Day of shame for Ireland

[Jackytar]

Pitcairn Island is an interesting case study on child sexual abuse. Basically a modern day culture of child sex that flourished in a place that was extremely isolated from the the rest of the world for several generations. The sheer number of offenders (nearly every man on the island) seems to support what Terry is saying about cultural norms. Still, it was all strongly weighted towards men victimizing pubescent girls, and in the context of a heavily male dominated society.

Doesn't this and the fact that the vast majority of Priests and Christian Brothers and prisoners are not sexually deviant give more weight to the nature side of this argument? I consider myself very socially liberal, but I think it's a mistake to look to environmental circumstances to explain this away. I think the evidence with respect to pedophilia points directly towards a congenital origin, and on this I can empathize. But we all have to learn to deal with the darker side of our individual nature, to some extent, and in their failure to do so, with such profound and horrific consequences to innocent lives, I accept no excuse.

Jackytar

 

[niceguy]

Some years ago we had paedophile scandals here in Sweden, in our kindergartens. Apparently thease people took advantage of the fact that there where very little control of applicants and access to to their police records where highly restricted. It become so common that people started to associate male kindergarten workers with paedophiles, driving many innocent people away from the profession. Rules have changed now, the naiveté that caused the problem is no more or at least considerably reduced. For the catholic church, they have a problem similar to criminal cops that get protected by their colleagues, the organisation are so occupied with keeping up a façade that they ignore the rot from within. No organization should behave this way, I know that the police are just people, I understand if some of them misbehave but when the corps protect them, they just dirty themself as an organization. Deal with the problem, do not ignore it. To polish your car while ignoring the mechanical problems that make it hazardous to operate are an attempt to device people, including yourself. Back to the catholic church, I strongly believe that celibacy are to blame here, not that it will create paedophiles but the urge to form a family are strong and few are willing to give it up. This mean the church loose scores of otherwise potentially excellent priests. When the last pope had died and a new one where not yet appointed I saw on the news this priest commenting about the future of the church and he mentioned that they are running out of priests, apparently it has become harder and harder to recruit. To me, it obvious what happens when you are forced to lower your standard of expectation of the applicants. Priests are people, do not expect them to be saints, you will just be disappointed if you do, let them live normal lives or you will loose them. Yes I know this is a massive block of text, I tried to fix it but it just get truncated anyway, my changes are just ignored.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

Some years ago we had paedophile scandals here in Sweden, in our kindergartens. Apparently thease people took advantage of the fact that there where very little control of applicants and access to to their police records where highly restricted. It become so common that people started to associate male kindergarten workers with paedophiles, driving many innocent people away from the profession. Rules have changed now, the naiveté that caused the problem is no more or at least considerably reduced. For the catholic church, they have a problem similar to criminal cops that get protected by their colleagues, the organisation are so occupied with keeping up a façade that they ignore the rot from within. No organization should behave this way, I know that the police are just people, I understand if some of them misbehave but when the corps protect them, they just dirty themself as an organization. Deal with the problem, do not ignore it. To polish your car while ignoring the mechanical problems that make it hazardous to operate are an attempt to device people, including yourself. Back to the catholic church, I strongly believe that celibacy are to blame here, not that it will create paedophiles but the urge to form a family are strong and few are willing to give it up. This mean the church loose scores of otherwise potentially excellent priests. When the last pope had died and a new one where not yet appointed I saw on the news this priest commenting about the future of the church and he mentioned that they are running out of priests, apparently it has become harder and harder to recruit. To me, it obvious what happens when you are forced to lower your standard of expectation of the applicants. Priests are people, do not expect them to be saints, you will just be disappointed if you do, let them live normal lives or you will loose them. Yes I know this is a massive block of text, I tried to fix it but it just get truncated anyway, my changes are just ignored.

I would agree with most of that.

The Catholic Church in all its forms has not universally denied the priesthood to married men. Certainly in the 4th and 11th centuries the rules of celibacy were reinforced in the roman rite.
From Wiki

Exceptions are sometimes made (including in Latin Rite Catholicism), granted by authority of the Pope, when married Protestant clergy become Catholic. Because the rule of celibacy is an ecclesial law and not a doctrine, it can, in principle, be changed at any time by the Pope. Doctrines, on the other hand, cannot be changed. Nonetheless, both the present Pope, Benedict XVI, and his predecessors, have spoken clearly of their understanding that the traditional practice was not likely to change.[23]

I would suggest that the Pope/ Church look again at the rule, as it is bringing discredit to the church.