Abuse articles
A couple related items on StudioObrien about abuse of young boys.
Andrew Greeley back in 1990 summarized it best: that some priests were assumed to be celibate but homosexual, so were accepted in the seminaries. Others were felt to be homosexual, but were actually attracted to younger children.
Often they entered monasteries/the priesthood as a way to try to control their impulses (either deliberately or in a subconscious wish). when the sexual explosion of "be honest and act out your desires" arrived, the deluge of acting on the surpressed desires occured.
Yes, such things happened in the past (and sometimes covered up by the idea that a scandal would hurt the church). But after Vatican II and the sexual revolution, the worst of both worlds
exploded.
and of course, the "modern" officials in the bishop's offices were taught to have compassion on the abuser, who only needed psychological help for a lapse in judgement.
(we were taught this in Medical school ...one Newsweek article lamented that families were destroyed when the father was arrested and put into jail when he abused his daughter or step daughter...and we were told most accustations were imaginary according to Freud.
To make things worse, many gays in the bishop's office went out of their way to cover up what was going on with their fellow gays. Gay cliques do exist, alas, and no one wants to discuss the "underground" of gay culture that few outsiders know about: the secret signals that look for casual sex, the jungle of many gay bars/bathhouses, the lack of stability of a life spent searching for sex...
Yes, I know, not all gays, or even most gays, but a lot of gays have to fight this type of thing: and they often lack friendship or fellowship since the only ones who know what they feel are often eager to seduce them back into the black search for love.
Andrew Greeley back in 1990 summarized it best: that some priests were assumed to be celibate but homosexual, so were accepted in the seminaries. Others were felt to be homosexual, but were actually attracted to younger children.
Often they entered monasteries/the priesthood as a way to try to control their impulses (either deliberately or in a subconscious wish). when the sexual explosion of "be honest and act out your desires" arrived, the deluge of acting on the surpressed desires occured.
Yes, such things happened in the past (and sometimes covered up by the idea that a scandal would hurt the church). But after Vatican II and the sexual revolution, the worst of both worlds
exploded.
and of course, the "modern" officials in the bishop's offices were taught to have compassion on the abuser, who only needed psychological help for a lapse in judgement.
(we were taught this in Medical school ...one Newsweek article lamented that families were destroyed when the father was arrested and put into jail when he abused his daughter or step daughter...and we were told most accustations were imaginary according to Freud.
To make things worse, many gays in the bishop's office went out of their way to cover up what was going on with their fellow gays. Gay cliques do exist, alas, and no one wants to discuss the "underground" of gay culture that few outsiders know about: the secret signals that look for casual sex, the jungle of many gay bars/bathhouses, the lack of stability of a life spent searching for sex...
Yes, I know, not all gays, or even most gays, but a lot of gays have to fight this type of thing: and they often lack friendship or fellowship since the only ones who know what they feel are often eager to seduce them back into the black search for love.
posted by Nancy Reyes at
3:52 PM
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