Is homosexuality the Church's excuse for massive pedophilia and cover up scandals?
"The problem is not just with the fraction of priests who molests youngsters, but in an ecclesiastical power structure which harbors pedophiles, conceals other sexual behavior patterns among its clerics, and uses the strategies of duplicity and counterattack against the victims" (Joughin, M. "Church response to the sex abuse priest," In Fidelity, No.8., Sept. 1995, pg. 1).Catholic nuns launch lay monastic movement
(CathNews.com) An order of Benedictine Sisters in Pennsylvania has launched what they describe as a lay monastic movement for seekers of God and a meaningful life, calling it “our gift to the next generation,” reports NCR Online.
“Monasteries of the Heart: A New Movement for a New World” offers an opportunity for anyone -- regardless, or even in the absence, of faith tradition -- to live Benedictine spirituality and values with online communities or in face-to-face groups of family, friends, neighbors, or fellow churchgoers, they say.
Members create their own “monastery” by supporting each other in shaping their spiritual lives around Benedictine values of community, prayer, meaningful work, peace, and care [proper stewardship not human exploitation] of creation. They can gather around a table or in an online “monastery without walls” for prayer, discussion, and reflection. More
The researchers concluded that it was not possible for the Church, or for anyone, to identify abusive priests [and bishops] in advance. Priests who abused minors have no particular “psychological characteristics,” “developmental histories,” or mood disorders that distinguished them from priests who had not abused, the researchers found.The $1,800,000 study was conducted by New York's John Jay College, with the Department of Justice contributing $280,000.
Since the scandal broke, conservatives in the Church have blamed gay priests for perpetrating the abuse, while liberals have argued that the all-male, celibate culture of the priesthood was the cause. This report will satisfy neither flank.
The report notes that homosexual men began entering the seminaries “in noticeable numbers” from the late 1970s through the 1980s. By the time this cohort entered the priesthood, in the mid-1980s, the reports of sexual abuse of minors by priests began to drop and then to level off.
If anything, the report says, the abuse decreased as more gay priests began serving the Church. Many more boys than girls were victimized, the report says, not because the perpetrators were gay, but simply because the priests had more access to boys than to girls, in parishes, schools, and extracurricular activities.
The Pope knows Catholic priests molest children.
The future Pope Benedict XVI resisted pleas to defrock a California priest with a record of sexually molesting children according to a 1985 letter. AP writer Gillian Flaccus says the letter reveals then-Cardinal Ratzinger was aware of the case (April 9, 2010).
