Why does the Church keep failing on sexual abuse?

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Yes but if you look at the vast majority, they have two things in common:

The priest abused until a victim came forward.

And in general it was homosexual abuse of young teens.

This pattern is consistent throughout all the places where abuse happened.
 
I don’t think any of us have a handle here on what “The Vast Majority” is, given that a lot of dioceses are only just now getting around to disclosing information or haven’t disclosed at all.

I realize my saying that won’t stop people from making assumptions or trotting out the same old studies that have been posted here a lot of times in the past. People all want to push their own agendas on this issue rather than consider cases individually or be objective.

With that, I will leave the thread.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I don’t think any of us have a handle here on what “The Vast Majority” is, given that a lot of dioceses are only just now getting around to disclosing information or haven’t disclosed at all.
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The fact that many of these cases have never been heard of would seem to suggest that the perps were never going to come forward.
Tis_Bearself said:
I realize my saying that won’t stop people from making assumptions or trotting out the same old studies that have been posted here a lot of times in the past. People all want to push their own agendas on this issue rather than consider cases individually or be objective.
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The only agenda being pushed should be ridding the Church of anyone who was involved in this disgrace.

I also doubt the new revelations are going to change the pattern that the abused were mainly young boys.
 
BoomerangToo said:
Opening the priesthood to mature, married men would greatly expand the pool of applicants and dilute the weirdos in the seminaries. So then if there are a lot more seminarians in the pipeline, bishops might be more inclined to quickly deep-six the misfits and perverts.
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I would use the Anglican church as an example. We are full of married clergy and don’t seem to have that much of a problem with clergy diddling young boys. Oh, and we don’t have a shortage of priests either.
 
This is true many entered the priesthood for the wrong reasons. Some believed they could hide their sexual preference in the priesthood some believed they could use it to get what they wanted. moral of story should never been a priest in the first place. Jesus chose to not marry and only serve God at Paul chose this and Roman Catholic priests choose this rite of order. they believe in the power of the holy spirit to overcome all by the grace of God. All I hear it’s not natural for a man and You know what supernatural a supernatural grace given to them from God to use for the goodness of God. Why is it so hard for some to believe that a calling from God and his grace is possible to live by grace. Jesus was the leader st Paul speaks from this in the Bible. No separation in mind one mindset to follow God love for him only. Seems simple to me with grace all things are possible
 
Again this makes no sense to me. More sexual abusers are married men then single. To be called to the Roman order of priesthood is a calling from God with a heart that has one thing in mind to follow only God and to please him. st Paul said it is better for a man not to marry because a married man must please also a wife. St Paul said they are separated in mind. We humans don’t open a priesthood where did humans ever call a man to a priesthood. never heard of such a teaching I was taught God calls men to priesthood. Yes as st Paul says if you must choose a wife do so but he said it is better to imitate Christ.
 
I think you’re right in that celibacy is a higher calling. Totally.

It just seems that most priests don’t meet the requirement. And the existence of valid and licit married priests in the Church’s past and present doesn’t do a whole bunch to support the notion that celibacy should be a requirement for all priests.
 
I can only explain it this way Jesus picked 12 apostles one was a devil. Why did God do that. With that said if Jesus knew walked this Earth with him yet. Then why would we be surprised Judas still exists!!! We don’t know why because we do not have the mind of God and Jesus did not reveal to us why he picked Judas knowing. But he did know he told us. And he warned us beware they will be wearing my clothes. Another mystery we just have to trust God with. But I have a important point read next post
 
How did this abuse in the church change the word of God??? Did Judas bring down the RCC oh heck no it just became stronger. When Christ died on the cross did it kill his teaching no it just made it stronger!!! History repeats itself just when it looks like the devil won in this world God comes back and kicks his butt. Will the evil that has happened in the church take it down. No no way why because of this. Jesus said the gates of Hades will not prevail. The RCC is still led by the holy spirit not by these men!! People please wake up please do not let the devil keep you from the Eucharist. It was pope John Paul that let the truth out. His words we the same as mine may God have mercy on their souls I cannot. With that said the devil will never overpower the holy spirit. The devil can only overpower you if you let him. Please people don’t let the devil separate you from Christ in the Eucharist don’t let anyone do that. Sure I know it’s hell now. Many have said I am accountable for giving money to this church. I choose to be like my pope yes use this money to get these inocente people the help they need.dont live them alone. You let this keep you from Christ in the Eucharist you let the devil separate you from that daily bread please Bros and sis don’t let that evil one fool you
 
Did you think this post was profound or helpful in any way when you typed it? It contains no insights or revelations to anybody who will read it. Stating that all the priests who abused were single men is as helpful as saying that all baseball players who hit home runs were athletes. It adds nothing whatsoever.

I get it, your personal crusade on this forum is fighting clerical celibacy. It is not the miracle cure you’re making it out to be. As long as there is power to abuse, power will be abused. Allowing priests to marry will not suddenly end all problems.

Few Anglicans use auricular confession, in which the priest gets frequent 1:1 audiences with parishioners. Do you think that, just maybe, the lack of opportunity might have something to do with it?

There are plenty of sexually frustrated people who aren’t child molesters. The abuse problem can’t be blamed on priests’ not having an outlet for their sexual desires.
 
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I just happen to think that imposed celibacy isn’t particularly helpful. I believe that environments that are exclusively limited to one gender is going to create situations that are unhealthy. I imagine there is a great deal of affairs taking place that are heterosexual in addition to homosexual. Attraction is attraction regardless of orientation.

I think it is particularly unfortunate that a link is made continuously between homosexuals and abuse. There is no evidence pointing in this direction. Is there a homosexual subculture? Indeed. Is a large proportion of the clergy gay? Indeed. Do most clergy honour their promise to remain celibate? I hope so - but I don’t know.

It is my opinion, however, that if clergy were permitted to marry then many of the concerns identified in this post would be mitigated over time. Unhealthy behaviours only fester when they are given easy opportunity to do so.
 
No one, including myself, thinks that celibacy causes perversion. A normal, emotionally healthy man is not going to attack a 13-year old boy because he doesn’t have a sex life.

What the celibate priesthood does, it causes many men who have emotional problems and disordered sexual perversions to be attracted to this lifestyle as a way of denying themselves. This never works! They end up succumbing to their desires because they are not priests for the right reason.

You have all these queer men joining the priesthood for all the wrong reasons. Allowing married men will at least thin the ranks of these types. Many seminarians complain of the oppressive homosexual atmosphere in the seminary, and they quit. They don’t want to be harassed and hit on by queers. Who can blame them?

Did you ever read “Goodbye Good Men”? The problem is horrifying. And the problem points to the priesthood becoming nothing more than a gay playground for many men. A soft place to land, where they can hang out with other men and never have to explain to mom or aunt Martha why they aren’t interested in girls. If this is their motivation for becoming a priest, I can guarantee he will be a BAD priest. We have way too many of them.

Homosexuals coming out of the closet and having some kind of normal life in society might be a very good thing for the Catholic Church. If one more gay man can find fulfillment in secular life, that translates into one less bad gay priest destroying the Church from within.
 
But the problem is we aren’t going to live in AD 2019 forever.

With all the talk about how this has gone on ‘for centuries’ (and it’s pretty much all talk and no proof) how is it that we have such a heritage of proven saintly men who were clerics and who managed to live celibate lives joyfully–and this from the time of the apostles–as well as married men who likewise were able to live chastely and responsibly??

IOW, is this a problem now because celibacy itself is the problem–or is this a problem with men (and women) in today’s society because they for whatever reason cannot or will not adhere to either celibacy or chastity?

If the latter, no amount of band-aids or strategies are going to change the behavior, because each ‘individual’ is going to be rejecting sexual teachings for ‘individual’ reasons, usually on the order of, “I want this’ and 'I won’t do that”. And the behavior is going to be seen across the board for everything else as well, not simply sexual actions.

And aren’t we seeing that behavior everywhere? I think we are.

So instead of complicating the priesthood more, it’s time that we acknowledged that the problem is that individual priests are abusing their calling. . .and instead of ‘changing the calling’ to accommodate them in the hopes it will stop the bad behavior, hold them responsible for adhering to what they freely agreed to from the start.

And we should expand to expecting men and women to adhere, as Catholics, to Catholic teachings as well, including sexual, instead of trying to adjust the teachings to allow them to engage in the bad behaviors and 'meeting them where they are", hoping that gradually they will, because of our tenderness in not calling them sinners, come to reject the bad on their own.

Yeah, we’ve seen how THAT has worked in Catholicism in the West over the past decades.
 
KevinK said:
Cardinal Seán O’Malley has spent decades cleaning up after pedophile priests. Now he’s once again found himself in the middle of a crisis.
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AND

not to diminish anything

Imagine what sins they (priests) hear in confession, over and over and over again, from the rank and file?

Is absolution a guarantee for everything they hear? Any conditions tied to absolution for criminal; activity?
 
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