Posted on 04/14/2003 12:04:43 PM PDT by WaveThatFlag
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While pleased that the Catholic Church is taking the problem of pedophilia seriously, an international panel of experts told Vatican officials that dismissing every priest guilty of sexually abusing a minor is not the way to handle the problem.
Eight internationally recognized psychiatric and medical experts were invited to lead an April 2-5 symposium at the Vatican.
The Pontifical Academy for Life, which often sponsors scientific conferences on medical and ethical topics, organized the meeting. It was attended by officials from the Vatican Secretariat of State and the congregations for doctrine, clergy, Catholic education, religious and bishops. Several priests and nuns directly involved in treating offenders also were invited; they included Father Stephen Rossetti, president of St. Luke Institute in Silver Spring, Md., and Franciscan Father Canice Connors, president of the U.S. Conference of Major Superiors of Men and former president of St. Luke's.
The eight experts, none of whom are Catholic, came from Germany, the United States and Canada. Several of them had presented papers at the 2002 international conference of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, which was attended by a psychiatrist who is a member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.
According to participants at the Vatican meeting, the experts criticized "zero tolerance" policies for all priests who had ever sexually abused a minor. Such policies, they said, ignore the difficulty of determining the future risk posed by the offender and may actually increase the risk.
The experts said that "by letting them go, you may be unleashing them on the general public" without the supervision and support systems that may have helped them control their negative behavior, said a Vatican participant who did not want to be named. Dismissal also may increase stress, which is another risk factor.
The participant said the experts told Vatican officials that banning homosexuals from the priesthood would not solve the problem because although homosexuality is one of many "risk factors" it is not the cause of pedophilia.
He said he hoped the experts' remarks would quash a proposal being studied by the Congregation for Catholic Education to discourage the admittance of homosexual men into seminaries; the congregation is responsible for seminaries as well as Catholic schools.
Dr. Martin P. Kafka, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and president of the Massachusetts chapter of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, was the only U.S. expert invited.
Kafka, who gave presentations on the sexual molestation of adolescents and on the possibility of treating sexual offenders with pharmaceuticals, said he believes the U.S. bishops' policy of dismissing every offender from the priesthood "is a real mistake."
"It is only in the United States that that policy has been taken," he said, while in Europe and Canada provisions have been made to allow some offenders to continue in the priesthood while excluding all contact with minors.
"Many of these men are not your typical sex offenders," he said; they have only one or two victims, their crime involved "above clothing molestation" and the incidents occurred 15 to 30 years ago.
"With treatment and supervision, you can help those perpetrators," he told Catholic News Service.
"You cannot cover up the problem, and changes must be made" in the way the church handles the cases, "but each case must be dealt with individually and you must see who is motivated for treatment."
Kafka said the key issue in Catholic seminaries is whether or not students have a mature understanding of their own sexuality.
"Data suggests that the overwhelming majority of adult men who molest children -- boys or girls -- are heterosexual," he said. "With the molestation of adolescent boys, the incidence of adult male homosexuality is higher, but it is not one to one."
Homosexuality is just one of many risk factors, he said, and the fact that "most adult male homosexuals do not molest children or adolescents" means homosexuals should not be banned from the priesthood out of fear they may molest someone.
Another Vatican participant said a key point made by the experts confirmed the general stance taken by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is that instances of clerical sexual abuse must be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
"There are cases which demand the dismissal from the clerical state because he is using his office to abuse," the participant said.
When a priest is dismissed, however, the church should ensure that other means exist for keeping the priest under observation, he said. Such means include state-mandated registries of sex offenders.
Dr. Jorg M. Fegert, medical director of the pediatric psychiatric clinic at the University of Ulm, Germany, said he was the only expert invited to discuss the impact of sexual abuse on children.
"I made a plea for a careful discussion of the responsibility toward the victims," he told CNS. "It is important not just to look at what to do with priests, but to ensure the children get help."
Fegert, who has worked with child victims of sexual abuse for the past 10 years, told Vatican officials that in cases where the abuse is reported "the children undergo an average of five to seven interrogations and interviews by police and psychologists, which can traumatize them even more."
"We must develop procedures to protect children while trying to get the truth," he said.
Fegert said that although he is not a Catholic, in the wake of the U.S. sex abuse scandal, he had written to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the doctrinal congregation, telling him, "It is important not only to have policies for priests, but to learn from the scientific studies and to care for the children."
"There will be a number of priests who were abused as children," he said. "If you offer help to the child victims, maybe you can prevent some abuse in the future."
Raping a child is the same as murder.
Even more interesting, congregations of all faiths and denominations, when confronted with an incident of child abuse, are likely to blame the child.
Cardinal Roger Mahony said last year he wanted everything related to clerical sex abuse in his Roman Catholic archdiocese "out, open and dealt with, period."
But now with church attorneys planning to argue in court Tuesday against the release of personnel files, prosecutors are questioning the cardinal's sincerity.
"They have changed their stated position between one of openness to one of resistance," said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. "What they say and what they do are two different things."
Advocates for victims of clergy abuse said they urged Bishop Richard G. Lennon yesterday during their long-awaited first meeting to tell church lawyers to stop fighting so aggressively the avalanche of lawsuits alleging sexual abuseWilliam J. Gately, a leader of the New England chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said Lennon contended that ''many of the tactics were not of his doing.'' But Gately said the bishop was noncommittal when pressed to get involved in the cases.
Gately and Webb said they urged Lennon to tell church lawyers to drop their argument that the cases filed by some 500 alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests should be dismissed based on the First Amendment principle of the separation of church and state. They also contended that lawyers of the accused priests were demanding access to the alleged victims' therapy records.
How could Christ's teachings be motivating academic non-religious psychiatrists?? Plus, Christ's teachings about forgiveness are often misrepresented. He told the adultress, "You are forgiven. Now go and SIN NO MORE."
The participant said the experts told Vatican officials that banning homosexuals from the priesthood would not solve the problem because although homosexuality is one of many "risk factors" it is not the cause of pedophilia.
PS This article is 100% crap. This is just one example.
A Catholic priest in Palm Beach County was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison on Monday for soliciting sex from what he thought was a 14-year-old boy he had met over the Internet.The 14-year-old was in fact an undercover police officer.
"On my part, it was more of a curiosity than anything of a sexual act," Guimaraes said, before finally retracting the statement and admitting that he and the "boy" arranged to meet in Delray Beach and "we did mention if it was agreed between the two of us we may have sexual relations." The priest said the two discussed plans to "touch each other and perhaps masturbate and perhaps also oral sex
A Catholic priest asked fellow Catholics and the community for forgiveness Friday as he pleaded guilty to fondling a 5-year-old Rock Hill girl in her living room 2 1/2 years ago.York County Circuit Court Judge John Hayes sentenced Father Juan Castano, 44, to two years in prison and two years probation on the charge of lewd act upon a minor under the age of 16.
Castano remains suspended from ministry and could possibly be defrocked, a Diocese of Charleston spokeswoman said. Castano's lawyer, public defender Harry Dest, said his client also may be deported back to his home country of Colombia due to the nature of the guilty plea.
As a Catholic, I can no longer reconcile the "peace at any price" stance with the atrocities committed on the people of Iraq for three decades, no more than I can understand calling together psychiatrists and sociologists to opine on the moral failings of the hierarchy. This is not about the past sins of a small percentage of priests -- this is about the future direction of the Catholic church in preventing sexual abuse and depravity within its ranks, and so far, it has failed miserably by apparently being more concerned about the rights of the offenders -- and potential offenders -- than the victims -- much the same way that the concept of "peace" now trumps the concept of charity towards the suffering.
In the forties,he recognized that some of these priests with a drinking problem also had sexual problems,at times involving abuse of children. According to FTM he notified his order and said that he felt this (pedophilia or ephebophilia) was impossible to treat and suggested that they purchase an island off the coast of Carolina where these priests could live out their lives in prayer. I bellieve he put some money down on the property.He felt they could be isolated from contact with minors and monitored and consequently pose no threat to children or minors. He also felt that the Church would be protecting society and also fulfilling their obligations to provide for priests who were unable to carry out their priestly duties and obligations.
As I recall he went to Rome for a period time for additional studies and when he returned he found that they had sold the Carolina propert and established the Sof P as a "helping" agency for all "troubled" priest. He was disheartened and went to an assignment elsewhere.
Seems to me that it is an idea whose time has come,isolate them on an island far from minors and ask them to live out their lives in prayer and penance.I would be happy to use my tithe for a facility on an island,I am sure averse to giving money to our bishop for his inane and uncastholic pursuits.
This, actually,
is the liberal ideal:
Conservatives must
take direction from
"outside," and when liberals
need consultation,
since they're already
"outside," they talk to themselves.
Satan is laughing.
I have several Roman Catholic friends who are at various levels of discouragement and doubt, and I encourage them to pray, study the Scriptures, and otherwise endeavor to stay close to the Lord while they sort out questions of earthly religious denominations and the weaknesses of our imperfect fellow human beings........
Granted, but there are circumstances, most especially this one, where a Pope, his cardinals and bishops can refrain from openly opposing war.
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