Here are again, one would have thought after the Royal Commission those with these kind of habits would have ditched them but…
The WA Child abuse squad does not act lightly and has a very high reputation for thorough, painstaking investigation. This action would have been the product of months of interviews, research and good old fashioned coppering.
What is it with Catholic priests?
I’m not saying that all priests are paedophiles (which would be like saying that all Jews lack generosity, or all Black men are criminals), but it seems like the Church keeps coming up whenever these things make the news.
Is it the culture of secrecy? Or is it because of institutional celibacy?
I don’t see lifelong celibacy as a healthy choice, as I believe that all humans need a certain amount of intimacy to have a state of physical and psychological well-being . . . although I admit that other habits–like smoking–are obviousy worse than celibacy.
Still . . . is this a part of why this shit happens?
An interesting quote and statistic that came from our Royal Commission was that 20% of the RC priests who responded did not consider sex with a prepubertal male a transgression or sin against their vow of celibacy.
In addition, investigations into certain Catholic priestly teaching orders (since dissolved) uncovered a culture of such activity from the highest ranks through to the inductees.
It seems pederasty is endemic in the catholic church and judging by the convictions, pedophilia is commonplace in all other sects of all the Abrahamic cults.
I have heard quite a few catholics describe Roman Catholicism as “sexually repressive”, and of course they require priests be celibate, which is itself repressive.
That aside most religions seems to have an unhealthy view of sexuality, and most of the doctrine and dogma seems about forbidding sexual activities between consenting adults that are harmless. It’s not a good starting point if sex is associated with guilt. Though of course it is well known that sexual predators seek positions where they can have power over the children they want to prey on, and given the church’s shameful attitude has been to protect the image of the church over the welfare of the children in its care, it’s perhaps not surprising so many paedophiles view the priesthood as an opportunity to break the law with impunity. Nothing I have heard suggests the church has made any real effort to tackle the problem, by changing that position that values the church’s imagine and the secrecy of the confessional for example, over the welfare of children in its care.
I’m not sure the institution is even capable of radical change, or worth saving. The Vatican simply has too much power.
Perhaps when some boys who have been raised RC start to experience sexual attraction to other boys, fear and prejudice overtake them and they enter the priesthood as a way to embrace celibacy. They use celibacy and the priesthood as a cure, so to speak, for their own homosexuality which they have been taught from birth is evil. However, many of them continue the sexual fantasies of their developmental years and end up acting out on it.
Additionally, people may be attracted to jobs as religious leaders because they have pedophilic urges. Instead of getting mental health treatment for it, they believe their god(s) will help them prevail over those urges.
So, celibacy may not cause the behavior, it may be one of the things that attracts those with the propensity for the behavior. The same, if the case, would hold for women in nunneries.
Thank you everyone for these posts, as they shed a lot of light.
One final point, if I may, It’s fairly well established that one response to being powerless to protect oneself from abuse is to identify with the abuser and become an abuser. I would hasten to add that this response isn’t embraced by most and perhaps not even a majority of abused children. Identifying with the abuser might manifest by abused children growing up to be Priests and Nuns.
One thing I’ve never understood about the sex scandals in the RC church is why do priests go after kids when they have a ready supply of women available (the nuns–I’m sure many of them are just as horny as the priests)? Are they true pedophiles, or just opportunist pedophiles?
It’s my understanding that pedophiles often seek out jobs where they have access to children so it could account for why so many priest abuse children. Also, there are known scandals of priests abusing nuns. I’d suppose a nun has even more incentive not to report abuse than a scared child. You know they’ll blame her right? If the nun is actually into the idea then of course they wouldn’t report it so there’s really no telling how common it is either way. There’s also regular congregants to take advantage of for a man who preys on women. It’s my opinion that most of the pedophiles are just plain pedos who consider access to kids a perk of the job.