Sex abuse scandal. Guess the religion?

[Wezil]

Then I guess there are MANY crazy people at Poly... since Ben isn't the only loony tunes here.
I hope you aren't suggesting that only people who argue with Ben are crazy... because lord knows there are a bunch of other wing nuts here who people continue to argue with.

So are people that argue with you crazy

There are many people here that have (what I consider to be) strange beliefs. Very few would I consider crazy, although there are a couple. Disagreeing /= they are nuts.

Ben is a category all his own as a growing number of posters here (probably a majority by now) realise his condition. Continuing to debate him is the food he seeks. You will never have a rational debate, you will never convince him of anything, but you will ensure he continues to spout his idiocy so long as you engage him.

Just say no. [/Nancy]

[rah]

In all honesty, with thousands and thousands of posts, I doubt hardly anyone here is ever convinced of anything. It's the rare exception, not the rule.

[Asher]

On the homosexuality/pedophile ****:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/04/22/cantor.homosexuality.church.abuse/

Is there a link between homosexuality and Church abuse?

Editor's Note: Dr. James Cantor is a professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine and has been conducting research on the causes of pedophilia for the past 10 years. He is the Head of the Law & Mental Health Research Section of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH; Toronto) and the Editor-in-Chief of Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment.

The on-going reports about child molestation in the Catholic church have led the public and the media to ask what causes someone to be sexually attracted to children. Scientists use the word pedophilia to refer to the sexual preference for children before puberty (usually, before age 11), and the word hebephilia, to refer to the sexual preference for children at puberty (usually, ages 11 to 14).

Although there have been claims that child molestation is a result of homosexuality (or of celibacy), there is absolutely no basis in science for either conclusion. The scientific evidence instead suggests that pedophilia and hebephilia are caused by atypical brain development occurring near or before birth.

MRI research has found very large differences in brain structure between men who have a sexual preference for children and those who have a sexual preference for adults. These differences were detected as regions of low density in brain tissue called white matter. White matter is what connects the various parts of the brain, enabling it to function as a whole. The white matter that is affected in pedophilia and hebephilia is the white matter that connects the parts of the brain that respond to sexual images. (Specifically, these regions were the superior occipitofrontal fasciculus and the arcuate fasciculus.)

There does not exist any evidence that gay men share this feature of decreased white matter. In fact, there is some evidence that gay men have areas of more white matter than straight men, in at least some parts of the brain (called the corpus callosum).

Also demonstrating that gay men have no more of a sexual interest in children than do straight men are studies that have measured sexual responses directly: There exists a test, called a phallometric test, in which a man is shown images of adults and children, both male and female, while he wears a device on his penis to detect even very small changes in blood volume. The procedure is routinely used with sexual offenders, and research has repeatedly shown phallometric testing to be one of the most -- if not the single most -- accurate predictor of who is the most likely to commit future sexual offenses. When regular gay men and regular straight men (not offenders) are tested, gay men respond to images of children in exactly the same way that straight men do: very little.

Out of typical men, approximately two to three percent have a sexual preference for men rather than women, and out of pedophilic/hebephilic men, approximately 20 to 30 percent have a sexual preference for boys rather than girls. It is an error, however, to conclude from this that the two to three percent who prefer men are more likely than the others to break out of their preferences to contact a child sexually. That is, the offenses against boys are being committed by the 20 to 30 percent of pedophiles who prefer boys, not by the two to three percent of otherwise typical men who prefer men.

The misconception that gay men pose a disproportionate risk to children comes from a misunderstanding of men's sexual preferences: Pedophilia is the genuine sexual preference for children. The evidence suggests that these are innate and immutable characteristics. Pedophilia/hebephilia is not a temporary state from which those who prefer boys can become typical gay men, nor from which those who prefer girls can become typical straight men. Nor is there any known route by which someone with a genuine sexual preference for adults can develop a genuine sexual preference for children, either girls or boys.

Although it is reasonable to question why the Catholic priesthood appears to include so many pedophilic or hebephilic men, there is no scientific evidence that homosexuality is the answer, nor that fostering discrimination against gay men could be a solution.

[Barnabas]

Many of the abuser priests are just gay rapists abusing their position of power in order to rape gay jailbait.

How many of the raped ones are childlike, and how many are around 15 years old, of reproductive age who have already gone through most of the growth spurt?

In Argentina we have the case of a priest who had a house for orphans, he would lie barenaked on a table and force kids around the age of 15 or 16 to bang him. Google Padre Grassi if you are curious or want to see his picture.

Was he a pedophile? gay rapist? ephebophile?

[Asher]

hebephile

[Fake Boris]

As to the link between celibacy and pedo/hebephilia, the most plausible theory I've read is that someone who realizes his sexuality to be socially unacceptable, is more likely to be drawn to priesthood in order to "chastize" himself.

[Asher]

Yeah, that's a very reasonable theory.

[Asher]

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/800312--church-scandal-s-next-wave-abused-girls?bn=1

Church scandal’s next wave: Abused girls
Expect numbers of women victimized by priests as children to rise over next few years, say lawyers

Father Charlie told the girl with the cascading brown curls and frilly frocks that she was pretty. Special. One of his favourites.

In the small Ontario town of Pain Court, a French-Canadian community near Chatham, Father Charlie’s attention was prized by devout Roman Catholic families like Cecilia McLauchlin’s. His interest in their daughter meant the popular priest, once described as “next to God,” publicly approved of how she was being raised.

So when a gynecologist examined the girl for recurring vaginal infections, it didn’t occur to anyone that Father Charlie was the cause of her physical pain.

Cecilia McLauchlin was only 5 years old.

Now 32, the Chatham woman is the youngest known victim of Father Charles Sylvestre, the smooth-talking priest who groomed his young prey with candies, trinkets and praise. He was convicted in 2006 of sexually assaulting 47 girls over four decades in southwestern Ontario — despite abuse complaints from victims to police, school and church officials during that time.

McLauchlin came forward after his conviction, as did 30 more women in a movement some expect foreshadows the church’s next crisis: a groundswell of female victims seeking justice.

From Mount Cashel to Ireland, most sex abuse scandals have involved boys as altar servers, at boarding schools or in orphanages. The most recent trouble also surrounds boys, with allegations Pope Benedict — who celebrates his fifth anniversary this week as head of all Catholics — knew about an American priest molesting 200 deaf boys in Milwaukee but failed to act.

An American study commissioned eight years ago and paid for by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops found that boys were overwhelmingly the likeliest target of predator priests. The John Jay College of Criminal Justice study, based on voluntary disclosure from church authorities (some refused to comply), determined boys accounted for 81 per cent of sex assaults. Most abuse for all victims occurred between 1960 and the 1980s.

But London-based lawyer Robert Talach, who represented McLauchlin and other Sylvestre victims, expects that male-female ratio to change within five to 10 years to reflect a trend that began in the 1970s when the church welcomed female altar servers. Researchers say disclosure of abuse is typically delayed for about 30 years, which means women assaulted as children are just starting to come to terms with what happened.

“In some of our Sylvestre cases, which are (from) the ‘70s, many of the women were victimized under the pretenses of ‘I’m training you to be one of these new, upcoming female altar servers,’" said Talach, who has represented more than 100 victims of clergy abuse, most of them male.

“We’ve seen priests using that to look innovative to their parishioners, but in reality it was to allow them access to women if their predilection was female.”

Father Donald Holmes, a modern cleric who rode a motorcycle, sported a beard, played hockey and preferred street clothes to his Roman collar, also preyed on girls as they began taking bigger roles in the church. He was convicted in 2002 of sexually abusing 12 girls around the Sudbury area between 1972 and 1984.

In general, girls in Canada are four times more likely than boys to be victims of sexual offences, according to police figures reported to Stats Canada.

Females are more likely to be attractive to clergy because the majority of priests are heterosexual — but some are psychologically and sexually immature, says former priest-turned-lawyer Patrick Wall.

“If they’re going to explore sexually, they’re going to explore with a little girl,” said Wall, a California-based expert on Catholic clergy abuse who now works with victims.

Wall’s perspective on the degree of female abuse is unique. He was a Benedictine monk for 12 years, working as a “fixer” dispatched to tidy up messy sexual problems of priests and laymen at troubled parishes and schools. He said when a girl required surgery after rape, the code was that she needed a “hernia” operation.

In a bizarre twinning, he counselled accused priests and heard confessions from traumatized victims. He also worked on cases where priests impregnated girls then procured abortions for them.

“That is so prevalent, it happens all the time,” he said of the abortion runs, which in part accounts for his belief that teenaged girls are the silent majority of priest-related sexual abuse.

By age 33, Wall deduced most, if not all, of the 195 parishes and hundreds of religious orders in the U.S. employed “fixers” like him to wipe down crime scenes that involved children. He quit religious life in disgust and scoffs at the Vatican’s pledge to better protect boys and girls from its surpliced predators.

“This is the biggest company in the world, they are not going to shift and move,” Wall said. “They’re going to keep building the Ford Pinto, they’re going to take their lumps (from public opinion) and move on.”

“It doesn’t matter what the law is, whether it’s the Canadian police or the U.S. police. They’re not going to tell anybody (about criminal behaviour),” he added.

Santa Clara University psychology professor Thomas Plante has treated and evaluated about 60 clergy sex offenders, including Catholic priests. He said most exhibited a variety of psychiatric troubles, such as personality and impulse control disorders, even brain damage as comorbidity factors complicating their sexual behaviours.

Plante said differing degrees of disorders means “these guys aren’t all alike” and range from ruthless serial offenders like Sylvestre to those who commit one act.

If mentally unhealthy priests are attacking children, it doesn’t prevent the church from using its formidable financial and legal resources to defend their accused, said Wall.

The former priest said the church is particularly vicious with women, deploying its “whore defence” to paint schoolgirls as harlots and intimidate them from pursuing criminal and civil complaints.

McLauchlin, now working and married, said victims “need to outlast” the church as she did during a three-year civil case against the London archdiocese. It was settled last September for an undisclosed amount.

During her case, the diocese demanded McLauchlin submit to a psychological assessment in Toronto. She said she was “interrogated” for 10 hours by a clinician and made to relive Sylvestre’s assaults in graphic detail — even though her mother had kept the “horrific” gynecologist’s report from 27 years ago.

“(The assessment) was very demeaning and at certain times, it was crude and it didn’t need to be,” said McLauchlin, whose abuse began when she was about 4 and ended at 6 when her unsuspecting family moved to Chatham.

“Ultimately, I stood my ground,” she said. “It’s a game of survivor (and church officials) just want to wear you down.”

McLauchlin kept Sylvestre’s abuse a secret from her family until the priest was arrested. By the time she approached Crown prosecutors, a deal had been struck with Sylvestre — then 84 years old, feeble and brain-addled with dementia — to plead guilty to all counts.

The priest who duped her parents with friendship to gain their trust — and access to their daughter — died three months into his three-year sentence in 2007. Though McLauchlin feels resolving her court case has given her a fresh start in life, she is haunted by why, despite 1962 police reports from girls he abused, the church shielded Sylvestre.

“I wish every single day of my life they had done something,” said McLauchlin of high-ranking officials in the London diocese, including archbishops who reigned during Sylvestre’s tenure.

“The last place he was a priest was Pain Court (and) this would never have happened to me.”

[Ecofarm]

That makes me want to bomb the Vatican.

[Asher]

I just find it shocking that gay priests started raping and molesting girls once they became accessible.

[Elok]

Now that I think about it, how do you keep this sort of thing silent? You'd think the press, even back in '60, would just eat up a story about a raping priest. Was it just legal pressure, or was public opinion against suspicion of Catholic clergy?

[giblets]

There's only one way to fix this: keep heterosexuals out of the clergy.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I just find it shocking that gay priests started raping and molesting girls once they became accessible.

Unbelievable!

[MrFun]

This is a zombie thread that will never die.

[Asher]

Thanks, MrFun