[Theosis]

"The worst part about the whole situation was that he actually tried to play the whole thing off as a cultural difference, saying that drinking at a young age is more acceptable in Argentina, and that it is also common in Argentina for young children to sleep with older men in some type of Platonic arrangement."

Just a few points here:

1) Concerning the underage drinking, there is a legitimate culture difference here, which I think goes back to the Puritain roots of the United States. There is still somewhat of mini-prohibitionalist attitude here when it comes to alcohol. Most other non-Muslim countries have lower legal drinking ages, and don't consider moderate underage drinking too big of a deal. (At most a misdemeanor and a small fine.) So I could understand a cultural difference here...

2) Concerning the sleeping in the same beds. From my South American friends, I understand that there is some difference in custom here, in that people of the same gender will often share the same bed when hospitality requires it, without it being sexual in nature. (Even among non-South Americans, Catherine de Huek, whose cause is now under investigation for beatification, and Dorothy Day were known to share the same bed on many occasions when there was simply no other space available at their respective apostolates.) So there is some truth here.

Nevertheless, I have never heard of this practice among people of unequal age unless they were close family members. Additionally, I have never heard of this practice between a cleric and a non-cleric, and to my knowledge the former code would have prohibited it. Therefore, while I cannot judge what happened, as I simply don't know the details,I do think there was a lack of prudence here.

[St.Chuck]

Therefore, while I cannot judge what happened, as I simply don't know the details,I do think there was a lack of prudence here.

I'm in exactly the same boat. I haven't heard anything about the Society for probably a year. I do believe there were grave instances of bad judgement on the part of the Society priests, financial ones of particular note (meaning provable), and they have been removed from their faculties as a result, and rightly so.

But as far as actual sexual allegations;those have been suspect.

[FBDinNJ]

Just a few points here: 1) Concerning the underage drinking, there is a legitimate culture difference here, which I think goes back to the Puritain roots of the United States. There is still somewhat of mini-prohibitionalist attitude here when it comes to alcohol. Most other non-Muslim countries have lower legal drinking ages, and don't consider moderate underage drinking too big of a deal. (At most a misdemeanor and a small fine.) So I could understand a cultural difference here... 2) Concerning the sleeping in the same beds. From my South American friends, I understand that there is some difference in custom here, in that people of the same gender will often share the same bed when hospitality requires it, without it being sexual in nature. (Even among non-South Americans, Catherine de Huek, whose cause is now under investigation for beatification, and Dorothy Day were known to share the same bed on many occasions when there was simply no other space available at their respective apostolates.) So there is some truth here. Nevertheless, I have never heard of this practice among people of unequal age unless they were close family members. Additionally, I have never heard of this practice between a cleric and a non-cleric, and to my knowledge the former code would have prohibited it. Therefore, while I cannot judge what happened, as I simply don't know the details,I do think there was a lack of prudence here.

This is exactly the type of attitude that "Fr. so and so," was such a nice man and could do no evil that got us into the whole Sexual Abuse Scandal in the First place.

Please, I spent the whole of my first year at college with my roommate from Panama and now I have numerous friends from Panama, Colombia, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, so don't lecture me about "cultural differences," because as a result of globalization they're now pretty much non-existant.

While the drinking age is much younger in all of Latin America it is still considered very odd and highly unusual for young teenage boys to be getting plastered with an older homosexual male, especially a Homosexual Priest.

Secondly the sexual more of South America are not THAT different from those of the United States. All the young people I know from Latin America have pretty much the same feelings about gays as people do in the United States, and no normal teenage kid from South America would ever think about sleeping in the same bed with an older man, especially if he was a homosexual Priest.