"If you're Catholic, you support pedophilia."

[Alice-Bee]

Its not even a valid excuse for pedophilia let alone a reason!

 

[peacefulveglady]

She said one of the reasons. She did not make a blanket statement.

Yes your correct, I didn't say it was a cure all but it does help.

 

[Alice-Bee]

To say that is still, in my opinion, worthy of the facepalm icon

 

[beancounter]

Impulse control is one of the valid issues concerning rape and pedophilia.

 

[Alice-Bee]

Impulses are not controlled by Marriages and relationships, else adultry wouldnt happen.

 

[mlp]

I don't think that one can reasonably equate veg*ns purchasing from omni companies with being affiliated with an organization that has, for many generations, institutionalized the coverup of child rape and has facilitated the ongoing rape of children. The raping of children has long been recognized as evil; there is no reasonable expectation/assumption on a societal level that it is acceptable to rape children. The same is not true of eating animals; to the contrary. And that societal acceptance/lack thereof has to factor into how one views those who facilitate such behavior, just on a reasonableness standard alone.

It strikes me that people are often more forgiving of sexual violence, even against children, than they are of other kinds of violence. If the Catholic Church had for many generations harbored serial killers and facilitated their continued killing, how many would still call themselves Catholic?

 

[peacefulveglady]

I know in the Baptist churches if one is caught in a sexual act or sexual sin, with my experience a few years ago with a favorite pastor of mine he was caught into some sexual sins , he lost his pastoring job, so I am assuming they will lose their job as Pastor if they touch another person. Some pastors does do such stuff while being pastor but, most loses their job.

 

[das_nut]

You do need to know the one of the reason's why Catholic priests are going after children and probley woman are because they cannot marry , if they would go and get married and was allowed like my pastor's does then they will be able to control themselves.

There's plenty of married pedophiles.

 

[peacefulveglady]

There's plenty of married pedophiles.

I realized that

 

[das_nut]

I realized that

There's also plenty of men out there that are not in sexual relationships with women and yet aren't pedophiles.

 

[beancounter]

Impulses are not controlled by Marriages and relationships, else adultry wouldnt happen.

You statement assumes impluse control is the only variable, which of couse isn't the case. As I said it's one factor, not the whole story.

 

[Alice-Bee]

I dont assume its the only varible. The statement made claims a reason for child molestation is not being able to marry. Marriage doesnt cure impulses and urges, reguardless of any other factors its a very strange claim to make.

Hey Priests, like kids?Wish you didnt?...well get yourself hitched and those urges will melt like snow in summer!
Sorry Im not buying it.

 

[mlp]

I think it's a mistake to think that the celibacy requirement of the Catholic Church causes predatory behavior. IMO (and based on dealing with several dozen clergy sexual misconduct cases), the linkage goes in the other direction, and two basic factors are at play:

1. People with predatory sexual inclinations are drawn to occupations where they will have ready access to prey. That's why many become members of the clergy, teachers, scout leaders, etc.

2. Some (and perhaps even most) people with predatory inclinations really fight those inclinations. Some gravitate toward religion as a way to keep themselves under check. Becoming a Catholic priest would be especially attractive in this regard - joining an institution that requires celibacy - what better way of counteracting impulses that one either tries to pretend don't exist or wishes to rid oneself of?!

And it's entirely possible for both factors to be at play at the same time - after all, who among us doesn't have a demon whispering in one ear while an angel is trying to shout him down in the other ear?

 

[Alice-Bee]

I think it's a mistake to think that the celibacy requirement of the Catholic Church causes predatory behavior. IMO (and based on dealing with several dozen clergy sexual misconduct cases), the linkage goes in the other direction, and two basic factors are at play:

1. People with predatory sexual inclinations are drawn to occupations where they will have ready access to prey. That's why many become members of the clergy, teachers, scout leaders, etc.

2. Some (and perhaps even most) people with predatory inclinations really fight those inclinations. Some gravitate toward religion as a way to keep themselves under check. Becoming a Catholic priest would be especially attractive in this regard - joining an institution that requires celibacy - what better way of counteracting impulses that one either tries to pretend don't exist or wishes to rid oneself of?!

And it's entirely possible for both factors to be at play at the same time - after all, who among us doesn't have a demon whispering in one ear while an angel is trying to shout him down in the other ear?

This is basically how I should have phrased my opinion. Im bad at getting my point across in such a intelligent way.

 

[Freesia]

I think that being allowed to marry or not is definitely a factor. But i think that it is almost a cyclic abuse situation, priest abuses young boy who then becomes a priest who then abuses boys, some of whom become priests. I think that allowing women to operate in church leadership, and allowing priests to marry would reduce the abuse a lot (though wouldnt stop any existing pedophiles).

 

[mlp]

I think that being allowed to marry or not is definitely a factor. But i think that it is almost a cyclic abuse situation, priest abuses young boy who then becomes a priest who then abuses boys, some of whom become priests. I think that allowing women to operate in church leadership, and allowing priests to marry would reduce the abuse a lot (though wouldnt stop any existing pedophiles).

I don't think that being sexually attracted to* young children is in any way cured or controlled by having sexual access to grown women. If it was, you wouldn't have so many married men abusing and raping young children, often their own children/grandchildren/other relatives.

*It's not a sexual attraction, really, just as rape of adults isn't really about sex.

 

[Freesia]

Yes but if this was the case, you would see an equal amount of paedophiles taking up the leadership posts in Protestant/Baptist churches etc. But I think a lot of the paedophile men at the Catholic church are not born paedophiles, they are *made* because of the culture of the church they grew up in where they were left alone with abusive older men for generation after generation, and also the shroud of secrecy that has protected the abuse for centuries.

 

[cornsail]

I actually saw a show with an admitted pedophile who said he has never acted on it. He makes sure to never be alone with children, even his own grandkids. He has told those close to him, even his kids, so that they understand why he avoids being alone with children and to help keep it that way.

That is the type of person I'm talking about. I find it a little sad that he makes sure to never be alone with children though, because I don't make sure never to be alone with adult women for fear I might rape/molest them. Although I guess there are some differences between the two situations...

Back on topic though, I do have a hard time understanding why people would respect the Catholic church as an institution after everything they've done. I can understand it better if I think of it as being like a national identity. If you are raised thinking "I am a Catholic", all your community and family are Catholic, and so on it must be very hard to change that and doesn't mean you support the church or at least the current practices of the church. I identify as American and I pay taxes despite the fact that the US government has done many horrible things IMO and still does bad things. I'm not ashamed of my nationality, but I try to speak out against what I think is wrong in government.

I grew up with almost no Catholics that I know of and non-religious parents so my comparison might be way off... just speculating.

 

[Freesia]

My fathers family have been Catholic for centuries, so I went to a Catholic school when I was a child and went to a few church services. But my father didnt really care about the catholicism, he just wanted to send us to a good school and that happened to be the catholic one. he also was teaching at a catholic school so he told the principal that he went to church every sunday and was taking his family there to all the communions etc... though actually he had no interest in attending church and just needed the teaching job. He took us to a few church services and communions but he only did that to pretend to the principal that he was a practising catholic.

 

[Mel]

Priests not being able to marry seriously seems to be "that reason" that the people around me IRL also believe that priests are pedophiles.

Sorry, but no. There are plenty of people who are married who are pedophiles as well. The two are not mutually exclusive. No way.

I used to be a Catholic, but only because I was raised that way. The priest who baptized me wanted to get married later on in his "career", but couldn't...because, you know, he was a Catholic Priest. What did he do? He left the priesthood, he didn't start molesting kids.