tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10178279.post112770042641856106..comments2024-03-28T05:13:13.921-04:00Comments on Books, Inq. — The Epilogue: Stop the bell, close the book, quench the candle ...Frank Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18410473158808750903noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10178279.post-1127868526783469092005-09-27T20:48:00.000-04:002005-09-27T20:48:00.000-04:00As I indicated in my post, ordination to the pries...As I indicated in my post, ordination to the priesthood is no guarantee of personal holiness. My own experiences with priests and nuns while I was growing up was largely positive. The man who had the greatest influence in my life -- I didn't know my father too well -- was Edward Gannon, S.J., professor of philosophy at St. Joseph's College (as it then was). <BR/>I agree that Church officials aren't thinking very clearly when they blame this scandal on homosexuality -- because, to be logical, one would have to blame the misdeeds of the priests who assaulted woman and girls on those priests' heterosexuality.<BR/>On Thursday two very dear friends are coming over for dinner. Both are gay. Both are Catholic. And both are teachers. Neither has ever assaulted anybody. I am sure there are plenty of faithful priests right now whose orientation is homosexual. It's no easier -- or harder -- for them to remain celibate. I should think the Church would regard such men as exemplars of the faith.Frank Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18410473158808750903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10178279.post-1127845273618966452005-09-27T14:21:00.000-04:002005-09-27T14:21:00.000-04:00Very very well said. You encapsulated my thoughts...Very very well said. You encapsulated my thoughts more elegantly that I could have. What I really wanted was to see JPII recall Cardinal Law to Rome and remove his mitre and ring. Publicly defrock him and send him back to face civil justice. After that I would like to hear of the establishment of a tribunal to investigate each and every diocese in the nation for any priest who was involved. Said Priests to be handed over to civil authorities as appropriate. We know these monsters are still out there and have been moved around as their behavior catches up with them. What I wanted was a "Never Again" statement from Rome on down. Would innocent priests be caught up in the flood? Maybe. If so, I'd be willing to lose a few good priests if it means the evil ones go first.The Last Ephorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10546829944086243794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10178279.post-1127799821810304582005-09-27T01:43:00.000-04:002005-09-27T01:43:00.000-04:00I'm only ostensibly Catholic, or even Christian, b...I'm only ostensibly Catholic, or even Christian, but my parents were raised Catholic and attended Catholic school. The stories they tell were enough to raise the hair on the back of your head. Those nuns and brothers who taught them were far from holy. It's most of the reason why I wasn't really raised religously; like many of their generation, they were disenchanted. <BR/><BR/>They attended Catholic schools in Philadelphia in the time period (the 60s) when a lot of these incidents allegedly took place. In fact, my mother made me find a copy of the grand jury report online so she could see if she knew any of the priests. She didn't; the schools and parishes where my parents attended (West Catholic, Good Shepherd) were not implicated in this particular grand jury case (though my mother is positive that abuse took place, possibly with my own father as a victim). But it still was shocking and disheartening to look at all the priests and all the accusations and how little was done about them. The punishments meted out by the Church just seemed bizarre to my mother and I; not being listed in the Catholic Directory, laicization, "a life of supervised prayer and penance," this is what a child abuser gets? My mother was thoroughly disgusted. <BR/><BR/>As a gay man, this story also really gets to me because the Church seems hellbent (HA! Get it?) to use homosexual priests as the scapegoats for all these problems. They (and, unfortunately, many others) just don't seem to grasp the concept that paedophilia and homosexuality are TOTALLY DIFFERENT THINGS. And no one ever mentions that a lot of this abuse was done to girls; it wasn't just altar boys, but a lot of young female rectory workers (at least in Philadelphia) who got abused. Also, as my mother and I said, there is probably a lot of misconduct between priests and female parishoners that was never reported. But everyone just pretends this is a "gay problem" and not a problem of sick men and cronyism and lax discipline and institutional hypocrisy/arrogance. So Pope Benedict's going to ban gay priests, even celebate ones, which makes NO sense, and that'll solve everything or something. Please! Just disgusting.Frankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03301077496668834657noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10178279.post-1127791512240800022005-09-26T23:25:00.000-04:002005-09-26T23:25:00.000-04:00Here's one Lutheran who agrees with you. And what ...Here's one Lutheran who agrees with you. And what you said goes for any Lutheran, Episcopalian, Presbyterian or Methodist hierarchy that have the same lenient attitude with its clergy.<BR/><BR/>Unfortunately, as my pastor preached this past Sunday, sola scriptura has become sola cultura for many of our church leaders.vnjagvethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15904498408683884983noreply@blogger.com