The following comes from a Feb. 23 story in the New York Times.
…. At the meeting, even as organizers and attendees pushed time and again to focus the discussions on pedophilia, the conflicting views about homosexuality within the church emerged as a distraction.
Jean-Claude Hollerich, the archbishop of Luxembourg and Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union, moderated one of the meeting’s French-speaking discussion groups, which included leaders from some Francophone African nations.
He said on Saturday that some bishops kept returning to homosexuality as a cause for abuse because “some people have some models in their head and they will always keep to it.”
He said he and other bishops had sought to change their minds.
“I tell them the prime minister of my country is homosexual,” he said. “And he would never abuse children.”
Bishop Rochus Josef Tatamai, of Kavieng, president of the Bishops’ Conference of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, said on Saturday that in his English-language group, homosexuality was “alluded to” during discussions about the training of new priests.
He suggested that “a desperate need for priests” in Europe and the United States had led seminaries to be lax in screening for candidates, some of whom turned out to be gay and abusers.
Pope Francis has clearly shifted the discussion, if not church doctrine, to a more inclusive position on homosexuality.
In 2013, he responded to questions about a supposed “gay lobby” in the Vatican by saying, “Who am I to judge?” — a remark that liberals celebrated and conservatives lamented.
But while Catholic Church teachings state that people with homosexual tendencies “must be accepted with respect,” it also calls deep-seated homosexual inclinations and acts “intrinsically disordered.”
Some conservative American prelates have sought to bring down Francis, seeing him as a protector of a gay subculture that is corrupting the clergy. Some have said his positions are eroding the church’s traditional values and planting the seeds of sexual abuse.
Bishops from Africa, Asia and Latin America say that in failing to connect homosexuality to sexual abuse, the Vatican is ignoring that a vast majority of abuse is perpetrated by priests on male victims.
This view has been echoed by Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the church’s chief doctrinal watchdog until Pope Francis forced him out in 2017.
The cardinal told the German magazine Der Spiegel this month that “far more than 80 percent of the victims of sexual abuse under 18 years of age were young men in puberty or post-puberty.’’
And he argued that homosexuality should have been a central topic at the Vatican meeting this week.
Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, a favorite of Pope Francis and an organizer of the conference, said on Monday that it was not the case that “homosexual people are more prone to abuse children than straight people.”
Asked about Cardinal Müller’s remarks, Cardinal Cupich told reporters “it’s important to admit the fact” that the predominance of underage victims are male. But he pointed to landmark studies in the United States and Australia showing that homosexuality in itself is not a cause of child sex abuse, and that access to children is a major factor.
Each day at the meeting, reporters from conservative Catholic news outlets peppered the meeting’s organizers with questions about why they are dodging the topic of homosexuality.
Their short answer: because it is irrelevant.
Homosexuality has “nothing to do with the sexual abuse of minors,” Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, the Vatican’s leading sex crimes investigator, said on Friday.
Still, leading conservatives and traditionalists persisted in their arguments.
Cardinal Raymond Burke of the United States and Cardinal Walter Brandmüller of Germany published an open letter to the presidents of bishops’ conferences representing various countries at the meeting, urging them to end their “conspiracy of silence” about the “plague of the homosexual agenda.”
And Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a former papal ambassador to the United States who accused the pope in August of protecting abusive gay clerics and called for his resignation, argued on Thursday that it was fitting that the meeting’s opening that day coincided with the feast of St. Peter Damian, an 11th-century monk who fought against “sins of sodomy” in the church….
Send us your altar boys!!!!
This is one reason why parents must be involved in their children’s church and other activities. They need to be there, and know what is being taught to them and by whom. Parents should also teach their own children at home about the Ten Commandments, etc. They should not drop their children off at church and expect someone else to do their job. Fathers should be involved with their boys. Fatherless homes are creating fuel for this fire.
Fathers should be skilled in self defense and make sure that their children are skilled in self defense so that they will be able to beat up the creeps who try to rape them. Fathers should help their children with strength training as well.
I agree. “Strong fathers, strong daughters” is the name of a book. My grandfather was very protective, and even though he was a short man, he had been in war and had been a lumber jack when there were no power tools. I was not bullied in high school because I was very athletic.. The girls who kept their grades up even took archery right here in California in public high schools.
Doesn’t the avoidance of this issue, clearly and sadly, tell us all we need to know about the current “powers that be”?
I remember what I asked a woman when she told me a relative, who was living with his male lover, had molested her son when he was about 16 or 17: “Why did you send your son down there when when you knew what kind of lifestyle they are living? I would never have sent a son of mine there.”
Her answer, “I trusted him.”
If a couple, heterosexual or homosexual, are living a bad life style, don’t send your child there, or you will be just as much at fault if the child is molested.
So once again, you assume that because one gay person is a child molester, therefore all gay people are child molesters. The only person I know who molested a child growing up was a previously admired family friend, a father who molested his own daughters. And I know that directly from the wife who, of course, divorced him upon learning what happenned.
No, you have got it dead wrong, YFC. This is not about one homosexual molesting a child. This is about a well organized group of homosexuals establishing a well organized sex abuse power structure. They do not limit their victims to children, either. They molest seminarians too! This about the pathetic lies they tell to try to convince everyone else that homosexuality has nothing to do with a well organized group of men molesting same sex victims. The opposite sex abuse cases are the exception to the abuse scandal and not the norm. This sex abuse scandal is proof that not only are homosexuals pathological sodomists, they are pathological liars too!
Anonymous at 4:18 PM , you just made up a whole lot of things that just aren’t true. If you want to have an opinion, fine, but please state true facts, not made up ones.
It’s like standing in a thunderstorm next to someone that insists that it is not raining, that you are making it all up, and it is all lies, lies, lies! Filthy rotten lies!!!
So once again you assume that because the only person you ever knew that molested was a heterosexual, no homosexuals ever molested anyone.
You know perfectly well I never said that Bleacher Seat. Please don’t make things up!
If you really read what I wrote, you would know I mentioned heterosexuals too. I use prudence.The woman was not living a very Christian life style either, so I only visited her on neutral, safe territory or when my children would not see things they should not see. They played with her children, but only when I was there.
This post of mine was in reply to YFC’s post on Feb. 28 at 11:10 am. I put it in the wrong place.
Yes. Nothing was accomplished. And the USCCB was prevented from voting on measures to address bishop accountability for nothing. The gay mafia is rotting the church from within.
Yes it does, Anon. And we must never forget and point it out by its name. A good example was Cupich’s avoidance of the question put to him by a CNN reporter at the sham meeting in Rome. Take a look at the Sullins report and its conclusions regarding the correlation between homosexuals in the priesthood and abuse.
Take a look at the far more comprehensive Sipe reports
Especially with the recent case of the downfall of Theodore McCarrick– I think the Church had better tackle the issue of homosexuality in the priesthood, and gay clergy sex predators! Of course, all of the clergy sex predators were both homosexual and heterosexual. However, the gay clergy sex predator issue, is a unique problem, and the Church had better face it, realistically! Otherwise, there is much to worry about, for the future!
What about the straight sex predators? Why do you not face that, realistically!? Were you calling for realistic predator patrols when Marcel Marciel’s affairs and his resulting CHILDREN were sulleying the Church? He was a disgusting guy who curried favor and was highly regarded by John Paul, even while he was having daliances (a polite word, which is not indicative of what he was actually doing) with women, girls, and boys? Why do you think this problem is only “unique” to gay predators? It’s a problem of PREDATORS and CO-CONSPIRATOR COVERUPS, regardless of sexual orientation.
YFC– you misread what I wrote! There is only one thing here, in the above article, that I was responding to– why did the Church AVOID THE ISSUE of gay sex predators?? Don’t you think this topic should he carefully — and logically– brought up– and dealt with?
YFC, do you thin that it is okay for gay clerics like Theodore McCarrick to teach and work with our young seminarians?? What do you think happened, in such cases of clerical gay sex molestation?? Set aside tall the other cases– there are many of them! But what do you think the Church should do– about the clergy gay sex abuse problem?? Don’t you think this should be discussed objectively– and action taken?? I think this is a very important topic for the Vatican to discuss– not just to brush off and ignore!! What is your view??
The Church should 1) Punish the guilty 2) Remove and report offenders 3) Ensure that all children are in the company of at least two adults at all times and 4) Understand the causes of sex abuse and develop methods for screening out likely abusers.
The “heterosexual lobby” in the Vatican is also of great concern. As recently reported in the media, so many heterosexual priests have fathered children. This has been kept quiet. One need only read about Thomas Williams, a former conservative LC priest who fathered a child with the daughter of the U S Ambassador to the Vatican to realize the seriousness of this problem. Like many other priests living a double life, Williams kept the matter secret for many years and continued to function as a priest.
This is all tragic! Both heterosexual and homosexual clergy sex predators are criminals! However– the issue in this article, is that the Vatican summit refused to tackle the issue of homosexuality — and gay clergy sex predators! — and that refusal is worrisome! Will there be any more gay clergy sex predators– like Theodore McCarrick?? What can we expect for the future?? Why does the Vatican refuse to tackle this important issue??>
I think Mr. Theodore McCarrick would consider himself tackled.
What more do you want? What EXACTLY do you want?
Yes! His name is Cardinal Pell. He has been tried, convicted and is in jail.
As far as we know, the heterosexual abusers have not formed a protection racket dedicated to mutual career advancement, recruitment of new members, the deterring and silencing of those who will not go along, and the changing of Church teaching regarding their sin; a protection racket so pervasive that it apparently reaches up into the Vatican itself (the papacy?) and down into parishes and seminaries far and wide. This gives it an added menace not present among the heterosexual abusers, and thus should be a higher priority.
Maybe some were busy at the multiple gay bars, gay night clubs and gay hotels in Rome. June 8th will be Gay Pride Week in Rome and once again the Pope will be silent.
Yes, the majority of abuse was of the homosexual nature, but it isn’t being gay, but SIN that is the culprit here.
“Being gay” is a world view, a philosophy, an ideological viewpoint, an activity. And it is a catastrophic element in the crisis of the Church today. If same sex attraction and opposite sex attraction (no equivalency at all, btw) were in any way ordered to the natural law in the ordained and religious life (or the laity, for that matter) none of this would be even remotely conceivable.
So which is it? Is it a philosophy? a viewpoint? an activity? or an attraction? Does natural law suggest that sexuality is “ordered” differently between the ordained and the lay?
80% of the abuse was male-on-male. Eliminate homosexuals, and 80% of the abuse never would have happened. Not that complicated.
In my personal experience, I know an equal number of male victims and female victims. The male victims have reported their abuse. The female victims have not and probably never will.
So by your math, only 50% of abusers in the priesthood are homosexual. What percentage of the priesthood overall is homosexual? (Of course, in your “personal experience.”) In the priesthood, is there a higher percentage of homosexual or heterosexual abusers, calculated per preference? (Again, based on your personal expertise on the subject.) Since according to the Catechism (admittedly rejected by many baptized Catholics), the condition of same-sex attraction is disordered, should practicing homosexuals be admitted to the priesthood (in your opinion)? Theologians who are regarded as tending to orthodoxy say ‘no’ to this last one, but I’m sure you’re to be more trusted.
West coast, take some Miralax.
West coast, I have known 4 priests who abused: 2 abused males; 2 abused females. I do not know the percentage of homosexual priests. In my diocese, it was very high.
I think you are watering down the Catechism somewhat. It talks about homosexuality, not same sex attraction. No sexually active man should be admitted to the priesthood.
The Church has said repeatedly that those with deep seated homosexuality are not to be admitted to the priesthood. The Popes say this. That is who you should trust on that.
If they discussed homosexuality, it would be a topic that hits close to home for to many of them.
Exactly. And why should anyone expect them to talk about it now, after they’ve spent decades constructing an inter-locking network of homosexuals and their supporters to give them their power base? Of course it should go without saying (but it doesn’t) that they have also warped theology for the Catholic mainstream to normalize homosexuality to protect themselves. This is the really the great McCarrick sin – the system of alternating favors and blackmail which downstream subjected the body Catholic to a distorted liberalized theology based on feminism, Marxism and a homosexualized priesthood.
Until the issue of homosexual clergy and pro-LGBTQ clergy is addressed this crisis cannot be resolved. All of us are called to chastity! As Fr. Brown rightly noted above, sin is the fundamental problem. Sins are numerous, including sexual sins, abuse, cover-ups and dissent from the teachings of Christ and His Church. Lord, have mercy on us!
SADLY, IT WAS A DOG AND PONY SHOW
No, they didn’t cover bestiality either.
Many of the comments here are better than mine. Good work, guys!
Homosaywhat??
The “disordered” nature o homosexuality may have been “dodged” by the summit; but it is not hidden from God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).
He must be joking: “Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, a favorite of Pope Francis and an organizer of the conference, said on Monday that it was not the case that “homosexual people are more prone to abuse children than straight people.”
I am wondering what Cardinal Pell thinks of his Australian jail cell. He is now waiting there, for the judge to give him his sentence, on March 13th. Does he say the Rosary in his jail cell?? Will he receive his ashes, in his cell, on March 6th, Ash Wednesday?? Does he have a penance?? And what will the judge say– on March 13th?? Meanwhile– the Church avoids the issue of gay clergy sex abuse, saying it is irrelevant.
Cardinal Pell maintains his innocence and is appealing. If you have read any of the accounts of his trial, they leave much concern that an innocent person was falsely accused and falsely convicted.
Well, so much for separating the men from the boys.
Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be altar boys.