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PRIEST WHO ABUSED SEMINARIAN SENTENCED

San Diego Seminarian Receives Justice as Jury Convicts Abuser Priest

Bishop Robert McElroy ordered Father Juan Garcia Castillo be removed from ministry permanently following the conviction for sexually assaulting one of the San Diego diocese’s seminarians.

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San Diego, Calif. — A California priest was convicted Monday of sexually assaulting a seminarian. After his conviction, Father Juan Garcia Castillo will be listed on California’s sex offender registry, and could face up to six months of incarceration.

During a week-long trial, the San Diego seminarian assaulted by Father Castillo testified that the priest approached him Feb. 4 in a restaurant bathroom and groped his genitals twice.

The assault followed a night in which Father Castillo took two seminarians to a bar and restaurant after an event at St. Patrick’s Parish in Carlsbad, where the priest served as parochial vicar. The seminarian said they had several drinks, and that Castillo encouraged him to drink to excess.

The seminarian testified that he went to the bathroom sick after midnight, and that Father Castillo approach him from behind and groped him.

In September, a spokesman for the Diocese of San Diego told CNA that the diocese had not publicly commented on the allegations because “we need to see what happens to the criminal case because the issue of consent is so important and if it’s not clear, we wait for that to get made clear.”

Father Castillo’s defense did not address consent, but instead denied that contact between the men was sexual.

The priest told jurors Dec. 14 that when he touched the seminarian, he was trying to put pressure on the man’s stomach in order to help him stop vomiting, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Father Castillo told jurors he put one hand on the seminarian’s back and then “tried to put my other hand on his stomach.”

“My mom always put pressure on my stomach to calm down, stop the vomiting. That’s what I was taught as a kid,” he said. Father Castillo added that he might have “accidentally” touched the seminarian’s genitals, but that he couldn’t recall.

Father Castillo sent text messages to the seminarian after the incident, offering apologies, but not specifying what the apologies were for, San Diego Union-Tribune reported. Father Castillo told jurors he was apologizing for encouraging the seminarian to drink to excess. However, in one exchange, a seminarian accused the priest of “sexually com[ing] on to seminarians.”

Father Castillo responded: “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

A jury decided Dec. 17 that Father Castillo’s contact constituted misdemeanor sexual battery. He is expected to be sentenced within a month.

Father Castillo, who is also known as Father Juan Gabriel Castillo, is a member of the Congregation of Jesus and Mary, a religious community of priests also known as the Eudists. The priest, 35, was born in Honduras, and in 2011 was ordained a priest at St. Patrick’s Parish by Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa.

In a statement released Monday afternoon, Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego said that “upon reviewing the facts regarding the allegation of sexual assault against Father Castillo, the diocese of San Diego removed him from ministry in the diocese immediately and permanently.”

According to the Tribune, the bishop said, “We are deeply saddened by the victimization of one of our students, and the damage to society and the Church that it represents.”

PAT SAYS

It’s good to see, at last, that a powerless seminarian has had the priest who abused him brought to justice

There are a number of Maynooth seminarians who need to bring cases against Irish priests against and bishops.

Hopefully this case will spur them on to approach the Gardai and the courts.

91 replies on “PRIEST WHO ABUSED SEMINARIAN SENTENCED”

What on Earth is there left to say about these so-called ‘men’, Roman Catholic priests?
Parents, PLEASE, for the safety of your children, keep them away from Roman Catholic priests.

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12.52: Magna, thank God parents and guardians are wiser, more perceptive and loving than you could ever envisage. You are a heartless and soulless person. Yesterday, our 4 masses were pretty crowded with lots of children and young people. Tonight and tomorrow my Church along with all churches will be packed. Our children/family mass this evening will be magical as it is every year. Goodwill. Peace. Togetherness. Song, dance and music. Joy. Wonder. Awe. Beauty. Mystery. And apart from these Christ inspired emotions, many parishioners will be kind to their priests expressing gratitude. You are living in a decrepit world of joyless existence, marked by spitefulness, anger and hatred. Perhaps a visit to the CRIB and time in prayer might reclaim some inner humanity and goodness in you. Pat, I hope you won’t allow your blog to be the complete antithesis of Christmas by facilitating the unacceptable ugliness of Magna. I wish you Pat the blessings of Christ.

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9:10
Your remark makes no sense in light of my post at 12:52. How can I be ‘heartless and soulless’ when I express heartfelt concern for children by warning parents to keep them away from people like you, part of a clerical caste that is ripping the heart and soul from the Church.
Tell me, priest: if you are based in Ireland, what did you do when Sean Jones’ bishop ordained him a priest earlier this year, and AFTER he knew of the scandal in which Jones was allegedly involved: posing almost naked on a gay-dating app and looking for a ‘hook-up’, gay slang for ‘casual homo-sex’? What did you do about it, priest? Did you publicly protest? Did you organise your fellow priests to protest this reprehensible decision by Jones’ bishop. For such a man as Jones should not have been ordained. Do you care that a man like Jones has joined your ranks? Do you care the public perception of priesthood that this inevitably created?
Don’t waste your sentinental time, priest, trying to convince me that YOU have heart and soul. You have none. Because you gave it away on the day you were ordained by forsaking Christ in order to obey, more likely than not, a wealthy, very comfortably housed, pampered, and physically bloated man in a mitre.
By the way priest, the crib scene was the creation of Francis of Asissi; it is not historically accurate.
Enjoy your sentimental Christmas priest, because this is all it will be: nothing lasting; nothing personally transforming. In fact, as much a con as you are, masquerading as a disciple of Christ when, in fact, you are pledged to an institution through which unspeakabke evil has entered this world.

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Why this blog allows Magna continue his inciting hatred of priests is incomprehensible. It has been repeated almost every day. On the eve of Christmas we expect good news for once, remembering who lies at the heart of Christmas, Christ. We know the awfulness of the crises within the Church. Can we have some spiritual and prayerful uplift? Hope Pat you will have a blessed Christ-centred Christmas.

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Why is this blog allowing posters to criticise another poster.
Pat , please stop the posts that do this,you promised you would.
Also why do you at 9 .10 refer to the church as ‘’ mine ‘’…you are just the servant there, the church belongs to the people of the parish.
Try your best to leave a Magna out of your posts 9.10…you can if you try really hard
Enjoy your Christmas and leave your fellow posters to post their thoughts.

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10.25: Hatemongers like Magna should be imprisoned. They are morally bankrupt. There should be no place on this blog for such ugliness.

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11:06
And there should be no place on Earth for a criminal organisation which calls itself a church and which has abused and exploited so many children, so many people, for so many centuries.
Keep your children away from Roman Catholic priests; they are a conduit of evil. Their loyalty is not to Christ, but to the criminal empire they willingly serve and which rewards this service, often handsomely.
These ‘men’ have coerced parishoners, through Canon Law, by warning them that they have a grave obligation to support priests’ indolence. They sponge off you, off your kids, and off society. They are a moral and social disgrace.

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1.47: Magna, I have good news for you. Parishioners in our Parish applauded the celebrant tonight for a most enlightening homily. Absolutely brilliant, everything you’d expect from an intelligent, balanced human being, clued in to real life. A man who understands what it means to be a true CHRIST BEARER. I was inspired. Nobody was coerced! All present through free will.

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10:41

It would not just be good news; it would be WONDERFUL news…were it not for the salient fact that this priest, by dint of freely made vow, is commited morally to a criminal institution which has, again and again, sacrificed the physical, emotional, and spiritual welfare of children for the public persona of an institution thst puts itself first, and Christ invariably last.

Sadly, deplorably, these parishoners will discover this if this priest ever has to choose between loyalty to them and the satanic spectre he has ritually undertaken to serve. They will learn the very hard lesson that other Catholics worldwide and devoted to their unfsithful priests were ignominiously forced to learn, at the terrible cost of their sexually abused children.

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10.24: When you choose to listen carefully, when you choose to look beyond this blog, when you observe carefully in many, many parishes, you’ll find priests working for the good of parishioners. If you read carefully some commentators (priests) you’d have understood what priests try to do in the challenges they face in responding to the crises in the Church. All of us as priests must first repent ourselves and be renewed in Christ. But if you choose freely not to accept this truth, that’s your problem, not mine.

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9.10. Patronising post full of self aggrandising.
Good to know that the offending priest has been removed.
Indeed yes all students should be made aware of predators from an early age.

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10.47: You obviously don’t understand the meaning of the word ‘patronising’. Phillistine – get your dictionary.

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Thousands of vocations have been lost to foreign orders and dioceses and many men, who are now priests, had to leave or were ejected from formation mid-stream because of the sheer mayhem that reigned in Maynooth.

Priestly perverts and cranks were given carte blanche by the bishops to run amok and to project their sordid, depraved and unhappy minds onto men who entered Maynooth in order to be formed into other Christs.

Instead of being formed into other Christs, many former Maynooth seminarians have had their faith and good names utterly destroyed. Others have endured psychological wounds that will remain for life. Still others have had their view of Christ and His Church forever bedimmed and sullied.

Notwithstanding this, the obdurate bishops still refuse to recognise that there is a problem with Maynooth despite seminarian numbers, which are now at an all-time low, decreasing year-on-year with a never ending list of complaints and scandals erupting since the time of Michael Ledwith in the 1980s.

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10.46: Nothing at all patronising about 9.10 comment. You’re just being deliberately unkind. It’s simply expressing another reality, often overlooked, and I commend all priests who do their work joyfully and with great commitment against deeply troubling crises within the Church. The priest is obviously a good servant, as many try to be, and does not deserve your snide condescension. Now, off to your Christmas confession…..

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11:11, focus on the blog content and stop pontificating and moralising to others regarding their spiritual life of which you know nothing!

There would be far more priests hearing confessions today if Maynooth was a sane formation house.

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11.11. I suspect you are the same poster and still you patronising.
I believe you couldn’t even if you tried to be civil—making a snide remark about confession.
I’ve been to confession at eastertime.im heading out now to my grandkids house for Christmas relaxation after a year’s hectic work schedule. Happy Christmas.

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So, granddad, you’ve committed no mortal sins since Easter and are in a state of grace for Christmas? Santo subito!

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1.20: What’s got your back up? Enjoy your beers and good times for Christmas. You’re not alone in deserving relaxation. Enjoy…

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You are easily deceived, aren’t you 11:11. And those in turn will easily deceive others.
And so the lies continue to spread.

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5 0 5… never committed a mortal sin in my life
I’m not a grandad either
Expect you don’t approve of women having the ability to post here.

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11.22: I know a great deal more than you about “spirituality”, faith, religious belief and how to practice it than you’ll ever know. I simply make the reasonable and intelligent observation that there are many, many good and dedicated priests in parishes. This truth should be acknowledged. And if such TRUTH is unpalatable to your spiritual/atheistic sensitivities, that’s your problem, not mine. Feliz Navidad! (Happy Christmas). And if course, being the intellugent person I am, I abhor and condemn all abuse, irrespective of the perpetrator, even the abusers on this blog. And I am glad that justice was seen to be done for the seminarian referred to in today’s blog.

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11:55
I second that Bishop Pat. Keep up the great work.
Happy Christmas and best wishes for the new year to you and yours.

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@11:33
It’s highly probable, many convicted clergy, knew about faith, religious belief and how to practice it, as well as ‘spiritually’. So What!
So did the scribes and pharisees of the Gospel! What matters is it’s integration and praxis! We know there are dedicated clergy. Get rid of the clerical chaff.

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“Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.” ― Lao Tzu, Tao Teh Ching.
“A wise man is known by the fewness of his words” (Sextus, Enchidirion, 134 or 145) (Quoted in the 11th degree of humility. Ch7 On Humility, Rule Of St. Benedict)
I admire your drive and passion for Truth 11:33. We are all on the same journey. Revelation is revealed, not by the addition of more. Simplicity.
Happy Christmas.

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@ 12:47;
Tom;
‘Many dumb remain mum for crooks on the run.’
Let there be Light!
Knowledge.
Infinity….
Christmas blessings.

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@ 9:10
How many church’s might victims/survivors worldwide pack?
What emotions might they feel and wish to express;- tears of sorrow, sadness, grief, anger, hatred, mourning loss, rage at institutional church, rage at God, confusion, let down, desire for justice, revenge, alienation, despair, suicidal ideation; I could go on….
So what if numbers are up this time of year in church’s? Is that a sign of renewal or reform or relevance? It’s more likely a sign of spiritual hunger and thirst for the divine,which is intrinsic to humanity, or for some, simply family tradition.
You mention the crib; ironic considering the abuse perpetrated on children ‘..littles ones’. Why hasn’t that imperative of the baby in the crib, not to harm the little ones, been taken seriously by the church?(I’m not going to get an answer to that from a member of the cloth).
What about Jesus on the cross? If anything, that’s where victims/survivors of all age ranges, are more likely to look at in church’s, and more likely to identify with; the suffering Christ.
Why do you need to include in your post, that Magna is what you claim? Are you so sure it’s not a touch of the kettle calling the pot….

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For the abused, churches will trigger post traumatic stress. Every time they go to a wedding, christening or funeral, they will be flooded by feelings of intense fear, shame and rage… And it will never go away. It is now carved on their soul.

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11.45: I accept your comments in response to mine at 9.10. I can assure you I take nothing for granted. I havecreached out to victims/survivors and helped in whatever way possible. I dislike the narrative that priests on the ground don’t care. We do. We are angered as much as you are but and we try to chart a way forward out of the mess. I think it’s legitimate for me or any priest to express other good and positive realities in our parishes. Yes, there is a huge yearning in the soul of people and I will endeavour to speak to that inner hunger through my words thus Christmas. I am not some heartless, unfeeling, detached human being, nor am I indifferent or unempathetic to the emotions or memories evoked for people at Christmas.

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12:03
How are priests on the ground trying to chart a way forward out of the mess?
Practically, for example, do priests ever whislteblow on priests?

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Very good questions, which 12:03 will avoid answering if he can.
These men will not blow the whistle on one another because they are bonded to one another an to the criminal empire they serve, the institutional Roman Catholic Church. Moral cowardice, self-service, self-aggrandisement and self-pity are what characterise Roman Catholic priests.
Morally they are nauseating, but they do a very good line in mawkish sentimentality, especially at Christmas.

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12.33: Yes, I have reported on another cleric for wrongdoing and a serious crossing of boundaries but I wouldn’t satisfy this blog in narrating my action and its outcome. Thankfully, I was heard by relevant authorities.

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I hope that any seminarians, who may have been damaged in Maynooth, get the strength to come forward and report what happened to them, to the civil authorities and the criminal justice system.

Undoubtedly, given reports from other parts of the world, there are also past and present Irish seminarians, who are – were – victims of sexual misconduct by priests and bishops, including faculty and formation staff.

There is clearly something rotten to the core in Maynooth and the unwillingness and/or inability to face it, by the Irish bishops, is very disturbing and doesn’t bode well.

Reports of a priest with responsibility for formation in Maynooth, quizzing seminarians about erections, wet dreams, masturbation fantasies, etc., is absolutely shocking; and the fact that NOTHING has been done to deal with that priest, that he has simply swanned off and is allowed to reinvent himself elsewhere in a religious order, indicates that there is a much deeper malaise.

All that being said, there is no excuse for the vicious madness and indiscriminate hatred of this “Magna Carta” poster(s). Pat, please do something to cool the heels of this Magna Carta or curtail his incessant and obnoxious spewing of venom.

Happy Christmas, Pat.

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12.19 is not a great post
He/ she let himself down by typing hated toward another poster.

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Good comment 12:19.
Yes, many are sick of the indiscriminate hatred of trolls.
Justice for victimised seminarians!

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12:19
Excellent comment. Seminarians abused get together and take action as a group.
There’s power in numbers.

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You are right 12:19.
It is highly indicative, though, that this former “formator” is on the run from himself and others by choosing to join an order at his stage in life and feels he must eschew parish work in this country.

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12:19
Wouldn’t you love me silenced?😅
You hate unpleasant truths about institutional Roman Catholicism, don’t you! Are you one of the clerical caste?
As for spewing hatred and venom, reread your own post: you’ll find plenty of that against me.
Good to know my arrows are hiting so many bullseyes.😅

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12.19: An excellent comment. At the end you express the view of many of us re: Magna Carta. It/he/she just dominates, elicits juvenile, ugly and abusive responses and is mostly always inciting hatred. Pat has been frequently requested to curtail Magna’s vitriol and I feel he has a moral duty to protect us from this onslaught of this unacceptable abuse. I did not attend Maynooth and am disgusted at what appears to have been a place where abuse was /is allowed to happen. I hope all who were abused in any way will be heard and, where relevant be given justice. Having gone through a seminary formation for 6 years towards end of 70’s, early 80’s, I can honestly attest to never having witnessed any sexual abuse of any kind. Yes, we had suspicions about certain overtures, but nothing of any recognisable sexual abuse. I do not doubt that some students may have a different memory than I have. Later in the early 90’s the activities of some became a horrendous scandal. I can only hope that any seminarian who was abused and emotionally and spiritually traumatised by the system will find justice.

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3;29

What about the ‘moral duty’ of clergy to report crime? How many clerics have made their ‘Christmas confession’ as mentioned by a cleric in an earlier post? Why is this rot continuing in Maynooth? Any moral and legal duties on the seminary faculty(s)?
The sooner a public forum is set up in Ireland to make these individuals ( past and present) accountable , the better.

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Magna never incites hatred, but expresses hatred of an institutional priesthood which is doing grave injury to the Body of Christ, by allowing evil to seep, like a moral sludge, into the very sanctuary.

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@3:29;
You’re not likely to have witnessed ‘sexual abuse’, as you call it, in seminary. That doesn’t mean abuse of power, sexual exploitation and compromising students was not taking place.
It’s secretive, furtive and covert.
Seminary authorities are not likely to make students aware of such matters if it comes to their attention or if they’re involved.

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The Mafia’s tentacles reach far and wide 12:19. The Jesuits are rotten to the core. This priest will feel very at home with them.

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Thank you 4:37.

And a very merry Christmas to you, and your loved ones.

May his peace inflame you to do what is right, not what is popular.

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Excellent post, both about Maynooth and how the blog is ruined by MC.
Maynooth was rotten before Ledwith and Francis Cremin wrote about it in the 1970.
The bishops would keep Maynooth open even if there was just one seminarian in it. They have a loyalty to their alma mater, have made it the HQ of the Episcopal Conference and of Trocaire, millions have been spent on it, it earns money and laying off staff would be expensive.
The main reason though is that none of them want Maynooth closed on their watch as it would signify another sea change in the church’s position in Ireland. Maynooth will have a long lingering death until there are no new entrants at all.

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12:19
# METOO/IRISH SEMINARIAN/PAST AND PRESENT.
How dare these people destroy lives and remain unaccountable regardless of who they are or what their position was or is in the church. How dare they.

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I sympathise with you.

‘They’ dare because they can. And they can because the institutional Church pro-actively allows them to and then mothers them when the offend.

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5:21;
Magna, most of these fellows in the Irish church are only minnows in comparison to the McCarricks of this world. He’s had a might fall from grace. Mammys apron strings can be undone.

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5:21
That’s true: those apron strings can be undone. (Well, after a fashion. Consider McCarrick’s very comfortable retirement home and its large grounds. He’ll have a servant or two looking after him for the remainder of his life, supposedly to be spent in, er, prayer and penance. Delightful! Would that Purgatory were this agreeable! Do you think the institutional Church would make similar provision for a lay person? Is Satan a Catholic?)
If those strings can be undone, it is only because another, more forceful hand intervened (media/public pressure). Unholy Mother Church herself will never willingly untie them.

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7:11
Well aware MC, we’ll aware. That’s why mammys apron strings knot is so tight in these isles.
Murphy’s law prevails MC. The McCarricks of this world are shamed, humiliated and disgraced. And before too long he’ll face his maker and have to give an account. I couldn’t give a toss if he’s living in luxury or not. That’s cold comfort and won’t last too long for him. He and his likes have to live with themselves. They too will have to face death….and the music.
Who knows the day or hour?

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9:37

Would you believe Magna if he told you that he has compassion for McCarrick, and for all child-sexual abusers, especially those who are unrepentant? They do not know what awaits them when they pass over should they remain unrepentant. These can, by choice, never be with God.

May our faithful heavenly Father have pity on them, and on their victims. (And I say this as one sexually abused by an older boy when I was around 6 years of age.)

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Ho ho ho hi Not every priest is bad
Pity so many of the good ones have the courage of a Brussel sprout and keep low instead of standing up to be counted hi

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Hope you and yours have a good Christmas MC Some priests are good but lack courage to step into the real world. It’s a scary thought having to fend for yourself. That’s the point I was trying to make (hi)

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Hello Fly on Th Wall @ 7:37.
Ho ho ho…hi- it’s not Brussels sprouts fly, it’s smaller than Brussels sprouts… it’s wee wee marbles fly.

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6:01, oh really? So the Irish boyos are only minnows in comparison to McCarrick? You are either one of them or you have never experienced any of these deviants at close quarters…

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This type of sexual crime against students for the priesthood is probably more widespread than is apparent. I sense it may well be under reported because the future of the student within the seminary and diocese’religious order or congregation is in doubt if these matters are reported.

I refer readers of Bishop Pat’s blog to the recent case surrounding Canon Stephen Shield a priest of the Lanacaster diocese and erstwhile Administrator of Lancaster Cathedral. The BBC report summaries in brief the sex crimes against a seminarian which included drugging the student for the priesthood.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lancashire-25361990

Shield continues to be listed as a serving priest of the Lancaster diocese;

http://www.lancasterdiocese.org.uk/our-people-places/our-priests/

What exactly happens to such “priests’ once they are released from pirson?

Does anyone have further information on this man?

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None…except that Sheild repulses and revolts me.
I hope this priest-coward’s victim finds (What? Who am I to suggest anything?) SOMETHING even resembling peace.

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Pat, as we enter into Christmas, every good wish and blessing. Though I disagree with much of your opinions, you evoke much necessary thought and reflection in my life. Awful at times but necessary. God’s blessings be in all your celebrations..

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