Catholic child abuse in Australia

[JimC]

We are now going to have a Royal Commission into institutional child abuse here, which (although they skirt around it) will be 95% about the catholic church. In this thread, I'll post articles I come across. Here's one from today's Age:

Many Catholic priests take a flexible approach to celibacy, tolerated by church leaders, and some believe sex with children or men does not count, a former Melbourne priest said on Wednesday.

''An enormous number of priests struggle with celibacy,'' Philip O'Donnell told the state inquiry into how the churches handle child sex abuse.

''There's a tolerance for imperfection in celibacy, and that may have led to a lessening of outrage at sex with children.''

He said he had no training about celibacy in the seminary and that many priests were ill-equipped. ''Chosen celibacy is a gift, but mandatory celibacy is for many priests a millstone,'' he said.

Mr O'Donnell declined to speculate on what percentage of Catholic priests, who must vow to be celibate, were sexually active, but another Melbourne priest has separately suggested it is about half.

Asked by committee member Andrea Coote whether priests believed only sex with women counted as real sex (breaking celibacy vows), and that homosexual and child sex did not, Mr O'Donnell said: ''Sometimes.''

He said another priest told him the celibacy requirement would never change because so many priests were gay and it was ''great cover. No one asks me why I am 50 and single - they assume I am celibate,'' the priest told Mr O'Donnell.

Mr O'Donnell - a priest in Melbourne from 1975 to 1999 who resigned and later married - said sexually active priests coped with the internal contradiction by compartmentalising their professional and private lives.

In other evidence to the inquiry, Catholics for Renewal president Peter Johnstone said the church's handling of sexual abuse was directly related to its dysfunctional government. Although Australian church leaders claimed that responding to abuse was a local matter, in fact the Vatican kept strict control.

The worldwide church was governed by a 17th-century system whereby ultimate power was vested in men who were celibate, often socially isolated, usually old, unable to communicate with the faithful, and under the supreme control of a papal monarch who demanded blind obedience.

Mr Johnstone said Catholics for Renewal was an organisation of committed, progressive Catholics who represented views shared by several Australian bishops and scores of priests who were bound by rigid vows of obedience not to publicly say so.

Asked by the committee to name these bishops, Mr Johnstone said it would be inappropriate. ''If you want to see what happens to bishops who disagree, just look at Bill Morris'' (the bishop of Toowoomba sacked by the Pope last May after suggesting the church might consider revisiting the question of women priests).

However, retired bishops Pat Power of Canberra and Geoffrey Robinson of Sydney are two who have trenchantly criticised Vatican structures.

A former principal and a teacher at Holy Family School, Doveton, told the inquiry of how their careers and lives were ruined after they separately sought to protect children from the predatory parish priest, Peter Searson (now dead).

Both Graham Sleeman, a popular principal in the 1980s, and Carmel Rafferty, a senior teacher in the early 1990s, believe the Catholic Education Office and archdiocese betrayed them. Both found it impossible to get work in the Catholic education system after their whistleblowing, and both suffered years of trauma and stress.

The Doveton parish suffered six abusers in a row as parish priest or assistant priest.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/child ... z2Ir90CahW

[SteveB]

That's good.

[klr]

Indeed. Good as in they'll finally shine a really big searchlight light on this, same as has happened in Ireland and elsewhere.

[Twoflower]

What are the other teachers at your school saying about this?

[pErvinalia]

(are you at a Catholic school, Jim?)

[Tyrannical]

He said another priest told him the celibacy requirement would never change because so many priests were gay and it was ''great cover

Gays around children are the problem. What makes it a Catholic problem is that the Church has been lax at identifying and expelling gays from the clergy.

[pErvinalia]

Why are gays a problem around children? I didn't realise you were a homophobe as well as a racist.

[klr]

He said another priest told him the celibacy requirement would never change because so many priests were gay and it was ''great cover

Gays around children are the problem. What makes it a Catholic problem is that the Church has been lax at identifying and expelling gays from the clergy.

Who says the priests abused just boys then? Or that gay = (male) child abuser?

[Tyrannical]

He said another priest told him the celibacy requirement would never change because so many priests were gay and it was ''great cover

Gays around children are the problem. What makes it a Catholic problem is that the Church has been lax at identifying and expelling gays from the clergy.

Who says the priests abused just boys then? Or that gay = (male) child abuser?

What part of Gay was confusing?
There are lots of gay priests, and those gays like to molest boys. It's not a religious problem, it is a gays in religion problem.

[klr]

He said another priest told him the celibacy requirement would never change because so many priests were gay and it was ''great cover

Gays around children are the problem. What makes it a Catholic problem is that the Church has been lax at identifying and expelling gays from the clergy.

Who says the priests abused just boys then? Or that gay = (male) child abuser?

What part of Gay was confusing?
There are lots of gay priests, and those gays like to molest boys. It's not a religious problem, it is a gays in religion problem.

"Gays like to molest boys" = epic fail

BTW, one of my brothers is gay, and I'd trust him with any youngster more than I'd trust some "straight" people ...

[JimC]

(are you at a Catholic school, Jim?)

Yep, and have been for ages. Generally, the majority of the staff are liberal catholics with little time for the hierarchy, but these days the woo annoys me more and more. Only a couple of years till retirement, so I put up with it.

[Pappa]

He said another priest told him the celibacy requirement would never change because so many priests were gay and it was ''great cover

Gays around children are the problem. What makes it a Catholic problem is that the Church has been lax at identifying and expelling gays from the clergy.

Who says the priests abused just boys then? Or that gay = (male) child abuser?

What part of Gay was confusing?
There are lots of gay priests, and those gays like to molest boys. It's not a religious problem, it is a gays in religion problem.

"Gays like to molest boys" = epic fail

BTW, one of my brothers is gay, and I'd trust him with any youngster more than I'd trust some "straight" people ...

I'm guessing Tyrannical must be a closet gay, black paedophile.

[JimC]

He said another priest told him the celibacy requirement would never change because so many priests were gay and it was ''great cover

Gays around children are the problem. What makes it a Catholic problem is that the Church has been lax at identifying and expelling gays from the clergy.

Who says the priests abused just boys then? Or that gay = (male) child abuser?

What part of Gay was confusing?
There are lots of gay priests, and those gays like to molest boys. It's not a religious problem, it is a gays in religion problem.

"Gays like to molest boys" = epic fail

BTW, one of my brothers is gay, and I'd trust him with any youngster more than I'd trust some "straight" people ...

Perhaps all he means is that, if catholic priests become pedophiles, the ones with a gay orientation are likely to molest boys, and those with a heterosexual orientation are likely to molest girls. Both have happened in Oz, although boys by a much higher % because of the connection between priest and brothers, and boarding schools for boys...

[Jason]

Maybe I misread the article, but are they saying the cause of paedophile priests is institutionalized celibacy? Because that's complete bullshit and sickening to boot.

[Rum]

Do you have any priests actually teaching at your school Jim?