Shock after Dutch priest endorses pedophilia

[Johnny Morales]

Source: AP - TOBY STERLING Associated Press

The Dutch Catholic Church and the Salesian order are investigating revelations that a Salesian priest served on the board of a group that promotes pedophilia with the full knowledge of his boss.

The order's top official in the Netherlands, Delegate Herman Spronck, confirmed in a statement that the priest - identified by RTL Nieuws as 73-year-old "Father Van B." - served on the board of "Martijn," a group that campaigns to end the Dutch ban on adult-child sex.....

.....Spronck added that adult-child sexual relations do not necessarily have to be damaging, including with children as young as 12......

.....Dutch Catholic Church spokesman Pieter Kohnen said Saturday that, even with sex abuse scandals rocking the church worldwide, this particular case was "unbelievable" and the church utterly rejects pedophilia. He said if Superior Claes did not act quickly to reform the Dutch Salesian order's leadership, the matter would be referred to Rome.....

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_NETHERLANDS_PEDOPHILE_PRIEST?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-05-21-07-20-43

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Even for a jaded person this should be pretty shocking.

[rfranklin]

1. He lived through the time warp known as the 1960s...

which caused him to be a pederast as the Pope explained to us. He can not be blamed.

[kanrok]

3. When did the Pope explain this to us?

A link to an article would be nice.

Thanks.

[rfranklin]

4. Church Report Cites Social Tumult in Priest Scandals

...Instead, the report says, the abuse occurred because priests who were poorly prepared and monitored, and were under stress, landed amid the social and sexual turmoil of the 1960s and ’70s.

Known occurrences of sexual abuse of minors by priests rose sharply during those decades, the report found, and the problem grew worse when the church’s hierarchy responded by showing more care for the perpetrators than the victims.

The “blame Woodstock” explanation has been floated by bishops since the church was engulfed by scandal in the United States in 2002 and by Pope Benedict XVI after it erupted in Europe in 2010

-more-

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/18/us/18bishops.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

[kanrok]

7. Yep.

Read that numerous times this week.

As I understand it, it was a study commissioned by US bishops and conducted by another entity unrelated to the Catholic church.

I was wondering where it was that the Pope made this claim.

[dsc]

11. Here is him making exactly that claim

in Dec. of 2010.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/popersquos-child-porn-normal-claim-sparks-outrage-among-victims-15035449.html#ixzz19fdmXHF4

Victims of clerical sex abuse have reacted furiously to Pope Benedict's claim yesterday that paedophilia wasn't considered an “absolute evil” as recently as the 1970s.

In his traditional Christmas address yesterday to cardinals and officials working in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI also claimed that child pornography was increasingly considered “normal” by society.

“In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorised as something fully in conformity with man and even with children,” the Pope said.

“It was maintained — even within the realm of Catholic theology — that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a ‘better than' and a ‘worse than'. Nothing is good or bad in itself.”

The Pope said abuse revelations in 2010 reached “an unimaginable dimension” which brought “humiliation” on the Church.

Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/popersquos-child-porn-normal-claim-sparks-outrage-among-victims-15035449.html#ixzz1N7UoZzHD

[No Elephants]

5. The article was posted in LBN not long ago. .

[Ian David]

2. Maybe they're just Marlon Brando lookalikes? n/t

[No Elephants]

6. During the height of the publicity about the Massachusetts lawsuits against the Church,

a sweet-looking elderly Catholic woman informed me that most of the children involved had been over 10 or 11 and kids that age know what they're doing.

I'm not even sure she was correct about the age of the kids. I know the boy Father Geogan allegedly groped was only 7. However, I found her position about 10 and 11 year olds vis a vis an adult priest who supposedly represents God on earth to them quite jaw- dropping. And, if nothing else, these priests broke their vow of celibacy, yet she had no condemnation for them.

It no longer ever surprises me how much people can rationalize away. Shock, maybe. Suprise, no.

[MrMickeysMom]

8. Is this a religious order of NAMBLA?

Creative AND deplorable!

[LetTimmySmoke]

10. It's a secret order of the Catholic Church.

Don't speak too loudly of it or Grandmasters Scalia and Alito will send their acolytes.

[LetTimmySmoke]

9. Previous poster beat me to it.

[MrMickeysMom]

12. Everyone must obey the law...

Their motto was, "Everyone must obey the law", but when questioned this week, they couldn't comment.

[harmonicon]

13. You really find this to be shocking?

I'm not at all surprised, shocked, etc. This is exactly what I would expect.

[Dorian Gray]

14. Yes

it is pretty shocking. Disgusting.

Damaged people do damaging things to other people. It's sick.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

15. I can't read this without hearing Jon Stewart making guttural noises