tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7846189835239594160.post5752330330360571085..comments2024-03-28T05:17:04.006-04:00Comments on southern orders: BISHOP KICANAS CLARIFIES HIS REMARKS ABOUT FUTURE PRIEST ABUSERFr. Allan J. McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16986575955114152639noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7846189835239594160.post-90361802542645903542010-11-13T19:47:48.445-05:002010-11-13T19:47:48.445-05:00For some time, after the Crisis broke, I contempla...For some time, after the Crisis broke, I contemplated this situation for some time as part of my meditation and prayer. On that path was an examination of forgiveness, what it actually is, and how it would be used to help me, and possibly the Church, with this issue.<br /><br />It might derail this thread so I ask that Father may lead that conversation in another entry.<br /><br />rcgAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7846189835239594160.post-78446444756004233712010-11-13T18:27:11.017-05:002010-11-13T18:27:11.017-05:00Bill, agreed!Bill, agreed!Fr. Allan J. McDonaldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16986575955114152639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7846189835239594160.post-13114043242142986182010-11-13T17:57:45.548-05:002010-11-13T17:57:45.548-05:00I think that if Bp. Kicanas is elected, it will be...I think that if Bp. Kicanas is elected, it will be a major setback for the Church with respect to the scandal. And while it may be argued that to hold this against the Bp. is unfair, his attempted clarification, as already noted, does nothing to improve his position.<br /><br />The Church has, as shown in the John Jay study, acted to substantially reduce the incidence of the problem. That's wonderful, but if the Church does not <i>appear</i> to take the matter seriously, then we all suffer. It is the appearance of impropriety which the election of Bp. Kicanas would represent.Billhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00858195676825602917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7846189835239594160.post-79657669148393813322010-11-13T16:42:13.643-05:002010-11-13T16:42:13.643-05:00Fr, with regard to your very astute comments on th...Fr, with regard to your very astute comments on the penchant for psychological language: The best scene in the movie, "The Exorcist," was when the conflicted Priest (Fr. Damien, I think), a psychiatrist, was explaining to the old Priest his account of the girl's possession. He began, "So far, there have been manifested four personalities..." The old Priest interrupted passionately by saying, "There is only one!" <br /><br />For all the "Catholic kitsch" in the movie, that was a great line.Genehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06672484450736725268noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7846189835239594160.post-91194611521207940502010-11-13T15:59:46.733-05:002010-11-13T15:59:46.733-05:00I appreciate your input and your perspective. I th...I appreciate your input and your perspective. I think it is hard for many people to understand what a child who was sexually abused feels as an adult and sometimes these feelings are magnified much later in life. The focus should be on the victims and their healing and finding ways to help the Church in particular and society in general to protect the young from such predation.Fr. Allan J. McDonaldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16986575955114152639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7846189835239594160.post-90716591862246515762010-11-13T14:52:42.123-05:002010-11-13T14:52:42.123-05:00Father, may I just add something a little somethin...Father, may I just add something a little something. I was not a victim of sexual abuse by a priest, my abuser was a family member. It took so much for me to remain in the Church when the news first hit, it was as if it was all happening again. I knew the shame and horror and pain that the abused felt, unless you have ever been that child you can't even begin to understand how just a tiny piece of your humanity gets snuffed out.<br /><br /> I guess that I am just your average joe, but if the Bishop could only understand how this is causing hurts all over again. Other than being a PR disaster for the Church, it is causing wounds to be ripped open and healing to be set back. Trust is going to be lost, is being lost.<br /><br />Someone told me the other day that it was a grave sin for me to not be charitable and forgive, but I have to say that any forgiveness for the crimes inflicted on the abused is going to have to come from God. At least for me. For most of us, we are still in the everyday dealing with the aftermath, and I can't tell you how hurtful it is that a Bishop just does not get it.<br /><br />Hurtful doesn't even come close. I love Christ, I love my Church, but it is very hard. Just very very hard, and stuff like this just makes it harder. If this has caused my memories of the abuse to be at the forefront of my thoughts and spend the last night in turmoil I cannot imagine what it was like for the victims of abuse by priests.Please pray for them.<br /><br />I mean no disrespect, so if anyone is offended by anything I have written I am sorry.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7846189835239594160.post-77599549377217208242010-11-13T10:38:26.923-05:002010-11-13T10:38:26.923-05:00Henry good point, but I do think we know more now ...Henry good point, but I do think we know more now about the effects of this type of abuse on the abused. I think in the past, even in families, people thought it would be easy to get over and that there wouldn't be any long term effects. The power angle, in terms of the abuser representing God and the Church magnifies the trauma of abuse (killing the soul). I'm not sure anyone thought of it in that way until relatively recently. But what I think is even more insidious in terms of our Catholic faith is that no bishop ever seems to what to use the term "mortal sin" and the "fires of hell" when describing what took place. They prefer psychology and psychological terms. I think we priests and bishops should not play psychologist and just call it for what it is a damnable mortal sin!Fr. Allan J. McDonaldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16986575955114152639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7846189835239594160.post-91971517358310102722010-11-13T10:21:36.658-05:002010-11-13T10:21:36.658-05:00"what we do know now is that there was unequa...<b>"what we do know now is that there was unequal authority, not only in age, but in what the priest or seminarian represented--God."</b><br /><br />Surely, father, nothing along these lines is known now that wasn't even more obvious before, when the sense of equality was even greater, with priests virtually idolized by typical Catholics.<br /><br />It's just terrible to hear bishops cover-up actions in the past explained by saying that they didn't know as much about this sin and its effects as they do now. <br /><br />What they know now that they didn't know then is simply that they can't get away with it. Thank God.Henrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7846189835239594160.post-66632979156756332782010-11-13T08:54:55.544-05:002010-11-13T08:54:55.544-05:00I would like to add that while homosexuality has b...I would like to add that while homosexuality has been the primary nature of abuse in the Catholic priesthood that abusers of teenagers are not just homosexuals. In Protestant Churches it is primarily girls that are molested or abused, not males by their clergy. For some reason, I society seems to find more abhorant the abuse of boys by men rather than girls by men. The disorder is in the immaturity of the act of abuse on the part of the one abusing, but it is out of a heterosexual or homosexual inclination. What many in the Catholic Church who go ballistic when the fact that in our priesthood, the nature of the abuse is homosexual primarily (although not exclusively) is that they bury their head in the sand and do not realize that we've been to liberal in allowing homosexual candidates to proceed to ordination, like the example of Fr. McCormack in Chicago whose "disorder" is simply described as developmental and alcohol related.<br />The other issue is true pedophilia which must be distinguished from the abuse of teenagers. Most pedophiles are heterosexual men. It's the smoothness of the small body that approximates in many ways the female body that excites the disorder of this heterosexual. It is a pathology and not on the same footing as a man who abuses a teenager whether male or female. But the effects on the teenager are still traumatic. The focus should be on the abused and helping them rather than making excuses for the abuser and trying to save him for ministry later on.<br />In the Catholic priesthood too, many parents at one time allowed unlimited access of their teenage boys to priests, but no parent in their right mind would have allowed the same access to their teenage daughters. The priests who abused took advantage of this naive trust of parents of priests to whom they entrusted their teenage boys. But they weren't naive about doing so with their teenage girls.Fr. Allan J. McDonaldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16986575955114152639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7846189835239594160.post-56625857199832134492010-11-13T08:42:33.484-05:002010-11-13T08:42:33.484-05:00RCG, you hit the nail on the head. Prior to our &q...RCG, you hit the nail on the head. Prior to our "social awareness" of the phenomenon of abuse that has only really developed in the Church in a broad fashion since the scandal erupted in our country in 2002, I think many bishops and others in authority bought into the secular message concerning homosexuality and it being on an equal plane with heterosexuality. This of course has now led to the establishment of same sex marriage, etc. To secularists, the description that homosexuality is a "disordered" condition that one may well be born with, is anathema. Yet, since the 1980's the Congregation for the Doctrine of the faith has called the homosexual orientation "disordered" in the sense that it is not on an equal footing with heterosexuality. This was being blurred in the seminary and religious life of the 1970's, '80's and 90's.<br />In fact, many bishops simply thought that a priest or a seminarian acting out sexually, whether in a homosexual way or heterosexual way, were doing so out of temptation and sin, not a "disorder." If drinking was involved, then the drinking must have been the "tempter" not the disordered behavior. Now keep in mind in the Catholic Church scandal abuse of teenagers has primarily been with males whose body looks like an adult. In fact the males in some cases could have been sexually active to begin with. I think many bishops simply saw a seminarian or priest acting out with someone who was a teenager as being consensual and not abusive. While there may have been some consent from the partner, what we do know now is that there was unequal authority, not only in age, but in what the priest or seminarian represented--God. So the victim may have been seduced into thinking this was okay by the unequal nature of the relationship and the authority that the priest or seminarian had as God's representative. That's why clerical abuse is so despicable because the cleric represents God and His Church to the one being abused. Bishop Kicanas defense of his actions falls terribly short. Once again I say that you can see from his perspective how bishops all over the world dealt with disordered behavior and how we are in the place we are with a scandal that has wounded the Church for which we'll need a full generation to overcome if only the bishops follow what Pope Benedict has laid out. Subsidiarity is important in our Church and if the local Church doesn't do what is needed, then the whole suffers, but it has to happen in the local diocese. The pope can't supervise or micro manage every bishop in the world. But I think some bishops depending on the nature of the scandal in their diocese should be laicizied in terms of guilt and the disgrace they have brought to Catholics throughout the world. Just my opinion.Fr. Allan J. McDonaldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16986575955114152639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7846189835239594160.post-65913987770996221112010-11-13T08:33:13.905-05:002010-11-13T08:33:13.905-05:00When you try to rationalize aberrant behavior or a...When you try to rationalize aberrant behavior or an aberrant lifestyle, even if the behavior is only in prospect, you are asking for trouble. "Yes, I know it is a rattlesnake, but it is really quiet and it hasn't bitten anyone yet..."Genehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06672484450736725268noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7846189835239594160.post-2517285712110784772010-11-13T08:20:04.789-05:002010-11-13T08:20:04.789-05:00The Bishop's clarifying statement does not hel...The Bishop's clarifying statement does not help his position. It appears to this layman that the leadership did not understand the various sicknesses that possessed the young men and women that were candidates. In an effort to apply faith and good will to people who were both sick and desiring help, they unwittingly understated the strength of the sickness.<br /><br />The Bishop, in defending himself, still misses the point of the sex abuse crisis: that it was allowed to continue for so long and was actually aided by the various Bishop's actions. We already know that he deduced the position that these people posed no threat and we now know that position was in error. More to the point it is difficult for the laity to understand how the Bishops came to the conclusion that is it was more important to retain clergy who sexually abuse parishioners than to prevent it from happening again.<br /><br />rcgAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com