Hippie culture is what caused the Catholic Church sex scandals.
That’s right; the Church isn’t really at fault. It was the the influence of “culturally deviant behavior” prevalent during the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, which caused “inadequately trained, emotionally unprepared, and isolated” Catholic priests to molest kids, according to the latest $2million whitewash commissioned by American Catholic Church bishops. (Boston Globe; 5/18/11 )
There you have it from the religious experts. Hippie free-love culture caused a few poor, inadequately trained, emotionally unprepared, and isolated Catholic priests to force themselves on innocent, vulnerable, defenseless little children under their charge. It’s the Devil (hippies) made them do it excuse. They are victims too.
If these priests were inadequately trained, emotionally unprepared, and isolated, how can that possibly be the Church’s fault?
“The most significant conclusion drawn from this data is that no single psychological, developmental, or behavioral characteristic differentiated priests who abused minors from those who did not,” the report claims.
Gee, I guess that makes it all OK if no one can tell the good and bad ones apart. They all looked the same. What could the Church do about that? So it did nothing.
Abusive priests had “no common profile,” so seminaries could not have done a better job screening for them. “Homosexual priests were no more likely to abuse than heterosexual priests,” and, “celibacy could not be blamed for the abuse,” they say.
Maybe the bad priests couldn’t be screened so easily for potential abuse factors in the first instance, as they claim, but what is the Church’s excuse for concealing their crimes, minimizing their conduct, and letting them do it again and again long after their abusive behavior was discovered? The report doesn’t say.
“The majority of victims were pubescent or post pubescent,… thus, it is inaccurate to refer to abusers as pedophile priests,” the study concludes.
In short, if the little kids were age 10 or above, “it’s not pedophilia,” according to these objective scholars. It’s grossly “unfair,” then, for anyone to call them ‘pedophile priests’ because fewer than 5% of the victims were under 10 years of age.
But what difference does it make whether they can be called ‘pedophiles’ or not? They were still molesting helpless little kids and the Church was giving them a pass. This report is far too long on discussing what isn’t, while way short on addressing what is.
Why are so many sexual abusers priests? That is what this report won’t address. I don’t mean to imply that only priests are likely to be sexual abusers. Plenty of school teachers, counselors, day care providers, and scout leaders fit that category too. It’s not hard to figure out why.
Sexual criminals are drawn to the priesthood for many reasons. The job provides a clerical uniform which instantly lends unearned status, reverence, power, trust, confidence, and credibility, to latent abusers, who otherwise might be social nobody’s. Being a priest gives them easy access to helpless young potential victims they can manipulate while in the guise of ‘minister.’
The priesthood was excellent cover for sexually abusive activities. Most occupations don’t provide nearly the opportunities available to clergy to abuse kids. Priest’s occupy a position of trust. Priest’s are regarded as above suspicion since they are men of God. And, best of all, for the priest, his employer usually swept his bad behavior under the rug and gave him another chance.
Priest’s go for the kids because children are easier to groom and manipulate than savvy adults. Kids are more available and accessible. It’s awfully hard for little kids to say “no” to a priest who pays them special attention and seems to love and care about them.
Add to all that the celibacy requirements of the priesthood, and you have a bunch of grown men with normal raging human sexual urges, who are never-the-less obliged to hide them behind a facade of piety and chastity – a dangerous situation which is bound to cause problems.
Priest’s are not allowed to enjoy openly romantic relations with others, so they must carry on their activities in secret with whatever victims are at hand. Criminal priests have been sexually abusing kids as well as adults for centuries, long before the advent of hippie culture.
The Catholic Church has only itself to blame.
It is sickening to think that the catholic church would even think that a report like this would be acceptable by any means. It is obvious that the church is trying to minimize or downplay what is going on to avoid large cash settlements to families involved. Trying to pass the buck. I am surprised they didn't try to say that children over the age of 10 were To blame or responsible and not the priest. It really makes you second guess religion in general. The church should be reaching out to the families involved and doing whatever it takes to make sure the family and more importantly the child are taken care of finacially and through counseling. Furthermore the priest should be turned over to authorities. Men of god? What god? Further more the whole idea to brush it under the carpet came from the top. Disgusting.
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