A new pope has been elected and he’s an American: Robert Francis Prevost, from Chicago, and he’ll be known as Leo XIV.
Let’s hope he cracks down on pedophiles in the church and is progressive with respect to women and LGTQ.
1 Like
Based on what I’ve read of his time in Chicago, I don’t think he is likely to do much about any of those things.
1 Like
Although Francis advocated against the genocide in Palestine and encouraged acceptance of refugees, he seemed befuddled and confused when dealing with the pedo-priest scandals, made various pained statements, but basically did nothing.
It seems clear by now that sexual predation is fully institutionalized in the Catholic Church leadership and one could argue that to address it they’d have to start with getting rid of the rule that priests must be celibate / unmarried – a rule that’s been in place about a thousand years now and so much a part of Catholic identity that no one is advocating for it on its own merits.
At any rate I have no hope that this Pope will be different on this issue – and that makes it hard to feel supportive of him even on topics I might agree with him on. It would be akin to turning away while a family member molests one of my grandchildren, but then admiring him because I like his charitable work with local immigrants. I think most sensible people would consider the latter a cover for the former.
ETA: I see that in 2012, before Francis (with whom the newly-minted Leo was close) Leo made statements (recorded in the NY Times) against the “western media” for having “sympathies with practices that are at odds with the gospel”, in particular “the homosexual lifestyle”.
Supposedly he has “evolved” since then but I think it’s indicative that when it comes to these old fossils that are elevated to the papacy that being “progressive” is a pretty low bar, given the bubble they are gestated within.
1 Like
One certainly could argue that.
To do so, however, would be like living in an apartment building in Honolulu and only spraying your place for roaches. They just scurry elsewhere.
If one wants to reduce the frequency of child SA, then it will take far different tactics than allowing marriage for religious orders. Primarily, causes need to be better understood, preemptive treatments developed, and attitudes changed.
IMO, young people enter into celibate religious orders to squelch the pedophilia urges they are already having.
Marriage is not a cure, otherwise no married people would engage in it.
2 Likes
Eliminating celibacy will help some, but won’t be a complete solution–just look at how many married ministers are arrested for sexual crimes in this country alone.
1 Like
How? Marriage doesn’t stop it.
Pedophilia doesn’t happen merely because some celibate person is horny. It happens because a person acts on a sexual attraction to children. If marriage is allowed for priests it might reduce the quantity who have sexual relationships with adults but not pedophilia.
Ending celibacy in the Catholic Church is not an answer. Ending the “sanctity” of the confessional and the church hierarchy turning priests in to law enforcement probably would help.
2 Likes
I don’t disagree, but the Church has to address what it has authority over, and seek to influence that which it does not. To do that it would have to make a lot of structural changes.
It is possible that Leo, who in the past served as something like Frances’ consigliere – vetting and hiring most of the Bishops who would eventually elect him – might have thinned out the ranks of pedophiles and pedo-sympathizers in high leadership. Which could only help matters.
1 Like
Might have? I would bet dollars to donuts that’s not the case as he took no substantive action about pedophile priests under his supervision and actively sought to cover up details about in another diocese he was in.
1 Like
If I were forced to wager, I would wager the same, sadly.
Are you referring to Leo or Francis? I had not yet looked up whether Leo had any pedo issues in his previous responsibilites in Peru, etc., and how he (didn’t) address them.
Correct. However, I think it’s important to nuance this a bit.
The set of all paedophiles and the set of those who sexually assault children are not identical. Not all paedophiles assault children sexually; some actually realise the dangers of their sexual attraction and go to therapy. And not all of those who assault children sexually are paedophiles; some do it because of permanent lack (e.g. mental retardation) or temporary (e.g. intoxication) loss of judgment, some do it because they are a pressure cooker of suppressed sexualilty, and some do it because they are asserting power over their victims. And probably also other reasons.
Please note that the above is not in any way a defense of those who assault children (or adults, for that matter), paedophile or not. I just think it is important to point out that there can be several other reasons for why someone abuse children sexually than just paedophilia, in order to more correctly identify the sometimes complex reasons (note, plural) why things happen.
I don’t know about elsewhere, but here (.no) - by law - everyone that work with children, like teachers, school janitors, coaches in sports clubs, organisers of after school clubs, etc. must be vetted and present a clean police record before they can do their job, even if it is voluntary work for free. There have been cases here with people applying for e.g. positions at kindergartens not passing this vetting because they have a history of CSA, so this system will catch some. However, this system is not (and cannot) be perfect, as there are documented cases with people in such positions that have committed CSA despite passing the vetting (they’ve kept their official records clean up until then), and even some being hired while having a CSA history, passing the vetting due to fuckups, incompetence, and/or system inertia.
What seems to be sorely lacking within the catholic church (and other churches elsewhere) is the lack of a good system for vetting, and their naïve and unfounded belief that their faiths, oaths, and promises will be sufficient to prevent their primal urges from surfacing, and to suppress their sexual drive. What’s even worse, is that such organisations seem to have no insight into these matters, and just reassign positions for offenders, and do not seem to take this seriously at all. For those who commit CSA because of built-up and suppressed sexual urges, it will probably help if they could marry (or even better, marry the gender of choice) and that the church would accept their sexuality for what it is. The “married to christ” bullshit makes me gag.
OK, rant over. I’m not even sure I addressed what I originally set out to address, but that’s life.
1 Like
As was hinted at in an earlier post, I believe that part of the pedophilia crisis in the Church has to do with the idea that pedophiles are steered toward religion because–if pedophilia is a moral deficiency–then putting the pedophile in a more “morally supportive” environment can fix them.
It sounds great in theory, but fails in practice because of the fallacy that religion=morality.
Unable to confront the shortcomings in their own reasoning, the Church took the easy way out and scapegoated homosexuality . . . and blames the pedophilia on gay priests.
Please see below:
Scapegoating a marginalized people is cowardly. If they have the honest belief that they represent God’s will on Earth, then they wouldn’t scapegoat . . . and this shows their hypocrisy.
They don’t even have the courage of their convictions.
2 Likes
The Catholics didn’t need another pope. Yet again more time & money wasted on more fairy tale bullshit. Religion is the biggest con ever made.
Oh, I agree, but the Catholic church ain’t going to go away anytime soon, and I’d rather they be led by a progressive pope than a hard-line conservative.
1 Like
It’s safe to say it could have been worse, considering the cesspool of archaic superstitious beliefs that make up the church. That Trump doesn’t seem to like the new pope is a point in his favor. You’d think Maga would be thrilled that the pope shares their belief that homosexuality is a sin, but alas even both of their obsessions with other peoples sex lives isn’t enough to counter the crime of thinking immigrants should have rights. If anyone needs cheering up, I find singing along to Tim Minchin’s “Fuck the Pope” usually does the trick.
2 Likes