Priest Found Hanged

Nando Times ^ | 05/16/02 | Stephen Manning

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Accused priest apparently takes own life at Maryland hospital
Copyright © 2002 AP Online

By STEPHEN MANNING, Associated Press

SILVER SPRING, Md. (May 16, 2002 7:57 p.m. EDT) - A 64-year-old priest who resigned from his parish in Connecticut amid allegations of sexual misconduct apparently killed himself Thursday at a Catholic psychiatric hospital, church officials said. The Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn., identified the priest as the Rev. Alfred J. Bietighofer, who was stripped last month of his priestly powers and ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation.

Two men told diocesan officials Bietighofer abused them when they were boys in the late 1970s and early 1980s, church officials said.

Bietighofer was found hanged in his room Thursday at St. Luke Institute, according to Prince George's County police and hospital officials.

"I am profoundly saddened by the tragic death of Father Alfred Bietighofer," Bridgeport Bishop William Lori said in a statement. "To parishioners and to all those whom Father Bietighofer assisted during the course of his priestly ministry, I extend my sincere sympathy and prayers."

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[sinkspur]

The problem is that the "new" Catholic Church has forgotten the absolutes. In fact, it has forgotten the four absolutes, formerly known as the Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell.

Well, you can spend your time worrying about those things.

For me, the absolute is to "Love one another as I have loved you." If we always strive to do that, the Judgment will take care of itself.

[Askel5]

This would be a great time to launch a campaign as did the Nazis against "troublesome" priests.

Given the climate of Berlin's boy bars and Magnus Hirschfeld's institute, it was in the air ... but especially among the homosexual elite of Hitler's circle.

Leather biker boys ... like those around the edges of an "anything goes" story like poor Miss Chandra.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

A cogent inference. Sound theologians, of course, would hold that, epistemologically speaking (always a good consideration in Catholic speculation), we don't know who is below purgatory. Also - It takes a while to die by hanging, as I understand.

[Bogey78O]

I know. That's why I left it indefinite and although not completely open I di close it a bit with "most likely".

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

I'll confess to having somewhat limited knowledge of the details of homosexual culture in either Weimar or Nazi Germany. There does seem to be some rhetoric in the air which opens the door to anti-Catholicism, unfortunately.

[yendu bwam]

I attended Catholic educational institutions my entire life. Never encountered or heard about sex abuse of any kind. And I'm hardly the squeamish or overly sheltered type who wouldn't know. That some priests (a few, a small minority) and a couple students might be gay was suspected but never proven. I just can't think of any situation (through the college years) where a priest had any opportunity to disclose or impose sexual intentions.

In most of these homosexual molestation cases, priests built up trust with teenage boys and parents over a period of time. Then they started spending a lot of time with the boys, and eventually maneuvered them into being alone with them - in rectories, in retreats, in overnight stays, etc. In a local church here, one Catholic priest molester had boys come over in the afternoon, where he ostensibly was letting them have a place (or so he told the parents) to relax. Over time, he introduced them to homosexual pornography and tapes. He started fondling them. When they objected, he told them that what he was doing was normal, and that he was introducing them to manhood, and that all boys go through that and that they were lucky to have a priest teach them these essential things. In the end, he brainwashed these impressionable and trusting boys into presenting themselves on a regular basis for anal rape. While true that things don't occur like this in most Catholic institutions, the number and scope and spiritual and physical viciousness of these molestations overwhelms the mind. They appear to have occurred in every major diocese in the country. Two bishops have resigned, and several more would have, had they any honor. Several cardinals are implicated in covering such crimes up. Rampant gay sex is occurring in many of the seminares. (Read, Goodbye, Good Men, as an example.) And finally, thousands of boys have been molested. While I'm of course glad that none of these terrible things happened to you personally, they did happen to thousands of boys. There is a terrible cancer in the church. Feel lucky that you were spared. Also, I have to say that this problem was a bit more abstract to me until I found out that the previous pastor of my son's Catholic school church in the neighboring town was the molester described above. I shudder to think what could have happened if my sons had attended this school a few years earlier. The sexual molesters in our Church have proven themselves to be quite adept and skillful at luring young boys into their lairs. and finally, if, when you were a teenage boy, a priest had asked you to come up to his office on a quiet afternoon at the church, wouldn't you have gone?

[livius]

St. Augustine said "Love and do what you will." The problem is that many people have a strange and uninformed understanding of love that basically boils down to "feel good and do what you will."

Love means obeying the commandments. "If you love Me, keep My commandments;" but after years of religious non-education, most Catholics probably could not even tell you what they are.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

It's an interesting point for such speculation though. The more metaphysically-minded would discuss the nature of time. In other words, God is in eternity, right? He makes the decision about someone's eternal destiny. God is not restricted from offering the suicidal person in question enough grace to repent right up to the very end. Then there is the question of when does the actual "death" occur in an ontological sense. Anyone who has had a brush with death knows that your mind speeds up really fast (your whole life flashing before your eyes)on the brink of the exit. The variety and nature of cognitive experiences at this point are not entirely understood by psychology or modern science. Hence, all the medical speculation about the near-death experience. What happens between the onset of biological death and the ultimate spiritual death (leaving the body and the physical space-time context of temporal terrestrial existence entirely) is food for a lot of thought. That God's mercy and love would not necessarily be limited by the relatively short amount of time here is another possibility. But, alas, we just don't know.

[yendu bwam]

when God forgives in confession and has the firm purpose of amendment (i.e.. has the intention not to sin again) one's sin is forgiven by God with the absolution of the priest. Should he repeat the sin he should return to confession but that doesn't mean that the sin of the previous confession was not forgiven. I need to go to confession at least once a week because I am weak and sin often and I believe God forgives me every time I receive the sacrament of penance. I need His grace.

Well put.

[yendu bwam]

There are still priests out there who think that the major focus of Catholicism is some type of socialism and NOT anything sacramental, mysterious, or spiritual at all.

I've met priests who practically sneer in disdain at the mention of anything holy or sacramental or having to do with God's absolute truth.

[Barnacle]

If he was in fact a perpetrator, I think your sympathies can be better spent on his victims.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Which discussion in particular are you objecting to? I've previously posted my concern and outrage about this in somewhat voluminous detail. I first discussed the problem of homosexuals in Catholic institutions with a ranking clergyman in 1983. The question about the insanity and moral dilemma of a suicide is valid theologically, if that seemed problematic.

[yendu bwam]

"If you love Me, keep My commandments;" but after years of religious non-education, most Catholics probably could not even tell you what they are.

My children have attended their obligatory CCD classes for years, and do not know anything about the following, other than what my wife and I have taught them ourselves: the book of Genesis, the 10 Commandments, the significance of God's covenant with the Jews, the Psalms, the prophets, the parables of Jesus, the book of Acts, the letters of the New Testament, or Revelation.

[facedown]

God bless you.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

re: Catholicism as socialism

This whole business about the de-sacramentalization of Catholicism is sort of complicated sociologically and intellectually. I think the problem started in the 1960s when some Catholics became preoccupied with the social protest model coming out of the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, and Feminism. Praxis became the buzzword for the worldly model for the Church which came into fashion. Some factions of the clergy (and laity) became a little too comfortable with the idea that Catholicism had nothing to do with sacraments and the afterlife. It was trendy to think this way.

[yendu bwam]

Some factions of the clergy (and laity) became a little too comfortable with the idea that Catholicism had nothing to do with sacraments and the afterlife. It was trendy to think this way.

But why has this mindset been allowed to prevail for what seems like an eternity? Christianity (and Catholicism) is about, at its core, loving God with all ones heart, mind and soul, (and thus wanting to imitate Christ) and about achieving salvation. It seems to have been greatly devalued in most places.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

And there's also probably castration..... or the 'threat of'. At least that would stop the perps from potentially impregnating young girls.

[My Favorite Headache]

In the words of Neil Peart " Playing for time...don't wanna wait for heaven"

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

I think that has actually been done in the past, but I don't know the jurisprudential or medical history of this attempt at remedy for obsessive-compulsive sexual perversion. It might be an interesting deterrent to discuss. [irony alert]

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

I know it sounds weird, but some of the guys who've left the priesthood to marry that I know have said that the love of God just wasn't enough.

No, it doesn't sound weird at all. In fact, it sounds quite normal.