This Just In - Woodstock Led to Child Molestation

[Pointless Digression]

It's nigh on 50 years ago now; a bit before my time, but I did study the era in various history classes. The 1960s - Woodstock, Vietnam, the Moon Landing, Watergate, Nixon and Ford, the Kennedy assassinations, and more. I remember how confusing and disorienting it was to study these things. I remember how it skewed my moral compass and [sarcasm]made me want to rape all those kids.[/sarcasm]

From the Chicago Tribune. Just read it.

A study commissioned by U.S. Roman Catholic bishops concludes that neither the all-male celibate priesthood nor homosexuality caused the church's sexual abuse crisis, The New York Times reported on Tuesday. The five-year study says the abuse occurred because priests who were poorly prepared and monitored, and were under stress, landed amid the social and sexual turmoil of the 1960s and '70s, according to the newspaper. The "blame Woodstock" explanation has been floated by bishops for years but the study was likely to be regarded as the most authoritative analysis of the scandal in the Catholic Church in America, The Times reported.

Hold on a second. I didn't want to rape children! Did you, when you lived through/studied the 60s? If not, then we're made of sterner stuff than god's representatives on earth...

Christ ordered that the Catholic priest not only should represent Him upon earth, but that he should be, as it were, Himself again, raising him above the rest of mankind, nay, above all angelic spirits who admire, with holy envy, those among the sons of men whom they see clothed with sacerdotal dignity. Thus the seraphic St. Francis was wont to say that, were he to meet at one time an angel and a priest, he would first salute the priest.

[Callie Del Noire]

Blink Blink?

So.. for example.. how do they explain the DECADES prior to that? Or the establishment of abuse they put in place in places like Ireland?

Honestly they need some serious reform to attract men of faith and moral strength. One of the episcopalian priests I grew up with said he was raised Catholic but changed to be 'the sort of man God desired me to be.'. He felt that denying the sexual part of his life was denying all that God intended him to be.

Good guy. Took my caving. (Never did get those clothes clean again)

[Jude]

I don't know about you guys, but when I have a hard day at the office, I know my wife keeps our little girls out of my reach.  Doubly so if I listen to the rock music on the drive back.  This is perfectly reasonable.

Disclaimer:  I do not actually have children nor a wife.  I am also not a sex criminal.  This is not merely by fact of not being convicted -- I swear.

[Noelle]

Soooo. What they're saying is that instead of taking personal responsibility for an abhorrent abuse of power, they should blame others for making them ill-equipped to deal with stress? What? I can't really say that the first thing that crosses my mind when, for example, I'm on a tight deadline at work and Adobe Illustrator crashes, taking my 5 hours of labor with it, is I need to molest something, quick! Why these men should be exempt from taking the full force of the blame is beyond me. They chose their actions.

On another note, you guys might find this article of some interest to you, as well. It's an interview of a sex abuse victim who is also a clergyman -- I heard it on NPR yesterday on my way home from work and this quote in particular stuck with me:

NORRIS: You were abused by several people, and I'm wondering if there were any consistencies in their behavior or their personalities. Did these men have anything in common?

Fr. HOATSON: Yes. They seemed to be mired and meshed in the culture of the church. The day I entered the religious life, which is sort of a seminary, my superior said to me, Bob, you are a cold person. I'm going to be the one to warm you up.

Well, at 18, I had no idea what he was talking about until much later when I realized that was a real grooming mechanism to prepare me for being preyed upon. I think all of the men that abused me were kind of protected by this cocoon of power and authority and, like, I work for God so I can do anything I want.