Sex runs rampant in the Catholic Church

Capitol Hill Blue ^ | January 9, 2003 | DOUG THOMPSON

[arj]

Recent revelations that at least 40 percent of Catholic nuns in the United States are victims of sexual abuse are just part of a growing sex scandal in the Church that goes far beyond the abuse of young boys by priests.

Capitol Hill Blue has learned that internal investigations by the Church have uncovered massive evidence of frequent sexual activity by both nuns and priests (often with each other), use of Church money to pay for abortions for pregnant nuns and a “casual and tolerant attitude towards sexual activity among Church leaders.”

Details of the investigations are a closely guarded secret of the Church hierarchy, but sources tell CHB that the results are being closely studied by Vatican officials who express “shock and outrage” at the high levels of sex involving priests and nuns.

“For God’s sake, this is the Church. It is not a bordello,” exclaimed one priest involved in the investigation. “This is a crime against God.”

In interviews with current nuns and priests, as well as with a number of clergy who have left the church, a disturbing portrait of immoral activity within Church walls emerges, including:

--Priests who regularly have sex with female parishioners. According to two sources, as many as 5,000 priests in the U.S. have been discovered to have had affairs with parishioners.

--At least 34,000 nuns who admit sexual abuse or activity.

--Frequent sexual contact between priests and nuns. The investigations are said to have found “dozens” of cases where nuns who became pregnant from these affairs had abortions paid for out of Church funds (even though the Church opposes abortions).

--Hundreds of confirmed reports of lesbian sexual encounters among nuns as well as homosexual contact between priests.

--Hundreds of cases where priests and nuns leave the Church and marry shortly afterwards, many having children conceived while they were still Church clergy.

“You are dealing with human beings with human failings,” admits Jonathan, an ex-priest who left the Church years ago and married a former nun. Their oldest child was conceived during an affair when both were still in the Church. Jonathan agreed to be interviewed only on condition that neither his last name nor his wife’s name be used for this article.

“Yes, we both took vows of chastity but we broke those vows,” he says. “We weren’t the only ones. I knew several priests in my diocese who broke their vows as well. My wife knew many nuns who violated their vows.”

Jonathan says stories about rampant sexual activity among priests and nuns circulated in the Church for years but that Catholic leaders looked the other way.

“There were two hypocrisies at work,” he says. “One because some of the Church leaders were, themselves, unfaithful to their vows and the other because everyone knew the damage to the church if this ever became public.”

Only when confronted with the revelations last year of widespread abuse of children and the subsequent cover up has the church taken a closer look at the sexual activity.

"The bishops appear to be only looking at the issue of child sexual abuse, but the problem is bigger than that," says St. Louis University researcher Ann Wolf, one of those who authored the study on widespread sexual abuse of nuns. "Catholic sisters are being violated, in their ministries, at work, in pastoral counseling."

St. Louis University conducted a national survey of nuns in 1996 but the Church-affiliated school never publicly released the results. The study, paid for by several of the nun orders, was turned over to the Church. Wolf and the other researchers found 34,000 nuns who had been either sexually abused or engaged in sexual activity.

“What they found were those who admitted it,” says Jonathan. “There were, and are, many others.”

Jonathan admits his wife was not his first sexual partner while he wore the robes of priesthood. He had affairs with female parishioners and other nuns.

“It was all done with a wink and a nod,” he says. “Just about everybody knew what was happening but nobody wanted to do anything about it.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops claims to know nothing of the studies and refuses to comment on the specifics of this article. Phone calls to various Catholic officials and Vatican offices were not returned.

[arj]

If Doug Thompson is Catholic, I suspect he is about to be excommunicated.

[2timothy3.16]

“For God’s sake, this is the Church. It is not a bordello,” exclaimed one priest involved in the investigation. “This is a crime against God.”

Yes, but so is preaching that a priest can interven to have ones sins forgiven.

[CedarDave]

Not enough sex and slease on Capitol Hill, Doug?

[LiteKeeper]

And so is preaching that God wants the clergy to be celebate. Paul writes to both Timothy and Titus, telling them that one of the qualifications for the leaders of the church is that they are to be the husband of one wife. Yes, Paul said it would be better that we were single as he was, but he recognized that marriage was a good thing to avoid temptation and sin.

Skew biblical teaching, in this case about sex and relationships, and you will see a skewing of lives. the Roman Catholic Church has not done anyone a favor by insisting on an unnatural state for its clergy!

[workerbee]

"Sexual abuse of nuns" is a far cry from consensual, albeit illicit, affairs. This author wraps it all in the same blanket. It's disgusting that these clergy seem to have so casually broken their vows -- equally so that their parishioners were involved as well. But this article seems more for titillation value than investigation of any "abuse", like the old stories of the underground tunnels between the convent and rectory...

[2right]

The cynic in me suspects the whole reason for this story is to counter the suspicion that all priests are gay.

[Hegewisch Dupa]

Amen brother! So either get it right or stop spreading Klannish hate speech.

[Capt. Tom]

It's almost enough to make you believe those stories the filthy hateful protestants have been spreading about the Catholic Church for years. - Tom

[eastsider]

"Sexual abuse of nuns" is a far cry from consensual, albeit illicit, affairs. This author wraps it all in the same blanket.

He sure does:

Wolf and the other researchers found 34,000 nuns who had been either sexually abused or engaged in sexual activity.

[VOA]

Sex runs rampant in the Catholic Church

It ain't just a Catholic thing.
A friend who was a campus minister for a "mainstream" Protestant church told me
that he had more than a few times where he had to evade advances by female congregants
(mostly young university students).

It's an occupational hazard, regardless of the religional organization.

[Cicero]

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

--Matthew 16:18-19

[Aliska]

40 percent sounds a little high to me in our country. I don't doubt that it has happened but I don't trust the survey either.

[Cicero]

Most of this stuff happened in the 1970s, when the Countercultural Revolution was in full swing. Many orders of nuns were being counseled by crazy psychiatrists, many orders were decimated, most religious habits were discarded, and tens of thousands left their orders.

It had nothing to do with Catholicism as such; it was a matter of surrendering to the secular culture. Of course the bishops are much to blame for their weakness and neglect in the face of these difficulties.

That was the time of the Woodstock Nation. It infected the Catholic Church badly, but of course it affected the other Churches as well, and non-Christians probably went off the deepest end of all, and have since suffered for it in broken and disillusioned lives.

[RayBob]

A nun wakes up, gets out of bed and dresses, and heads out of her room. In the hall she passes another nun and warmly greets her, only to get the reply "I see you woke up on the wrong side of the bed today."

Confused, she continues down the hall. Determined to be more cheerful, she warmly greets anonther nun, only to here the same reply, "I see you woke up on the wrong side of the bed today."

This continues throughout the morning. Finally, at her wits' end, she goes to the mother superior and tells her tale of woe. "All day long, no matter how cheerful, no matter how bright, every time I say hello to someone, they always look me in the eye and say sternly 'I see you woke up on the wrong side of the bed today.' I just don't understand it! Why would they do such a thing; why are they being so mean to me?" The Mother Superior sits down next to her to consol her and tells her "They weren't being mean to you. They were just pointing out that you are wearing Father's shoes!"

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Yes, but so is preaching that a priest can interven to have ones sins forgiven.

You are incredibly ignorant of Scripture.

[CCWoody]

It's almost enough to make you believe those stories the filthy hateful protestants have been spreading about the Catholic Church for years. - Tom

You seem to be suggesting that if a Protestant makes a charge againts the RCC, whether true or not, then he is filthy and hateful. Perhaps you should apply the filthy and hateful label to the predators of the RCC who are actually pederasts and/or rapists and/or fornicators.

Woody.

[Steve_Seattle]

I attended a Jesuit college - Seattle University - between 1968 and 1972, and a classmate told me that he was once invited to dinner at a nun's apartment (she was a professor). When he arrived, she answered the door wearing a transparent orange neglige. She was quite busty, but otherwise homely. He was a good boy - or maybe just had good taste - so he kept his hands to himself, but it was quite a story.

[Steve_Seattle]

It's not that this sort of thing is unkown in Protestant denominations. In the Seattle area, there have been several notable scandals involving sexual misconduct by Protestant ministers. This stuff is also very common in New Age therapy circles, and even in Buddhist groups.

[ex-snook]

Catholic teaching says it is tough to be a Catholic. Some can't hack the sex prohibitions, priests and nuns included. But the Church considers sex outside of male-female marriage as sinful. It is not glossed over for acceptance by multiple TV shows, movies, media, the government and even other religions. The Catholic Church is still the rock that Jesus declared.

[crystalk]

Naughty, naughty, disingenous post.

Lower level church officers, such as deacons, were to be faithful married brethren, usually older...

For the church's real leaders, Paul made it very clear that they ought to be single as he was, and Timothy also was, and was so urgent about this that both the Roman and Greek churches have felt that all clergy or those over a certain level, must be totally unmarried and thus [unless they are swearing falsely before God]...celibate.