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“OCCULT COMPENSATION” – PRIESTS SWOPPING ADULT SEX FOR KIDDIE SEX

There is a traditional doctrine that allows people who have been unjustly deprived of goods or monies to secretly take the value of those goods or monies from the person depriving them.

The Catholic Encyclopedia defines occult compensation as:

“An extra-legal manner of recovering from loss or damage; the taking, by stealth and on one’s private authority, of the value or equivalent of one’s goods from a person who refuses to meet the demands of justice”.

Their rationale could go something like this:

“I am giving up the possibility of getting married, having sex with my partner and having kids and this major sacrifice allows me to have secret sex with men, women or children”.

And this is a very plausible precisely because the priesthood is a very narcissistic profession, where priests are representatives of God in their districts and are entitled to the reflected glory the faithful shower upon God.

In other words: “If I am a mini god I am entitled to mini worship and mini adoration”.

And: “As God is the owner of the world and everything in it, I as God’s representative, am entitled to a share in God’s ownership of all things and all creatures”.

So, as someone who has sacrificed so much for God and God’s people I am entitled to some pay back.

And as I have sacrificed “normal” sex I am entitled to “occult” sex as a compensation.

And on top of this stinking thinking (an AA term) others in the church, for various other reasons, have not only covered up for abusing priests and have said things like:

“Father is weak”.

“Father has a problem”.

“Poor Father, pray for him”.

And of course this is all part of clericalism that says that priests are biologically changed and become superior to ordinary Catholics and in fact “Alter Christus” – Other Christs”.

This type of thinking was promoted by people like Saint John Vianney, the Cure d’Ars and patron saint of priests who said:

“If I met an angel and a priest on the road I would genuflect to the priest”.

So, for the Cure, a priest is superior to an Angel of God.

70 replies on ““OCCULT COMPENSATION” – PRIESTS SWOPPING ADULT SEX FOR KIDDIE SEX”

The blog renders many great services, but its characterisation of Catholic doctrine isn’t one of them.
The Church’s doctrine about the sacraments of Baptism and Orders rendering ONTOLOGICAL change doesn’t have a biological element. Nor does it entail any claims to moral superiority.
The apocryphal quote about priests and angels predates St Jean-Marie Vianney, and it’s traditionally attributed to St Francis of Assisi.

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The ‘Ontological change’ is a change in our very essence or, if you like, our very being, and is not a physiological change… That is a misconception of Aristotle’s Metaphysics… (remember: we are talking theologically and philosophically here).
It is based on Thomistic (St Thomas Aquinas’) understanding and teaching on theology / philosophy which is based, or reliant upon, ‘Aristotle’s Metaphysics’ (one of his greatest works) — being, existence and reality.
Aristotle taught that everything in the universe has two elements or nature’s: Accidents and substance (Acccidents are subject to change in the physical sense — while substance remaines identical [what we would now call carbon or atoms] until ‘The Ontological change happens). The accidents being tangible to the senses: taste, smell, feel, vision etc. While substance (substance in philosophy or theology actually means Essence: that is the Underlying reality which is Not tangible to the senses.
‘’CCC 1265: Baptism not only purifies from all sins but also makes the neophyte “a new creature,” an adopted son of God, who has become a “partaker of the divine nature,”
At baptism and, indeed ordination, the Ontologicsl change takes place;
So the Ontological change is not reserved for only the priest!!

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The elephant in the room here is that any group holding theological or philosophical views which are as prone to misunderstanding as this ontological change (or the objectively disordered nature of homosexuality as another example which springs to mind), really should make an effort to phrase them in a way which will not lead to these misconceptions.
Either that or provide careful explanations, which since the Catholic faithful don’t show great evidence of understanding these things, suggest the clergy aren’t getting them across.
People who go around using these phrases can only expect to be misunderstood, and it’s their own silly fault.

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5:19am…
I never said it did; in fact, I was attempting to illustrate that it is NOT a physical change—but a mere spiritual and philosophical change of the heart and one’s faith in Christ.
Also, I was noting that—even with use of the of the Catholic Catechism—that it is not just the priest who is subject to this ‘spiritual and philosophical change,’ but ANY baptised person: even the non-Catholic.
The flesh is weak but the spirit is willing, and all that!
I was just attempting to clarify things a little, that’s all.
When we fall in love there is a change within our very essence; when we lose a loved one there is also a change within our very essence.
—— please God, when those victims of abuse are heard and taken notice of, they too, will have a change in their very essence; a change which will allow them to begin the journey to heal, at their own pace —-
I.e. it is not just the priest, Catholic, or even the Christian for that matter, that is touched and shaped by the experiences of life.
I hope this makes a bit more sense.
Love is the very essence of life: and love conquers all! x

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I’m not so sure that ontological change does not have physical effects?

Surely such change is a grace given by God and grace can have physical expression – the grace of healing fixing a physical ailment???

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For sure Anon! Be assured that my comment, time stamped some 4 hours before your own comment was published, was not a criticism of your argument, which is very fine indeed!

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Theologians might justify the taking of goods by call it Occult Compensation.
But when laypeople want to excuse such conduct they explain it away as Kleptomania, which is a mental disability that sadly seems to be particularly prevalent among clergymen.
Perhaps that’s why the Church has dreamt up this theory; as a means of giving it the Okay.

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Lol!
The idea of mental reservation is another one – the world outside calls it a lie, fib, untruth, etc.

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Mental reservation!….My BLOODY ARSE !
Dementia! Or… Barbara calls it selective memory…when I’m a bit…eh…forgetful!!! 😉

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2.10

I’d give up thinking for a time, if I were you. To allow your personal quintessence to recover its due ontological character and integrity, and your personal accidents their lost harmonious interrelatedness. (What a crock has been talked on this blog today by some commentors!😆)

I am NOT Jim Royle (not ‘Royale’, you berk!). And the converse also is true: Jim Royle is not I.

Grow up.

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Pat, as I said: When these victims are listened to and acknowledged, properly, then can they begin to the process of HEALING – healing is a physical expression of grace by default.
‘’Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.’’
—- James 5:14
Also, the physical expression of love is the union of the two – which can also produce life.

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Clerical gobbling is occult compensation for the sacrifice of normal sex! 😂
So many made so great a sacrifice as to cause a tsunami of concern ! 😂
That would be an ontological matter !😂

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Does ‘occult compensation’ excuse clerics implicated in criminal acts on children or vulnerable adults, from accountability, or responsibility, or through moral cowardice or through negligence, in knowingly failing to report such acts by colleagues to civil authorities? How many clerics followed Pope Francis directive, to tell civil authorities if they know of colleagues who abused children or vulnerable adults?
Did any good Priests ‘spill the beans’?
I wonder.

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‘’What a load of site’’
Well, Freud and even the Scholastics and the Enlightenment are all, in surprising part, derived from Aristotelian philosophy and if you think that that is a load of shite then I do not need to say much more.
Yes, the Catholic Church is up its own arse—and is run by dickheads who don’t know their arse from their elbows—but don’t blame that on Aristotle lol.
Can we meet halfway in this one? Lol

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Anon@ 9:33: Thank you for saying what I thought in relation to any gross rationalisation for abuse such as the blog posits for debate. I think it also applies to the comments by Anon@9:31: philosophical/theological gobbledegook!

The only “change” I can see ordination conferring is an exalted sense of self importance and the consequent exceptionalism and clericalism which Anon @9:51 ably shows to be the root cause of so much clerical impropriety.
MMM

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12:08
There’s plenty of those within the professions with an exalted sense of self importance and the consequent exceptionalism and professional fraternilism which is a major factor in much professional impropriety, not to mention obsessive ass covering. Clerics do not have a monopoly on impropriety.

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2.08
Bullseye, MMM!
If we are to talk in terms of ontological change, lets be honest about it. What you mentioned are the actual fruits of this so-called ‘change’. And its effects on priests themselves, and on others, are observable, in particular the creeping damage in the Church done through sexual criminality, and its cover-up.
This ‘change’ is not what clerics would have us believe about them, anymore than was the public image of the institutional Church.
This church has truly been built on a bed of shifting sand: on lies and on deceptions.

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12.08: MMM: I was ordained in the late 70’s. I was taught about “ontological change” but I never experienced any supernatural change. I believed I was ordained to be of service to others. I waited for many years for the effects of ontological change. Never happened, but what did happen was that I quickly learned that the “real, true change” that should be evident in my life was that I should be consumed only with what was of meaningful service and ministry to others. I could never accept a theory, a spirituality or a theology that sets me apart from others. Perhaps I was fortunate that my family kept me grounded. I was very blessed with their wisdom, struggles, fidelity to God and Christian living. I was also very blessed to have spent my fiest 9 years working aalongside a very wonderful priest. He displayed true humility, prayerfulness and committed service. He taught me much about being “relevant” as a priest. I was also very inspired by a parish sister, a returned missionary whose vision, dedication, vibrancy, pastoral management and good people skills made a huge impression during those same 9 years. I agree with you that a particular, elitist perception of priesthood is damaging, disreputable and an abuse of a trust given to us. It is a huge failure of the Church to continue to maintain any sense of elitism or clericalism within priesthood. It is totally against the gospel of Christ. Now, 40 years plus in priesthood, my understanding changes daily and I find great inspiration from the parishioners who ensure I remain somewhat normal. I make a daily decision through prayer to avoid the horror of clericalism. Would I do it all over again? Probably not.

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What….! Occult compensation!…MY BLOODY ARSE!!
DO THEY NOT KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RIGHT AND WRONG!!!
Bloody hell.

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Whatever the theology of priesthood – and much of it is misunderstood, misapplied, and generally mistaken – the end result is that for hundreds of years priests have been formed in to a clerical culture that sees itself as set apart, superior and largely unaccountable. When you do this to young men, you are creating a problem that will eventually come out in their behaviour and the way they exercise their priesthood. This exclusivism and unaccountability is a dysfunction that is at the heart of abuse, and many other clerical dysfunctions. It is woven in to the very clerical DNA. We have seen this week bishops being examined and questioned at IICSA, and what was glaringly obvious was the mould out of which they all came, and their helpless need to do all they could to be loyal to the Church and its reputation at all costs. That is their de facto response to any challenge to the Church, and has been learned from the very first day they entered seminary. We will see more of the same from + Nichols next week. He won’t be able to help himself. So, if the priesthood in some form is to have any future, and if we are to have priests who are healthy, integrated, and holy, then the way that they are trained needs to change. It is the only way. Otherwise we will continue to have clerical clones, trained by previous generations of clerical clones, for ever and ever. Something radical has to be done to change this. And it must start with the way that priests are trained.

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The clergy can believe or disbelieve whatever regarding theology of priesthood.
Their theology of priesthood does not give them the legal or moral right, to abuse children,
vulnerable adults or anyone else, and then cover it up.We are not living in a catholic theocracy.

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I think you must have nodded off during the moral theology lecture in which the topic of occult compensation was discussed. The principle only ever applied in situations where someone had a contractual obligation to pay you an amount of money, or to deliver some goods, and refused to honour his obligation. If enforcing one’s contractual rights by recourse to law was uncertain, costly, and attended by great inconvenience, the principle said that you could be safe in conscience by taking covertly what in justice was your own property. Those conditions were (a) the debt must be morally certain; (b) there must be a serious difficulty in vindicating your right by the ordinary legal process; (c) the principle did not apply if there was a likelihood of your being paid after all; and (d) the occult compensation must be of the same kind of property as the debt incurred. It is pretty obvious that these conditions make it doubtful as whether it could ever be legitimately applied in practice. As the Catholic Encyclopaedia puts it: “It remains, however, that such cases are rare, that it is still more rarely within the competence of the ordinary individual to decide his own case without the advice of a prudent and disinterested counsellor, and that occult compensation should never be advised save in exceptional circumstances, on account of its potency for havoc in the hands of the ignorant or unscrupulous.”

It is also quite clear that the principle of occult compensation in no way applies in the circumstances you describe. No one owes sexual favours to a priest in justice. It is, in fact, the priest who commits a very serious sin against justice, as well as the sin of sacrilege, by taking advantage of his position to solicit sexual favours from anyone, even when the sex is consensual, and a fortiori if it is not. I accept that there may have been individual priests who used the kind of sick rationalisation of their actions that you have suggested, but that is a wholly illegitimate application of a principle which arises only when there is a contractual obligation to pay a debt, and even then applies only in an extremely limited set of circumstances. The suggestion that the principle of occult compensation can be used to justify criminal acts against children and vulnerable adults is so wide of the mark that only “the ignorant or unscrupulous” would ever dare to use it.

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11.37: And your contribution is so amazing that it’s full of brilliant illumination! Are you lost for words? Or perhaps you don’t have a brain….

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Reminds me of a Lee Child novel. A $20,000 judgement was rendered against a wealthyTexas landowner in favor of a poor Mexican family, but the landowner who disdained Mexicans would not pay up. Somehow Jack Reacher got involved. Using his accustomed machinations on the landowner he got the 20 grand for the Mexicans.

Is this an example of occult compensation? Somewhat?

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10:49
The priest commits a serious sin as a well as a CRIMINAL offense against justice, by taking advantage of his position, as does his superior, in knowingly covering up such sinful criminal acts.

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A post last night at 10:19pm links to an RTE report in reference to the Diocese of Raphoe, on foot of a television documentary screened on TG4 Wednesday. Fr. Eugene Green is mentioned in the news report.

Questions;

Did Fr. Green minister elsewhere other than Raphoe?
Are other Dioceses implicated in cover up on Fr. Green?
Were any further cover ups carried out to protect the Church ?

Answers to; Cardinal Parolin, c/o Larne Oratory.

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The night Green was sentenced Bishop Hegarty went to the Green household to comfort them.

He did not go to any victim’s house!

When Green got out of prison the people collected thousands for him to help his new life!

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Hegarty also visited Master McGinleys family as well. F**k the families of the victims.
Btw. Did Greene have a priests funeral when he died. Was there a bishop and a division of clergy in attendance?

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12:53
Am I right in saying, his new life was in a home run by an order of religious sisters in the West Cork/ Kerry region?

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Greene does appear to have been residing somewhere far from Raphoe so your theory may be true. His secretive funeral ( no bishops or concelebrants) was a blessing. His cremation and burial at sea strike me as something like that the US military carried out with Osama Bin Laden! No one has confirmed who carried this professional operation out . The Raphoe diocese were only informed a few months later if they are to believed. A very strange end to a wicked man who caused so much pain and death.

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I think there are a few good priests, priests who have not sold their soul to the RC institution. But they are as scarce as the Corncrake.

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1.57: A few goid priests.. Inky a few? Come on Pat, open your eyes. If by your definition of “good”, yes, very few but in Jesus’s understanding of good, many, many priests. Why are you always so condemnatory, you whited sepulchure?

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I have not met very many good priests in my 49 years in the church.

I have met some very good priests but I do not think I could count them up 100?

By the way I do not claim to be a good priest.

That is for those who have and do encounter to judge.

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A good priest is one who truly believes in the faith he professes, prays regularly, who life is typified by tolerance, compassion, understanding and nonjudgementalism

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A good bishop is one who sees himself as the servant of his people and priests, who lives among those people and not in a palace, who is obedient to God and the Gospels and who has a healthy distrust of the institution he belongs to and puts Love before Law.

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PS My bishop heros are people like Helder Camara of Brazil and Oscar Romero of San Salvador.

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Just sent my card off to Sr. Wragg Appreciation Society, c/o Cardinal Nichols, Archbishop’s House, Ambrosden Avenue, Westminster, London. I said it was good to be one of her many new followers.

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4:48
While Camera and Romero were risking their lives in South America, our Bishops ( moral cowards) were covering up criminal clerical abusers left right and centre. The fall out tsuanmi continues….

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I don’t have any information on him but I understood that JPII made it impossible for any priest under the age of 40 to leave. Or has Francis changed that?

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I watched Finne, the TG4 documentary. Outrageous, outrageous, outrageous!
International paedophile ring was mentioned in the course of that documentary.
Are paedophile rings or networks involving some priests and lay men and women at the heart of the church crisis?
All dioceses North and South in Ireland need investigation. No wonder the hierarchy are mute.

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Occult Compensation. I remember it being called tharse pocket account and in some parts it was known as trousering. Perhaps in the past there was some justification when you compare what priests got in relation to what people contributed and what was expected of them. Weddings and funerals never on time All those wedding breakfasts telling the same old stories and going through the same old laboured conversations. Hi but listen hi. There is no room for abuse or disrespect in anywans mindset but

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Good Night Hi Fly,
Begorra fly the arse pocket account or trousering…all kept below the belt…if only…there’s a good wan.
Aye fly the church is about Jesus Christ not the clergy or abuse or disrespect
but a call to take on the mind of Christ.
Good Night Fly Hi.

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I hate to generalise but the majority of rc priests I have come across have turned out to be self seeking morons

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I don’t have any information on him but I understood that JPII made it impossible for any priest under the age of 40 to leave. Has Francis changed that?

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Pat, comments have been disabled on the most recent post about Fr McCafferty’s views on abortion. Can you fix it please.

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Pat, your article on Fr. McCafferty is not allowing comments….I think you have absolutely no authority to reference the sexual abuse of Fr. McCafferty as an excuse for the views he holds re: abortion and politicians. You have no right to refer to his sexual abuse experience and analyse the effect any trestment or counselling may have had on him. To suggest that he holds conservative views because of his abuse or that being conservative helps him cope better is an utterly ignorant proposition. Fr. McCafferty is of course speaking about those politicians who have no conscience about the deliberate killing of the unborn child, which is what abortion is. We all know that a mother may have to receive treatment for her mental, emotional and physical safety and well being, in the knowledge that she may lose her child. That’s the Principle of double effect and in such instances, doctors try to save both lives. That’s completely different to the killing of the unborn because its presence is inconvenient or may have symptoms incompatible with life and can therefore, at the choice of a mother, be aborted, discarded, even at 20 months. Fr. McCafferty is courageous to challenge Catholic politicians and politicians of other religious traditions. Pat, do not be so condescending as to suggest that Fr. McCafferty is confused morally because of his sexual abuse experience. If anything He has become more aware of the sanctity and dignity of life. He is morally rught to refuse them Holy Communion..Plesse stop trying to distort Fr. McCafferty’s views, moral truth and principles. Yiubshould be applauding him, surely!! Or does courage always mean just going with the flow!! The sacred host is not for murderers or deviants of any kind. We must regain out utmost respect, love and compssdion nor the most fragile. Well spoken Fr. McCaffertty and ignore the “nice” abortionists close to you. Be strong.. No murderer should receive communion without first receiving the sacrament of confession.

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Thank you for your comments Anon@8:07.
As a Humanist I hold the consistent view that I personally see no convincing evidence for a belief in God or religious organisation and practices arising out of such a belief. But I equally hold as legitimate that individuals have the right to beliefs contrary to my own. It is the consequent organisation and practices arising from such faith beliefs that I consider misguided, and the more especially so when these involve all sorts of malpractices of which sexual abuse is the worst example.
I recognise as well that within the practices of religion are to be found examples of what I would call exemplary pastoral care from individuals committed to service, care and concern arising out of deeply held religious conviction. Increasingly evidence appears to be emerging that such exemplary individuals are in a minority. From what you write I think you are probably one of those exemplars. I hope your efforts are appropriately recognised and not debased by less motivated colleagues.
MMM

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