Cardinal blames sex abuse on homosexuality

[ViennaExpat83]

By the way, my partner left the Catholic Church officially yesterday because of this Cardinal's comment.
I say officially because in Austria, and in Germany too I think, if you are registered as Catholic from birth then the government takes a small part of your taxes and gives it to the Church. Completely archaic.
But, anyway, you do have the possibility of officially stopping being a catholic by going to the city government and filling out some forms. And my partner finally did it... I had been telling him to do it for ages. We went out to nice Thai restaurant afterwards and we toasted to his leaving the Church and wished severe bodily harm to this bastard of a Cardinal with great cheer.

 

[saymyname]

Okay first of all, if the majority of the people being abused are not prepubescent, then it's true that the issue is not 'pedophilia' per se. The issue in that case is coercion and sexual abuse. But saying that it has anything to do, intrinsically, with homosexuality is like saying that prison rape is caused by homosexuality. But to deny the long history of gay culture and gay art that was focused around young men, and to deny the pervasive presence of twinks in our culture, is to deny ourselves.

I'm making this point in reference to another news article where it was stated that 3/4 of the victims being abused were not prepubescent, which gave some idiot the idea that the issue would have to be homosexuality as opposed to pedophilia. The issue here is not any sexuality but the repressed and opportunistic positions of power that the abusers find themselves in.

 

[Yves]

Not all bishops agree with the Vatican's Secretary of State statement on pedophilia and homosexuality. Catholic bishops in England and Wales have decided to reject Bertone's views:

Vatican climbdown over sex abuse remarks by senior cardinal
Riazat Butt and John Hooper, Rome
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 14 April 2010 21.51 BST

(...)

A more explicit rebuttal came from Catholic bishops in England and Wales, who moved quickly to reject Bertone's assertions.

A statement from the Rev Fr Marcus Stock, general secretary to the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, said there was no empirical data to conclude that paedophilia had anything to do with homosexuality. His statement bears the authority and approval of all 32 Catholic bishops in England and Wales.

He said: "To the best of my knowledge, there is no empirical data which concludes that sexual orientation is connected to child sexual abuse.

"The consensus among researchers is that the sexual abuse of children is not a question of sexual orientation, whether heterosexual or homosexual, but of a disordered attraction or fixation. Many abusers of children have never developed the capacity for mature adult relationships."

The statement represents a concerted effort by Catholic clergy to distance themselves from increasingly erratic pronouncements from the Vatican on who or what is to blame for priestly paedophilia.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/14/vatican-sex-abuse-remarks-cardinal

 

[gsdx]

I wonder just how much of this was swept under the carpet to protect the previous Pope?

Shouldn't that be "previous Popes"?

This abuse crap has been going on for decades and they keep hoping it will simply go away.

One such case in Canada was made into a docudrama by the NFB and broadcast on CBC in 1992: The Boys of St. Vincent. It was quite graphic and, apparently censored in an American broadcast.

This case eventually went to trial.

The cover-ups were unbelievable and it was amazing how many heads were turned and how many eyes were closed.

 

[BINOWGAYLATER]

two and a half words:

UN-FUCKING-BELIEVEABLE !!

like all good Catholics - when i grew up I quit !! The Nuns that taught me were the only good thing about it.

 

[BRIOHAZARD]

I'm just going.... to......



roll my eyes..... and look...... the other way......



just like they do....







*I am VERY angry right now*

 

[blackbeltninja]

they have unhealthy traditionalist views on everything and are so adamantly against change.

Which is what you get when your mission statement was written 2000 years ago and not overhauled since.

-d-

 

[braex27]

Wow. Is he for real?!

 

[teadrinker]

How very, errrr, Catholic of him.

-T.