Posted on 01/06/2015 1:11:59 PM PST by Dr. Thorne
A longtime Catholic school priest at a renowned New York City school has admitted to sexually abusing minors in the 1970s and 1980s, and local prosecutors are now investigating, authorities say.
Father Robert Harrison, a priest who taught for 26 years and coached basketball for more than 20 years at the all-boys Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, has been removed from the school and is barred from any sort of ministry as church and law enforcement officials investigate.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnewyork.com ...
Consistency
This will continue to happen until the Church makes celibacy optional and forcefully purges the clergy of all homosexuals.
Homosexuals should not be working where they have access to children, period. The vow of priestly celibacy is between themselves and God, but enough of them break it that they (homosexuals, not priests in general) are all suspect.
This is NY, they’ll probably force him to marry one of those shildren.
Ditto.
Two distinct, and perhaps unrelated issues.
So in your view, anyone who does not have sex is at risk of molesting children, especially young boys?
If only they’d let teachers marry...(not to make light of an already horrible situation).
I was told by a RC priest that the homosexual clergy in the church doesn’t want married clergy.
The institution’s leadership and culture is a homosexual magnet, you would never be able to drive out homosexuality, the best you can hope for is to try and limit the practicing of it among the leadership.
So in your view, anyone who does not have sex is at risk of molesting children, especially young boys?
No, but, if priests were allowed to marry, the church might find it easier to recruit non homosexual males to the priesthood. Just a thought.
“This will continue to happen until the Church makes celibacy optional and forcefully purges the clergy of all homosexuals.”
Explain to me why the Episcopal Church has molesters in its ranks even though their clergy marry.
I don’t think the Episcopalian priests are famous for homosexuality, are they?
Well, Anglican/Episcopalian priests and choir directors are very well known for pederasty, to the extent that it is a joke in their world, but they never get the news coverage. Also, the Episcopal Church has been much more successful in sheltering its assets.
I’m not aware of the priests and leaders of the Episcopalian denomination being famous for homosexuality, just as I’m not aware of the Priests and leaders of the Catholic denomination being famous for affairs with females.
All institutions have problems and sex scandals, but the Catholic leadership’s issue, seems to be male on male lust.
Celibacy is the portal which homosexuals used to fill the ranks of an undermanned clergy. Face it. Normal heterosexual men with procreative and healthy sexual urges despite their mystical beliefs would be reluctant to enter a situation where those normal urges were not only proscribed but being in the very company of women would lead to suspicion. Homosexuals can purport to be celibate and privately do as they wish. Homosexuals will also continue to behave as homosexuals always have and despite the political incorrectness of the statement, have sex with and molest young boys. Once heard an elderly priest give a remarkable sermon. He said that about every five hundred years the Church goes through an existential crisis. The first was the sack of Rome in the 5th century when much of the clergy and Church documents were destroyed. the second was the East/West schism. The third was the Reformation. Now it is the crisis of vile homosexual priests defiling the sacred and molesting children. The Church weathered the first three and even prospered. It is by no means clear how this current crisis will be resolved.
All over the country molesting minors is extremely common in all sorts of situations. It's seldom reported except on local news, if that. A daily search for such things in the nooks and crannies of small or medium sized news stations will usually find at least one such report in the news somewhere.
Any reasonably good attorney can get a plea bargain given the desire of the parents of the molested children to not have the names of their children made public. A local DA isn't usually going to bull ahead with a trial if the parents are totally uncooperative. Hence most such things tend to "fade away" with little fanfare and the majority of the population remains unaware of how widespread it is.
Most places tend to report it then sweep it under the rug as fast as they can if it even makes the cut for the evening news when it happens.
I entirely agree that the Catholic Church should quit ordaining the sexually dysfunctional. As you note, celibacy is far more than mere abstainence, and anyone who is sexually dysfunction could find the rigors of celibacy can help to metasticize their dysfunction. Let alone the obvious issue that you don’t want scandalous, sinful priests.
But you treat celibacy as some sort of pathology in a manner wholly contradictory to Christian sexuality. Christian single people have to be abstinent, also. Christian soldiers must part from their spouses for long periods of times. And illness and injury preclude sex for many married couples. The Catholic view of sex is that it is a gift which should be selflessly given when it builds a family (yes, through sharing intimate pleasure as well as conceiving children), not a need which creates an entitlement. Everyone loves citing Paul when he says that bishops should be married only once; they forget that he also counseled that it is best to forego sexual relationships altogether:
Therefore, I say to the unmarried, it is good for them to abide as I do [chastely]. But IF THEY CANNOT CONTAIN THEMSELVES, let them marry, for it is better that they should marry than burn [in Hell]. — 1 Corinthians 7:8-9
Does Paul intend that only those that cannot control their sexual desires should become bishops? Of course not! When he told Timothy to select from among those married once to become bishops, he was giving instructions to a community made entirely of converts to Christianity. In both the pagan and Jewish cultures, people would be disturbed that a community leader (i.e., a highly eligible bachelor) would remain a bachelor.
Well said!
Celibacy is a form of devotion which is not often understood in this day and age. I know several lay celibates who have a beautiful spirituality. They don’t seem to me like they’re missing out on anything.
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