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Catholic Priest: Teens are the Seducers; Poor Sandusky

BeachBumDeac

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http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/08/how-youths-seduce-priests.html


"People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to — a psychopath. But that's not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer ... It's not so hard to see — a kid looking for a father and didn't have his own — and they won't be planning to get into heavy-duty sex, but almost romantic, embracing, kissing, perhaps sleeping but not having intercourse or anything like that.

It's an understandable thing ... there are the relatively rare cases where a priest is involved in a homosexual way with a minor. I think the statistic I read recently in a secular psychology review was about 2%. Would that be true of other clergy? Would it be true of doctors, lawyers, coaches?

Here's this poor guy — [Penn State football coach Jerry] Sandusky — it went on for years. Interesting: Why didn't anyone say anything? Apparently, a number of kids knew about it and didn't break the ice. Well, you know, until recent years, people did not register in their minds that it was a crime. It was a moral failure, scandalous; but they didn't think of it in terms of legal things," - Father Benedict Groeschel, the director of the Office for Spiritual Development for the Catholic Archdiocese of New York.
 
He makes a fair point. We priests are universally loved and looked up to in the community. Prepubescent boys know that we're horny and will jump them if they give us the right cues. This temptation is difficult to resist.
 
Good grief. There has to be more to that quote, or at least I really hope there is.
 
Yeah, saw that earlier. When you accidentally drop something and ask that 14 year old boy to pick it up, the seducing types have those wide stances.
 
Replaced by this:



Editor’s Note:

Child sexual abuse is never excusable. The editors of the National Catholic Register apologize for publishing without clarification or challenge Father Benedict Groeschel's comments that seem to suggest that the child is somehow responsible for abuse. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our publication of that comment was an editorial mistake, for which we sincerely apologize. Given Father Benedict's stellar history over many years, we released his interview without our usual screening and oversight. We have removed the story. We have sought clarification from Father Benedict.

Jeanette R. De Melo
Editor in Chief

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-new...rs-of-the-franciscan-friars-of/#ixzz253sPIePo
 
Replaced by this:



Editor’s Note:

Child sexual abuse is never excusable. The editors of the National Catholic Register apologize for publishing without clarification or challenge Father Benedict Groeschel's comments that seem to suggest that the child is somehow responsible for abuse. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our publication of that comment was an editorial mistake, for which we sincerely apologize. Given Father Benedict's stellar history over many years, we released his interview without our usual screening and oversight. We have removed the story. We have sought clarification from Father Benedict.

Jeanette R. De Melo
Editor in Chief

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-new...rs-of-the-franciscan-friars-of/#ixzz253sPIePo


Quite revealing, if you think about it. An excessive reverence for hierarchy allows serious problems to fester and deepen. Therefore, they become even worse.
 
Replaced by this:



Editor’s Note:

Child sexual abuse is never excusable. The editors of the National Catholic Register apologize for publishing without clarification or challenge Father Benedict Groeschel's comments that seem to suggest that the child is somehow responsible for abuse. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our publication of that comment was an editorial mistake, for which we sincerely apologize. Given Father Benedict's stellar history over many years, we released his interview without our usual screening and oversight. We have removed the story. We have sought clarification from Father Benedict.

Jeanette R. De Melo
Editor in Chief

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-new...rs-of-the-franciscan-friars-of/#ixzz253sPIePo

Quite revealing, if you think about it. An excessive reverence for hierarchy allows serious problems to fester and deepen. Therefore, they become even worse.

Yep. The priests are not answerable or accountable to anyone except some older priests, and they all have given their lives to the institution. Allowing the institution to be damaged or embarrassed is unthinkable when your sense of self is so bound up in the institution.
 
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