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Published: August 20, 2007
Sue the "sexperts"
California's Dr. Judith Reisman urges bishops to take action against sex therapy experts who have advised the Church. And, if they don't, the laity should.
 California-based lecturer and author, Dr. Judith Reisman (she holds a Ph.D. in Communications) has served as an expert witness in lawsuits involving sexual abuse. Her research paper, "Reliance of the Catholic Church on Sexuality Advisors Whose Moral Foundation Differs Markedly from that of the Church," was submitted to a select group of bishops in 2002, so far without official response. California Catholic Daily interviewed Reisman on Aug. 12.
A number of Catholic priests later convicted for sex abuse were ex-patients of sexual therapy centers. What’s the problem here?
Reisman: “Human sexuality education” has always been based on the Kinsey model. The “Harvard” of the Kinseyan field was the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco . The IASHS “education” canon reflected the frauds created by Kinsey, a pedophile advocate.
Kinsey's research was ultimately used to eliminate laws banning pornography and sexual deviancy in all fifty states. Didn’t anybody realize he was a fraud?
Several highly respected academicians, including Abraham Maslow, charged that Kinsey’s work was shoddy and un-scientific. Even Warren Weaver, a lead scientist with Kinsey’s funder, the Rockefeller Foundation, knew and warned that Kinsey’s statistics were worthless; but Weaver was ignored.
Is there evidence of fraud perpetrated against the Catholic Church?
Susan Brinkman gives the details in her book, The Kinsey Corruption (Ascension Press). Certain Catholic Church administrators hired sexuality educators who taught Kinseyan values. This employment pattern held as well for some selected psychologists who screened aspiring seminarians, many of whom were rejected because they were said to be too sexually “orthodox,” not “tolerant” of homosexuality. Bishops sent pedophile priests for treatment to therapists who accepted pedophilia as an “orientation.”
Which experts and treatment centers?
The Johns Hopkins clinic and St. Luke Institute [in Maryland] are two Kinseyan therapeutic venues. Fr. Rossetti took over St. Luke Institute after its founder, Michael Peterson, a priest and practicing homosexual, died of AIDS. Some of their infamous pederast patients included Fr. Rudy Kos of Dallas and Fr. John Geoghan of Boston .
The key experts were Dr. Fred Berlin and his mentor, the late Dr. John Money of the Johns Hopkins clinic. Yet, Money claimed his failed sex change operations were complete successes. He originated the notion that there is no genetic woman or man. Culture only determines one's sex, he said.
Money also told The Journal of Paedophilia that sex between men and young boys was healthy. He advocated an end to age of consent. His protégé and successor Fred Berlin refused to report his patients who were actively offending pedophiles and pederasts during his “treatment."
You want the Church to sue the clinics where the priests and psychologists had been trained. Are there legal precedents ?
Yes, medical malpractice is one approach that immediately comes to mind. These “sexperts” held themselves out as authorities; bishops and vocations directors listened and commonly followed their directives. Yet, almost all of these "sexperts" built their therapies on the fraudulent research of Kinsey and his disciples.
Could the ordinary Catholic laity seek damages, for instance through a class-action suit?
I did speak with several attorneys who confirmed that the Catholic laity was empowered to seek such damages. As “the Church” the laity would have legal standing for redress of grievances, loss of religious trust and amity, and other claims due to the fraud and harms perpetrated by bogus sex experts
Posted Monday, August 20, 2007 6:58 AM By stlouisix
Dr. Reisman is right. So also should schools who promote homosexual lifestyles in complete ignorance of the consequences of same be put on notice that they are libel for lawsuits when those consequences are realized. In the diocese of Altoona-Johnstown PA, the ordinary, Joseph V. Adamec, had in his employee a pro-homosexual clinical psychologist who repeatedly committed public scandal to the faith by telling the local school board, and the readership of the local paper, that the Cathoilc Church saw nothing wrong with homosexual lifestyles per, in his words, "the encyclical Always Our Children," which told Catholic parents to do nothing if their children were inclined to homosexual lifestyles, which is a lie from the bowels of hell. This man also went to the extreme by ridiculously saying that Saint Thomas Aquinas found nothing wrong with homosexuality, which is preposterous. In the Summa Theologica, the kindest thing Aquinas had to say about homosexuality was that "it is the unnatural vice." [For proof see the following references from the Christian Classics 1948 Benzinger edition translation of the Summa Theologica. For references on the Natural Law see Summa Theologica, Vol II, Pt. I-II, Q.94 Art. 2-6. For references on Homosexuality see Summa Theologica, Vol IV, Pt. II-II, Q.154 Art. 11-12.] It went downhill from there fast! The psychologist, a publicly self-professed "expert" in theology, in his ignorance, took the objections that Aquinas refutes in the Summa, using them erroneously as what Aquinas is espousing. At no time was this man corrected by his bishop. A "former" seminarian basically left the seminary because of the tyrannical regime of this bishop toward his orthodox priests, many of whom he drove out of the priesthood, per a priest I know. The priest also said that he, in good conscience, could not recommend that any young man study for the priesthood for my diocese while this heretical apostate was still allowed to remain as bishop.
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Posted Monday, August 20, 2007 8:32 AM By Michelle K. Gross
Dr. John Money--is a familiar name. Is this the physician who castrated a healthy infant twin boy to test out his theory of sexual identity?
See http://www.altavista.com/web/results?itag=ody&q=%22John+Money%22+suicide+boy+twin&kgs=0&kls=0
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Posted Monday, August 20, 2007 8:46 AM By Ally
You go girl! Father Groeschel of EWTN has been saying this for years. He never mentioned the church suing but he did expose the church obeying the "professional" advice of the psychologists. I wonder if Dr Reisman has spoken with him and/or EWTN.
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Posted Monday, August 20, 2007 9:59 AM By Michael Burnett
I work with religious entities, nonprofits and victims on sexual misconduct claims. I am not qualified to address Dr. Reisman's discussion of Kinsey's theories. However, Dr. Reisman definitely makes a very important point. Some bishops egregiously shuttled abusers from parish to parish. But, the great untold story of the clergy sexual abuse scandal is that--contrary to media accounts--most bishops did exactly what the Church and the greater community would want them to do when confronted by sexual abuse allegations against their clergy: they sought the advice of "experts" and sent clergy away for treatment at mental health institutions. Most bishops did not return errant clergy to ministry until after the "experts" gave them the go-ahead. Psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, "sexperts", etc. would tell bishops that offending priests successfully completed the treatment protocol, were "cured" and ready to return to ministry; only then did most bishops return such priests to ministry. Of course, the mental health community finally realized in approximately 1985 or 1986 that there is no cure for pedophilia, and thus their advice and recommendations to bishops lo those many years was clearly flawed. By that time, of course, many of those "cured" priests had re-offended and victimized countless others. The unfortunate fallout of many bishops' well-intentioned actions vis-a-vis sexually abusive priests was devastating, and today the media and plaintiffs' attorneys have characterized the bishops' actions as part of a "cover-up" of sexually abusive priests. In most cases, that was untrue. Dr. Reisman's suggestion that bishops and laity explore means of legal recovery from mental health experts whose mistakes and malpractice caused the Church to act to its--and, more importantly, victims'--detriment is timely and fair. These "experts'" negligence contributed to abuse, victims' devastating heartache, and legal liability on the part of many dioceses.
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Posted Monday, August 20, 2007 11:37 AM By stlouisix
We are missing something here. We need our best men for priestly vocations, not those who have demonstrated that they have some serious problems with their sexuality, problems that are to be addressed via maturation by hopefully orthodox Catholic professionals qualified to do so. The priesthood is not that place; its primary job is to save souls, not provide a vehicle to baby-sit immature men who are not sure about their sexuality. If you are not sure about your sexuality, you have no right for consideration as a candidate for seminary. The idea is to put the occasions of sin at a distance from you, not the reverse. A little theological sanity is involved here. Would you hire a “recovered” alcoholic for a job where his chances of reverting back to his disordered state are increased? No, you would hire someone else for that position. Similarly, if the choice is between two individuals, one claiming to be completely recovered from being inclined to homosexual acts, and another who never had that problem in the first place, everything else being equal, who would you want to ordain, given the occasion of sin consideration, which should be foremost in your mind? If the answer is the former, not only are you putting those at a greater risk who might come into contact with this man, but certainly the man himself. Is this showing good judgment for all concerned? I respectfully submit that it isn't. You don't need the advice of experts pseudo or otherwise to see these seminal truths. All you DO need is basic common Catholic sense, in particular, the Catholic understanding that the occasions of sin are to be avoided not welcomed. There have been plenty of “good men” since Vatican II who have wanted to become priests, but dissenting heretical apostate bishops and clergy, who had their own agenda for the destruction of the Church by reinventing it in their image, discouraged them.
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Posted Monday, August 20, 2007 11:43 AM By Chuck
While some would consider these charlatans medical doctors, I do not. Not only did Kos and Geoghan visit St. Lukes infamous Queermarouge, so did San Diego vacationer Paul Shanley. After Father Gary Holtey was busted for homosexual boy porn the San Diego diocese sent him packing to St. Lukes in Brokeback Springs. The lists of abusers that visited these pedarast protecting rackets is TRULY staggering. Do not forget about Jemez Springs Servants of the Paraclete Facility Center in New Mexico, which along with St. Lukes and the Institute of the Living in Connecticut are nothing short of a disaster for the Catholic Church and Faith. These psycho-psychiatrists and psycho-psychologists are EVERY bit as sick as their infamous guests, and have allowed these boy-molestors to hop from diocese to diocese leaving more victims in their paths. To send anymore abusers to these Funnyfarms run by the criminally insane is nothing short of madness. Given the number of serial abusers and repeat offenders I would say someone has a case here. If all the facts ever came out about who, and how many times these molestors visited these summer camps, not only would these institutes be closed, the quacks that run them would be in jail.
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Posted Monday, August 20, 2007 12:18 PM By Jon
This article is nothing but one big smoke screen. It is a crime to molest a child no matter what anyone says to you. I know it, because my parents knew it as well, and their parents before them. So the poor Bishops were taken in by some idiots that said pedophiles are OK. These Bishops that fell for that need to be put in jail for not knowing anything about the laws in this country. There is so much about this article that makes me want to throw up. If the Bishops of the Catholic Church are actually this stupid and ignorant then the Pope needs to send them all down the road. The bishops actually manipulated law enforcement and the justice system to stop the arrest and prosecution of child molesting priests and there is now a lot of documentation to back that up. This article should be called, give be a break and get real people. The Catholic Hierarchy is at fault in all of this and it's too late to use an idea like this one to get them off the hook. Disgusting!
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Posted Monday, August 20, 2007 12:29 PM By Russ Bianchi
Absolutely Amazing! The fault of multiple decades of knowingly ENABLING thousands of ordained sodomists, physical mainers, mental torturers, kidnappers, extortionists, oral copulators, sexual assaulters, perjurers, embezzlers, and rapists of tens of thousands of children is now the shrinks' fault...anyone but the GUILTY miters and red hats.
The problem REMAINS no curial accountability in their overt criminal culpability.
No Bishop Accountability? No Laity Monies!
Russ Bianchi
Lay Member of the Diocese of Monterey, CA
russ@adepthq.com
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Posted Monday, August 20, 2007 1:03 PM By Victoria
That is absolutely correct. Those, so called, Servants of the Paraclete have a lot to answer for!!!! Sue them right down to their last brass farthing!!!
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Posted Monday, August 20, 2007 2:15 PM By Jim Ellsworth
Dr. Riesman is correct! The Catholic dioceses who have been sending priests for treatment to centers who have proclaimed their ability to help priests, with problems of pedophelia and ephebophelia should be compensated for the losses they have endured, having believed these institutions were credible. I am not defending pedophiles or ephebophiles by making this statement, only putting the focus on the persons and institutions who by their misdiagnoses also horribly misled bishops around the country with statements of :being cured" only for the bishops to reassign these men to ministry resulting in further abuse. These treatment houses were not cheap and the owners, psychiatrists, psychologists who were wrong, need to pay for their malpractice. This is only fair.
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Posted Monday, August 20, 2007 5:14 PM By FDB
To persons like Jon and Russ, whether Catholic in name only or anti Catholic, if it makes you feel good,divest your hateful emotions by writing discusting comments. Others, especially practicing Catholics, stand tall. It was a very small percentage of priests and a limited number of bishops of the total population of clergy that were involved. I too, am heartsick and disgusted. However, as a logician and former law enforcement official believe the blame must be placed on the guilty and accessories to the crime (possibly therapy clinics) and not on everyone because they belong to the same organization. The Catholic Church DID NOT commit a crime.
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Posted Monday, August 20, 2007 5:38 PM By John L. Sillasen
Not only some bishops, some priests, some nuns, some brothers, but some laity. I've never heard how it is that so many of the laity turned their heads the other way. I think you can spot these perverts right away ... most of them, at least. We read patterns of how the victims were targeted and messed with ... how is it that the adult laity does not see this sort of thing? Even after the mud hit the fan a few years ago, and the Boston area was in the headlines, I read one after another report revealing the incredibly flippant attitudes of entire parishes. I even witnessed this attitude personally in a life long practicing Catholic. I think it boils down to some families being rather vulnerable to predators ... but if a predator can spot this, then why cannot other parish members who are decent, and find some ways to protect them? Again, to my knowledge, this question has not been addressed in the press, anywhere. There is a concept put forth by God in the Bible, about the "brother's keeper"; so where is our brother's keeper these days?
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Posted Monday, August 20, 2007 7:41 PM By Chuck
Unfortunately I have to agree with John. After Father Holtey was busted for boy porn, (including a violent rape of a 4 year old!) the parents of Catholic children along with principal Michael Deeley of St. Charles Borremeo gave him a STANDING ovation! To me, this type of attitude is beyond belief, yet believe it. It is time to take off the blinders and confront these fakes when the Lord gives us the opportunity. It gives me NO pleasure in saying this, and it will NOT be pleasant, but neither was our Lords crucifixtion.
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Posted Monday, August 20, 2007 8:26 PM By Maria
This makes me sick. The bishops must also be sick to even consider having approved priests who are disfunctional. The Lord only calls out real men to be priest not pediphiles. In the end, no matter who is at fault, these bishops were called to lead the sheep, and they failed, they instead sheltered pediphiles priests and this is the end result of these scandals. Perhaps some of our bishops are in bad will too.
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Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007 6:55 AM By Mary Parks
The Church's received wisdom for over a thousand years was that pederasts are inveterate and must be treated accordingly. That they ignored their own wisdom in favor of a few psychologists whose views were outside the mainstream (at the time) but who were "canonized" by Church acceptance, says more about the bishops than the psychologists.
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Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007 7:33 AM By kathy
.I completely agree Dr. Judith Reisman. We all go to doctors believing what they tell us, until either we get better or worse. Then we began to seek second opinions. Many doctors commit malpractice and they are taken to court and justice, after the fact is done. Unfortunately, the Church believed these false doctors promoting their own agenda. Now is the time to make them pay. HOWEVER, with "political correctness" governing the mindsets of the public, would we even have a chance in court? There are so many attacks on the Church, I do not believe we could find fair and honest jury for a case to come to trial.
Another question, why are there no law suites against other religions and teaching districts? Could children molested in other venues be less traumatized than Catholic children are? Are Catholic children more traumatized? On the other hand, could it be that there is no money in these venues to compensate them? I truly believe this is all about money and a way to justify the way their lives turn out. I was molested as a child. However, I have with prayer and help, I am leading a full functional life. Married and with children. There is always someone out for easy money, an excuse for lack of accomplishment or a escape goat, someone to blame. It’s time for Catholics to grow up, get on with their lives and stop blaming the Church.
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Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007 7:51 AM By Pat
Dr. Riseman, I appreciate your concern, but give me a break, of course the Kensey report is not only flawed but revoltingly sick. However any bread and butter Catholic knows inherently through the laws of God (that are in our hearts) homosexuality and pedophillia is a grossly dangerous perversion, and a mortal sin!!!.
Don't suggest to me, any Catholic Priest or Bishiop could believe for one minute that it would be fine to allow this vomitous behavior to continue to flow out and engulf our children. As a mother of 4 boys I am outraged that the safety of my children was put in jepardy. Thank God the Holy Spirit put it in my heart to go to camp WITH my children. When my children were growing up in the 70's none of this was known, but THANK YOU JESUS for laying this fear in my heart. Now it is the time for ACOUNTABILITY AND PURGING OF THE FILTH. The justice system must ALSO step up to the plate and protect our children by issuing the perpetrators their just deserts. WE THE LAYITY must turn to more fervent prayer, we must pray for the protection of our priests from these agents of hell. Please connect the dots here, we infact have been a laxed Catholic Community, when was the last time any of you said the Rosary for your Priest, or kept up the practice of monthly confession or went to Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament? I have heard the saying..as goes the Catholic church..so goes the world...get it?
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Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007 7:59 AM By JPeterman
A paedophile is one who is attracted to pre adolescent children. Most of the victims of this "paedophile" scandal were post adolescent boys. Shouldn't this then be properly classified as a homosexual abuse scandal?
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Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007 8:02 AM By Rose
"So the poor Bishops were taken in by some idiots that said pedophiles are OK."
No, Jon, the bishops were taken in by those treatment "experts" who told them that AFTER treatment these men were fine to return to their duties.
If people would just look at the wider community/culture today, the very same thing is done by the courts (if and when friends, family, community even report offenses which is rare indeed - just look at the thousands of abuses/rape that Planned Parenthood hides) and judges. And the same thing is done by the schools. Once they have the spotlight pointed at them too, I'd bet then you'd see all kinds of lawsuits aimed at the sexperts. The criminals are usually sent for evaluation and treatment and they're back in the community to strike again once the court "experts" give their okay. You can see it in the news almost daily. Only those who may also be convicted of real bodily harm spend time locked up. Before you scream at only the bishops, better check out what is going on in your own neighborhoods - for that's what you may be responsible in permitting the psychological rationale to continue.
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Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007 8:41 AM By Art Crosetti
How can the Bishops place the responsibility on the clinics? Seems to me that they should have made themselves aware of the underlying principles of these agencies and it would have been obvious that they were in direct contradiction of Church teaching. I believe the Bishops need to be converted and deeply contrite for the damage done to the Church through theur carelessness. Forget about suing.
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Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007 9:39 AM By TimJ
No matter how much money the Church pays to victims of abuse by representatives of the Church, money itself will not bring about healing to the victims. The Church needs to do a better job at providing spiritual healing to the victims and to the victims' families. Offering spiritual healing has been part of the ministry within the Catholic Church for centuries.
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Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007 9:54 AM By DDaily
Sure the Church should sue these monsters. Bring to light this Truth once and for all! Its not just pedophilia as the media and the lawyers chose to label it. It's mostly homosexual deviants. But I still blame the Bishops who chose this secular path for recovery of his flock in the first place and ignored the Truth of Christ Teachings!
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Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007 10:12 AM By Talia
To Maria: The hands of some bishops are not clean either, Maria. Some of these members of the hierarchy are self confessed perpetrators themselves, but not one of them has been defrocked.
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Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007 10:43 AM By Lou J A
God directs us to “love your enemies” and "pray for those who persecute you".......I do pray for peace in the minds and hearts of these "sex experts", so called!
Pray for me to better understand "love and forgiveness" through prayer!
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Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007 10:56 AM By Jon
It is against the law to molest a child in this country. That means 14 years old and under in almost all cases. The Hierarchy should have called the police and helped them in every way in the arrest and prosecution of clergy that they knew of that molested any children. You don't send the accused child molester to some clinic and put them back with children so they can molest more of them. You simply call the police and let them take care of it. The catholic hierarchy still doesn't get that concept even today after all that has taken place. Not to long ago Bishop Walsh, of Santa Rosa, ca. waited three days before turning in a known dangerous pedophile priest, Father Ochoa. This gave him time to escape to Mexico. No one has been able to find him as of this date. He has an arrest warrant out for molesting 4-6 children and possibly many more to come. The Bishops will not sue these clinics that gave them bad evaluations of the child molesting priests. They (Bishops) would be deposed along with having to produce documentation that would prove the evaluations were wrong. The bishops have done everything in their power to keep these very same documents secret. These documents can/wil show their complicity in the cover-up of priest child abuse. In other words they will never sue these people.
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Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007 11:00 AM By Paul T. Murphy
Isn't it the responsibility of each individual bishop to rule his diocese? Not the responsibility of the USCCB, his auxiliaries, or any committee? What happened to the time-honored principle of "the buyer beware"? What would be the goal of such lawsuits? (prove the stupidity of hiring the shrinks in the first place?)
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Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007 11:38 AM By George
What simply stuns me is the Church's reliance on anything secular. Psychologists and their research are absolutely irrelevant in a religious discussion. Celibate priests, if not celibate need to be removed. No one ever died from a lack of sex regardless of their perceived orientation. Any confessor for a priest who has abused anyone - particularly a vulnerable child, should include as penance - turning themselves in to authorities. Priests, above all others, should voluntarily face the consequences of their actions. Even more despicable is the church officials that hide them and further victimize the victims - they should also repent of their sin - for their own souls and the good of all the Church.
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Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007 12:54 PM By Joan
So many thoughts came to mind as I read your posts:
1) In the 19th century Our Lady of La Sallete tearfully pleaded for prayers for the priesthood already under attack by the enemy.
2) Our Lord instructed Mutter Vogel in the 20th century that priests (including bishops) should never be attacked, even when they are in error. Rather we should pray for them.
3) Yes, the clinics took large sums of money despite their utter failure, but can any good come from a lawsuit?
4) Who would pay? Wouldn't the laity be paying twice after having paid for the settlements?
5) What is the ultimate goal? Closure of the clinics? To shine the light of truth on the "sexperts"?
6) Would the media fairly report the lawsuit or would the spin be that Catholic bishops are again trying to divert blame?
7) Is it helpful to keep the whole sorrowful mess in the news or is it kinder to let the victims begin healing?
Since the abuse was revealed, I have maintained that the Catholic Church will not be renewed until after the current generation of hierarchy, bishops, theologians, academicians passes away. Our Lord did not allow the Isrealites to enter the promised land until after the flawed generation from Egypt had passed away. Unfortunately, the current generation is my generation so I probably will not live to see the renewal. I caution you, my younger brothers and sisters, do not squander the new springtime in the Church when it comes.
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Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007 1:38 PM By Paul
Hello, I am a fomer Sheriff's Deputy, who worked years with psychiatrc classified prisoners. Almostall of them wwere moral relativists and often a "power hungry" appetite to cure
criminals was often nothing less then legalized lobotomies.
Yes, law enforcement knew of the cons of the homosexual and pedephilia culture (violent, drug fueled, suicidal, and decpetive) and the so called sex therapists who agree with their cons in the therapy office. The therapists position is often $ as long as they keep the system going. At the expense of others of course.
Civilly suing the therapist is a good solution!
Thank God for this Doctor speaking out!
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Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007 3:02 PM By roy west
absolutely, they should not only sue the experts but if their parents have receaver any monies at the time of the incidents they should be sued for that amount? and asked that the monies plus the interest's be turned back to the church. and priest's should go to confesion once a week like the jesuit's.
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Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007 6:14 PM By Charlie
Even if the Bishops know now they will never go after someone who served them poorly. The only chance of bringing the folks to task would be by a class action suit against them by concerned and damaged members of the Catholic laity.
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Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007 6:36 PM By Abby
I think George has a valid opinion. People who break the law, no matter what their state in life, should be tried and removed from vulnerable popultations.
But there is also a certain justic in suing these charlatans who kept standing on flawed and unethical research, who kept mouthing it to justify and "normalize" what heretofore were considered criminal practices. If only, Dr Reisman...I have visions of the Church attempting to sue these people and getting laughed out of court.
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Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007 6:42 PM By Kathryn Schutz
After WWII, both Soviet Russia and USA (CIA illegally) eagerly took in Nazi "intelligence" experts; many were medical. Suddenly the med schools flipped to the culture of death. Earliest "detante" between Soviets & US scientists was in "psychology". I've asked IF the profession wasn't methodically infiltrated and undermined; then the Church was taken in by reliance on experts posing as good Catholics. Many of these "experts" selected candidates for seminaries and ruled others out. So my question is: Why stop at suing the "experts"? Why not a national security probe into this?
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Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007 7:27 PM By jaf
let all of us CATHOLICS stand and proclaim our CATHOLICITY and fight for our rights
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Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007 8:36 PM By John L. Sillasen
In the time of the Arian heresy, in the early centuries of the Church, almost all of the bishops had become heretic Arians. The Church was saved by the laity. When the bishops refuse to act, then who is left in the Church but the laity? Not being a cradle Catholic, it boggles my mind that such a large portion of today's Catholics can't seem to do anything without the bishop's permission ... A. The bishops are not gods; B. Even a pope is inerrant under very specific conditions ... In the Gospel, Jesus taught the laity what to do regarding corrupt religious rulers ... He directly told the laity. Does anyone recall the TV docu-drama a few years back about the case of the Christian Brothers in Canada on the border with New York (hope I got my geography right here)? Not only was that CB school for wayward boys doing lots of sex abuse, but the perps were covered up by the local magistrates, police headquarters, politicians, etc. Jesus directly told the religious rulers of that day, "Your father is the father of liars". He did this in public; the laity heard this. This may sound too protestant, but only if the Scripture is spun the wrong way. Of course we need to pray for the bishops ... but it is not our hands and feet which are pinned to the Cross, so this is why the laity is free to tackle the problem until it is resolved. But it takes taking the religion seriously ... this means giving up a whole lot of what the world is doling out in our time. Not that so much worldly stuff is bad, but that it simply takes up our time, energy and focus ... the laity needs to organize in some holy way and conquer the corruption.
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Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007 9:20 PM By Toby
Joan - you betcha some good would come from a lawsuit! There are some idiots out there that still believe that Kinsey's so-called research was legitimate, that he was a "good man" and has been unfairly attacked by conservative wackos. I want this country to wake up to the truth about that man and his followers. And as far as not attacking a priest, ever - do you mean that if you found a priest in the act of committing a violent crime, you would not attack him to protect the innocent? And unfortunately a few priests have committed these types of crimes. And I can't get over some of the comments about nailing the bishops for going to "professionals." Get real! If they relied solely on spirituality (as in "let's pray and request the assistance of the Holy Spirit") they'd be attacked as being medieval. I would have preferred they use that method - it works for me! But knowing that the Church since Galileo has been under attack for being "non-scientific," they went for the intellectual professional consultation. Remember - they are SUPPOSED to believe that people can change. I understand their desire to rehabilitate these men. The seminaries probably started using the testing and screening methods these Kinsey creeps designed and thus ended up with homosexuals and predators. As far as the bishops knew, these men had been screened properly for the priesthood and were salvageable. Then the same jerks that betrayed the Church by permitting the predators INTO the seminaries were telling the bishops they could be fixed. I think there were some innocent bishops out there who didn't try to move these predators around - they were just trying to be the good shepherd to the ones who strayed by getting them "fixed" by the professionals.
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Posted Wednesday, August 22, 2007 4:34 AM By PJ
One of the major failings of the church is the lack of a system of accountability on all levels of church activity. Whether it is in the area of human sexuality, church finances, pastoral counseling, etc. there is a void in accountability. Many priests and bishops are completely overworked and do not have the time or resources to be made accountable for their actions or inactions. This is not meant to excuse what has happened. It is the sad reality of the church. Hopefully a system of accountability will be forthcoming and actions taken will ne pro-active rather than re-active.
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Posted Wednesday, August 22, 2007 8:05 AM By Anna
So now we know who has been running the new church. Does this revelation make Kinsey their pope?
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Posted Wednesday, August 22, 2007 8:20 AM By Arnie
Amen! Praise the LORD and pass the legal documents! Time to fight for and take back our culture.
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Posted Wednesday, August 22, 2007 11:18 AM By Deacon Joseph B Pell
The church declares emphatically in the matter of
Faith and Morals they are infallible, that without
question makes them the experts. There was
absolutely no reason to go elsewhere for anything
other than treatment after they were removed from
office and turned over to autorities. They are not
therapists, but they are supposed to recognize "Sin".
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Posted Wednesday, August 22, 2007 12:35 PM By J. Langsford
The Catholic Bishops have not changed their ways. They have just become more clever and deceptive
at it. None the less they still don't get it. These examples have nothing to do with errant priest child abuse evaluations. Just plain obstructon of our justice system. 1) In January, the Grand Rapids bishop claimed he just 'found' a 1993 admission of child sexual abuse by Fr. David LeBlanc in the diocesan files. He suspended LeBlanc, but took no action to determine who else in the diocese knew of the admission and kept silent, enabling a known predator to stay in active parish ministry for 14 years (and five years after the bishops' much-touted 'Dallas charter' was passed.) 2) In Fresno, CA, a civil trial was held in November 2006. Fr. Swearingen was accused of molested Juan Rocha as a boy. The jury found Swearingen guilty. (They deadlocked on whether church officials knew about the abuse.) But the Fresno bishop is keeping Swearingen in active parish ministry even now.3) In Los Angeles, church and school officials were questioned by police about current child sex abuse allegations against John Malburg. Malburg was a Catholic high school principal from a politically prominent family. The archdiocese didn't suspend him. They told no one about the investigation. Six months later, Malburg was arrested and criminally charged. Parents asked church officials "Why didn't you tell us? Why didn't you suspend him?" Cardinal Mahony's guy told the LA Times "Law enforcement told us to keep quiet." The next day, in the LA Times, prosecutors said they never made any such request.4) In Yakima, the local newspaper reported that Fr. Darell Mitchell, who'd been caught with naked photos of young boys on his computer, was quietly working in a St. Louis parish with a parochial school. It turned out to be true. And it was the second time in a year that a sexually troubled priest from another state was transferred to this one inner city St. Louis parish. In neither case was anyone warned.
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Posted Wednesday, August 22, 2007 1:48 PM By Gary F.
According to the Pope there is a "mysterious evil" abroad in the church today. It is not a mysterious evil. It is not a mystery. It is child abuse by priests. There is no mystery - it is sexual abuse - pure and simple. If there is a "mystery" in the church today, it is the ongoing and pervasive cover-up, obfuscation and non-specific addressing of sexual abuse by the church. To talk of it in abstract terms is absurd. Everyone including church spokespersons and the Pope knows what the issue really is. It is sexual abuse and pedophilia by the clergy. The first step in fixing this so-called "mysterious evil" is to call it what it is. The second step is to let the civilian courts deal with it, as they would for any non-priest case of child abuse. It is disheartening to me to realize that such prosecution will ultimately occur to the errant priests not because of religious, moral or ethical concerns, but because of intense media scrutiny of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is in a real crisis. Vocations are down and this will help to bring them further down. What the church has done by hiring high priced lawyers to attack the victims of the abuse - instead of morally, ethically, religiously and decently forcing the priests in concern to deal with their perversion in the same manner that any truly religious priest would council a parishioner to do - is unconscionable. The attempts at fixing the problem are too little and too late.
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Posted Wednesday, August 22, 2007 4:17 PM By Thomas
Church attorneys have hired detectives to spy on victims, their witnesses and their families. Some have tried every way imaginable to destroy the reputations and the will of the victims. When bishops and their defenders are questioned about the morality of all of this the response is always the same: "that's the way the system works. If someone sues you, you fight back." Except that this isn't a fight. This is the Church, that mistakenly calls itself "The Body of Christ" trying, through morally deficient lawyers, to intimidate, embarrass, threaten and discourage the men and women sexually abused by this Church's own clerics. The cleric-abusers make the wounds and the bishops and their lawyers pour salt and turpentine into them.
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Posted Wednesday, August 22, 2007 4:59 PM By TD
The bishops never responded as pastors, only as machines or as administrators at best. The scare tactics, threats, etc. didn't work and the victims, tired of being jerked around, went to the civil courts. That is why we have civil suits. The dollar amounts are high but not high enough. The best thing the victims could do for the institutional Church would be to force real bankruptcy and not the feigned farces that San Diego, Spokane, Davenport, Portland and Tucson are involved in. Maybe the real Church would be able to emerge if the monarchs really did lose their palaces and their robes. Maybe insolvency would force the "Church" to really be "The Church."
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Posted Thursday, August 23, 2007 2:45 AM By Reader
Yes, the Catholic Church has been infiltrated. But the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.
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Posted Thursday, August 23, 2007 3:37 AM By Paul
We{including the ignorant and trusting Catholic of the Priestly hierarchy) let the Priesthood become a haven for sex abusing(our children not Protestants) homosexual priests. The estimate of homosexual priests ranged from 35% to 65% when the abuse was exposed in 2002.
Does anyone think that a majority of these Priest's were not promoted to Bishop or Cardinal. Our naivety rings on.
There really were many culprits in the sexual abuse scandal.
Not only did these Homo Priests abuse our children they changed our liturgy like hiding the Tabernacles in direct opposition to our Catechism. They should be placed in a place of honor which is in the MAIN Church were thousands worship each Sunday and not solely in some Mothers Chapel. These homo's lived with their lovers away from the Rectory and the worst I read, some fed the Eucharist to dogs and denied the consecrated bread and wine were the Body and Blood of Christ.
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Posted Thursday, August 23, 2007 5:50 AM By frrapper
Ex-Gov. Keating of Oklahoma likened the RC bishop to the Mafia; what else needs to be said!
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Posted Thursday, August 23, 2007 7:47 AM By John L. Sillasen
Accountability: The laity gets what it pays for. If you promote a bishop to the status of a god, then you reap what you sow. What excuse does a bishop have for not having the time to be a bishop? What are they administrating, souls or finances? What is their perk, heaven or status? What is this myth that it is so difficult to discern if someone is twisted? The fact is that the dangers to salvation are all over the place and we are innundated by the shear force of them ... so who is willing to hand over the responsibility of their own salvation to someone else? I find that lots are in this boat ... makes no sense at all. Jesus promised us leaders, but so many alleged leaders are false ... so the real problem is leadership and followership: For some reason the leadership is organized by territory ... probably no way to improve on this imperfect situation ... oh wait, what did they do in the early days, in the middle ages that worked? Gee, I think they created non-territorial leaders, such as monks and friars ... wonder why this doesn't work today. Ever check out one of these monks or friars? Slick, expensive, businesslike ... religion in an attache case? Well, the laity gets what it pays for.
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Posted Thursday, August 23, 2007 7:55 AM By Sheryl
There are arguments on both sides of this issue; however, the bishops should have been supporting the moral law all along, and they have not been doing that. It was obvious to 20-year-olds forty years ago that to major in psychology would require them to give up many Catholic moral teachings. For example, that masturbation is a mortal sin. The bishops should have known that too.
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Posted Thursday, August 23, 2007 9:05 AM By Mike
The "sexperts" should be held accountable for the bad advice given to Bishops. And the Bishops should have known better than to trust advice from a profession officially at odds with Church teaching on homosexuality.
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Posted Thursday, August 23, 2007 9:08 AM By I C
Thank God Dr Reisman is bringing this all to light!
May Catholic laity, if not the Church, have the grace to rid this cancer from our Faith.
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Posted Thursday, August 23, 2007 1:16 PM By J
The Church still portrays the victims as the greedy enemy, because they exposed the church, caused a scandal, and took them to court. The victims didn't get any empathy when they were abused and still don't to this day from the church. Just some empty and forced apologies. So lets just keep on looking for excuses for the Bishops and the rest of the hierarchy. The Bishops protected the abusive priests at all costs even with the so called bad evaluations. That's a hundred percent more than they ever did for a single victim of priest abuse.
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Posted Thursday, August 23, 2007 5:26 PM By joe
The bishops, in accordance with their duties and responsibilities as successors to the Apostles are expected to act as shepherds to their priests, and to all. They bear ultimate responsibility for decisions regarding placement and other consequences for deviant and criminal priests. The possibility of proving medical malpractice in any legal sense seems remote (malpractice consists in dereliction of duties leading directly to damages). This is all very sad and frustrating to good priests, bishops, and the laity. The bishops have yet to give a public accounting for their malfeasance and negligence in fraternal correction. Stand up, good bishops, and take heart. Be not afraid. Your faithful flock is eager to get in line behind you on the way up to Jerusalem!
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Posted Friday, August 24, 2007 4:39 AM By stlouisix
Given the evidence that I'm about to present, I have a difficult time with the bishops having no culpability in this after the smoke clears because grave sin cannot be psychologized, especially when crimes have been committed. For example, my former bishop, I now attend Byzantine Catholic Divine Liturgies because of him with my youngest son confirmed in the Byzantine Rite, as I'm to avoid the occasions of sin, and accordingly, would not allow this man to be anywhere near my boy, had no problem hiring a pro-homosexual clinical psycholigist to screen his perspective seminarians. See Scandal In Altoona-Johnstown Diocese Seminary Screening Process Is Exposed http://www.personal.psu.edu/glm7/m117.htm Also see It Is A Heinous Lie That The Present Crisis In The Church Has Nothing To Do With Homosexuality http://www.personal.psu.edu/glm7/m118.htm Altoona-Johnstown Bishop Says No Crisis In His Diocese Despite Militant Pro-Homosexual Advocate Screening His Seminarians http://www.personal.psu.edu/glm7/m119.htm Review of Goodbye! Good Men: How Catholic Seminaries Turned Away Two Generations of Vocations From the Priesthood http://www.personal.psu.edu/glm7/m120.htm If Something Doesn’t Sound Right, It Usually Isn’t; It Doesn't Sound Right To Talk About Our "Homosexually Oriented" But Celibate Priests http://www.personal.psu.edu/glm7/m124.htm The USCCB Refuses To Address THE Problem Causing Church Scandals http://www.personal.psu.edu/glm7/m136.htm Why Does Bishop Adamec Ignore the Catechism’s Teaching on Obeying Just Laws? http://www.personal.psu.edu/glm7/m140.htm
A Response to Bishop Adamec’s Statement in Latest Issue of Diocesan Paper Denying That He Has Done Anything Wrong http://www.personal.psu.edu/glm7/m142.htm , and finally,
Letter to Local Bishop - If the Church Is Serious About Stopping Abuse, Why Does It Not Stop Admitting Men Inclined to Homosexual Acts to the Priesthood? http://www.personal.psu.edu/glm7/m175.htm
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Posted Friday, August 24, 2007 4:48 AM By stlouisix
Bishops and their priests have to abide by the just laws of this country in regard to the crimes of sexual abuse. Also, in terms of Canon Law, there is no such thing as the pathetic "consenting adults" arg of some apostates, given that we're talking about Mortal Sin, and especially since a large number of these crimes involved minors. No Church authority can lawfully tell Catholics that they are not required to obey the just laws of their country and state, given the clear teachings of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. 1880 A society is a group of persons bound together organically by a principle of unity that goes beyond each one of them. As an assembly that is at once visible and spiritual, a society endures through time: it gathers up the past and prepares for the future. By means of society, each man is established as an "heir" and receives certain "talents" that enrich his identity and whose fruits he must develop.3 He rightly owes loyalty to the communities of which he is part and respect to those in authority who have charge of the common good. 1881 Each community is defined by its purpose and consequently obeys specific rules; but "the human person . . . is and ought to be the principle, the subject and the end of all social institutions."4 1884 God has not willed to reserve to himself all exercise of power. He entrusts to every creature the functions it is capable of performing, according to the capacities of its own nature. This mode of governance ought to be followed in social life. The way God acts in governing the world, which bears witness to such great regard for human freedom, should inspire the wisdom of those who govern human communities. They should behave as ministers of divine providence.
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Posted Friday, August 24, 2007 8:05 AM By DR
Suing the sexperts will not help. All it will do is open the church up to more criticism from some who will claim that the church is just trying to recover some of the money they paid out to the victims of sexual abuse. The best thing the church can do is publicize where the abusers were sent for treatment and if such treatment was successful or not. As a Catholic I would love to read Dr.
Reisman's paper "Reliance of the Catholic Church on Sexuality Advisors Whose Moral Foundation Differs Markedly from that of the Church," and think the bishops should make it widely available. By doing so the Catholic Church can add its voice to those who have questioned the validity of sex abuser treatment programs. The media doesn't want to hear this and neither do the sexperts. Their treatment paradigm is built on quicksand. Admission of such is highly embarrassing for them and politically incorrect. In some cases this professional treatment did not work. Everyone deserves to know that.
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Posted Friday, August 24, 2007 12:44 PM By Louise
The questions for everyone in the church shoud be: Why didn't the church protect the children from the abusive priests? How did the church turn the child victims of priest abuse into the accused and the abusive priests into the victims? Why hasn't the church not stopped the practice of covering up for child priest abusers after paying out over two billion dollars in child abuse settlements so far? Why was there vertually no arrests,criminal prosecutions, and/or convictions of the abusive priests? Why doesn't Dr. Judith Reisman PHD answer these question for us. She is certainly qualified enough to do so.
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Posted Friday, August 24, 2007 10:00 PM By stlouisix
Easy answer, Louise. The smoke of Satan was allowed to enter the Church, as Paul VI, so astutely noted. The problem was that he opened the door by fixing a Mass that wasn't broke, which sent this message to what was left of the faithful post V2. If the Sacred Liturgy can be changed, why can't Catholic moral teaching be changed. Lex credendi, lex orandi is more than just a pithy phrase. The Church Must Undergo A Necessary Purgation For The Sake Of The Souls Of All Concerned http://www.personal.psu.edu/glm7/m122.htm Many Catholics did not realize that things were so bad, and are only now learning of the extent of the reported problems in chanceries nationwide. They had no idea of the corruption in many of their seminaries as reported in Michael Rose's book, Goodbye! Good men. How Catholic Seminaries Turned Away Two Generations of Vocations From the Priesthood. This book is a "must-read" for anyone who is seriously concerned with what is happening in the Catholic Church, the reasons, the obvious consequences, and what needs to be done to purify the Church in terms of getting the best possible candidates, men whose orthodoxy is looked upon as plus, instead of a minus, into our seminaries. Catholics should no longer have any patience with bishops who bemoan the state of the Church when a quick glance at the sad state of their seminaries shows that the buck stops with them. The problems are directly attributable to the unchecked dissent from Church teaching on faith and morals that has been allowed to propagate since Vatican II.
The problems are directly attributable to the unchecked dissent from Church teaching on faith and morals that has been allowed to propagate since Vatican II, in particular, the direct intentional ignorance of Church Teaching in documents from Rome that are dead-on-arrival before the ink is dry. The dissenters have done their work well.
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Posted Friday, August 24, 2007 10:08 PM By stlouisix
Axiom 1. Anyone who announces that the present crisis in the Church has nothing to do with homosexuality is lying to you, given the considerable well-documented evidence in Rose’s book, to the contrary. We're talking about boys being abused by men, which first and foremost are homosexual acts. Axiom 2. Unchecked dissent since V2 allowed homosexual priests to abuse our children. Axiom 3. Knowingly ordaining men inclined to homosexuality to the priesthood is sacrilegious blasphemy because these individuals openly flout the teachings of Christ, and as such, are not qualified to be acting as an "alter Christus, in persona Christi" (another Christ, in the person of Christ), which is what a consecrated Catholic priest is supposed to do. What kind of an example are we giving to the faithful by a violation of axiom 3? Anyone needing to spend longer than a millisecond answering this question is NOT Catholic.
There needs to be a general housecleaning in the Catholic Church to remove the dissident rot that has infested it. Fr. John Trigilio, Jr. comments, “When will Catholics realize that BAD morality is linked with BAD theology which is supported by BAD liturgy? it is lunacy for a bishop to accept candidates for seminary who are inclined to homosexual acts. A clear message must be sent by Rome, the hierarchy of the Church in America, and especially the laity, that no more nonsense of this type will be tolerated. This is not done out of malice or vengeance, but rather out of extreme love, which demands witnessing to the Truth, a Somebody, not a something per the Gospel of John, for the sake of the souls of all concerned. We must clearly understand that "Begging for forgiveness" is not going to do it, in this case especially, because integral to contrition is a firm resolve to amend one's life. And to date, that amending, per Rose, has not manifested itself in many of our problematic seminaries where it is needed most.
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Posted Saturday, August 25, 2007 12:08 PM By louise
I have come to the conclusion that the hierarchy today does not plan to do anything about the present homosexual priesthood. The answer that seems to always be given is as long as they remain cellibate there is no problem with them being an ordained priest. So how is the church going to protect the children if the hierarchy continues to protect the abusive priests. I think the layity should be very concerned.
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Posted Saturday, August 25, 2007 2:32 PM By Louise
I think this may be an example for the laity. This is a paragraph from an article from the Washington Times (Aug.,24th): His is the second case in five years in the Arlington Diocese to make its way into the papal court system. The first case, involving the Rev. James R. Haley — who was silenced in 2001 after he accused Bishop Loverde of sheltering homosexual priests — remains unresolved at the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy.
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Posted Sunday, August 26, 2007 7:38 AM By stlouisix
If something doesn’t sound right, it usually isn’t; it doesn't sound right to talk about our "homosexually oriented" but celibate priests. What are they giving up? They're giving up sin, which we're all called to give up, while a heterosexual is making a distinct sacrifice for God following His celibate example giving up the prospect of marriage to be married to Holy Mother Church in God's service. You're playing with fire to admit people who are inclined to homosexuality to the priesthood, and moreover, allowing them to remain in the priesthood, which should be crystal clear to everyone by now, given that those inclined to homosexual acts have practically destroyed the priesthood, which should stir some righteous indignation in Catholics in more than name only! I don't even like to use the word "orientation" in this sense because it doesn't apply in a final immutable sense to those heterosexuals who are inclined to homosexuality, which is the correct way to look at this. Fr. John Harvey, the founder of COURAGE, admitted that one of the biggest mistakes that he ever made was to title one of his books, The Homosexual Person, when there is no such person. We are all created heterosexual by God, with a small group having homosexual inclinations. Our priests have enough problems to deal with in witnessing to the faith today to generations who have had it subtly stolen from them via horrendous catechesis without letting individuals be ordained who have demonstrated that they have "unnatural problems." Someone said to me that "what if no one knows" about this inclination, and that these people remain chaste somehow? My response to that is, given the news of late, seminary rectors and bishops had better make it their business to know, given the higher probability of serious sin with such men who work within a celibate group of men, and boys through their ministry. We're talking about avoiding the occasions of sin.
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Posted Sunday, August 26, 2007 7:47 AM By stlouisix
How is avoiding the occasions of sin met by allowing individuals with unnatural inclinations into an environment where the temptations for them are increased by an order of magnitude? This is why historically the military would not admit such individuals. It's called morale for the good of the service. Does this not apply even more so to our priests and seminarians? Michael Rose's book would answer a resounding YES! When the smoke has cleared, I don't believe that it is a far stretch to state that those who deny that homosexuality is the primary problem, sexually, with the present crisis in the Church are either HOMOSEXUALLY INCLINED, HOMOSEXUAL ADVOCATES, or both. I include clergy and laity alike in that statement based on my experience as a Catholic layman fighting the culture wars in his neighborhood, and corresponding with people around the country. There have been plenty of “good men” since V2 who have wanted to become priests, but dissenting heretical apostate bishops and clergy, who had their own agenda for the destruction of the Church by reinventing it in their image, discouraged them. The bishop in my former diocese hired a pro-homosexual screener for his seminary candidates. These dissenters need to be rooted out from the Church if it is going to survive, especially in America. There is considerable evidence that orthodox dioceses have many “good men” with vocations. Conversely, in dioceses where heterodoxy reigns, as a function of the allowance and encouragement of unchecked dissent from Magisterial teaching on everything from the liturgy to faith and morals, vocations are sorely lacking. Of course this makes the bishops of these heterodox dioceses very happy because they've wanted a “priestless” Amchurch all along, as opposed to the Church of Rome, where Sister "In-Your-Face" can freely conduct her radical feminists' liturgy, and homosexuality is celebrated as a virtue in order to make the dissenters comfortable with their vices.
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Posted Monday, August 27, 2007 3:32 PM By Kenneth M. Fisher
J. Langsford,
Has anyone contacted Archbishop Burke about this Fr. Darell Mitchell. I would be sadly surprised if he did not do anything about it!
Judith Reisman is not formally a Catholic (she is Jewish), but she does a better job of defending Catholic Truths than most of our Bishops!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founder & Chairman
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
www.crcoa.com
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Posted Monday, August 27, 2007 4:24 PM By HMacK
I thank God I never became a presbyter in the modern Catholic Church as I had intended. I knew I would not have the endurance to tolerate the absurd and dangerous un-Catholic nonsense going on in the seminaries and monasteries I stayed at. Worse still is that the hierarchy in Rome behave as though they are propagating it by their silence. Bertone, the other day was in practical denial when he claimed it was the victims who are to blame by playing the scandals up. Read Engel and all the other commentators on this situation. It is being propagated by the leadership through silence, covering up and active participation in sodomy, paedophilia and other perversions. The head is rotten and it has corrupted the body.
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Posted Tuesday, August 28, 2007 2:33 AM By Shep
I agree with Jon - Our Holy Father needs to 'send the Bishops down the road'. There are only a handful of true Shepherds left.
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Posted Tuesday, August 28, 2007 2:44 AM By Rebecca
The traggedy of it all is the absolute and total loss of credibility of the Catholic Church. How many of the laity (and the TRUE shepherds) are suffering from these horrendous sins committed by the very shepherds in charge of the flock. Out of the rubble, I pray God will raise up some great saints to redeem and save the flock.
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Posted Tuesday, August 28, 2007 2:50 AM By Sienna
No wonder the Bishops et al won't say anything about homosexual sin! Let alone stand up against same sex 'marriage' -
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Posted Tuesday, August 28, 2007 4:36 AM By Christina
ANYONE who sexually abuses a child should be automatically put in prison - for life - mandatory - no parole - period.
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Posted Wednesday, August 29, 2007 12:42 PM By David L
We are all called to chastity, unless married. If society still taught the virtue of Chastity, vice would not flow. When we start calling Priestly daliances what they are, majority of them with boys that are post-puberty, ie. Sodomy, then will we heal. When society gets back to virtue, then these problems will truly be solved. Remember the Roman Catholic Church IS the Mystical Body of Christ, that is ALL The Souls in a State of Sanctifying Grace. Not all members of the Church are members of Christ's Mystical Body, Holy Mother Church, I wish people would get their facts Straight before they make comments.
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Posted Friday, August 31, 2007 5:48 AM By Anne
The Roman Catholic Church taught its children the law of conscience, to know right from wrong, become good citizens
in the society in which we live, however, they forgot to teach
us that a child keep silent, especially when wrong is done to the child, that we must pray for forgiveness of the guilty, "do no harm" even to those who do you wrong. This present problem is not only a Church problem, but a State (civil) problem. How many more Catholic children will live
in silence because of some laws that were passed in the 1960s and no one thinks there is anything wrong with what
has been going on for years.
It does not only involve men/boys men/girls, etc. This has been going on for years! In response to Christina, she is absolutely correct...any adult who has violated a child should never receive parole!
God help us all!
Anne
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Posted Friday, August 22, 2008 12:34 PM By TG
We have had good priests and bad in our community. We have had lives shattered and lives raised from gutters running with poverty. Is it enought to say that no man or woman, while they may be children of God, is Godly when they commit an act that debases a child. The child is left to pay for the sin. Is this any worse than a nun, formerly TV personality, has children that were adopted out and for her own sake and avoiding confession of past sins with married men, never acknowledge the children. Even when there are grandchildren involved? In Gods eyes a sin is a sin. To continue a lie is even more so.
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