The catholic church, in it’s ongoing nambla impersonation, has released a study on sexual abuse in the catholic church which concludes that only 22% of so-called “pedophile” priests were actual pedophiles. They did this by defining pedophilia as molesting someone ten or younger, because 55% of the molestation cases were 11-14 year olds. So apparently raping an 11 year old boy is what, a hobby?
I was thinking about making the title of this blog: “Eleven: New Age Of Consent In The Catholic Church.”
The study is here. I also liked how they referred to it as the sexual abuse “crisis” (in quotes). The study’s conclusion? They blamed the free love of the 60’s and 70’s.
I
shit
you
not.
I was talking about this the other day with someone, and as someone who thinks about why people do what they do a lot, I’ve been puzzling over the behavior of the leadership of the catholic church for years. At first I thought they were just insane (and to be fair I kind of still do). For awhile I entertained the idea that they were all just fucking kids – why else would they cover it up? But I think I’ve finally worked out what’s going on. The catholic church is sacrificing whatever moral high ground it could have in order to try to protect it’s moral authority. The idea that the pope and bishops and cardinals are somehow infused with jesusyness and have god’s divine authority to dictate morality in his name. If it gets out that priests and bishops and cardinals can be (and often are) just as fucked up and flawed as any other group of people, then the catholic church stops being this great big thing ordained by god himself and set apart from all the other churches, and becomes just another fallible human institution like congress or wallmart. Thus the screwed up priorities.
The thing is though, that popes have had mistresses. Popes have been murderers. And I don’t mean just during the inquisition – the borgias for instance were a powerful and very evil european family, one of which was a pope. They were known mainly for cruelty and their favorite method of killing people – poison.
Being a pope doesn’t mean you won’t be a scoundrel, nor does being a priest, president or anything else. The catholic church, like every other human institution, is only as good as we make it. And they haven’t really been doing a bang up job for the last… well, 15 centuries or so to be honest.
agnophilo 
I don’t want to put down Catholics as a whole. So I won’t. But, the Catholic church as an institution….well, your article says it all.
yep. people are one thing, right? problematic and practically everywhere. and the problem only gets worse when you bestow a certain subset of people with a divine mandate. i mean…like that’s gonna help.
hahaha… what the fuck. Raping age 11-17 is considered hebephilia which is just as fucking sick. Technically pedophiles like ages 0-10. Hebephiles like ages 11-17. But they often co occur.
@complicatedlight – Ohhh hahahahahah
“And they haven’t really been doing a bang up job for the last… well, 15 centuries or so to be honest”Hahahahahaha
I just thought they were using literal definitions in an effort to cover their butts or possibly make what happened “sound” better on paper.
@apb102088 – Nor do I, I don’t think being catholic makes you evil. I don’t think I gave that impression in the blog, but if I did let me know.@complicatedlight – Very, very well said. I literally lol’d at the last line.@FallingSafely – I don’t think having sex with a 17 year old is pedophilia, nor is it possible to pinpoint a magic moment where it stops being one thing and starts being another – but molesting an 11 year old is definitely pedophilia, and is definitely child molestation.@tsh44 – Well yeah. Just doing it in a despicable way.
@YouToMe – : D
“But I think I’ve finally worked out what’s going on. The catholic church is sacrificing whatever moral high ground it could have in order to try to protect it’s moralauthority.” BINGO haha re: Wal-mart. Wal-mart wishes it had the chi-ching power the Vatican has.
Maybe they will start selling indulgences again too.
@agnophilo – Hebephilia and pedophilia are just psychiatric diagnosis. You can be sad and not be depressed. You can be in love with a 17 year old and not be a hebephiliac. But you can also be a hebephiliac and still be in love with a 17 year old. A lot of people throw around the term “pedophile” when the psychiatric definition is pretty specific. Being sexually attracted to young children aged 0-10. Some pedophiles don’t act on their thoughts, but many of them do. Not all child molesters are pedophiles either, some of them are just fucking molestors, without the sexual attraction. Some of them just like the power or can’t get it anywhere else. (like priests). I don’t really care what you call them, anyone who hurts a child is a sick freak. I think it’s funny that they catholic church is trying to use these more specific diagnosis to lessen the blow, when 99% of the population doesn’t know the difference anyway.
It’s a very sad situation and still some catholics sweep it under the rug.
@TheSutraDude – Walmart is the largest employer in the world so they might give them a run for their money – hard to know since only walmart is actually transparent about their finances…@vexations – Heh, yeah. Now they just keep them all for the priests and those long weekends.@FallingSafely – I don’t think being attracted to a 17 year old is a mental disorder, and the DSM IV gives a cutoff for pedophilia of 13 – the general definition I believe is attraction to someone pre-pubescent, and the average girl gets her first period (according to wikipedia) at 12 1/2. But as you say, messing with a kid makes you a sick fuck regardless of what specific kind of sick fuck you are. I agree.@KarensPotpourri2 – A lot just don’t want to deal with it. The one nice thing about the scandal is that priests are not seen as unquestionable pillars of society anymore, so when it does happen the cops won’t sweep it under the rug.
The term “pedophilia” is tossed around with ignorant abandon. Especially when you consider the age of consent varies from country to country. Some truly ignorant sorts in the US get freaked by the idea of a 17 year old with someone older, but I’m from the UK and the legal age of consent is 16, thus (whilst people may still hold prejudices towards significant age gaps) no one calls it ‘pedophilia.’ Hell, I live in Japan no and the legal age of consent, I believe, is 14. Go figure.Pedophilia is attraction to pre-pubescents, pure and simple. Puberty is the onset of sexuality. The issue is with the respective maturity and experience difference between, say, a naive 14 year old and an experienced 25 year old. Feeling some sense of attraction to a post-pubescent is not ‘sick.’ It’s biology. But acting/following through on such an attraction when you’re older and more sexually aware/experienced is pretty messed up.But, ya know, let’s say it’s not even pedophilia with an 11 year old. Let’s say they’re right. It’s still rape, for fuck’s sake! What? So rape by any other name is more acceptable? Bullshit. Rape is rape and it is sick, regardless of who it is done to and how old they are.
@agnophilo – haha yes but i believe the Vatican is still the wealthiest nation in the world. i haven’t checked lately though.
It’s high time this institution of ass-backwardness, hypocrisy, perversion, and utter greed is dismantled. This is disgusting, but not surprising.
Screwing anyone who is not old enough to give informed consent is sicko stuff. Screwing someone who will be physically and emotionally damaged for life is more than sick. It should be grounds for execution.Yes, the Vatican eats its own- There is a wealth of evidence that Pope John Paul I was murdered because he wanted to reign in certain power-hungry cardinals.The time for clergy has passed. People need to be responsible for their own spiritual growth.
@moss_icon – Well said, I totally agree.@TheSutraDude – I don’t think this is actually true.@In_Reason_I_Trust – True.
@RighteousBruin – I agree with the last two sentences, though I don’t think it should be punishable by death – not because it isn’t among the most egregious crimes imaginable, but because I don’t believe in the death penalty – we occasionally screw up and execute innocent people (probably all the fucking time in texas), so life in prison is a better choice. It’s also cheaper than the appeals process, on a practical note – though texas has addressed that issue by simply gutting the appeals process in capital offense cases (insane).
@agnophilo – it is probably impossible to know the Vatican’s wealth. it cannot be measured in it’s gold, rare objects, it’s library of rare books, etc. it has investments in the largest banks and corporations in the world including U.S. banks, oil companies telecommunications from what i once read corporations that produce military weaponry such as Siemens and of course it owns real estate all over the world. it is the only sovereign state that never publishes its budget and it keeps its financial affairs to itself.
I love this: “fallible human institution like congress or wallmart” I love the association of congress and Walmart. and this: ” like every other human institution, is only as good as we make it”True. And because of that there will always be problems.
@TheSutraDude – True. If they own or invest in arms corporations that would be interested to know…I think if the vatican’s books ever saw the light of day they would be more scandalous than the nixon tapes.@FalconBridge – : ) And I agree, unfortunately. But still, better if we base our actions/policies on logic and practicality rather than dogma, force and authority.
@agnophilo – i remember something about a scandal a couple of decades ago. doing a quick search i found this quote “Vatican Bank was Banco Ambrosiano’s main shareholder, and the death of Pope John Paul I in 1978 is rumored to be linked to the Ambrosiano scandal, giving one of the subplots of The Godfather Part III. Vatican Bank was also accused of funneling covert United States funds toSolidarityand theContrasthrough Banco Ambrosiano.” from the first paragraph of this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banco_Ambrosiano that quote alone is not conclusive. i wish i had more time right now to look further into it.
@TheSutraDude – If you do let me know if you find anything solid.
@agnophilo – I agree
The catholic church has always been centuries behind the rest of the world. Back in the 1800s the age of consent was 10 in the united states; perhaps they need to get with the times…………..or at least into the 1900s. I firmly believe that the whole scandal is a byproduct of the Church’s stance on abstinence when it comes to priests. It’s not only that they can not have sex, but they also can not masturbate or even have any impure thoughts. It is just not healthy to make people suppress their sex drive.
@heckels – I think that’s probably a contributing factor, but to be fair they didn’t exactly invent child molestation. I agree though that they’re usually about 200 years behind the times, that’s the trend with science – both with darwin and galileo.
@agnophilo – “we occasionally screw up and execute innocent people (probably all the fucking time in texas)” Freakin Perry.Yeah, pretty much same as all the comments, I love my catholic friends, but the catholic church as an institution is full of bullshit, just like so many other political institutions, though the church’s “sins” I’d say are quite a bit worse than those of say, the US government.
@TheBlueNinjaTiger – I agree. Though giving smallpox blankets to the indians sounds like something the church might’ve done.
Rape is rape…I think people should stop going for their torches and pitchforks at the mention of the word pedophile or the simple mention that a minor was involved. it has seriously become a witch hunt.Yes, children are vulnerable, but anyone can be vulnerable in the right (or wrong) situation.Its become “OK” to threaten with death, violence or torture people suspected of being attracted to children, and many incidents have happened where police have “looked the other way” when suspected pedophiles have been beaten or persecuted. And they were only suspects, nothing proven.Also, lumping everyone in the same group causes problems.. What is a pedophile? It is someone who is attracted to prepubescents? Is it someone attracted to minors? So if the legal age is 21, and I find this 20 year old hot, then I am a pedophile?The problem with that definition is that it becomes a thought crime. Notice in the previous assessment I never said anything about doing anything, and I suspect that most people attracted to minors don’t act on it. just as most people attracted to a woman who is not interested in them don’t go and try and rape her.Someone cannot be reasonable blamed and judged for being the way he/she is, only for acting the way he/she does. But in the case of pedophiles, it has become the norm to forget about that. So someone who has a comic book depicting minors gets 5 years in jail and needs to register as a sexual offender. WTF? He owned ink on paper and no child was harmed, or even involved.Rapists are rapists, and should be judged as such. Be they priests or whatever, they are still rapists. But its become so insane that right now I could go and open photoshop and render some CGI depicting what looks like a naked minor. Only me and my computer were involved. But I’d get lumped with the rapists and sent to prison, and be branded for life.I just find it silly. More-so is the whole paranoia, like in the time of the witch hunts, or the world war where anyone could accuse anyone of being a communist, and they were “everywhere”.Heck, I am sure more than just a few people reading this have assumed that I am a pedophile, just because I am trying to be logical and fair.
@ShinRaijin – I’m talking about the actual act of molestation, not pedophilia. And the age is relevant in the case of sex with a minor because it indicates their level of intellectual and emotional development and determines whether the sex can be considered consensual.
If we are talking about the act of rape, whether the act could or could not be considered consensual is irrelevant, isn’t it? Rape is by definition non-consensual.One person being in a position of authority over another and using said power to commit rape, or one using brute force, or drugs, or exploiting a victim’s disability, etc. It’s all rape and should be punished.Doing studies to show that it’s hephebophilia and whatnot.. I find it irrelevant, since they committed rape, and rape is a crime, whether they exploited a position of power, a disability, or, in this case, youth. Somehow I think that making priests take a vow of celibacy, demonization of the woman in the bible, and basically sex-starving them has more to do with it than the 60s “free-love”, but whatever the reasons they committed a crime, and the “why” in no way changes that.I am guessing they are aware of the public hysteria occurring and the word “pedophile” being basically what the word “commie” was back in the day, and want to dissociate themselves… “they werent pedophiles! they were just rapists!”…silly