, we see that these issues are not new. Problems with chastity are well documented throughout Church history at every level of the clerical state up to and including previous Popes.
But, I do not believe lowering the bar to societal ever shifting morals is in any way a solution.

 

[OraLabora]

I can’t say I agree. The 80% is misleading. The overall abuse rate is only about 2%. If homosexuals are over represented in the clergy, it shows that they are no more likely to abuse than the general population.

Make the clergy mostly heterosexual and you’ll still get a 2% overall rate of abuse, but directed 80% to heterosexuals. Also I believe the other 20% is underestimated. One African victim claimed her priest forced her to have 3 abortions, thus creating 4 victims.

I believe homosexuality is a red herring as the cause of abuse, but is more directly related to coverups, due to fear of being outed.

 

[twf]

Yes I don’t think there’s any hard evidence that Catholic clergy are more likely, than the general populace, to be sexual abusers (in fact, at least from what I’ve read of the US, they may be less likely)…but that’s besides point. The biggest scandal is that a) the Church should be held to a higher standard and b) the cover-up.
When I think about it, it is the cover-up that gets my blood boiling. The abusers are sick men. A bishop or superior who makes the conscious decision to throw abused children under the bus and protect the abusers commits true evil.

 

[Joe_5859]

Maybe I’m naïve, but I don’t share the cynicism. As far as I see, the incidence of abuse has drastically dropped in the past 30 years versus the 30 years before that. I think change has already been happening for many decades.

There is still room for reform, of course. People like McCarrick flew under the radar for far too long, which illustrates that there are gaps that still need closing. I do believe things are heading in the right direction, though.

It does make me wonder, though. What did people expect to come from the Vatican summit? What concrete actions did we expect to see? For priests and bishops to immediately be laicized the moment an allegation is made against them? For all the priests and bishops who have committed these sins to simultaneously come forward and admit to their misdeeds of their own volition? I’m honestly asking. I feel like the Church has been doing a lot, especially since 2002, to prevent these sorts of things from happening. But I know I have limitations and do not see all sides. So if there is something I am missing, I would very much like to know.

 

[yankeesouth]

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Cardinal Brandmüller: Silence on Homosexuality in Church Cries Out to Be Broken

Cardinal Brandmüller: Silence on Homosexuality in Church Cries Out to Be Broken

The German cardinal, who co-signed a letter urging bishops attending the Vatican summit on protection of minors in the Church to uphold moral doctrine, says he was ‘very disappointed’ by the meeting but continues to hope in divine providence.

www.ncregister.com

 

[DMorgan56]

Understanding the demographics of the predatory priest problem

While some deny a same-sex predation problem among priests, the Grand Jury Report reflects similar demographic data as the John Jay Study of nearly 15

www.catholicworldreport.com

"The truth is that celibacy has nothing to do with the kind of predatory homosexual behavior we see in the current Grand Jury Report of 2018, or in the John Jay Report of 2004. The John Jay study, which was commissioned by the USCCB, found that 19 percent of the more than 4,000 victims of predatory priests were female; 81 percent of cases of clergy sexual abuse involved priests and male victims. According to the John Jay study (see page 6 for the summary of demographics) the largest group (50.9 percent) of victims were between the ages of 11-14; 27 percent were between 15-17 years old; 16 percent were between 8-10 years old; and 6 percent of all victims were under 7. According to the John Jay Report, this was not a “pedophile priest” scandal, because the vast majority of cases involved post-pubescent males; it was a scandal of same-sex predation, though few wanted to acknowledge this.

However, the culture has changed, and today more are saying what many of us tried—somewhat unsuccessfully—to say in 2002 about the homosexual culture that has emerged in our seminaries, chanceries, and parishes."

 

[I_trust]

Is Catholic Clergy Sex Abuse Related to Homosexual Priests?

An interview with sociologist Father Paul Sullins, whose new study documents a strong linkage between the incidence of abuse and homosexuality in the priesthood and in seminaries.

www.ncregister.com

The central thrust of the report is that the share of homosexual men in the priesthood rose from twice that of the general population in the 1950s to eight times the general population in the 1980s, a trend that was strongly correlated with increasing child sex abuse. At the same time, a quarter of priests ordained in the late 1960s report the existence of a homosexual subculture in their seminaries, rising to over half of priests ordained in the 1980s, a second trend that was also strongly correlated with increasing child sex abuse…
I’m able to compute what percentage of priests reported a homosexual orientation in any given year, going back to the 1950s. And when I overlay that trend with the trend and abuse, it’s almost a perfect correlation. The correlation is 0.98. A perfect correlation is 1.0. So it’s as close an association as you can get.

In the 1950s, about 3% of priests were of a homosexual orientation, by their own reports. By the 1980s, that had risen to over 16%. So we have sort of a fivefold increase in the percentage of priests who are homosexual, in a pretty straight line from the 1950s through the 1980s. And we have a very similar increase in abuse incidents over that same period, and we don’t know the sexual orientation of any particular abuser. So we’re inferring from the association of those two correlations that there’s some influence of one on the other. So my conclusion has to be the opposite of that of the John Jay Report.

 

[I_trust]

Study shows high correlation between homosexual priests, clerical abuse | News Headlines

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www.catholicculture.org

The study conducted by Father Paul Sullins, a Catholic University sociologist, found that the percentage of homosexual men in the priesthood has risen sharply. The study also found a disturbing increase in the number of sexual-misconduct reports lodged against priests since 2010, “amidst signs of complacency by Church leaders.” The incidence of new charges (as opposed to charges involving alleged misconduct in past years) is now nearly as high as in the 1970s.