on earth as it is in heaven
yesterday anne and i went to see te movie "deliver us from evil", a documentary about a pedophile priest whose assaults were concealed by the catholic church. each time a victim came forward, father ollie was simply transferred to another parish.
the film was far from the generalized anti-catholicism diatribe i expected it to be. it has some good analysis of why this happened within the church, and why it was not properly dealt with. thomas doyle, a catholic activist for survivors of abuse, points out that in the catholic church priests are considered chosen/pre-ordained by god. (children have a hard time tattling on god. besides, there's precedent for it in the bible: mary got knocked up via the holy spirit. plus all those old testament stories of faithful barren women becoming pregnant. god really has a problem keeping his hands to himself.)
also, a psychologist who specializes in treating abuse survivors was interviewed, and she said that if you think all sex is sinful, then you do not necessarily make the distinction of one kind of sexual interaction being harmful and another being healthy. it's an interesting point, and something i have always believed-- i mean, if you do not allow the priests to marry, then the priesthood is going to attract men whose sexual proclivities are either clandestine or non-existent, and which do you think is more common?-- but more than one person in the movie mentioned homosexuality as a sort of special sin. i mean, father ollie had sexual contact with both boys and girls, but the first incident was reported by a girl. a member of the diocese actually testified in father ollie's trial that because it had been a girl and not a boy that the father's inappropriate touching was just "natural curiosity". what the fuck?!? that was the man's defense for his part in the cover-up. the priest was only sent to counseling when it came out [(accidental pun)] that he had molested a boy.
the female survivors interviewed described "games" father ollie would play to work up to the abuse, but the guys said he just jumped right in. i wonder why the different approaches?
i'm about as far from catholic as one can get, but i'm fairly certain that in heaven there are no pervy priests.
the film was far from the generalized anti-catholicism diatribe i expected it to be. it has some good analysis of why this happened within the church, and why it was not properly dealt with. thomas doyle, a catholic activist for survivors of abuse, points out that in the catholic church priests are considered chosen/pre-ordained by god. (children have a hard time tattling on god. besides, there's precedent for it in the bible: mary got knocked up via the holy spirit. plus all those old testament stories of faithful barren women becoming pregnant. god really has a problem keeping his hands to himself.)
also, a psychologist who specializes in treating abuse survivors was interviewed, and she said that if you think all sex is sinful, then you do not necessarily make the distinction of one kind of sexual interaction being harmful and another being healthy. it's an interesting point, and something i have always believed-- i mean, if you do not allow the priests to marry, then the priesthood is going to attract men whose sexual proclivities are either clandestine or non-existent, and which do you think is more common?-- but more than one person in the movie mentioned homosexuality as a sort of special sin. i mean, father ollie had sexual contact with both boys and girls, but the first incident was reported by a girl. a member of the diocese actually testified in father ollie's trial that because it had been a girl and not a boy that the father's inappropriate touching was just "natural curiosity". what the fuck?!? that was the man's defense for his part in the cover-up. the priest was only sent to counseling when it came out [(accidental pun)] that he had molested a boy.
the female survivors interviewed described "games" father ollie would play to work up to the abuse, but the guys said he just jumped right in. i wonder why the different approaches?
i'm about as far from catholic as one can get, but i'm fairly certain that in heaven there are no pervy priests.