It finally happened here.

[Lady_Rin]

Our community finally got caught up in the Catholic sex scandal when a local priest was finally arrested and charged with the of assault and rape over several years of a number of 11-13{?} year old boys in Boston and then sent here after he was discovered where he continued his predation. According to local paper this has been going on for years.

[quote="The Desert Sun"]
(Paul) Shanley was known in the 1960s and ’70s as a "street priest" who tended to troubled youth. Internal church records showed officials were aware of sexual abuse complaints against Shanley as early as 1967 but continued to transfer him from parish to parish.

... served in the Diocese of San Bernardino, which includes the Coachella Valley, from 1990 to 1993. In addition to working as a priest, he co-owned a gay-themed hotel...

Unbeknownst to the church at the time, Shanley was receiving his support and medical checks from (name deleted) a gay men’s resort...

Shanley became an owner of the hotel, along with the [b]Rev. John J. White[/b], another[b] Boston[/b] priest who also was on sick leave and receiving money from the Boston Archdiocese.[/quote]

It would seem that the Catholics still don't care; that even after scandal it is still widely prevalent. The church, by their action or inaction, seems to approve or at least condone this as the guilty priests are not rooted out and punished but are transfered to another diocese for protection and turned loose on unspecting children again. The Pope and his staff seemingly ignore this since public statements and punishment by the church of the offenders is rare if it happens at all. At the very least they are trying to cover it up. This from those who are trusted with the[i] faith[/i] of their charges.

The celibacy has gone to there heads, sorry, lower down; the availability of innocent children who would never refuse a priest, especially one they call Father, makes it easy for them fulfill their sexual fantasies with impressionable pre-teen boys. Interestingly enough we haven't heard of girls being sexually assaulted and that makes me wonder about these priests and their prediliction for young boys.

Another question is; how young are these boys? We hear of the 12 year olds but what about those much younger than 12. Which also makes me curious about the people closely associated with the local churches, the deacons. What role do they have in this if any? How do the priests obtain these victims? According to the paper this priest told a congreation member (deacon?) to take the boy to the basement where he assaulted him. Why did he cooperate, devoutness? How can this happen under the noses of a relatively small congreation where nobody sees or says a thing.

It is disgusting and abhorrent that these men, these pious men of G-d, priests of the Catholic church who have been given the implicent trust of the community without question can get away with assault and rape. Even more so since the victims are boys rather than girls. Question: Why boys? An article I read on the sexual assault of these boys said the the assault and rape of a 12 year old boy has a far more reaching effect than it has on a girl of the same age. I wonder if statisically if any of them turn into sexual predators?

That brings another question. If the priests are getting their jollies; what about the nuns? Children at Catholic schools, run by the nuns, are perfect victims for these women who call themselves sister. I have read of many instances of the fatherhood [SIZE=1]the priests[/SIZE] being invloved with their sisters(?) [SIZE=1]the nuns [/SIZE]. Incest? With the availability of 12-14 year olds it also makes me wanting to know how many boys have lost their virginity to their "sisters". I'm thinking it would be far easier for the sisterhood to get away with child rape than the priesthood. Afterall, a boys first sexual encounter with a woman, even if she is his "sister" is something he won't run away from? Which we have seen highly publicised.

I believe there is far more sex in the Catholic church than you might think. In a closed non-secular and "celibate" world I would expect to find more than fair perentage of gay men and women. I would also expect to find an even larger number of men and women heading for the barn, as it were. On the other hand I would not expect to find the sexual predation of children in a community to whom these so called pious people have been given implicit trust and [i]faith[/i] by their charges.

[AzureWolf]

[FONT=book antiqua][SIZE=2][COLOR=blue]Yeah, what you've shown here is pretty messed up. What is up with all the gay priests anyway? It still is such a weird, unexplained phenomenon...

Anyway, I definately think there's some part of the story that's missing. You know, something that explains why the gay priest has been moved around when the church knew of his unforgivable sins. As for the sister thing, I think you are taking it a little too far. Don't they have to take a vow of celibacy before becoming a nun? Not to say they never had sex in the past, but when they become a nun, don't they have to stop having sex?

I know the whole celibacy thing was removed for priests, but did they remove that for nuns as well?

And yes, I know that gay sex is wrong (religiously), but it's been my experience that women are better followers to their philosophy/rules when it comes to sex, so nuns may not be that far-removed from the stereotypical "clean" woman.

To sum it up, I really think you are blowing things out of proportion just because of one little incident. I'm not even referring to your one, nearby gay priest, but the whole gay priest phenomenon. For some strange reason, there were/are a lot of gay priests, but that doesn't mean the rest of Catholicism is in sinful lust.

And hey, if worst comes to worst, they can always lower their standards yet again. ;)[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[3v1l.l33t]

It is really sad to see this happen. Priest, Fathers anyone like them are people who are looked up to and things like this make authentic Fathers's jobs more difficult. Its a very dissapointing incodent.