Posted on 09/26/2013 9:36:55 AM PDT by Dr. Thorne
A prominent Roman Catholic priest in Argentina has been jailed, four years after being convicted of sexually abusing a teenage boy.
A court in Buenos Aires province rejected an appeal by Father Julio Cesar Grassi, who has been sentenced to 15 years in jail, to remain under house arrest.
He was convicted in 2009 of abusing the boy at his "Happy Children" foundation.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Why is he still a Priest?
but I have it on good authority that catholic priests don’t molest children as much as other denominations.
But they DO have an advantage over Protestants..only 20% of molested Protestant children think they’re going to hell because of the molestation while 100% of the Catholic molested children think they’re going to hell because they can’t get remission for that sin. Because that’s what the priest does, don’t ya’ know. Their future looks BLEAK because they believe that future is in that priest’s hands...
I’m wondering if doing away with mandatory celibacy would help reduce this problem as well as the shortage of priests.
It is my understanding that celibacy is not a doctrine, but rather more of tradition. Early Catholic popes, bishops, and priests were allowed to marry.
There was, however, a problem in the early Church. Many priests who married and had children began treating church property as their own and were passing it down to their children. Celibacy was introduced to end that practice.
Considerable majority of priests who have been caught are pursuing adolescent boys. Don’t see how allowing (normal) marriage will solve that particular problem.
Gay marriage, maybe...
Is this a closed anti-Catholic thread? It’s sad to see so many Freepers eager to join the BBC and the liberal media at Catholic bashing. It seems to be their primary purpose in life. And, no, I’m not excusing this priest. I’m just troubled by how many “conservatives” jump on the liberal media bandwagon whenever the Church is mentioned.
By contrast, 100% of Muslims know that if they are molested, by going Jihadi they can be forgiven.
Molestation of children is a key recruiting tool for jihadis.
Unbelievable! I did not know that. Sounds right, though. There is NOTHING they do that is above board.
Remake the clergy into a heterosexual institution where intimacy is permitted only in the context of a traditional marriage between one man and one woman.
The idea is that if you permit married priests, you can recruit from a broader population of people who are not perverted, rather than from merely those who are so unattracted to normal and virtuous sexual congress that they would be willing to never marry.
Current Catholic doctrine encourages perverts to self select for clergy.
Attacking the messenger won’t help. The point is that this priest sexually abused a boy, has been convicted and is now going to jail. He wasn’t convicted by the BBC. The use of the name “Happy Children” is utterly grotesque considering what this pervert did.
It isn’t closed at all. We welcome Catholics who wish to bash their religion too. Or even defend it.
There are two doctrines.
One is Chastity. All Catholics should be chaste, which is to abstain from sexual congress outside of the sacrament of Marriage.
The other is Celibacy. Catholic Priests are not permitted to marry, but can become a priest after marriage, if their wife dies or becomes a nun. The pope can be married if before taking office his wife becomes a nun.
I do not think current policy of priestly celibacy is etched in stone. I know it is not a doctrine it can be changed.
The problem here, though not intended by the Church, an all male envoronment, with no outlet for natural sexual contact....is sort of like a prison....and we know what happens there.
>> The problem here, though not intended by the Church, an all male envoronment, with no outlet for natural sexual contact....is sort of like a prison....and we know what happens there. <<
So are you saying, Trapped Behind Enemy Lines, that if you weren’t able to have sex with a woman that you’d have sex with a boy? Prison rape is about dominance and punishment, not about a “sexual outlet.”
Priestly celibacy is not a doctrine; it comes from the Church’s experience that married priests are inevitably concerned more with the needs of their own family than with the needs of their flock, precisely as St. Paul warned.
Can’t disagree with that.
Keep in mind I said “sort of” not exactly. The Roman Catholic Church is NOT the state pen. I hope I did not convey that impression.
But through priestly celibacy the Church has created an all male environment where natural sexual contact is prohibited...an environment attractive to individuals such as pedophiles.
I have not come to my own conclusions on the matter of priestly celibacy. But I am open to suggestions. I think most of the depraved priests have been rooted out in recent years. But there remains the problem of the shortage of priests. As a practicing Catholic that is what concerns me the most.
Years ago large families were the norm...especially among Catholics where having five or six or even seven or eight children was common practicing. Such families could afford to encourage a son or a daughter to enter into vocations....often at very young age (another part of the problem). The recruitment of such very young priests into the seminaries at such a very young age was, I think, a contributing factor to the enormous scope of the pedophile priest scandal.
The Church may well decide to keep in place the discipline of an all male celibate priesthood. As a lifelong Catholic, that’s what I’m used to, although at my church I have seen some married priests who are converts from the Episcopalian Church.
If the Church decides to keep the all male celibate priesthood as is, I would simply suggest they recruit among older men-—30s and 40s-—not teenagers. Men who are sexually mature and a little more worldly in their personal experiences and have been around the block a few times and know full well what is expected of them.
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