It is a well known fact that the various churches have driven many thousands of gays out of the church, away from some kind of religious affiliation and active involvement. The Catholic Church is one of the chief offenders. Pope Benedict XVI says that in the Catholic Church there is room for everyone. Nice words, hope-filled words, but the actions, attitudes, etc do not back up that implied invite and welcome.
Not just the churches but society in general hold/believe without any intellectual backup that homosexuals are pedophiles.. . .that homosexuality is the same as the disease of pedophila. . .the media is very guilty of this bit time.
In the small group therapy practice I have been part of for three years now we've had some lively [a mild word! hahaha] discussion on this topic. This AP report added more fuel to the 'raging fire'. . hehehee. Four of the seven members are RCs; three of these guys are still active in the church. Our experiences with organized religion -- spirituality being part of this -- are varied and diverse. With the same people over these three years we've come to some unity in our thoughts, feelings and convictions.
I invite you readers to share your thoughts, ideas, comments about anything this blog-post might evoke. Your contributions will help our on-going education on this important issue.
THANKS in advance.
Justin
Homosexuality no factor in abusive priests
Rachel Zoll of the Associated Press has a story which indicates that the Vatican's 2005 decision to exclude gay men from the priesthood in the wake of the pedophilia scandals was misguided:
A preliminary report commissioned by the nation's Roman Catholic bishops to investigate the clergy sex abuse scandal has found no evidence that gay priests are more likely than heterosexual clergy to molest children, the lead authors of the study said Tuesday. The full report by researchers at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice won't be completed until the end of next year. But the authors said their evidence to date found no data indicating that homosexuality was a predictor of abuse."What we are suggesting is that the idea of sexual identity be separated from the problem of sexual abuse," said Margaret Smith of John Jay College, in a speech to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "At this point, we do not find a connection between homosexual identity and the increased likelihood of subsequent abuse from the data that we have right now."
Let the search for new scapegoats begin.
2 comments:
When ever I read about the abuse of children by adults, I never think of the abusers as homosexual, but rather as pedophiles.
Priests who engage in sex with adult males barely cause a ripple in the media. Pedophilia, on the other hand, is a different situation altogether. It's pedophilia that is the problem, not homosexuality. And the two are very different and distinct forms of behavior.
You don't need to be a genius to figure that out.
"With the same people over these three years we've come to some unity in our thoughts, feelings and convictions."
This says a lot... It implies that you have discussed it. I think in the past, people just haven't wanted to address the issue and are quick to give blame.
Perhaps the larger issue (in the catholic church) is that they deny thier clergy of sex all together. I believe their is a lot of oppression going on. Children are simply an easy target (opposite or same sex).
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