Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So who here on DCUM still has their child serve as an Altar Boy or Girl?

They should ban those positions. Make them adult-only volunteers if they are truly needed. They could just leave the Eucharist and wine goblet at the front of the church on a side table.

In our parish the Altar Servers are never alone with the priest. The only interaction they have is on the altar in front of the entire church. So, yes my children have been and will continue to be Altar Servers.

I don't know how you can ensure that Altar Servers are never alone with a priest. There are ceremonial gowns and artifacts to organize in back rooms. Robes to hang up and put away. Do the Altar Servers have completely separate dressing quarters? Is there another adult required to be with them in the back rooms?

Also, is this a church-wide official policy? I know the Boy Scouts mandated new policies and abuse training to ensure that no Scout leader would be alone with a scout.

By your language (ceremonial gowns, artifacts, dressing quarters) I assume you are not Catholic or at least not one with any practical knowledge of the church. Our church always has a sacristan present in the “back room” for security reasons alone. Most of the time there is also a lector, 2-3 servers, the priest and possibly a deacon.

If you need this many people for security, or to practice your faith, then I feel like you're doing religion wrong. The ceremony and ritual are for entertainment, not a belief in God.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So who here on DCUM still has their child serve as an Altar Boy or Girl?

They should ban those positions. Make them adult-only volunteers if they are truly needed. They could just leave the Eucharist and wine goblet at the front of the church on a side table.

In our parish the Altar Servers are never alone with the priest. The only interaction they have is on the altar in front of the entire church. So, yes my children have been and will continue to be Altar Servers.

I don't know how you can ensure that Altar Servers are never alone with a priest. There are ceremonial gowns and artifacts to organize in back rooms. Robes to hang up and put away. Do the Altar Servers have completely separate dressing quarters? Is there another adult required to be with them in the back rooms?

Also, is this a church-wide official policy? I know the Boy Scouts mandated new policies and abuse training to ensure that no Scout leader would be alone with a scout.

By your language (ceremonial gowns, artifacts, dressing quarters) I assume you are not Catholic or at least not one with any practical knowledge of the church. Our church always has a sacristan present in the “back room” for security reasons alone. Most of the time there is also a lector, 2-3 servers, the priest and possibly a deacon.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are there now clear cut rules for priest/altar boy or altar girl interactions? I know that abuse did not solely happen in the back church rooms, but anyone out there have children who currently serve in these positions? What are the rules for being alone with a priest? Are there clear rules for priests not to be alone with minors?

Safety is not going to be improved until the Catholic Church allows women in positions of equal power and transparency. Until then, the men will always find a way to abuse a situation.

You're wrong. The issue isn't that there aren't enough women. Women look the other way, too. The issue is the notion of priesthood altogether. Women can abuse power as well. I'm tired of this drumbeat that somehow abuse, bullying, exploitation of power is something women don't do or women would stop. I've seen far too many women -- women who were in positions to change things -- look the other way when it suited them. I've also seen women abuse power and exploit positions in which they have some sort of spiritual/social caretaking role.

This Sunday I am running to the Protestant Church and not looking back.

Anonymous wrote:catholics ruined america.

Are you kidding me? There are thousands of cases involving Catholic priests all over the world. This is not an America problem, but a Catholicism problem. The Catholic church has rolled out the red carpet to men who are sexual deviants. Pedophiles know that the Catholic Church welcomes them and supports their behavior. When you attend mass at any Catholic church around the world all you see on the altar is a bunch of closeted gay men and pedophiles hiding behind religion. Most priests are either closeted gays who grew up in conservative households or pedophiles looking for their dream job of preying on children. Sexual deviants! Normal straight lace men do not become priests. Priests are some of the most vicious sexual predators on the planet. The FBI needs to go after the church. Catholics around the world need to rebel and dismantled the hierarchy within the church. Catholics should start staging boycotts until the church gets rid of these monsters posing as men of God.

The moment the church forced celibacy on priests it open up the flood gates to pedophiles and other sexual deviants. Straight men who do not have healthy sex lives become deviants. Being a priest goes against nature. It goes against science. When you go against science you will fail each and every time. These weirdos can't control themselves. So, millions of children around the world have suffered at the hands of effiminate, sexual respressed degenerates. I got sick of watching effiminate men standing on the altar at mass posing to be followers of Jesus. So, I left the church.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Catholic church has a problem with sex, that's clear. If the Church wants to be around in a few generations, they need to end their bizarre emphasis on celibacy. It's not healthy. Have married clergy with a normal, healthy, realistic attitude towards sexuality instead of the deviants they have been attracting.

OK. Question for men - how long would you have to go without sex before you'd molest a child?

My answer, like the vast majority of men would be "I would go my whole life, and would set myself on fire before doing that".

Celibacy is not the cause of the abuse here. Child molesting and celibacy are two entirely different things and should not be conflated.

Marriage will not even cure it. Most child molesters are married men who molest their own children.

Isn't there a possibility that if celibacy weren't a requirement the priesthood may possibly attract more "normal" men as opposed to primarily being a draw for the sick sexually repressed pervs who obviously are a significant portion of the Catholic clergy?

As I mentioned up thread, I have an uncle who left the priesthood because he met a woman and they wanted to get married. This happened before I was born, but knowing him I'm sure he was a good priest. He liked inviting the Mormon missionaries into his home to discuss theology. And he was very devoted to his wife (she died a few years ago).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Catholic church has a problem with sex, that's clear. If the Church wants to be around in a few generations, they need to end their bizarre emphasis on celibacy. It's not healthy. Have married clergy with a normal, healthy, realistic attitude towards sexuality instead of the deviants they have been attracting.

OK. Question for men - how long would you have to go without sex before you'd molest a child?

My answer, like the vast majority of men would be "I would go my whole life, and would set myself on fire before doing that".

Celibacy is not the cause of the abuse here. Child molesting and celibacy are two entirely different things and should not be conflated.

Marriage will not even cure it. Most child molesters are married men who molest their own children.

+1. I think the Catholic church is wrong about the celibacy issue -- the Bible calls forbidding marriage a "doctrine of demons" for one thing -- but the idea that celibacy leads to child molestation seems ridiculous. I'd be surprised if nothing else that not molesting children is implicit in a vow of celibacy. If you're going to break your vows, you don't go find an adult to have sex with instead of children?

Anonymous wrote:
It’s a gay problem. Victims are mostly pubescent boys.

Must remove homosexuals from clergy.

It's okay to come out of your closet, self-hating troll. And to leave the church and find a loving community.

catholics ruined america.

Anonymous wrote:
It’s a gay problem. Victims are mostly pubescent boys.

Must remove homosexuals from clergy.

That is not true, most victims are not boys. Victims are chosen by confidence so Boy Scouts are most likely to abuse boys. Alter boys used to be only boys.

Pedophiles do not prefer a gender.

It’s a gay problem. Victims are mostly pubescent boys.

Must remove homosexuals from clergy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Catholic church has a problem with sex, that's clear. If the Church wants to be around in a few generations, they need to end their bizarre emphasis on celibacy. It's not healthy. Have married clergy with a normal, healthy, realistic attitude towards sexuality instead of the deviants they have been attracting.

OK. Question for men - how long would you have to go without sex before you'd molest a child?

My answer, like the vast majority of men would be "I would go my whole life, and would set myself on fire before doing that".

Celibacy is not the cause of the abuse here. Child molesting and celibacy are two entirely different things and should not be conflated.

Marriage will not even cure it. Most child molesters are married men who molest their own children.

I really appreciate this because I’m a woman and I have to admit that the male sexual drive is foreign to me. It seems to me sometimes that their desires make them crazed and irrational way beyond what I’ve experienced as a woman so it’s nice to hear that in your view most men can control that desire when it starts taking them down the wrong road.

Anonymous wrote:I am originally from Scranton and know some of the priests. (Not well. Neighboring parishes). My aunt has a work friend who is close with one of the accused priest. She chooses (the friend, not my aunt) he is innocent. They often have dinner parties and he is invited. It makes me so disgusted! How can you welcome him to your home?

The pedophile priest is probably charming and friendly. The friend has been indoctrinated since childhood to respect her priest and would never doubt his authority. She is a good Catholic!

Do you remember the Beauvoir pedophile teacher from a few years ago? Actually, that story is how I found DCUM all those years ago....I googled Beauvoir and a link to postings on DCUM popped up. Pedophile teacher was so charming and popular -- invited to parents' homes, babysat and tutored for students outside of the classroom, and was living with a school family prior to fleeing the country for Central America. He was charming and fooled all of the parents. That is what pedophiles do. They charm and groom the parents to the point that the child "must have misinterpreted" what really happened if they have the courage to tell their parents about the abuse.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Catholic church has a problem with sex, that's clear. If the Church wants to be around in a few generations, they need to end their bizarre emphasis on celibacy. It's not healthy. Have married clergy with a normal, healthy, realistic attitude towards sexuality instead of the deviants they have been attracting.

OK. Question for men - how long would you have to go without sex before you'd molest a child?

My answer, like the vast majority of men would be "I would go my whole life, and would set myself on fire before doing that".

Celibacy is not the cause of the abuse here. Child molesting and celibacy are two entirely different things and should not be conflated.

Marriage will not even cure it. Most child molesters are married men who molest their own children.

Isn't there a possibility that if celibacy weren't a requirement the priesthood may possibly attract more "normal" men as opposed to primarily being a draw for the sick sexually repressed pervs who obviously are a significant portion of the Catholic clergy?

NP. This is how I look at it. Pervs want to be where the kids are, so they coach, they teach, they enter the priesthood. Lots of normal men also want to do these things. However, there's a significant drawback to entering the priesthood as a normal man -- celibacy. So the pervs disproportionately win the day because they DGAF about not being able to marry an adult woman (or man, I suppose). By contrast, hopefully, they aren't a disproportionate presence in coaching and teaching.

Combine with a leadership more concerned about self preservation and perpetuating their own power than with protecting children and here we are.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Catholic church has a problem with sex, that's clear. If the Church wants to be around in a few generations, they need to end their bizarre emphasis on celibacy. It's not healthy. Have married clergy with a normal, healthy, realistic attitude towards sexuality instead of the deviants they have been attracting.

OK. Question for men - how long would you have to go without sex before you'd molest a child?

My answer, like the vast majority of men would be "I would go my whole life, and would set myself on fire before doing that".

Celibacy is not the cause of the abuse here. Child molesting and celibacy are two entirely different things and should not be conflated.

Marriage will not even cure it. Most child molesters are married men who molest their own children.

Isn't there a possibility that if celibacy weren't a requirement the priesthood may possibly attract more "normal" men as opposed to primarily being a draw for the sick sexually repressed pervs who obviously are a significant portion of the Catholic clergy?