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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun
Herald Sun
Shannon Deery, Herald Sun
THE former head of one of the Catholic Church’s most abusive religious orders has warned of the potential for an escalation in child sexual abuse.
Fr Francis Moloney told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse today that the church was moving backwards in a potentially dangerous move.
He said a wave of conservatism moving through seminaries around the country threatened the good work being done by some in the church.
“We’ve got to face these truths,” he said.
“We have a major problem in the Australian Church.
“To say that the seminarians are all fine, the seminarians have been renewed, they’ve been exposed to this wider society, that is simply not true.
“The seminaries are closing their doors, they’re putting garments on the boys, they’re having long Latin liturgies, they like to walk around the streets in their (robes).
9 comments:
Based on what I've read, the vast marjority of the abuse did not come from the recent crop of seminarians and priests. But this looney will smear them because they don't fit his agenda
The incidence of clerical sex abuse (according to the John Jay report which admittedly applied to the USA but that would give it a wide database) peaked in the mid-1970s, declined steeply in the 1990s and has been negligible since 2000.
The mid-1970s was the zenith of post-V2 liberalism. The election of JP II marked the beginning of the reaction. To suggest that there is a correlation between celibacy, traditional practices and pederastic clergy is something that is bandied about in liberal circles, and the non-Catholic members of a Royal Commission can hardly be expected to understand the warped viewpoint that underlies Moloney's statement.
There is, of course, no evidence that would support such a correlation, but then again non-Catholics might assume a Catholic priest might be an 'expert witness'. The Australian Church is polarized to an extent unknown in North America or the British Isles. Moloney is an egregious example of an extremist position.
Anathema sit!
leftist fake news, any chance to smear Catholic and their Priests, totally progressive totally atheistic
Why is this guy Moloney even consulted? His statement is ludicrous and clearly indicates an agenda. In the USA we say folllow the money to see who really is behind something like this. A crackpot like this could never get a serious audience (except out of curiosity). He is being pushed forward by someone who wants to damage Pell before we get another Pope.
If there is a rise in child sex abuse in the near future, it will most likely be due to the Francis effect.
In the John Jay study of the crisis in the USA, the highest number of priests accused occur with abuse around 1973 and 1974. These priests, though, for the most part were prepared in the severely rigid seminary formation of the pre-Vatican Church that valued structure, supervision, obedience and collectivism as opposed to severe individualism and self-actualization.
When the structure of prayer, supervision, obedience and outward adherence to rules were replaced with one taking control and doing what one thought was the way to go is when those not properly formed to be adults continued acting like teenagers and with no restraints or constraints.
But tied to this too, was the new morality that Pope Francis has recovered from the 1970's. It permits one to make a decision of conscience and even if the decision is sinful, one is forgiven anyway (kind of like the Catholic version of Calvin's once saved always saved.
The perfect storm occurred. Pope Francis may be recovering this storm and in fact seem to have done so.
Fr. McDonald,
All good points. One thing we forget. Before Vatican Disaster II, most rectories had more than one priest. My parish had 4. I remember my priests fondly. They golfed together, etc., and there was a semblance of a family. They supported each other. When priests started leaving the active ministry, rectories often had only one priest. Left alone, I think that also contributed to bad things happening.
It is probably more simple than we want it to be: we help each other live better lives in God's presence. When we hide from it or turn away from it we fall. That applies to priests, too.
Interesting news that I saw today. The chief lay organization in the US which pursued claims of clergy abuse, SNAP, just went out of business. It was sued for dishonest practices, including receiving kickbacks from the law firms they referred alleged abuse victims to for legal representation.
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