Posted on 11/16/2006 9:54:57 AM PST by presidio9
The US Roman Catholic Church has asked a criminology school to delve into the darkest pages of its history by probing the causes of a priest sex abuse scandal.
At a meeting due to end Thursday in the eastern city of Baltimore, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to disburse 335,000 dollars to fund the first three phases of a study by New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
"It will be a groundbreaking study, never done before in the US, nor in the world," Bishop Gregory Aymond, who chairs the Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People, told AFP.
"We don't know what would come out of it, but we are going to tell the truth," said Aymond, of Austin, Texas.
In 2002, the John Jay College of Criminal Justice had made a list of complaints and pedophilia cases in the US Catholic Church since 1985, when one of the first scandals came to light with the case of a Louisiana priest.
The university will now look into the "social and historical context" of sex abuse to see if such cases are more frequent in the Church than in the rest of society, notably in schools and youth clubs, Aymond said.
The Church wants to "look at what is unique" in the priest sex abuse crisis, he said.
The first part of the study would be completed in 2008 and made public, although the names of suspected priests would be omitted.
In the second part, the university will evaluate the Church leadership's response to sex abuse cases.
"We want to see where we failed and made some mistakes, and learn from those who handled it well," Aymond said.
The study will also paint a psychological profile of pedophiliac priests by reviewing cases in treatment centers.
The review will aim to show "to what extent is a priest sexual abuser profile the same as the psychological profile of the non-priests who are sex offenders," Aymond said.
The university will also interview abuse victims and examine education at seminaries over the decades.
The majority of priests accused of sex abuse were trained in the 1960s and 1970s in seminaries where psychological tests and sexuality education have since been introduced.
A final phase of the study will make proposals on how to prevent sex abuse and help victims.
"Our goal is to ascertain the causes of the clergy sexual abuse crisis and if we need to change any method we have now," said Teresa Kettlekamp, the executive director of the bishops conference's Office of Child and Youth Protection, which was created in 2002, in the wake of the sex abuse scandal.
But the study would also be useful to schools and youth groups, Church officials said.
"The pathology of abusing children isn't unique; it's a societal problem," Kettlekamp said.
"We are hoping it will be a big, big help to the society in general," she said.
Onan seems to be the most obvious scriptural example. And as far as I know, the Church has always been considered it to be a grave sin.
Masturbation also contradicts the natural law. The purpose of the reproductive organs is... < drum roll please> reproduction. The pleasurable nature of intercourse is ordered toward reproduction. The deliberate frustration of the natural end of intercourse for the purpose of self-gratification is analogous to binging and purging. It's selfish and disordered.
Well- THEIR 'ilk' creeps me out, so we're even.
What's the problem with homosexuals in the priesthood?
Look what they've done to it! The public perception of Roman Catholic priests includes perversion and child abuse now.
Isn't that enough of a problem?
And the issue is celibacy. That's the rule they understood upon joining the priesthood, that's the vow they took upon ordination. It's KEPT or you're not a priest- get'em outta there, period.
It's NOT just about the 'power over children', because the
men using that power are homosexual. It's men and little BOYS! The base perversion is the problem in the Church. If it were not we'd see equal numbers of priests abusing little girls. Are we???
Now-imagine the celibacy requirement is dropped.
Straight priests can then marry and have wives and children.
Homosexual priests are now free to have sex with each other.
Pedophilia is evil always, by anyone.
If you equate heterosexual with homosexuality, and the idea of a priest having sex with a woman with the idea of priests having sex with each other, then you creep ME out.
Is hetero sex equal to ANY form of sex? Would beastiality be just as ok for a priest as hetero marriage? Father and his wife = Father and his boytoy, or his German Shepherd?
Heterosexuality is biologically normal.
Homosexuality is intrinsically disordered.
I would rather have 12 priests left on the planet than all of the homosexual priests there are.
If these gay priests had obeyed their vow of celibacy, the words 'pedophilia' and 'priest' would not be associated, now would they?
Are you saying that homosexual priests having sex with other men or each other is ok with you?
If you are- that ends our conversation.
Which is not maintained in any person or institution.
Gee, I'd be willing to tell these bishops what the problem is for a lot less than $335,000 -- The Catholic church let sexual deviants whose sexual perversion is sinful behind the pulpits.
Only when making an altar.
Therefore the Natural function of eating is for fuel. Hold them spices!!
Onan seems to be the most obvious scriptural example.
Onan is the ONLY, not the most obvious.
And in that example, a larger law is being disobeyed.
Genesis 381. At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah.
2. There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and lay with her;
3. she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er.
4. She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan.
5. She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.
6. Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.
7. But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the LORD's sight; so the LORD put him to death.
8. Then Judah said to Onan, "Lie with your brother's wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother."
9. But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother.
10. What he did was wicked in the LORD's sight; so he put him to death also.
Therefore the Natural function of eating is for fuel.
True.
Hold them spices!!
Doesn't contradict the premise.
If you know another purpose for the reproductive system, let me know. Right now, you're rationalizing.
Onan is the ONLY, not the most obvious.
So it's not valid? Your premise is invalid.
Is embezzling wrong? It's not mentioned at all in the Bible.
And in that example, a larger law is being disobeyed.
This is a novel interpretation that has only come around in the last 70 years, since the Church of England became the first Christian sect to permit artificial means of sterilization.
Should we disregard the ten commandments? The reason why we don't is because they accord with the natural law, which is written on the human heart (see Deuteronomy), and is knowable by all people. For this reason, the ten commandments were binding even before they were formally promulgated by God, and for this reason, they are still binding today.
The same holds true for Levitical laws that accord with the natural law, such as proscriptions against masturbation and induced sterility. These proscriptions are still valid today because they conform with the natural law, of which God is the author. Other Levitical proscriptions could be described as transient pastoral laws promulgated by God for a particular people and time.
:)
You are right.
Yeah, this will be a pathetic waste of time and money. Most priest-offenders targeted sexually mature male adolescents as their victims, not prepubescent boys and girls. As the opportunists at John Jay know full well, studying the "pedophile-priest" will miss the large bulk of offenders completely and what is worse, will add error to the literature. After the "criminologists" waste the church's money and issue their report, it is virtually certain that the weight and state of our knowledge will be LESS than it is right now, due to increase in the error term, academic distortion, and politically driven obfuscation.</p>
I don't think you're being paranoid to consider a 'conspiracy'. I have thought for a long time that liberals have placed themselves in positions of influence on Congressional staffs, in Chanceries of Catholic Dioceses, and as we've seen, in Seminaries for both Catholic and other Chrisian churches. This has been done to steer ideas to the liberal side, and we have seen that happen.
One reason the Catholic Church had such a problem after Vatican II, was that the people who were directing the changes wanted to go farther than what the Documents actually said. They wanted to see the Church more modernized, so they made changes that infuriated traditional Catholics, but when those people complained to the Chanceries, they ran into brick walls because the liberals had gotten themselves entrenched and refused to listen. That's why some folks just gave up completely, or bypassed the Diocese and went directly to Rome to complain.
Thankfully, this began to wane a few years ago; maybe some of those early libs began retiring, and more traditional folks realized they needed to be in those position, so began doing so. Also Pope John Paul II, with the assistance of Cardinal Ratzinger, began cracking down on some of the more egregious abuses. I believe Pope Benedict will continue that work he began with JPII.
I believe the CHurch sexual abuse scandal erupted when it did in Boston as 'cover' for the Supreme Judicial Court to make its pronouncement about homosexual marriage. I believe the Boston Globe was in collusion with the SJC, and that the relentless media was designed to negate any influence the Church might have had in fighting the idea of homosexual marriage. In fact, after Cardinal Law had retired, the Globe had an editorial crowing about exactly that, that the Church shouldn't have anything to say about any moral matters because of the abuse scandal.
Read the red text - no 'interpretation' needed.
They WHY is there such a thing as a female orgasm?
Which are which?
I rejoice that the priest who may be "buggering boys" forgives my sins and has the power "in persona Christi"
to restore me to life in my savior, Jesus Christ, the Lord.
No, what I said was that homosexuals should be welcomed as priests just as heterosexuals...with the premise that both are bound to the oath of celibacy. Once broken, you're out.
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