It’s yet another Catholic sex scandal, this time a chronic pattern of sexual abuse by a few priests in Berlin that was known and tolerated by church leaders for almost 20 years. They’ve got a nice phrase for what was going on: “intimate, fatherly behavior.”
Catholic church: you don’t know what fatherly means, and none of you deserve the respectable title of “father” at all. I’m a dad, please don’t taint me with your skeevy, repellent attitude towards men who actually care for their children.
Whew. Thankfully my father got the whole fatherly behavior all wrong.
Absolutely reprehensible. So in addition to not knowing anything about women, they also know nothing about men, and in addition to not knowing anything about adult consensual relationships, they know nothing about parenting.
I know a woman who was sexually abused for years in a Catholic orphanage and has been fighting the Catholic Church in Germany for many years with no success. They keep demanding (and the court keeps granting) psychological evaluations for her. That kind of stress in combination with the damage done from a decade and a half(!!!) of sexual abuse put her back in a clinic a few months ago. Now the Church will just use that to ‘prove’ how unstable she is. Assholes.
They’ve got a long way to go before they even approach being civilized.
Unfortunately, my father didn’t, by Catholic standards. And we weren’t even Catholic.
The Roman Catholic Church, worlds largest paedophile ring.
Equisetum (love the name, it’s my favorite plant) – sorry to hear. That’s the kind of thing that shouldn’t happen to anyone.
An even more indepth 6 parter of an article showing what has been going on in Berlin is here:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,676497,00.html
Another article entitled “At least 94 Catholic abuse cases suspected” can be found on another news source in Germany here:
http://www.thelocal.de/society/20100206-25071.html
Who would have thought this could happen in a culture where everyone is threatened by Cloud Daddy with eternal torment, torture, and punishment solely for their very existence and where everyone’s genitalia and sexuality are slaves to Cloud Daddy’s arbitrary laws? It makes sense to me that they have such a warped conception of fatherhood and intimacy.
I think the worst thing I can say about this is that I read PZ’s summary, and I have read the same sort of thing so often, and for so long now, that I can no longer even get worked up about it. I have internalised the idea that Catholic Priest is euphemism for paedophile.
This is of course grossly unfair to the (hopefully large) number of priests that don’t sexually abuse children, but as long as the Church as a whole refuses to take substantial, transparent, action against offenders, and as long as priests continue to support this perverted organisation, they will in my eyes all be tarred with the same brush.
Any other type of organisation with such a history of child sexual abuse would long ago have been disbanded. It’s a shame that all of those “Family” groups continue attacking gays for being alleged paedophiles, whilst leaving the true guilty bastards alone, or even supporting them…
First, Spiegel is one of the most respected weekly news magazines in Germany, so they don’t exaggerate (although they’ve always been critical of the church). This abuse cases make the title story of the current print edition where they point out that the cases weren’t restricted to Berlin but occurred all over Germany.
The article also provides ample proof that these weren’t regrettable but isolated cases. They had the same system of covering and obfuscation like they had in Ireland (but, fortunately, with less state authorities involved).
One German comedian put it this way:
“From the crusades over burning witches to f*cking little boys, and they didn’t even change their name..”
The article also emphasizes the role of the celibate and how because of a lack of fresh priests, the church basically takes anyone they can get.
Hope this leads to a significant weakening of the RCC’s position in Germany. But experience tells me they’ll just sit it out, and the people will just think that the Pope and the Bishops didn’t really know what was going on and that, had they only known, would have corrected the evil done by the priests… Same with Hitler… appalled by the NS and Gestapo, the Germans would say: If only Hilter knew…
jennyxyzzy:
Well, to be fair: My brother in law’s mother used to tell about the priest in her church here in good ol’ Bavaria. He’d been transfered about five times, and a few months after he arrived in her parish he was transferred out again. He’d left a pregnant woman behind every time. So, they’re not all pedophiles, but I don’t think any of them are celibate.
Carlie: Thanks. It’s been my favorite plant since I first saw it as a kid.
As for the abuse, my sister got by far the worst of it. I think the worst by far is that my mother totally ignored what was going on at time, even when I told her, and denies to this day anything ‘that bad’ ever happened.
As I’ve mentioned before, this is personal with me. My buddy who was molested by a priest killed himself over issues of guilt and depression. Given human nature, I don’t really expect anything to change.
BS
A rather uncritical generalization and argument from authority, especially the online version has in the last 5 years turned into pretty much a Bild Zeitung for intellectuals.But yes, they have a tradition of good investigative journalism that has been built up over 60 years.
I am not surprised about this, who would be, given time scandals like this will eventually come out in any country where the RCC is relevant in society, the only solution is to castrate priests and clergy, and that probably wouldn’t be overly popular, and cause even more problems in replacing geriatric priests with new ones.
[Citation needed]
One of my grad school classmates was in a seminary for a while. The priests made a big deal that celibate means not getting married. So, sex is OK, marriage not. Seems like they got it wrong in there somewhere…
Isn’t that a contradiction in terms? :-)
What? You don’t know wenn das der Führer wüßte?
It doesn’t sound like it’s as bad as what was going on in Ireland, but it’s more evidence that it wasn’t something restricted to the special circumstances of Ireland’s peculiarly church-controlled education system.
Once again, the Catholic authorities show that their priority – almost their sole interest – is to protect the Church. Predators get moved around, victims are dismissed and the secular authorities are kept out of it.
Something else that strikes me once again is the Christian obsession with forgiveness. It’s not specifically RC, although they’ve formalised the whole thing, with confession and absolution. They seem to think that once you’ve confessed your sins and said you’re sorry, then everything is OK again. In some quarters they even seem to think that this means you’re a better person, worthy of more respect than someone who hasn’t “sinned” in the first place.
I think it’s important to accept the possibility of rehabilitation, but I also think that it takes more than a few teary words. If someone is really sorry and recognises that they’ve done wrong then they ought to be prepared to accept the consequences of their actions. Christian forgiveness seems to seek to bypass that part.
You said “taint”. MOVING ON!
“Intimate, fatherly behavior” is when my dad kisses my head. I don’t think that’s what the victims are complaining about.
Has any study been done about the physiological consequences of voluntary celibacy.
From the number of reports world wide of Priests breaking their celibacy in ways that are cruel and skewed…It would appear to me that trying to deny sexuality causes it to grow into something odd in your psyche. I mean, I wonder if they were allowed to have a normal sex life, if these folks would have become pedophiles. Or would they have been pedophiles anyway?
Does the secrecy, the guilt, the potential loss of status, potential loss of security, turn what is normal into something not normal when it finally bursts out of them?
If you are a male it depends on which head…
/gradeschool jokes
A patriarchal religion where the “fathers” are not permitted to be fathers.
It just really drives me crazy that catholics won’t look at this (and many other disgusting behaviors) kind of thing and accept what it means about their church. Any decent and clear thinking catholics should have abandoned the church by now, or staged a rebellion to claim it for themselves.
Just about every time a church representative makes a comment they reveal how authoritarian, immoral and conceited they are. Why can’t more catholics see this? They should be disgusted.
For example, from the article.
It is disgusting that the church believes that they have the right to decide whether or not to report such serious crimes to law enforcement. The church has shown countless times that they believe that they are above any secular law, even when it comes to such serious crimes as child sexual abuse or mass manslaughter. And secular authorities have largely let them have their way.
Fuck It! Do humankind a favor, make sure to ridicule some catholic authorities at least once a day, preferably in the presence of some catholics.
Given the constant misbehavior of the RCC, perhaps it is time to consider rolling back the clergy-penitent privilege? As both a way to secure criminal prosecutions of criminal priests and a deterent to other religious leaders that misbehavior by them will have severe consquences for their flock.
My former RCC friend saw the same thing. She grew up in Boston and a priest there had an ongoing thing with a disturbed homeless boy. One day the kid was killed by ending up in front of a fast moving train.
She told me this many many years ago and also the name. All of which was forgotten until I racked my brain and dredged up the name recently. Sure enough, google says this priest is in jail for a long time.
The RCC really should drop the celibate priest schtick. It’s stupid and there isn’t much in the way of biblical justification. Even the Eastern Orthodox have married priests.
They are having predictable trouble getting priests. No one wants to be a life long virgin anymore. The ones they are getting don’t seem to be too all there, if you know what I mean.
Maybe “fatherly” is just a poor translation of “priestly”.
Skeevy! I don’t want to belittle the awful nature of this story, but I didn’t realise that was a real word. It’s not used at all in Australia, and I thought it was a Donald Fagen neologism, from “Cousin Dupree” – the last verse goes something like:
She said maybe it’s the skeevy look in your eye
Or that your mind has turned to apple sauce
Or the dreary architecture of your soul
I said what is it exactly that turns you off?
Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t celibacy for the clergy begin as a way to stop priests, bishops, etc. from willing Church property to their heirs?
rachel.wilmoth @28, that’s almost exactly what I’ve heard. Specifically, it was a way for the Church to keep the properties that were the priests personal inheritance. All in the name of greed….
I suspect that the number of priests with twisted sexuality (at least in the case of paedophiles attacking boys) is less a result of the effect of celibacy on otherwise psychologically healthy men, than it it the result of psychologically healthy men being turned off the idea of being a priest by the rule that they can’t get married! When the Church rules out the possibility of socially acceptable sex, and offers a high degree of power over the parishioners plus protection from secular law, they attract a much higher percentage of perverts who see the position as a a chance to indulge themselves. Utterly disgusting. While there are some decent men in the priesthood, I can’t really respect those who know what’s going on among their “brothers” and yet maintain the silence. The only good priest is one who’s spoken out and left the Church!
From all their responses, some variant of ‘I have made my peace with God’ comes out. Along with a request for forgiveness…
Makes me think about the common claim that Atheists have no morals because they have no God. But it seems to me the opposite: Religists need no morals because their religion tells them they need only ask forgiveness from their God, where Atheists need morals because only those we might have harmed can forgive us, and we must earn forgiveness.
I know this is going to sound fucked up, so please don’t kill me! I’m having a hard time getting my thoughts wrapped around my keyboard.
I am successfully divorced…twice. Both of my wives were and still are catlick. The local priest was obviously gay and living with his male “assistant”. When I asked my 1st wife why she would attend a church where the priest was openly sinning in the eyes of her church, she explained it this way:
When a young man determines that he is gay, he joins the priesthood which helps him get control of his homosexual urges.
I took it to mean when a young man determines that he is gay, he joins the priesthood so he can have poeple to identify with. So he doesn’t feel so isolated and alone in the world.
Equisetum, I like horsetails too.
So that’s why I’m seeing “Catholics, come home” ads everywhere. Daddy’s waiting!
That’s showing the kids god’s love, and guiding them with “your staff and your rod” as the bible instructs people to do. So obviously they’re just being good jesus cultists and obeying their book of myths.
“From the number of reports world wide of Priests breaking their celibacy in ways that are cruel and skewed…It would appear to me that trying to deny sexuality causes it to grow into something odd in your psyche.”
I’ve always suspected (admittedly without evidence) that this assessment has cause and effect reversed.
I think the celibacy of the RCC appeals to sexual deviants because it appears to offer a means to cope with their deviancy. So the result is that celibacy rule to some extent selects for pedophiles.
Back when homosexuality was widely regarded as deviant I suspect that a significant fraction of priests were gay. But as being gay bacame more accepted, fewer gays felt the need to deny their sexuality this way.
And since the church largely relies on the aid of their nonexistent man in the sky, rather than, you know, measures that might actually help these men, the result is pretty much predictable.
Equisetum @ # 11: … the priest in her church here in good ol’ Bavaria. He’d been transfered about five times…
Would this have been in the days of der Panzerkardinal Ratzinger?
How many degrees of separation – if any – are there between Pal Joey & this North European Man-Boy Love Association?
RCC. Really Cunning Child-molesters?
Rooting Children Continuosly?
Ranks of Criminal Codgers?
The most bizarre aspect was Ratzinger’s reaction: “The Church will continue not to fail to condemn such behavior.” Uh, hello? What’s the “not” doing in that sentence?
Of course it is the celibacy!
What ever effect whether it is attracting or making perverts the old saying is right.
“Abstinence makes the church grow fondlers.”
Why has no one quoted Richard Dawkins – ‘no child’s behind left’?
As for the priest who left a pregnant woman behind in every parish, there’s an old joke that says that a Catholic priest is a man whom all the world calls ‘father’, except his children, who call him ‘uncle’.
“Makes me think about the common claim that Atheists have no morals because they have no God.
But it seems to me the opposite: Religists need no morals because their religion tells them they need only ask forgiveness from their God, where Atheists need morals because only those we might have harmed can forgive us, and we must earn forgiveness.”
————
I hadn’t thought about this. Excellent point.