8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Genesis 3:8-13 (NIV)
The story of Adam and Eve, our first parents, is a story often told and one that we all know. God made Adam, than Eve, Eve ate of the fruit and gave it to Adam. God came for His walk in the garden, with Adam and Eve, and Adam and Eve hid… Why, because they were naked…
Naked, meaning nothing to cover them, yes, but no. Naked has a deeper meaning here, the nakedness they felt was manifested on the outside, but was truly on the inside. The shame they felt was not a shame of the body, but a shame of the soul, for they now understood good and evil, they now knew what it was like to sin, and the soul was shamed.
We all are naked before the Lord, for He sees everything, there is nothing He does not know, for He created us and loves us. We are all sinners and we all, at some point feel shame for our actions.
Adam and Eve fashioned fig leaves together to cover their shame, they hid themselves from the sight of God, but God could see them and He questioned them. The first reaction, blame others… Eve the snake, Adam the woman. But who truly sinned, who was truly to blame, Adam, the first man, the first priest. His Church, the garden, under his care, all that God has created. Adam was given guardianship over Gods creation. How do I know this, what makes me say this, God had Adam name all the creatures of earth. To name something is to care for it. We, as parents, name our children, and in doing so, take on the responsibility of caring for and nurturing and protecting that child. Adam was given the same responsibility. God created Eve from Adam, flesh of my flesh blood of my blood, as Adam put it. So Eve was of Adam and of God, but Adam was of God only. Adam was the first priest, his church, the garden, his flock, all of Gods creation. As the priest, he was charged with protection all with in his domain, all of Gods creations, and all within the garden. By allowing the devil to enter into the Garden, Adam had failed, he had fallen asleep at the gate and allowed Eve to be tempted. Adam had sinned.
The nakedness of humanity had started, sin has entered our world and all the lies to cover up our nakedness had become part of our humanity. We may not use fig leafs to cover our nakedness anymore, but we still cover up nerveless.
Stories of priest falling asleep on the job is not just a Adam story, we experience it today. The news stories if Priest abusing their powers, embezzling money and of course the sex scandal. But that is only the Priest we identify, in truth, we Catholics, all of us, are priest (lower case p), by our very Baptism we are priest, profit and king. We are Adams of our own gardens, and we have dominion over all with in it, our children, pets, family’s and communities. Have we fallen asleep at our gates? Have we let the snake into our gardens? As a fallen race, I would venture to guess the answer is yes, we have allowed the snake in, but have we allowed the snake to tempt us? Once again I would have to say yes, we have, we all have because we all are human and being so means we all have failed, we all have sinned. But now comes the next question, what have you done about it? Have you just allowed the snake to take over or have you worked diligently to exterminate the snake?
The garden of Eden was paradise, but man, in his imperfections, allowed evil to enter within its gates. He allowed it because he allowed his ego to control him actions, his desire to be more than what he is became his downfall and we are still dealing with it today. Our ego is the snake and our lies are the fig leafs and our shame the nakedness.
The Cross of Redemption has opened of the gates of Heaven, but the gates of the Garden of Eden are still locked to us, someplace on earth paradise sits, but we are too vain to see it, our eyes are covered over with our own vanity, that we could not see it even if we were standing in the middle of it. Our inequities blind us to the perfection of Eden and keep us in a state of nakedness.
Christ, the new Adam, has redeemed us and renewed our priesthood with His body and blood. His suffering was the down payment and His death the price, he purchased our salvation and guaranteed its delivery through His resurrection. Adam came into this world naked, than trough sin covered up his nakedness, Christ died upon the cross naked to defeat the sin that Adam introduced.
Lent offers us a time to expose ourselves before God, to remove the fig leafs and stand naked before our God. A time to ask for forgiveness and a time to receive it. Like Adam, we all have allowed sin to enter into our lives, we all have allowed our ego to control our actions,but unlike Adam we have the promise of salvation. Adam, by covering himself in sin, closed the gated of Heaven to us, but Christ, but uncovering the sin, exposing Himself to our sins, has open the gates of Heaven to us. We must work hard in our gardens to eradicate the snake, to remove it from our gardens to till the soil and plant the seeds of forgiveness and love. Use this Lenten session to do a bit of gardening, attend the Sacrament of Confession, make peace with your soul and tend to your garden.
God Bless & Happy Lent
Paul Sposite
Guided Insight Life Coach
42.303780
-83.378959
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Global Warming…. Really, its 55 degrees here in Michigan and it’s May 19th.. Hmmm, Right now I would be happy with global warming. Hell I would be happy with normal temps.
I remember as a kid in school learning about the new ice age we were going to have, they use to tell us that if we did not change our ways that we would be covered in ice… Well that didn’t happen, so now is we will all burn up, and that isn’t happening, so they changed it to climate change. This way they have there asses covered no matter what happens.
Each time they make predictions, they get it wrong, for example, the ozone layer hole, they stated that we needed to stop using aerosol cans, to stop the hole. So the government outlawed the arousal cans and guess what, the hole is still there, and it got bigger, after it got smaller.. .Hmm, think maybe that its just doing what is was made to do?
We have been “studying” this for only a small amount of time, the earth has been around for a lot longer than we have, and it seems to be doing fine… Yet we feel that we are so smart that we know, based on 30 or 50 years of research, what the earth is doing, how it does it and what we need to do to help her. Hmmm, sounds a little high and mighty to me. But what do I know, I don’t have lots of letters after my name.
Forget the fact that not to long ago we had an email scandal, proving that the scientist involved in the global warming research were “fixing” the results to prove there point. Forget facts, they only get in the way.
The left wing liberals do not like facts, they interfere with there plans to control everything and everyone. Yet the facts are facts. We find this in all aspects of liberal thinking, be it politics, social issues or religion. The facts just get in the way. But what can we do… Well first off, conservatives can get better educated about the facts, and we can get better at education others with the facts. Liberals are masters at disseminating falsehoods, propaganda or out and out lies. Yet we find it hard to tell the truth, we know the truth, we just don’t like to “push” the truth on others. Yet liberals do it day in and day out, and at the same time accuse conservatives of “pushing” our agenda on others.. .Hmmm, sounds odd to me.
Global something or other is just a way for liberals to try to control us, with laws and regulations demanding that we believe in an unproven fact. Much like evolution and creation. If the liberal was truly “open minded” as they claim they are, they would be willing to accept the fact that we really don’t know if Global what ever you want to call it, is real or not, they would be willing to accept the fact that creationism is as viable as evolution. Yet they don’t, instead they push there agenda on us as if we are little children who cannot think for themselves. Go figure…
As for me, a little global warming would be good right about now, I am sick of the rain and cooler than normal temps… But what do I know….
God Bless
Paul
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For Christians Easter is the high point, the summit of our faith, our Lord and Savior is alive, He has defeated death and is among us. What a wonderful feeling, to know that our all loving God cares enough about us, a sinful people, to send His only son to walk in our shoes, but not only to walk in them, but to suffer in them. God is Good! He is Good indeed!
As a Catholic I love the Saturday vigil Mass. Yes it’s long, 3 hours, and yes its full of all the symbolism and pomp befitting a coronation of a new king. And it is fitting, behold, the Lamb of God! Once again I attended the High Holy Mass, and was struck by a few things. First and foremost I was in awe of Mass itself. The Catholic Church really does Easter up, as she should. The second thing that got to me was the fact that despite all the scandal, we still have new Catholics entering the Church. I witnesses 35 new brothers and sisters coming home. What a sight!
I love the fact that we Catholics make such a to-do about our new Brothers and Sisters in Christ on Easter, giving them a new live on the day we celebrate the Risen Lord! Its fantastic!
The homily was great, but the one thing that stuck in my mind is this, Father said that baptism is like a heart transplant, we receive a new heart when we are baptized. Not a direct quote, but close. The thought was interesting because he, the priest, went on to say that this is biblical, that in the bible it states we get a new heart. What an awesome thing… I love my faith!
As you may or may not know, Easter is 50 days, so we are still in the Easter season, and I have resolved this year to make the most of it. Not sure how yet, but I am open for your suggestions.. .Please let me know what I can do to make this Easter season a Holy one.
God Bless & Happy Easter
Paul
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Catholic church fights lifting of sex abuse suit limits | detnews.com | The Detroit News (Link to the Detroit News article)
http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(o34ldjzldui32fr0qdvvha45))/mileg.aspx?page=GetObject&objectname=2009-HB-5699
(link to the bill)
The above is an interesting article and it shows a few things about our current state of the Catholic Church":
1. People are still very hurt by the scandal
2. The public is still very anti-catholic (The bill does not apply to public schools or institutions)
3. The Catholic Church can’t win, no matter what she does
4. The state legislators are protectionist, protecting there own over the safety of children
The basic idea that the state would consider a bill that exempts themselves from lawsuits is not shocking, they always do protect themselves. But we are talking about children here, not roads or cornfields. The public schools systems have more cases of abuse than any other institution, so why not open the flood gates for the state as well as the church? Because the state knows it would bankrupt them and they can’t allow that to happen.
We entrust our youth to the state daily, we send our children of to public schools and think nothing of it, yet we fear for our youth when the attend youth group at the local parish! The school system produces more sexual abuse in one year than the Church could even imagine, yet we allow our children to attend school dances and field trips or to stay after school for extra help with out a second thought.
I am not saying the Church should not pay for what they did, they should and they are, but the state should be held to the same standards. Every American should be upset with this bill, we need to make our public institutions as liable as our private institutions!
God Bless
Paul
| Jeremiah 23:24“Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?" declares the LORD. "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" declares the LORD.”
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As part of my job, my 9 to 5 job, the one that pays my bills, I get to travel the world. I love that aspect of my job, I love going to new places. Not only do I get to go to new places, I get to make new friends. I now have friends in five countries around the world and have traveled to seven different countries. So on this next trip I get to visit my friends I have not seen in over a year. It will be nice.
Sure, there is work involved, but still I get to visit with good friends. Sometimes its moments like these that make me thankful for all that I have. Not many people can claim to have traveled the world, not once but several times and even fewer can claim to have made very good friends. God has blessed me, of this I am sure.
But what does this have to do with anything about my faith, besides recognizing that God has blessed me? Well, the fact is, if I stopped there, just with the fact that God has blessed me, that would be enough. But I’m not going to stop there….
Sure Gods blessings is sufficient and I could blog about the blessings all day long. But there is something else at play here. I am reminded of St. Paul, and his travels. The book of Act’s is full of stories about Paul and his travels, and his friendships made. The letters of Paul to the other communities are because of his travels and the friendships he has made.
St. Paul was blessed by God, in many ways, but one way was through his friendships he was able to make on his travels. The friendships that lead to conversation. Sure Paul could have just arrived in each town, talked and left, and sure a few would have been converted, but not many. The words would have been the same, but the value behind them would have been lost on many. Friendship, true authentic friendship, is a powerful tool in conversation.
Words spoke without friendship, be they true or not, often fall to the ground. The hearers may be entranced for a time being, but they will fall. Jesus spent three years speaking the truth as only He could, and many were converted, but many more were not. Jesus also spent the three years cultivating His friendships with a few, getting to know each for who and what they were. If Jesus had not done this, upon His death the faith would have disappeared shortly after. It was the friendship of Jesus to the few that kept the faith burning. Mary Magdalene was the first to see her friend after His resurrection. It was the friendship that made Mary go to see the grave, and it was friendship that made her cry over the missing body. And the same friendship that allowed her to believe what her mind told her not too….
Friendship played an important roll in Jesus ministry, is not John referred to as the one whom Jesus loved? It was friendship that made the rag-tag followers of Jesus in to a community. Jesus understood the purely human need for friendship. He understood the need to make connections and the need for fellowship. The Christian community was founded on this very principle.
As a life long Catholic, I can say that one of the areas we fail in is creating a community, of fostering friendships with in the church and parish life. All to often attending a parish function is an obligation rather than a joy. All to often we have our “church” friends and our regular friends, as if the people we know at church are not regular people who dine out or play cards or other social activities. We, as Catholics, have segregated our lives into two compartments, the parish and the world. Yet are we not called to live in the world? Did not Jesus tell us to go to the ends of the earth and to all the nations? We failed Him…
The Catholic community can be and should be a vibrant one, one full of life. We have many talents hidden with in our community. Yet we fail to use them, we have many gifts, yet we fail to see them. It is a shame and in some sense it is a scandal that we, as Catholics, do not celebrate the community that Jesus gave us. Rather we squander it away, we hide it as if we are ashamed of it. Our faith, our Church, yes even in today’s world with all the scandals, needs to be celebrated. In-fact maybe just because of the current situation on the Church we should all be praising the good she does to the world. We should be joining together in friendship and our commonalities as Catholics and proudly stating our faith for all to hear. I believe that Jesus would be happy if we all would have the courage to do just that.
Yet we Catholics seem to be a scared bunch, we seem to be ashamed of our faith, even before the current scandal. We have always, in my life time, seemed to shy away from proclaiming our faith. We down play it, or totally ignore it when we are in the secular world.
Why? Because we have no community, we have no friendship, with each other but mostly with Christ. Anyone of of you would gladly defend a friend who was in need. And if asked why, you would reply “They are my friend”, and rightly so! Yet we fail to do this on a daily basis for the Catholic Church, the Church the Jesus himself established here on earth. We seem to forget that Jesus did stand up for His friends and defend them, He defended them, and us, upon the cross of friendship. Yet we are not even willing to defend the attacks upon the Holy Father or the Church.
The media is at war with the Catholic faith and the Holy father, yet we sit back. Sure, some of it is necessary, yet much of it is just plain mean spirited. Designed to harm the Church not help heal her. They attack based on false reports or fail to reveal the whole truth, they design the attacks to inflect the most damage, and we sit back and do nothing. Sure we may say “What a shame” or “That’s unfair” but we do nothing. friends defend friends when that friend is being attacked. Yet we fail to do so.
Judas did the something, he failed his friend. He sat back and allowed the attacks to go on until it was to late. Are we going to allow that to happen to our faith, to our Church, the one and true Church established by Jesus himself?
“But what can I do?” is the question you most likely have, “I’m just little old me”. Yes you are, but there are millions of “Little old me’s” out there, and if all of us stand up in friendship for the Church the media will take notice. Write letters to the editor, hold Catholic and proud marches boycott the media, money talks, and in this economy it
talks loudly. Form a prayer group to pray for the healing of the Church or blog about it. There are hundreds of actions that can be taken, and each and everyone one of them should be taken. It is time that the world understands that the Catholic faith is not a monster, it is not a predator and her people are a community of friends.
God Bless
Paul
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by The Editors, Register correspondent Tuesday, Apr 20, 2010 8:00 AM Comments
1. The crisis seems to be nearing its conclusion. The vast majority of allegations are from the 1960-1985 period, and only six cases of clerical sex abuse in 2009 have been reported.
2. There was no global cover-up. “Nobody, nowhere, no time, no way, no how knew the extent, depth, or horror of this scourge, nor how to adequately address it,” wrote New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan. No one had the knowledge necessary to orchestrate anything on a global scale. The crisis arises from individual cases, distant from each other in time and place, which have hit the press simultaneously.
3. Going public seemed like the wrong thing to do. As Father Dwight Longenecker has written, “What we now call ‘cover-up’ was often done in a different cultural context, when the problem was not fully understood and when all establishment organizations hushed scandals. They did so for what seemed good reasons at the time: protection of the victims and their families, opportunity for rehabilitation of the offender, the avoidance of scandal to others. It is unfair to judge events 30 years ago by today’s standards.”
4. Pope Benedict XVI is part of the solution, not the problem. He orchestrated profound changes in Vatican policy in 2001 and supported the U.S. bishops in their revamping of allegations handling in 2002.
5. “Nobody is doing more to address the tragedy of sexual abuse of minors than the Catholic Church.” So says Paul McHugh of Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. bishops’ conference reports that more than 5 million children have received safe-environment training and more than 2 million volunteers, employees and clerics have undergone background checks.
6. Seminarians now undergo increasingly rigorous scrutiny. That includes both intensive background screening and psychological testing, according to the U.S. bishops’ conference.
7. Child sexual abuse is “profoundly prevalent” throughout society, John Jay College of Criminal Justice researcher Margaret Leland Smith told Newsweek on April 8. “The sexual abuse of boys is common, underreported, underrecognized, and undertreated,” an American Medical Association report has concluded.
8. Children are far safer with priests than with the average person. According to Dr. Garth Rattray in The Gleaner (2002), “About 85% of abusers are family members, babysitters, neighbors or friends.”
9. Adult-adolescent sexual encounters (ephebophilia) account for 90% of all priest-minor interaction; encounters with children under 13 years old (phedophilia) account for only 10%. Of these, worldwide, approximately 60% are homosexual encounters and 30% are heterosexual. In the United States, 81% of victims are male, and 19% are female.
10. “Defrocking” isn’t always the solution. The press’ insistence that offender priests should have been laicized earlier overlooks two important facts: The normal first step, called “suspension,” which bishops are instructed to take in these cases, removes a priest temporarily or permanently from ministry so that he no longer will be a danger to children. And once a priest is laicized, the Church can no longer monitor his activities and restrict his access to children, so he is at large in society.
11. The Church is taking care of victims. In 2009, the U.S. bishops’ conference reported that $6.5 million was spent on therapy for the victims of clergy sexual abuse.
12. The Church is “the holy people of God,” and yet her holiness is imperfect. As the Catechism states, “The Church, clasping sinners to her bosom, at once holy and always in need of purification, follows constantly the path of penance and renewal. All members of the Church, including her ministers, must acknowledge that they are sinners. In everyone, the weeds of sin will still be mixed with the good wheat of the Gospel until the end of time. Hence the Church gathers sinners already caught up in Christ’s salvation but still on the way to holiness” (No. 827).
Article from the National Catholic Register (Click here to read at site) ©
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Tearful Pope… The link to the left is an AP article about the Pope and his heart felt feelings concerning the sex abuse and scandal of the Church.
My last blog about the scandal received a few comments, and none very positive. I know that this issue is sensitive at best and considered off limits by others, but the victims and the Church will not and can not heal if we act as if it never happened. On that note we must also be willing to accept that not all priest and bishops were involved and that many are holy men. Yet some, a very small percentage, are sick and in a grave state of sin.
The victims of this abuse need healing and understanding and a compassionate response to the loss of innocence. What the Church and the victims don’t need is media sensationalism. An honest investigation in to all allegations with the proper due process of the laws of the land. The Church needs to be forthright with all information and due process with in the Church needs to be swift. The media needs to allow the process to do its job, and they need to stop persecuting the Church for the acts of men.
The media acts as if the Pope and his predecessors sanctioned the acts of molestation, that the Church not only allowed it but encouraged it. They thrive on the news as if it was a shark feeding frenzy, they smell the blood of the Church and all rush in to get fresh food.
This harms no only the Church, which is there intention, but also the victims. True authentic healing can not take place in a bath of sharks, the blood flow and feeding frenzy needs to stop. The victims of abuse need compassion and understanding, not accusations and witch hunts. The lives of many are at stake here, and the souls of many more.
We need to respect all parties involved, and we need to seek forgiveness and pray for healing. What we don’t need is more hate and violence. Violence of actions and of words, both can do harm and both can kill.
I pray that the Popes words and actions will start the healing process for all, and I hope and pray that the media will continue to investigate the scandal, but will do so in a fashion that is beneficial to all parties involved.
God Bless
Paul
| Romans 10:9-10“That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”
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Tearful Pope… The link to the left is an AP article about the Pope and his heart felt feelings concerning the sex abuse and scandal of the Church.
My last blog about the scandal received a few comments, and none very positive. I know that this issue is sensitive at best and considered off limits by others, but the victims and the Church will not and can not heal if we act as if it never happened. On that note we must also be willing to accept that not all priest and bishops were involved and that many are holy men. Yet some, a very small percentage, are sick and in a grave state of sin.
The victims of this abuse need healing and understanding and a compassionate response to the loss of innocence. What the Church and the victims don’t need is media sensationalism. An honest investigation in to all allegations with the proper due process of the laws of the land. The Church needs to be forthright with all information and due process with in the Church needs to be swift. The media needs to allow the process to do its job, and they need to stop persecuting the Church for the acts of men.
The media acts as if the Pope and his predecessors sanctioned the acts of molestation, that the Church not only allowed it but encouraged it. They thrive on the news as if it was a shark feeding frenzy, they smell the blood of the Church and all rush in to get fresh food.
This harms no only the Church, which is there intention, but also the victims. True authentic healing can not take place in a bath of sharks, the blood flow and feeding frenzy needs to stop. The victims of abuse need compassion and understanding, not accusations and witch hunts. The lives of many are at stake here, and the souls of many more.
We need to respect all parties involved, and we need to seek forgiveness and pray for healing. What we don’t need is more hate and violence. Violence of actions and of words, both can do harm and both can kill.
I pray that the Popes words and actions will start the healing process for all, and I hope and pray that the media will continue to investigate the scandal, but will do so in a fashion that is beneficial to all parties involved.
God Bless
Paul
| Romans 10:9-10“That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”
Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved. |
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The scandal of the Church has been on the front pages of the papers and lead stories on the nightly news. Over all this is a good thing, the Church needs to deal with this scandal. But what confuses me is the pure joy they, meaning the media, seem to get from all this. The catholic priest who molested young boys need help and prayers for sure, the bishops who allowed this to carry on and moved them from parish to parish need to be reprimanded, they need to step down. But why al the joy in the media?
It is good that the media is investigating the scandal, or should I say it would be good if they were investigating the scandal fairly. But that is not the case, they are on a witch hunt and they are willing to take down the innocent as well as the guilty, and at the same time look the other way when it comes to our school systems or other faiths. This to me is a misuse of power and an injustice to children.
The current scandal in the Church is a scandal from twenty or thirty or more years ago, by no means lessening the travesty of it all, the over all population of priest involved is 2% at most. Once again not taking anything away from the harm caused, 2% is way to much, .0001% is to much, but over all 2% of our priest is not a large number.
Such figures led her to contend "the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests." (Source)
Family members — fathers, stepfathers, uncles, older siblings — commit 47% of all reported sexual assaults against children in their own homes.
49% of all sexual assaults against children are committed by persons known either by the child or the child’s family — teachers, coaches, physicians, ministers, priests, neighbors, youth leaders. (Source)
I am not using the statistics to take the spot light off of the Catholic Church, but rather to point it also on public education and other areas of concern.
Over all the reporting on the scandal in the Church has been a scandal unto itself. And with the current wave of anti-Catholic feelings I expect it will continue for sometime to come. But we as Catholics can do something about we can fight back, promote the positive aspects of the Church, the good She does for youth and the community She resides in. We can also point out, in letters to the editors, the injustice of the persecution of the Church over our public schools.
In a way the abuse at the public schools is an even greater evil than the priest. We have no choice but to send our youth to school, and we allow teachers to have full access to our youth 8 hour per day, five days a week. And if they are involved in sports, we also allow them to change in front of grown adults. We, in some ways are asking for it,
The scandal involving the priest is sickening at best, but we hold some of that responsibility ourselves. We places the parish priest upon pedestals and made them gods in there own rights, we allowed our children to spend the night at the rectory or to go on trips with them. Sure some parents were good friends with the priest, and as the statistics above state 49% of abuse is by someone they know and trust. But do we have to allow the percentage to go up? Do we have to feed in to it?
The problem of abuse is a social problem and it is not a new problem, it is as old as time (article). The Greek society is full of stories of young boys and me, by no means justifying the actions, just pointing out the reality. The issue is social. Contrary to popular belief most people who sexually abuse youth are not gay. As stated above they are mostly family members or close family friends.
[M]ost men who molest little boys are not gay. Only 21 percent of the child molesters we studied who assault little boys were exclusively homosexual. Nearly 80 percent of the men who molested little boys were heterosexual or bisexual, and most of these men were married and had children of their own.27
These scientists have concluded that pedophilia is a separate orientation from homosexuality and that the vast majority of molesters who target boys have either no interest in mature males or are heterosexual men who are attracted to the feminine characteristics of young boys.(source)
Homosexuality and homosexual pedophilia are not synonymous. In fact, it may be that these two orientations are mutually exclusive, the reason being that the homosexual male is sexually attracted to masculine qualities whereas the heterosexual male is sexually attracted to feminine characteristics, and the sexually immature child’s qualities are more feminine than masculine. . . . The child offender who is attracted to and engaged in adult sexual relationships is heterosexual. It appears, therefore, that the adult heterosexual male constitutes a greater sexual risk to underage children than does the adult homosexual male.19 .(source)
My over all point to this blog, we need to look at facts and we need to understand what we are dealing with. Sexual abuse of children is not a “Catholic” thing, nor is it a “gay” thing, it is a society thing and one that needs to be understood. The media is not doing its job, rather it is conduction a man hunt, if you will, on Catholics.
As Catholics we need to educate ourselves so we can better defend the Church in these times of turmoil. We need to know facts so we are not just shooting from the hip but rather using facts to fight our cause. God willing the Church will survive and come out stringer when this persecution is over.
God Bless
Paul
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The scandal of the Church has been on the front pages of the papers and lead stories on the nightly news. Over all this is a good thing, the Church needs to deal with this scandal. But what confuses me is the pure joy they, meaning the media, seem to get from all this. The catholic priest who molested young boys need help and prayers for sure, the bishops who allowed this to carry on and moved them from parish to parish need to be reprimanded, they need to step down. But why al the joy in the media?
It is good that the media is investigating the scandal, or should I say it would be good if they were investigating the scandal fairly. But that is not the case, they are on a witch hunt and they are willing to take down the innocent as well as the guilty, and at the same time look the other way when it comes to our school systems or other faiths. This to me is a misuse of power and an injustice to children.
The current scandal in the Church is a scandal from twenty or thirty or more years ago, by no means lessening the travesty of it all, the over all population of priest involved is 2% at most. Once again not taking anything away from the harm caused, 2% is way to much, .0001% is to much, but over all 2% of our priest is not a large number.
Such figures led her to contend “the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests.” (Source)
Family members — fathers, stepfathers, uncles, older siblings — commit 47% of all reported sexual assaults against children in their own homes.
49% of all sexual assaults against children are committed by persons known either by the child or the child’s family — teachers, coaches, physicians, ministers, priests, neighbors, youth leaders. (Source)
I am not using the statistics to take the spot light off of the Catholic Church, but rather to point it also on public education and other areas of concern.
Over all the reporting on the scandal in the Church has been a scandal unto itself. And with the current wave of anti-Catholic feelings I expect it will continue for sometime to come. But we as Catholics can do something about we can fight back, promote the positive aspects of the Church, the good She does for youth and the community She resides in. We can also point out, in letters to the editors, the injustice of the persecution of the Church over our public schools.
In a way the abuse at the public schools is an even greater evil than the priest. We have no choice but to send our youth to school, and we allow teachers to have full access to our youth 8 hour per day, five days a week. And if they are involved in sports, we also allow them to change in front of grown adults. We, in some ways are asking for it,
The scandal involving the priest is sickening at best, but we hold some of that responsibility ourselves. We places the parish priest upon pedestals and made them gods in there own rights, we allowed our children to spend the night at the rectory or to go on trips with them. Sure some parents were good friends with the priest, and as the statistics above state 49% of abuse is by someone they know and trust. But do we have to allow the percentage to go up? Do we have to feed in to it?
The problem of abuse is a social problem and it is not a new problem, it is as old as time (article). The Greek society is full of stories of young boys and me, by no means justifying the actions, just pointing out the reality. The issue is social. Contrary to popular belief most people who sexually abuse youth are not gay. As stated above they are mostly family members or close family friends.
[M]ost men who molest little boys are not gay. Only 21 percent of the child molesters we studied who assault little boys were exclusively homosexual. Nearly 80 percent of the men who molested little boys were heterosexual or bisexual, and most of these men were married and had children of their own.27
These scientists have concluded that pedophilia is a separate orientation from homosexuality and that the vast majority of molesters who target boys have either no interest in mature males or are heterosexual men who are attracted to the feminine characteristics of young boys.(source)
Homosexuality and homosexual pedophilia are not synonymous. In fact, it may be that these two orientations are mutually exclusive, the reason being that the homosexual male is sexually attracted to masculine qualities whereas the heterosexual male is sexually attracted to feminine characteristics, and the sexually immature child’s qualities are more feminine than masculine. . . . The child offender who is attracted to and engaged in adult sexual relationships is heterosexual. It appears, therefore, that the adult heterosexual male constitutes a greater sexual risk to underage children than does the adult homosexual male.19 .(source)
My over all point to this blog, we need to look at facts and we need to understand what we are dealing with. Sexual abuse of children is not a “Catholic” thing, nor is it a “gay” thing, it is a society thing and one that needs to be understood. The media is not doing its job, rather it is conduction a man hunt, if you will, on Catholics.
As Catholics we need to educate ourselves so we can better defend the Church in these times of turmoil. We need to know facts so we are not just shooting from the hip but rather using facts to fight our cause. God willing the Church will survive and come out stringer when this persecution is over.
God Bless
Paul
| Galatians 2:20“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved. |
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12 Things Every Catholic Should Know About the U.S. Scandals
by The Editors, Register correspondent Tuesday, Apr 20, 2010 8:00 AM Comments
1. The crisis seems to be nearing its conclusion. The vast majority of allegations are from the 1960-1985 period, and only six cases of clerical sex abuse in 2009 have been reported.
2. There was no global cover-up. “Nobody, nowhere, no time, no way, no how knew the extent, depth, or horror of this scourge, nor how to adequately address it,” wrote New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan. No one had the knowledge necessary to orchestrate anything on a global scale. The crisis arises from individual cases, distant from each other in time and place, which have hit the press simultaneously.
3. Going public seemed like the wrong thing to do. As Father Dwight Longenecker has written, “What we now call ‘cover-up’ was often done in a different cultural context, when the problem was not fully understood and when all establishment organizations hushed scandals. They did so for what seemed good reasons at the time: protection of the victims and their families, opportunity for rehabilitation of the offender, the avoidance of scandal to others. It is unfair to judge events 30 years ago by today’s standards.”
4. Pope Benedict XVI is part of the solution, not the problem. He orchestrated profound changes in Vatican policy in 2001 and supported the U.S. bishops in their revamping of allegations handling in 2002.
5. “Nobody is doing more to address the tragedy of sexual abuse of minors than the Catholic Church.” So says Paul McHugh of Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. bishops’ conference reports that more than 5 million children have received safe-environment training and more than 2 million volunteers, employees and clerics have undergone background checks.
6. Seminarians now undergo increasingly rigorous scrutiny. That includes both intensive background screening and psychological testing, according to the U.S. bishops’ conference.
7. Child sexual abuse is “profoundly prevalent” throughout society, John Jay College of Criminal Justice researcher Margaret Leland Smith told Newsweek on April 8. “The sexual abuse of boys is common, underreported, underrecognized, and undertreated,” an American Medical Association report has concluded.
8. Children are far safer with priests than with the average person. According to Dr. Garth Rattray in The Gleaner (2002), “About 85% of abusers are family members, babysitters, neighbors or friends.”
9. Adult-adolescent sexual encounters (ephebophilia) account for 90% of all priest-minor interaction; encounters with children under 13 years old (phedophilia) account for only 10%. Of these, worldwide, approximately 60% are homosexual encounters and 30% are heterosexual. In the United States, 81% of victims are male, and 19% are female.
10. “Defrocking” isn’t always the solution. The press’ insistence that offender priests should have been laicized earlier overlooks two important facts: The normal first step, called “suspension,” which bishops are instructed to take in these cases, removes a priest temporarily or permanently from ministry so that he no longer will be a danger to children. And once a priest is laicized, the Church can no longer monitor his activities and restrict his access to children, so he is at large in society.
11. The Church is taking care of victims. In 2009, the U.S. bishops’ conference reported that $6.5 million was spent on therapy for the victims of clergy sexual abuse.
12. The Church is “the holy people of God,” and yet her holiness is imperfect. As the Catechism states, “The Church, clasping sinners to her bosom, at once holy and always in need of purification, follows constantly the path of penance and renewal. All members of the Church, including her ministers, must acknowledge that they are sinners. In everyone, the weeds of sin will still be mixed with the good wheat of the Gospel until the end of time. Hence the Church gathers sinners already caught up in Christ’s salvation but still on the way to holiness” (No. 827).
Article from the National Catholic Register (Click here to read at site) ©
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Posted by Paul Sposite on April 20, 2010 in Catholic, church, Media, news
Tags: About, abuse, Account, activities, Adult, allegations, American, Andrew, April, Archbishop, article, articles, Association, avoidance, background, Benedict, Bishops, Brown, cases, Catechism, Catholic, child, children, christ, church, clerics, Click, college, comments, conclusion, conference, context, correspondent, Criminal, crisis, danger, depth, Dolan, Editors, employees, environment, establishment, events, extent, father, friends, From, Garth, Gleaner, gospel, guardian, Hopkins, horror, huffingtonpost, insistence, interaction, John, Johns, justice, knowledge, Lead, Leland, Longenecker, longer, male, Margaret, McHugh, Medical, members, million, ministry, National, Newsweek, Nobody, offender, organizations, path, Paul, penance, period, person, policy, pope, priest, priests, protection, purification, Rattray, Register, rehabilitation, renewal, reports, researcher, salvation, Scandal, scandals, scrutiny, Seminarians, Sexual, Should, sinner, sinners, Smith, solution, Support, suspension, therapy, Timothy, tragedy, Unusual, Vatican, victims, York