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In Reply to: Re: To whom it may concern: marina, ssam, etc. posted by Observer on June 16, 2002 at 08:49:06:
Ok, bear with me as I brainstorm here a bit:
let us look at numbers: I was recently looking at stats and according to those, if you count all the priests in the Catholic church and then count all the molestation charges, you come up with a half of 1% of these guys who are offenders. I say, since a lot of molestation goes unreported let us make that even a 1% or more.
Now let us look at society and the percentage or attempted percentage of pedophiles. Again, most of the cases go unreported...can someone...Rocky help me with that? What is the assumed percentage based on actual samples and inferential stats?
Then let us look at the Family and let us pick a period of time. We know how many males members are/were there approximately. There are some polls on movingon.org that could be used to try to extrapolate some very tentative stats on percentages?
Is the percentage of pedophile acts in the F higher than in the Catholic church? You want to know MY opinion? YOU bet it IS, or was.
First of all Berg was a pedophile. Second, the would be creeps lived in homes with children around all the time. So opportunity was ever present.
Third, it was either encouraged, (in some areas) or in some areas in many ways not DIS-couraged. I never got that until too late, because I was not "close" to the mind of a pedophile. Once I became acquainted with that kind of mind, I understood that a lot of hints and seemingly gray loopholes that meant nothing to me, meant a lot for people who had that 'sexual preference' and were lobbying for it. I mean, you'd have to be one of them to know what they are looking for.
I learned all of this once it got close to me. Too close indeed. I am writing my account of this soon to post it here.
The pedophiles I have known in my life were all married (and with children). I have known some gay people and have gay friends. I think homosexuality and celibacy do not have much to do with pedophilia IF we intend for pedophilia the sexual liking or preference for PRE_PUBESCENT children. That is, boys AND girls. For such a person, it is not so important, what is important is that they be *prepubescent.* They are not as attractive to them AFTER that period.
Many ppl instead who are attracted to adolescents, or young adolescents, seem to be consistent with their 'preference' as well. At least in my case, a few guys I have known to be offenders liked one of these 2 age groups. Now, I understand there may be creeps who like BOTH, but again we need serious and factual data. We could look into it.
All of this to say, that YES, there are many gay men attracted to the priesthood, but being gay does not make one a pedophile MORE than if they are heterosexual.
Look at Berg. Look at some of the worst offenders in the F. (And speaking of Berg and his household, I don't know about Alf, but I have heard from many the guy is as gay as you can get. I have not heard of him molesting children. Perhpas Ricky could shed light on this.)
Of course in the Catholic church you ONLY have single men, so you have to look at the body at large. The statistics we can use do not tell us that there are MORE offenders in the gay category. What I have observed in my life (in Italy and here) does not tell me that. If some gay men like young adolescents, that does not make them different from the other heterosexuals who like young adolescent girls. It does not 'prove' anything. I think this prejudice and judgemental attitude is a trip of the Judeo Christian system of 'ethic' and it has not done anybody any good, at least in the realm of preventing acts of pedophilia.
I am speaking as a woman who had her daughters sexually assaulted by a guy who had ALSO assaulted young boys. I just think it is important to try to be fair and not have 'religion' and a certain brand of christianity become the opiate agent of our discussion here. I also wish we had some gay ex-members here to represent themselves as well in this conversation.
