A comment re "pedophilia"

Mike Frentz mfrentz at bbn.com
Tue May 7 22:45:39 EDT 2002


One more brief comment (sorry about the funny spacing in my last message, I had cut and paste
the message I had written earlier that for some reason didn't post, hopefully this one is
okay..).  This is also not so obviously Percy-centric, but it tries to clarify a misleading
comment in several recent posts.

The term pedophilia has been used in most of the recent messages (and bandied in the press).
Almost all of the cases were with teenagers (post pubescent) or adults, not children per se, so
the term pedophilia is very misleading.  FWIW, the majority of these cases were also homosexual,
rather than heterosexual, a case the press seems reluctant to advertise (possibly because it
dignifies the Boy Scout and Supreme Court decisions?).

Many of the seminaries deviated significantly from Church teaching in the late sixties,
seventies, and eighties in a post Vatican II misapplication frenzy and tolerated dissension
(e.g. birth control, soft pedaling of prolife and homosexual issues) that was clearly in
violation of magisterial Church teaching.  I have heard from many devout priests over the last
few years (and indeed, the priests that I've met who've been ordained recently appear to be much
more devout than their superiors) that many (most?) of the seminaries have reformed and are true
to Rome, and those that have generally also have increasing enrollments.  A priest is married to
the Church.  The Church believes that celibacy is a gift from God (and there are actually a
growing number of celibate lay Catholic ecclesiastical movements).  My wife goes to a
Protestant-based Bible study.  The apparent number of bitter ministers' wives there appears not
to be a positive solution to priestly recruiting dilemma --  I believe that faithful bishops
are.

Per a recent Wall Street Journal article on a very traditional parish smack dab in the middle of
Silicon Valley, the pastor's motto there is "Support the Faith and the faithful will support the
Church."  His enrollment is busting at the seams.  That's what will turn the seminarial tide..


Mike





Robert_Pauley at oxy.com wrote:

> Is the incidence of cleric pedophilia any greater than in any average
> sampling of adult male population? This seems important to know but I can't
> recall any analysis or discussion of it. As for the church's response, it is
> just about the same as any and every hidebound institution's response to
> scandal throughout history, right up to Enron's denials and shredding
> machines.
>
> It seems to me Percy's response would be both complex and morally clear. I
> think he would understand the fact, pardon the vulgarity, of buggerers. As a
> scientist of the human condition, he would note it as one more "covert
> lewdness." I think he would point out the fashionable fallacy of the
> "solution" of married priests. I think he would properly lambaste the
> corpulence and arrogance of those Cardinal Bernard Laws who have spent far
> too much time in sirloin and lobster dinners with the Church's sugar daddies
> than in tending to their flocks. And I think he would reaffirm those things
> of the Church and faith which are beyond the depredations of bad men. I've
> never much cared for hypothesizing in this manner, but still I do it, and so
> I welcome any challenges.
>
> R Pauley
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Karey Perkins [mailto:karey at charter.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2002 6:06 PM
> To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion
> Subject: [percy-l] Re: Was Percy ever involved in the debate on
> molestations by Catholic priests?
>
> My comment was more about the fact that married priests are the answer to
> the "dearth of priests" that now exist in the American Catholic Church, and
> the fact that many very qualified, quality young men who would like to be
> priests are not choosing that profession due to the celibacy requirement, so
> that there is now a crisis in the church when it comes to its leadership.
>
> Pedophiliacs, as Wade had said already, will gravitate to any profession
> that provides access to children.  Boy scouts, teaching, coaching,
> priesthood.  (Whether or not these are married professions or not.)
> Unfortunately, these are the professions (and those in those professions)
> that we usually hold to be most admirable, because they involve mentoring
> children.
>
> KP
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nelson [mailto:nelson at newulmtel.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2002 7:16 PM
> To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion
> Subject: [percy-l] Re: Was Percy ever involved in the debate on
> molestations by Catholic priests?
>
> >And, are married priests the answer, as might be the >logical conclusion
> >given America's dearth of priests, the recent >pedophilia scandals,
>
> I am a lurker mostly but this idea I have never understood. how would being
> married cut down on child abuse in the church? lots of married men many men
> in secular world indulge in pedophilia.
>
> Thanks!
> Ryan Nelson
>
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