I think the experts agree that compulsory clerical celibacy is not a DIRECT cause of priests sexually abusing children and adults.
The majority of priests do not sexually abuse either children or adults.
The percentage of priests sexually abusing children is way under 10%.
But in my view compulsory celibacy is a contributing factor to sexual abuse by priests.
If you force everybody – (400,000) in a particular walk of life to avoid the normal, adult and consensual outlets for the powerful human sexual drive, you are in the business of creating “monsters”.
Celibacy is a God given gift given to the very few.
You cannot impose that “gift” on all without creating havoc.
Another contributing factor to turning priests (and others) into abusers is to give people, from an early age, an extremely skewed understanding of human sexuality.
This makes sex dirty and turns some men into dirty men.
This skewed understanding of sex includes:
1. That the body is bad and the soul is good.
2. That normal sexual imaginations and fantasies are impure thoughts.
3. That masturbation is self abuse, self pollution etc.
4. That God intended sex for procreation purposes alone.
5. That same sex attraction and love making are disordered and mortally sinful.
Traditional RCC teaching has played a significant role in producing sexual deviancey and sexual deviants.
For a long time now RCC schools, colleges and seminaries, have been producing sexually disabled individuals.
If you teach that the beautiful gift of human sexuality is a monstrous activity unworthy of the Kingdom of God, you create monsters like Brendan Smyth and Ted McCarrick!
The RCC, as a centuries old “anti sex factory” has produced many sexual land mines!
And today, they are exploding internationally!!!
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 
110 replies on “FACTORS “CONTRIBUTING” TO SEX ABUSE BY PRIESTS.”
There needs to be an independent inquiry into the Maynooth Seminary Trip to Prague. Multiple accounts of sex and drug abuse while on this so called soccer trip.
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Pat do you have the list of personnel and Maynooth Staff who went on this excursion to Prague.
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Iceland and Poland
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There are many fine churches there, and museums with beautiful old vestments, chalices, patens, missals, hymnals, mss. Most likely that was their focus. 😀
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Liar. Put your name to this so action can be taken!
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Calm down dear
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Scary times with the Maynooth witness statements 😳
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Which trip to Prague? It is a near annual thing after all. And do they still look for charitable donations to fund it?
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Irish Taoiseach/Prime Minister Michael Martin has confirmed that the Irish government will engage with victims to identify the best way forward for a victim led inquiry.
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6:29 Hope he has contacted Vatican about footing the bill for the inquiry and redress scheme. No reason why Irish taxpayers should have to cover more costs for problems created by paedophile teacher priests. Church can easily fund Inquiry & compensation scheme by selling some empty church buildings and deserted presbyteries.
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12:02 how many seminarians?
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Close it down. Maynooth is unfit for purpose, Irish Bishops send new recruits to European seminaries now to reduce risk of claims for attacks on trainee priests.
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12:02 Soccer my arse. Everyone knows the type of balls Maynooth are interested in chasing.
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Ask Chris Derwin or Stephen Wilson
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Spot on as always.
And apart from abuse we know the vast majority of priests do not achieve the perfect celibacy which is required, even the ones that try to. So when you see a priest, you already know he’s living a lie, and that’s a magnet for all sorts of trouble.
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This blog about sexual practices seems to acknowledge the parameters of its expression, and its normality
The RCC however, seems curtailed within its traditional self grandiosing perspective, and will inevitably decry anything beyond its usual self serving mantra like wholly restrictive perspective.
Surely it’s a cause for reflection whether the (questionable) writings (of much disputed origins) should reasonably produce requirements so contrary to common everyday experience.
If I we’re an objective external enquirer I’d find little to persuade me towards the RCC.
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Ophelia: like your perspective, and particularly references to “questionable writings of much disputed origins.”
These references go to the heart of the whole Christian shibboleth.
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Clergy break the Sixth Commandment and apparently God didn’t give it to the rest of us? Also these “land mines” go off all the more when the critical prayer quotient falls too low. Holy Mother was sleep walking when She didn’t teach that praying was meant to be the most important component in “aggiornamento”. “Eucharist” isn’t prayer.
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Sadly the church is a magnet for clerical and non clerical types with a thirst for anti social, criminal and abusive behaviour. More issues than tissues types. Wolves in sheeps clothing protecting their ill gotten gains.
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Spot on Noreen.
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My daughter in law came from a family with notions, nothing less than a private education that she did nothing to pay for would do for her kids. In comparison, my other grandchildren educated in the State system are more rounded and obviously better equipped for life. Our family hope that there isn’t any sinister reason for the peculiarities that my privately educated grandchildren have developed in those secondary school years. Of course, we cannot say a word as she thinks the sun shines from the bottoms of the clergy and the arrogant types she likes to chase, sadly she wasn’t brought up to think for herself.
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Think church, think abuse, think “steer clear & report” & keep yourself and others safe.
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8:24 Horses for courses, Stephanie, some types are into that sort of thing.
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I’m just glad they wear funny collars so you can see them coming and keep your kids away.
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10:27 be more vigilant, they don’t all wear funny collars, some wear skirts disguised as old crones.
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Does that apply to Pat?
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11:15 Those ones still have funny collars though. Usually leather ones with studs.
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Most people don’t care whether priests are allowed to marry or not – at this stage it’s all a farce, why should they be accommodated with permission to marriage when they deliberately and proactively continue to deliberately wrong and abuse victims and survivors deceased and living. They can shove their synods and their sick and twisted lay volunteers and foot soldiers where the sun don’t shine as well. Shower of cover up merchants and slime balls who should settle their debts and get lost. They had their chance and they’ve blown it with revelation after revelation minute by minute across the world on an hourly basis. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
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8:35 Mary, you are seriously taking the biscuit this morning. Sure we all know ye secretly took the soup and probably ate the neighbours & their dogs back in the day.
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There’s also the chronic problem that they deny this reality and the reality that your bullet points one to five dictate their world view.
They have to deny them because those five points contain a Christian heresy, and yet they both live lives suffused with this heresy and deny they do.
That’s right Roman Catholicism is an early Christian heresy but denies it is.
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The Church has always attracted the darker types, sadly now that’s all that is left with the exception of the odd lost straggler with nowhere better to go and nothing better to do. A wasted life is a sad life. A life dedicated to abusing human rights & repeated exhibitions of hatred and abuse of vulnerable children and adults is criminal and deserves to be called out.
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Just read Martel and Eliot
Homosexuality, Hypocrisy, Child Abuse and Celibacy a heady mixture to be sure – mixed into the cauldron of money and power creates a prefect storm of mutually assured destruction and the relentless decline of Catholicism in the West and especially Europe.
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The White Chasubles are Beautiful and more so today Our Lady’s Saturday as it is a Feria day so most clergy offer it for Our Blessed Mother.
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If you’re looking for a critical factor, look here.
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PSA anything coming from a source with ‘Catholic’ in the title (the ones who believe a virgin conceived) is unlikely to be critical in any way.
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…. and this is the kind of tosh that now believes it is justified by the election of Broglio: https://www.catholicleague.org/archbishop-broglio-speaks-the-truth/ ….”The fact is the clergy sexual abuse crisis was caused overwhelmingly by homosexual priests, and attempts to deny this verity are intellectually dishonest.” Expect more of this. I guess it will be either keep our heads down, or fight back. I know which I prefer. You ?
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Broglio’s a bit of sweetie himself, you know, all primped and coiffed. And spending all that time with the military, he must be in heaven ! I think we already know that the more someone protests about homosexuality and the more they focus on and blame others, the more it says something about what is lurking in their psycho-sexual make up, and the huge efforts that go into denial and transference. Oh dear, he must be hiding so much.
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Did Jesus condemn homosexuality?
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’81 percent of the victims were male, and 78 percent of them were postpubescent. ‘ If true, this means that ‘kiddy fiddlers’ means mostly ‘men having sex with teens’ which at one time was pretty ok in gay culture and
in the more liberal sexual culture of the 1960s and 1970s.
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Correction from yesterday ..
No one was flung out of Archbishop Emeritus Conti’s Requiem Mass as it was very moving as his death was sudden and not expected.
Bella if you think it was your “you know who” he was stewarding and all in attendance was invited .
You can watch it on Being Catholic TV and you will see your Des MaGuire in full flow 🙂
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Reply to Glasgay
I too was at the funeral of Archbishop Conti yesterday and it was moving and the singing was beautiful. I did not see anyone being ejected either although to be fair the writer yesterday said the ejection was from the wake afterwards.
The number of clergy and indeed the congregation wasn’t as big as I expected. Perhaps the weather played a part in that as many parts of Scotland were badly hit.
An amusing moment for us in the pew was when the coffin carriers turned around the wrong way with the casket and were about to head off in the wrong direction. Someone joked that they thought Mario was being taken back out the side door to the office!
Both my wife and I were surprised at the choice of undertaker. I know that Mr Docherty who the Archdiocese normally went to for these occasions has sadly passed now but the authorities in the Archdiocese mustn’t know too much about his replacement.
May Archbishop Mario rest in eternal peace and rise in glory.
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So who is “you know who”?
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I agree that celibacy in and of itself is not a direct cause of clerical sexual abuse, as it is also true that homosexual orientation is also not a direct cause (although the new president of the US bishops’ conference Broglio seems to think that effeminate and gay priests are the reason for clerical sexual abuse scandal – https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/editorial/editorial-bishops-culture-warrior-choice-mistake). It is true, as you point out + Pat, that sublimating and frustrating the natural sexual energies, and demonising and making sinful pretty much any expression of sexual energies, by the Church and Catholic thought, sets up a culture and atmosphere where those pent up energies will find another way of expressing themselves, and we see this in all kinds of clerical behaviours – alcoholism, anger, bullying, control, sex obsession, manipulation of people and authority etc. One very clear connection between the crimes and sinfulness of clergy, most especially sexual abuse of children and the vulnerable, comes from that clerical culture that has been allowed to exist, namely a sense of not being accountable and not having to explain. We see this so often with clergy in their autocratic behaviour and their refusal to be gainsaid. They think of themselves as unaccountable. It is only a small step to moving to doing things that they know / think they will never have to answer for. Add that to the toxic mix of clerical behaviours and culture that is being reference today in this blog, and you have one more reason why so many clergy allow themselves to behave in criminal, sinful, and egregiously wicked ways towards some of the most vulnerable. Of course, picking on the most vulnerable is part of the story, because clergy think that they will cowed and bullied in to not saying anything. Until, of course, they come face to face with brave and courageous survivors who do tell their story. And then it all came tumbling down for the clergy and the Church ! (By the way, there is an increasing awareness of bullying by clergy in the Church, and some notable recent examples that have come to light, with more to come. Some clergy may well be having their Priti Patel or Dominic Raab moment soon ! )
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Where are the Glastonbury Monks?
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Since it has been publicly announced that their monastery is suspended and they are discerning their future I am sure they will tell you if you have the manners to ask them on social media.
Oh look, you could ask Bede Rowe via Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/bederowe/?hl=en
But you don’t actually want to know, do you?
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They’ve set up at a boys school – College International 96 rue du Calvaire
85250 Chavagnes-en-Paillers, France. Not sure how that works? A Clifton Diocesan founded monastery in France.
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It’s not suspended. Their website says they are in France at a boys’ school and do their monkery in the college chapel.
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Running a b&b together in Blackpool. They have thrown the towel in and decided to live out in the open.
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You mean ‘thrown the maniple in’, surely.
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They’re currently residing at Chavagnes International College and can be contacted by post by writing to that address. They will be delighted to hear from any former parishioners.
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Delighted to hear from former parishoners? Yes.
Delighted to hear from stalkers? No.
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2.12pm there are no stalkers on this site. Bishop Pat wouldn’t allow poor behaviour on this Christian blog.
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@12.21 pm
Then why don’t they say ‘Hello’ to people on the blog.
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12:21 schools and colleges riddled with deviant clerics & their lay cover up merchants.
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@10.07 am
Joined the SSPX
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Jesus and his Blessed Mother wept at such an evil Church.
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Oh dear, the likes of Broglio in the USA will now have the means to weaponise their homophobia and warped understanding of human sexuality, and will not doubt choose it as an issue for the US Catholic Church in its ongoing and ultimately idiotic culture wars policy. It was bad enough under Gomez and his obsession with abortion. I think Francis will have to step in at some stage and knock a few heads together and pull them in to line. Broglio’s election is NOT GOOD NEWS !
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You don’t believe in collegiality.
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10:14 I think it is, because it will help finish the church off. They’re busy blaming everyone except their own attitude for their sex crisis and the less the leadership understands sexuality the faster the scandals will come and the decline with them.
And all the time they’ll be blaming abortion, the sexual revolution and the new rite of mass (I know, right?).
Of course governments could and should step in to control this dangerous organization but absent that, they’re just going to have to carry on. 😱
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The automatic association in the popular mind is RC priest= paedophile.
The question is not whether this is accurate but what kind of man would go in for a profession so commonly assumed to be child abusers.
Hint: the words paedophile and ring have a relationship.
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I am a Priest, yes I may have taken a vow of celibacy, but I do not practice it. I would suggest to fellow clergy to rip up the rule book regarding celibacy. Go on holiday, make love, do your thing.
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Just go and get a check up when you come back. You don’t want that itch back again, do you…. ?
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11:07. Sounds like you know all about that itch. Speaking from experience? I can! Join the club.
I first got it @24, about 1968, and another time, about 1984. In ’68 it was quickly treated with medication. 2.nd time I left it too long, (circumstances!), and developed Reiters syndrome arthritic lower joints swelling requiring hospitalisation and knee joint surgical drainage plus max antibiotics. No subsequent bother and ran many marathons.
So I post this as advice to anyone who ‘develops the itch’ ( urinary tract infection). Get treatment ASAP!
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10.30: Of course you’re not really a priest…are you, fool? Any of us can print your caca under anonymous.
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imbroglio
noun
im·bro·glio im-ˈbrōl-(ˌ)yō
plural imbroglios
1
a
: an acutely painful or embarrassing misunderstanding
b
: SCANDAL sense 1a
survived the political imbroglio
c
: a violently confused or bitterly complicated altercation : EMBROILMENT
d
: an intricate or complicated situation (as in a drama or novel)
2
: a confused mass
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Very clever ! Im – broglio – too bright to be a cleric 🤷🏾♂️
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You should advertise this blog in the papers, standard lay men (& women) could have invaluable information for you and expose Priests
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We are all gods creatures, ask yourself – do you kill spiders? Repent! Repent!
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Celibacy should always be a choice
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It is a set of choices. These are: applying to a seminary; taking up a place there if offered one; applying in seminary for reader, acoylte and ordination to diaconate and priesthood; making public promises to the ordaining bishop. None of these are compulsory. There is no conscription. Those who don’t like it or can’t do it shouldn’t apply and they can leave at any time, prior to or after ordination.
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But they don’t leave, 2:18, until they appear on here and/or in court. Do try to keep up .
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6:13 clergy & co rarely jump before they are pushed. It’s a handy number.
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Reply to;Colm McBridesays:
Nov 19, 2022 at 12:14 pm
Don’t be foolish!
It is whatever lifestyle the want, those straight or queer guys and, gals do precisely as they wish. No restrictions whatsoever. Common sense dictates, celibacy is likely to be impossible to follow, irrespective what the they tell you, or have you believe.
More fool anyone who thinks it is observed by Roman Catholic clergy, they will get their fix any which way, no different from the rest of us really.
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After 40 years in ministry, I can now say in all sincerity and truth that I have maintained my commitment to priesthood as best I can and continue to do so, despite the Church’s horrendous abuse crises. I am a victim/survivor of two years sexual abuse from 13 to 15 years of age…How I got through my life without ever disclosing such is a miracle. It made me fight against any abuse, injustice or wrong or bullying which I witnessed in my 40 years plus. Perpetrators were admonished or reported by me. Be that as it is, the clericalism which was the culture of my early years (which is still present) and the hierarchy of power and authority have contributed to a very particular way of living your humanity…We were told to be strong, never give up, be faithful: we were literally to bury our emotions and sexuality: offer it up as celibacy requires 100% commitment, deny your temptations, confess them. Celibacy was “the” ideal. Gradually as I lived out ministry it was impossible not to be drawn to some people by way of friendship and interaction. I befriended many couple friends – many have died since those days but they sustained me humanly, spiritually and emotionally. It was so refreshing to be enriched by their wonderful lives. In fact, apart from some close colleagues since college, the “laity” have helped me remain a priest. The shenanigans, sneakiness, Machiavellianism and power struggles among clergy forced me to make up my mind to literally live “priesthood” outside of all of this as I saw that it was a recipe for unhealthy living at every level. Not easy to do but I refused many offers of “power/titles” so as to sustain my humanity. My focus in being a priest was to work with and for people in parishes I was sent to. The crazy expectations of celibacy, the very twisted teachings about human sexuality and harsh, unforgiving judgments and condemnation of “disordered” people have cause much corruption, disillusionment and aberrations of egregious behaviour within the clerical ranks. Many priests have been very inspiring for me in their dedication, personal holiness, humanity and kindness, thankfully. But when we hear the litany of cleric abusers now being named on a daily basis, their crimes of ABUSE are looking like a holocaust. All the nonsense of clerical titles along with celibacy, unaccountability, deceit, cover ups and complete disconnect from the real world of people’s daily lives, pains and sufferings have contributed to a very broken priesthood. It requires a deep, deep trust in God to stay….To be true to the gospel of Jesus only, while sounding a “cop out” is a way of surviving with hope.
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What an inspiring comment. You truly sound like a devout priest within the Armagh diocese. It is admiable that you are fighting the good fight. Your reward will truly be great.
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His comment starts with a mental reservation: ‘maintained my commitment to priesthood as best I can’.
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Anonymous @ 2-13
You are a keen observer of the Glasgay archdiocese.
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I have sent you the names of two priests who are having sex together for many years. Had you heard about this before?
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6.12: If I have a mental reservation, so what? Try to respond meaningfully and more discerningly.
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6:39 I refer you to the points in today’s blog post if you want meaning.
You won’t understand it though. 😂
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I don’t know how you all get away with not being celibate. I would be too scared of getting caught.
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Noel Treanor loves hiding gay active priests in D&C. It’s like a game for him.
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8.08: You’re rather superciliously silly!
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It would be interesting to hear Robert nugents views on this. The man is obsessed with young men having sex or masturbating.
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I doubt Robert is giving this much thought today. He’s busy rocking the foundation of the Irish catholic church and declaring that today, in Derry, Irish church history will be made – (his words, not mine)
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Robert is full of shite mate
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Agreed.
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No Robert is not obsessed with masturbation. But you seem to be obsessed with him
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I have slept with 4 Priests in my lifetime and I met them all on Grindr, Gaydar and Squirt. One of them is a massive risk taker and really does not give a fuck if he is caught or not.
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Is this risktaker from Tyrone?
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There is a lack of truthfulness about how homosexuality is the most important contributing factor to child abuse not celibacy. Gay men know all about predatory men, twinks, father son role play, rent boys etc to pretend that all homosexual men are only ever attracted to men over 18 who give consent and what to get married is a joke and every gay man knows it but won’t admit it because it’s not the version that seems to be admired at the moment
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I do not think it fair or accurate to say most gay men want sex with males of 11 – 17
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I for one do not, I prefer older men, hairy and wrinkles
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Rory Sheehan has been in a relationship with a man for years and nobody cares nor does anything about it. Live and let live ya all
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6:36 many Irish priests are in relationships & arrangements, nobody cares as long as the paying sheep don’t find out. Baaaa.
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Oh don’t worry about Rory, it’s in the family, his cousin has been in a relationship with a fellow clergyman, cross dioceses, for years. Dromore&D&C
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6.18: Up in which academic research have you drawn your homophobic and ignorant conclusions about gay men? Be honest. Give references, not your learned ignorance.
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Pat how did you become a multi millionaire?
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😊😊😊😊😊
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Pat you won the lotto when you met Eduardo. May you both have a lovely Saturday night x
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I have fell in love with a Priest, he is the most amazing and kind man I have ever met. He does not feel the same way, and does not know I feel this way for him. Priests get an awful hard time on this blog, they all are not bad you know.
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Sexual frustration was not the cause of the abuse. Clerical status horrifyingly gave paedophiles access to children, in a way that allowed them to hide their real motives.
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Celibacy is not the norm in Killaloe Diocese. We have seen Fr. Ger Fitzgerald antics, Jerry Carey’s liitle day drip to Galway..Fr. Niall Dargan and Rawhide in Roscrea Abbey Kitchen.. Then Fr. Arnold Rosney and what he is up to with married women in Shannon, much the same as Frs. Harding and Treacy in Roscrea. I am losing hope. Bishop Fintan just grins on and ignores it all. Don’t we have a great little diocese and church altogether..
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8:46 Fr Rosneys women are all gagged. You’ll never be able to prove anything there. The remainder of those Killaloe priests are off the radar elsewhere. Only those who need to know know. You can check if Fr Carey is actually on sex offenders register.
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This is a very sinister response.’only those who need to know know’ doesnt that really sum up the RCC.. cover up.. secrecy.. denial.. Bishop Pat you need to investigate what ‘Fr. Rosneys women are all gagged’ means? Is this bullying? Non disclosure clauses? Intimidation.. we need tp know what + Fintan is up to..
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12.20 I agree with you wholeheartedly…what is going on?
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9.46 Bishop Fintan is ‘busy’ trying to alleviate poverty and injustice in developing countries on behalf of Trocaire (See his latest article in the latest The Clare Champion). Wouldn’t it be nice if he looked after poverty and injustice in his own Diocese?
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Uncle Ted has written his memoirs.
https://twitter.com/FraterAsinus/status/1591436110135283712?t=TBVmYtZLCIDT8LHjxO_TVQ&s=19
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Pat, the Derry Men’s Prayer Day and Eucharistic Adoration organised by Robert Nugent has been a resounding success. About 1000 men attended. That surely is a miracle. Though I don’t agree with much of Robert’s videos and content I was hoping and praying that this day would be well attended. It was and I do believe that Robert can lead men in a spiritual pathway of renewal. God bless his efforts and commitment. The very act of men praying together is a wonderful witness to give.
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Vox Populi, Vox Dei
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