1. mully

May 21, 2009 @ 12:08 am

Well……….at the risk of being repetitive…….

I am a lifelong Catholic, but I am sick of what appears to be the Church’s endless “flip-flopping” on issues that are extremely important.

Notre Dame comes to mind.

On one hand, they speak volumes about certain issues and extol the virtues of standing up for the Church. They want parishioners to be “soldiers of Christ” and teach the word of the Lord. But it seems that when push comes to shove, the Catholic Church isnt quite ready to put their money where their mouth is.

So, I guess its quietly and tacitly approved of when a priest has been discovered having sex with young boys at the rectory, but the above teacher loses his job and for what?

From what I read, nothing. Certainly nothing with the implications that a priest, who has taken a vow of chastity to say the least, could compare to.

In a country where many of us are struggling to find some semblance of order, where many people need to see strength and leadership, the Catholic Church SHOULD be that beacon in the night and unfortunately for many, many Catholics there have just been too many incidents of late, that make us wonder where our Church really stands.

The above example is just one more of those incidents.

2. sparkdad

May 21, 2009 @ 1:36 am

I will preface this comment with “I am a convert to Catholicism”.

I also have very liberal views on adult sex. I am not talking crazy views, but instead I am not against consenting adults in a relationship enjoying sex.

This is an over-reaction and I am quite sure that there is some back story to this that was not told.

I do not think that the teacher was wrong, personally, but if you follow the Bible to the letter of the law then he is wrong.

What do we do?

SparkDad

4. a mom

May 21, 2009 @ 8:17 pm

My children attend a small Catholic High school in Kansas,
There is one lesbian instructor, the principal had an affair with the counselor, the counselor was encouraged to leave and she did, the principal got divorced, then married the divorced art teacher and remained as principal for three more years. A high school senior became pregnant and was allowed to stay for her entire senior year, she was the popular one, the lower income senior who became pregnant was asked to go to another school. A handfull of parents are swingers and it is very open as they share stories of their shared vacations. You have to love the Catholic church for the hypocrisy and double standards

5. Jessica

May 22, 2009 @ 9:40 am

However, a Catholic school can pretty much fire anybody for anything.

I think Catholicism varies from school to school, state to state and country to country. American Catholicism is nothing like Roman Catholicism.

I think the whole problem stems from Priests not being able to marry. It creates this enormous problem for them. I got my ass reamed last time I said this, but I’m going to say it again, because that’s how I roll — I think many Priests go into the Priesthood to hide their sexuality and since they’re so sexually repressed, they prey on children because that’s who they have access to and who they can threaten, manipulate and control in order to hide the fact that they’re repressed. It’s unnatural and every Priest who’s committed this heinous crime should be locked up for the rest of their lives in Gitmo.

6. Allison G_MOD

May 22, 2009 @ 11:19 am

I totally agree with you Jessica, on the subject of preists not being able to marry. It’s just not natural in my mind, either.

Did you hear about the Miami preist who’s at the center of controversy? He’s a radio talk show host, who counsels couples, and preaches celibacy.
However, he has a girlfriend now, and they were caught on camera kissing at a bar. Now wants to leave the preisthood so they can get married. Wow, what a jerk, right? (sarcasm)
I’m sure if he “discovered” he was gay, and decided to leave, people would be supporting him 100%.
And what’s worse, if he somehow managed to molest a child, the church would have backed him up, AND paid for a lawsuit/settlement (out of generously donated cash from church offering plates)!
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/12/miami-priest-defends-celibacy/

7. mully

May 22, 2009 @ 3:07 pm

Jessica: I wont disagree that the fact that the Catholic Church makes priests take a vow of celibacy, is trouble brewing, not to mention, archaic. But Im not sure I agree with the rest of your post.

If your theory is true, how do you then explain nuns and brothers who take the same vow of chastity? If they are breaking that vow, by having sex, somehow, some way, then they are doing it without the public and/or media being aware. I might be wrong about this and thats ok, but I dont believe Ive ever heard about a Catholic nun molesting a student.

So my point is: why only priests?

Now, there might have been an argument for priests having easier and more access to young boys years ago when it was only boys who were “servers” who served the Mass, but its been a long time now that servers are both sexes and Im not sure Ive heard any media story about a priest molesting girls. Nuns still teach in Catholic schools and therefore have access to kids. If you believe the theory that they are repressed sexually because the Church denies them the ability to fulfill normal sexual desires, then that theory would have to apply to nuns and brothers as well as priests and I just dont see this being an issue except with priests. This raises some pretty interesting points though. Why IS it that it just seems to be priests and not nuns? Does this suggest that men are less able to control themselves than women? Im only asking, not suggesting and I am very curious. Does it suggest that men have stronger sex drives? Could it be that it DOES happen with nuns, but if they chose young girls to molest, the girls are more afraid to speak up?

All in all, I think the vow of chastity is wrong (not that they care what I think), and perhaps there are some priests and nuns who join the order as a screen to cover up homosexuality tendencies, but I honestly dont think that the majority of women and men who devote their lives to God, are in that category.

I think the bigger question is what the Catholic Church is doing about it, if anything, because if its left to ignore we all know that things dont just fix themselves and I truly do believe this is a very big issue that wont go away simply because its uncomfortable and hard to deal with.

8. Molly

May 27, 2009 @ 10:36 am

As far as I know the schools had every right to fire these teachers.

Staying the night at your girlfriend/boyfriends house:

Even if “nothing happened” between the couple they are “Giving Scandal”, which does go against church teaching. If someone sees or hears about the stay over (especially a young person) it may cause them to think that sex before marriage is an acceptable act, and potientially lead them into sin later in life. I know you said that people can have sex during the day as well, but there is a difference. A visit during the day does not automatically lead someone to believe that a couple is sleeping together, while an overnight stay always leads people to that thought. Our teachers have the responsibility of not only educating but safeguarding the minds & souls of our children. Also, children tend to not take Church teaching seriously when taught by those who don’t follow it. Even if there was no physical act, there was the appearance of it and that’s just as bad. He should have taken a cab.

Blessings!