Leon J. Podles :: DIALOGUE

Although the abuse that has been revealed in Germany is neither as widespread or as deeply corrupt as the abuse that was revealed in the U.S. and Ireland (let me simply say that some priests found novel uses for the Eucharist and the crucifix), the revelations in Germany have shaken the Vatican more than the [...]

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As the Murphy Report noted, church discipline in Ireland was almost totally neglected in Ireland. In thirty years only two canonical trials were held, and these were held in opposition to the chief canonist. 
The Roman Catholic Church sometimes suffers from legalism, to which voluntarist moral theology and casuistry contributed. But law has a place in [...]

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Nightmares are a hazard of those who investigate child abuse, and one of the most potent sources of the nightmares is the explicit sacrilege that is sometimes, perhaps often, involved in the abuse. Some abusive priests have dressed boys as Jesus and then assaulted them.
 
Bishop Lahey not only had child porn on his computer (bad [...]

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As I noted in my book, Catholic bishops uniformly failed to get angry when they heard that a priest had defiled a child, often in the church itself. I examined this failure at length in my book Sacrilege, especially on pp. 465-471. 
The bishops have failed to heed the warning of St. John Chrysostom: “He who [...]

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We shall see whether Canadian police have any record that confirms that in 1989 Earle told them about Lahey’s possession of child pornography. At that time, the possession of child pornography was not a crime in Canada, and the police may therefore not have made any record, even if Earle in fact told them.
 
Lahey’s [...]

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Michael Deacon unearthed Polanski comments about the crime he committed: 
Polanski told Martin Amis: 

“If I had killed somebody, it wouldn’t have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But… f—ing, you see, and the young girls. Judges want to f— young girls. Juries want to f— young girls. Everyone wants to f— young girls!”

When [...]

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If I may quote from my 1998 book Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church:

Both literary critics for whom transgressive is a word of praise and whose hero is the Marquis de Sade, and psychologists who desire an ever-expanding field of sexual; liberation put forward the idea that sex with boys is the next area [...]

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The future Dr. Svensson of Sweden

One possible source of the Vatican’s lax attitude to sexual abusers in the clergy is that the Vatican is staffed by Europeans who consider America’s harsh punishments of crime barbaric.

Sweden, the New York Times reports, has a convicted neo-Nazi murderer in medical school.

Mr. Svensson…was convicted in the 1999 hate [...]

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The headline of the NYT article says it all: Its Population Falling, Russia Beckons Its Children Home.
The United Nations predicts that the country will fall to 116 million people by 2050, from 141 million now, an 18 percent decline, largely because of a low birthrate and poor health habits.
Abortion and contraception are entrenched in [...]

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The Vatican and the Legion of Christ have decided to maintain a discrete silence about Maciel. Perhaps a further statement will be forthcoming, as promised, or perhaps the Vatican and the Legion count on the short attention span of the public.

The Legion has admitted that Maciel fathered a child in his old age and was [...]

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One of the few legitimate complaints about the way the press has handled the clericals sex abuse accusations is that there is a double standard for clerical and non-clerical abusers.
Roman Polanski fled the United States after being accused of having intercourse with a 13-year-old girl. He admitted the act, but said he didn’t know she [...]

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Doctors are held to a higher standard than priests are. The National Post reports: 

A surgeon who engaged in sexual acts with four women who came to him for weight loss surgeries, including twin sisters, had his licence revoked today.
Dr. Jacobo Joffe, who practiced out of Scarborough Grace hospital, pleaded no contest to allegations of sexual [...]

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Some Americans praise the more sophisticated European attitude to sexuality. The fuss about the Palin pregnancy, or about Clinton’s affairs, would be unimaginable in Europe.
The Catholic Church hierarchy in the United States is heavily influenced by Europe: rising stars among the priesthood were educated at the North American College or at other European seminaries [...]

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Bishop Fisher, the youthful bishop who is the organizer of World Youth Day, has demonstrated by his remarks what bishops really think. We learn from this article and this article  in The Age:
The bishop organising World Youth Day, Anthony Fisher, made the remarks in response to questions about two Melbourne women who were repeatedly raped [...]

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I have been mulling over the comments that Benedict has made about sexual abuse. His public acknowledgment of the evil of abuse, his acknowledgment that it was badly handled, and his meeting with victims were far more that John Paul II could bring himself to do. When one cardinal begged John Paul to make a [...]

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