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Posts: 1197
Oct 15 06 2:07 PM
Quote:Those in positions of authority are prevented from acting against others because they themselves are compromised. It's a form of mutually assured destruction.
Posts: 5277
Oct 21 06 5:58 AM
Registered User
Quote:He has the goods, he will live, and he is now promoted.The implicit deal was understood, honored, and is in place as long as Dizzy lives.
Posts: 557
Oct 22 06 12:49 PM
Trial
Oct 22 06 6:46 PM
Quote:The escapades surrounding the participants of the Web site known as St. Sebastian's Angels serve to demonstrate two truths which many inside the Church are still unwilling to admit: a homosexual clerical network is a current reality and the Church leaders are unable or unwilling to deal with it.With a number of abuse cases coming to light as having taken place in the 1970's and 1980's, some have deluded themselves into thinking that such behavior is a relic of an undisciplined former generation. The accounts of the horrendous behavior exhibited on the St. Sebastian's Angels site, as well as recent publications exposing the homosexual culture present among seminarians and religious orders (e.g. Michael Rose's Goodbye, Good Men) demonstrate the issue is far from a thing of the past. Not only has it not gone away, but the advocates are becoming even more bold. Only in an environment where there is no fear of discipline could priests be so audacious as to announce their perversions on a public Web site.Not surprisingly, this view has been vindicated by the complete lack of disciplinary measures to have resulted. This presumption of invincibility has also been reinforced by the response of the bishops to sexual abuse. Although it was hinted at in the American Cardinals' Final Communiqu from Rome, only two bishops have even stated that homosexual priests may not be desirable. On the other hand, upon his return from the Vatican, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick went on national television to proclaim that homosexual priests are a non-issue, so long as they are celibate and don't rape children. The Fallen Angels of "St. Sebastian's"
Posts: 957
Oct 23 06 5:13 AM
Oct 23 06 6:13 AM
Quote:I estimate that at any one time 50 percent of priests are practicing celibacy.Sociologists Dean Hoge and Jacqueline reported on a 2001 survey of 1,200 priests that 87 percent of active diocesan priests and 74 percent of active religious priests were "satisfied with celibate life." This conclusion of self-satisfaction reveals nothing about the observance or practice.Greeley's, study mentioned before used data from a 1992 and 2001 Los Angeles Times survey of 2,000 priests. On the strength of his data he estimated that 82 percent of priests "honor their celibacy." Honor of celibacy also says nothing about the practice.On survey to "be satisfied with celibate life" or to "honor celibacy" is not the same thing as practicing celibacy/abstaining from sexual activity. In-depth long-term interviews and reports of actual sexual/celibate practice trace quite a different clerical topography. The mountain tops, hills and valleys, forests, caves, swamps and deserts of actual priestly struggles to achieve celibate integration cannot be mapped by a survey. Sex is not static. Neither is abstinent observance.In one study of homosexually active priests, 88 percent of those interviewed said that they would "choose the priesthood again" had they the chance. (Wagner, 1981 & Wolf, 1989) Between 2002 and 2004 700 priests were dismissed from American dioceses because of allegations of sexual contact with minors. Their dismissal was not due to their dissatisfaction with "celibate life."Perfect and perpetual chastity is an ideal of the highest order. I estimate that only 2 percent of priests achieve it in its fullest and most complete sense. The efforts of those who honestly and persistently try to practice celibacy are not to be denigrated. But sexual patterns and practices cannot be discounted as if they do not vitally effect celibacy. This is exactly what has happened in the church with regard to sex with minors. Bishops and priests have honored celibacy in word not in deed. More . . .
Oct 23 06 9:15 AM
Oct 23 06 12:03 PM
Oct 23 06 12:59 PM
Oct 23 06 1:46 PM
Oct 23 06 1:57 PM
Oct 23 06 3:06 PM
Quote:The best we can do is go with the facts of how many allegations have been made against Priests.
Quote: Roughly two-thirds of top U.S. Catholic leaders have allowed priests accused of sexual abuse to keep working, a systematic practice that spans decades and continues today, a three-month Dallas Morning News review shows.More. . .
Posts: 120
Oct 23 06 4:08 PM
Quote:Remember that celibacy means unmarried.
Posts: 1706
Oct 23 06 4:16 PM
Leaven Rooster
Oct 23 06 6:37 PM
Oct 27 06 9:10 AM
Quote:Catholics, is Richard Sipe anti-Catholic because he exposes RC priesthood celibacy as a myth?If you think your priests are celibate, read some of his work, or read the work of another Catholic, Jason Berry.These guys are not "anti-Catholic Protestants" who are out to get you and your fellow zombies. These are educated, informed Catholic researchers who call it as they see it.
Quote: Sexual activity, including abuse of minors, within a ministry that professes celibacy has a long-standing history.The clerical system, in some cases, produces, fosters, protects, and defends priests and bishops who abuse minors.The power of the Catholic Church rests on the presumption of the sexual purity of its ministers. This is unique among Christian churches.The current crisis in the Catholic Church serves to break through denial about the celibate violations of priests and bishops.The current crisis of the Catholic Church is epic and dire specifically because the power of the entire institution is threatened. A large group of the faithful is indignant and angry at what they experience as betrayal. Clerical sexual hypocrisy has fatally compromised authority and credibility.Questions about sex and celibacy are the unfinished business of Christian theology and moral practice.The celibate myth can only be resolved by open, unrestricted dialogue. That discussion forms the core of a fundamental reformation of an institution.LINK
Oct 27 06 11:38 AM
Posts: 8057
Oct 27 06 2:13 PM
official flamethrower
Oct 28 06 6:09 AM
Quote:The proclamation of the Gospel and true discipleship has nothing to do with celibacy and the embarrassing lengths the Church has gone to in insisting on this mandatory discipline has done little for the people of God. In the end it has starved the people of Eucharist, increased the exodus of heterosexual priests who left to marry, left behind a predominantly gay priesthood many of whom serve the Church with zeal and dignity. Yet now it appears they too are becoming the scapegoat for the pedophilia crisis. In my next two articles I will trace the history of celibacy in the Church, a discipline which according to expert Richard Sipe less than 10 percent of priests have successfully negotiated.Lost to history are the writings of Augustine's antagonist Julian, the son of a bishop and married to a bishop's daughter. Julian rejected Augustine's negative view of sexual desire and original sin. For him, sexual desire within marriage furthered the divine plan and was only abused in extramarital affairs. Sadly, Augustine's defective thinking won the day and as Richard Sipe has written, "Sexual pleasure=women=evil." The championing of celibacy can be traced in large part to Augustine. The unbalanced ecclesiastical thinking, this preoccupation with sex throughout the centuries is a negative gift from the man from Hippo, North Africa. It has nothing to do with Jesus.More . . .
Oct 28 06 5:34 PM
Quote:In the end it has starved the people of Eucharist, increased the exodus of heterosexual priests who left to marry, left behind a predominantly gay priesthood many of whom serve the Church with zeal and dignity.
Quote:Romans 10:2 (WEB) For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.3 For being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they didn't subject themselves to the righteousness of God.
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