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."
I recall hating to see my Uncle Andy because he would always tickle my feet or my neck. As I sought to get away from him I think he may have even touched me in an embarrassing place,well,maybe not,but maybe he did. All remember is I hated to see him come over.
It is a serious problem and I don't want to minimize it but by the same token there needs to be an honest assessment and evaluation of the problems and exaggeration does not help get things resolved.
Incidentally,when my son was an infant,I had a Mexican,Penecostal,I believe,as a maid and babysitter a couple of days a week. One day i came in and she was playing with his penis,I really lit into her and told her it was wrong and she should never,ever do that again. She shrugged her shoulders and said okay but that her "people" always played with babies thingies,I said we didn't.
I remembered this when Elian Gonzales's grandmother came. in her interview she talked about examining his penis to see if it was growing right of some such thing. I am wondering if there may not be some cultural "traditions?" in some ethnic groups that view appropriate activities with little ones differently than we do and if that might not be part of the problem. I guess I think we need to really pursue some things and clear them up.
The article I referred to in my latest post suggested the island be used in a more Alcatrazish? fashion. All the perverted priests in the company of other like men under the supervision of nuns,I would suggest.
What do you think of the idea? Seriously>
Well,clue us in,I thought that's why Freepers'were cutting edge,they shared important information or theories.
Lately,I've seen an increase of rumor planters and a decrease of fact finders and truth tellers.
It is not.
Really? and you are here because...
It is not.
When you consider the loss of a child's normal life, and then the corruption of their future life and then sometimes the spreading of that corruption to their own victims, it is just as serious as murder.
When a priest with position of authority in a child's life, corrupts a child and teaches him that being used in such a way is acceptable that greatly increases the chances the victim will being to live a fake life justifying what has happened and a greater chance of spreading that corruption to others.
The child would have been far better off being raped by some random person off the street. These priests having committed just about the greatest kind of evil they can. To allow them to continue being priests is disgusting beyond belief. They deserve a life in prison or death.
"... We know well that peace is not possible at any price. But we all know how great is this responsibility. Therefore, prayer and penance."
Pope John Paul II, Angelus of 16 March 2003
There is a wing of the church that is homosexual and actively recruits - the seminarys. They are the ones that have caused the problem, but the article says that homosexuals in the priesthood are not a problem. At least the Boy Scouts recognize that it is. Sorry the Church does not.
How do you know this?
Well,I didn't post it ...Ooops ... quite right, it was NYer's post.: )
All the perverted priests in the company of other like men under the supervision of nuns, I would suggest. What do you think of the idea? Seriously
Personally, I think it's more of a palliative than a cure, albeit a curiously appealing one. (I defer to Polycarp to post his picture of the nuns with guns when his FReep fast is complete : )
To me, the radical problem is how to keep these perversely intemperate men out of the clergy from the get-go. IMO, the surest way to accomplish that is the prospect of their facing a strictly enforced, zero-tolerance policy if caught, not exile to an isolated penal colony where they can all "flock" together. If formally accused, immediate suspension of all pastoral duties pending final disposition by the civil authorities. And if convicted and all legal appeals exhausted, immediate laicization and public registration as a sex offender. JMO.
I was at the point that I believed all homosexual priests should be stripped naked and sent on cattle cars throughout the country to be mocked and jeered at in public.
When this scandal first broke last year I immediately believed that it was necessary to have a plan and I suggested on Free Republic that the dioceses buy a couple of old monasteries and seminaries and isolate abusers and other sexual miscreants from society. I thought nuns,as I remember them in the fifties,would be great supervisors and governors. I continue to think that it is an idea whose time has come.
It would be particularly appropriate for those that either had a one time fall from grace for which they are truly repentent as well as those who have had several unproven accusations which may or may not be true. It would permit the bishops,priests and the laity to exercise justice and mercy which ,in fact,encourages honesty and truth telling.As you can see this in no way negates a much improved system of selection and formation,nor immediate action on receipt of a complaint,nor removal from the priesthood,nor civil action.
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