There is actually a good argument to this effect, not mentioned in this article.
The recidivism rate for child molesters may be as high as 90%. (I prefer the term “child molesters” over “pedophiles.” Pedophilia is a desire. Child molestation is an action.)
In several countries they allow convicted child molesters to be surgically or chemically castrated. The recidivism rate for those so treated drops well below 10%, in several European studies.
While those who choose this treatment are obviously a self-selected subset of child molesters, those who really want to stop, to me these statistics indicate pretty strongly that some significant percentage of child molesters suffer from an irresistible impulse they cannot control by themselves.
While making no excuses for those who act on such compulsions, it seems reasonable to me that those with such a condition should not be viewed in exactly the same way as those who choose to engage in such behavior.
Which I think is more or less what the cardinal actually said.
If I had such compulsions myself, I’d cheerfully cut my own throat before harming a child, and I have no problem with the death penalty for child molestation, if that were allowed. But some subgroup of child molesters are not necessarily 100% evil, though their actions obviously are.
He is WRONG (using my Marisa Tomei voice)......as mom used to say, you might not be able to stop a bird from flying over your head but you can stop it from building a nest on it!
Well how bout this one that happened in Syracuse, NY. A child molester carjacked an auto with mother and her 10 year old daughter. Kills the mother and rapes the 10 year old. Just sick.
A confession?
He is making the mistake of accepting the secular humanist abstract conceptual framework and language. This is a victory for atheism, and more instances of this will lead to the destruction of Christianity. Secular humanists blame the environment for human evil, and they believe that if the environment could be perfected by means of secular humanist principles and secular humanist education, then mankind could learn to consistently to choose what is morally correct.And, punishment is unnecessary, since misdeeds are simply caused by an imperfect environment.What is needed is restorative justice rather than the Biblical idea of justice where people get what they deserve.
Uh ... sorry, Cardinal ... it’s BOTH!
Hey, Cardinal, It's BOTH...it IS a CRIME and you have to be sick to commit it!
Wow... This is sure to help the Catholic Church.
/headshaking disbelief
Rabies is an illness.
It is not the fault of the animal who got it.
But we put that animal down.
IMO the same should be done with Pedophiles
We should point out that it is not their fault, but we should put them down so they do not pass the illness on, and they cannot harm others.
It’s the only solution that works——every time.
Pedophilia is following the same course as homosexuality:
Crime>illness>choice>genetic disposition>equality to heterosexuality>preferred behavior
It’s coming...pedophila is a God-given sexual orientation. They were “born that way.”
This cardinal is just a bit ahead of the shrinks in this country (i.e., the APA), who are on the verge of “normalizing” pedophelia.