Sex abuse and women's ordination?
Friday, July 9, 2010
By Bryan Cones
Comments (168)
Great news from the Vatican, according to Catholic News Service: New norms against the sexual abuse of children will double length of time a victim has to bring charges from 10 to 20 years after the victim's 18th birthday. It will also extend the penalties for sexual abuse of children to those who abuse the mentally disabled.
Bad news: The new norms will simultaneously add to the list of grave offenses against the sacrament of holy orders the "attempted ordination of women." Seriously?
Why is that bad? First, the "attempted ordination of women" already brings with it automatic excommunication, so making it one of the "delicta graviora" is redundant. Second, it conflates two completely separate issues, and in effect, or at least in the minds of many people who will read the news, seems to equate the "attempted ordination of women" with the rape and torture of children.
Quite frankly, it is an outrage to pair the two, a complete injustice to connect the aspirations of some women among the baptized to ordained ministry with what are some of the worst crimes that can be committed against the least of Christ's members.
Furthermore, if I were a member or supporter of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement, I would be opening a bottle of champagne right now. The Vatican has in effect given legitimacy and momentum to what is still an incredibly tiny movement with this clumsy legal manuver, tantamount to the United States dropping a nuclear weapon on Luxembourg--only more ridiculous because this will do absolutely no damage to women's ordination movement. It is more like a gift. None of those women are afraid of excommunication any longer; indeed, it is now the Vatican that appears fearful.
This decision boggles the mind: The faithful have been justly demanding for nearly a decade clear guidelines for dealing with the sexual abuse of children, along with just punishments for both offenders and bishops who have abetted these crimes. What we have gotten is half of what we have been asking for (still no sanctions for bishops), along with a completely unconnected and unnecessary condemnation of the ordination of women. This is especially ironic given that many Catholics, and I include myself among them, see the absence of women in positions of power in the church as a contributor to the ongoing sex abuse crisis.
This move is a mistake, plain and simple, imprudent at best, at worst a serious further blow to Rome's already damaged credibility.
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The current crop of so called
By JudeThom (not verified) on Sunday, March 27, 2011The current crop of so called Catholic Women priests is nothing less than a joke. I have attended "Masses" where there was a WomanPriest celebrant, and I can tell you that they were hotbeds of liturgical abuse and innovation. One woman "priest" used animal crackers in place of a host; another used broken bits of pita bread. They also wrote their own liturgy, changing the words and ritual of the Mass. They brought in their own music, a mix of popular and sacred songs. These so called Masses seemed more like Protestant "grape juice" services. In no way did they seem even remotely Catholic. If this is a precursor to what women will do if they are ever ordained, then the Catholic Church is finished. Vatican II has already pretty much denuded traditional Catholicism anyway. That's why many Catholics are converting to Orthodoxy.
Model Culture Uncovers Sexual Abuse Against Women
By Dave Cote (not verified) on Saturday, November 27, 2010I could barely believe it,
I’m writing this, in conjunction to producing Model Culture Midnight Diaries, to raise awareness on the exploits that are happening in the international modeling world. I just finished five years travelling in this industry, and I have come across WAY too many Girls and Boys who have been hurt, abused, ripped off, raped, and even beaten. It’s horrible I know but please keep reading. Basically, I’ve produced an Expose Documentary that BLOWS THE LID off this horrible garbage. In Milan and Athens, I encountered more than a handful of girls who were invited out to the VIP Models Night, where hungry models, usually under age, are given free drinks as long as they provide company to rich disgusting men. International Modeling goes a little something like this: a young female model arrives to Milan, or Athens, or Paris… she is given a bed to sleep in, along with another six or seven girls, in a cramped models apartment. They sometimes get a weekly spending allowance, $50 if they are lucky. Needless to say, the young girls are hungry, and are desperate to meet people, have fun, and feel safe. Barely able to buy groceries, these girls jump at the opportunity to goto an exclusive night where food and drinks will be free. From this point, it gets really bad.
The goal of the VIP Models Night seems to be: invite many young female models (male models are excluded, as they might get in the way of this terrible human traffic ring), given free drinks, and eventually given Rohipnol, a date-rape drug. The girls then wake up the next morning having been violate, and sometimes even physically abused. This is [filtered word] DISGUSTING, and hearing it FIRST HAND, it made my Blood BOIL!
Other situations I commonly encountered were of photographers or clients (the ones offering the Jobs to the models, so, basically, the “bosses”) doing the same thing: luring young girls into a photoshoot at their apartment, then sending the makeup and stylist girl home (if they were there to begin with), and then this creepy, evil little photographer man descends upon the poor young girl, and either creeps her out to the point of crying, or forcing himself upon her. It NEEDS TO STOP this Evil [filtered word]! Pardon my French!
Just a week ago, I heard of THREE instances of girls being flown by plane out to do a modeling contract, one in India, one in Singapore, and the other in Korea. Upon arrival, in the Korea instance, the Modeling agent (the one who is supposed to take care of the young girls) took the girl into the elevator, where two men entered. They put a knife to her and forced her into sex.
Needless to say, I want to KILL these [filtered word]! But I can’t, because then I’ll goto some Korean prison and never be hear from again! So, instead, I produced a Documentary, interviewing the girls who have been done wrong, and candidly taping conversations of agents, clients, and the like.
As a result, my little Model Culture film landed it’s own Web TV Channel: http://www.davecotetv.com , and by viewing it, $0.0025 is raised in the Awareness Campaign. So PLEASE watch it, and forward it. It doesn’t sound like much, but once I reach a 10 million views and names, I get the funding to finish the Full Film!
Also there is the option to donate $1, at http://modelculturemidnightdiaries.com
This Abuse HAS to Stop.
Help if you can.
God Bless You,
Dave Cote
RCC Women's Ordination and Pedophilia
By Michele Somerville (not verified) on Tuesday, July 20, 2010I wholly agree with and
By Joan Krebs, Glenview, IL (not verified) on Tuesday, July 20, 2010I wholly agree with and support your statement that the Vatican attempt to link ordination of women and sexual abuse with concomitant coverup is an outrage, pure and simple. Because it's also a non-sequiter, illogical and non-rational it becomes a contradictory to recent pronouncements by bishops and cardinals that discourse, arguments are too divorced from reason. According to these leaders the world needs much more rationality rather then arguments stemming from emotion. I wonder, for instance, how the President of the USCCB as one of these reacted to this crime-linking? Talk about Ockham's Razor! Is it any wonder incredibility is a trend both within and outside the institutional church?
If this tiny minority of
By Bob Kovacs (not verified) on Sunday, July 18, 2010If this tiny minority of women don’t like it. Then they should go and join the Episcopalians or join the Church of England. None of the “first millenium” churches want to deal with this women priests issue!. That means Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox Christians. All three of us are on the same page with this.
Because you don't want to
By Elizabeth Grudzien (not verified) on Monday, July 26, 2010Because you don't want to deal with granting priesthood to women, these persons, and they also include men, who support a priesthood to include women, should leave? This is not a logical opinion nor is it valid historically or theologically. I recommend you read the history of the early church more thoroughly.
Women in the Church
By CatholicWoman (not verified) on Sunday, July 18, 2010All three of "us"?
Who gave you, or Ratzinger for that matter the right to define who is Catholic and what the catholic position should be. The New Testament said nothing about priests or bishops and their ordination.
Why don't you follow your own advice and go off and join some other religion or church?
A Woman's Place is in the Church
By Anonymous (not verified) on Sunday, July 18, 2010I just read this April Newsweek article:
A Woman’s Place Is in the Church
The cause of the Catholic clergy's sex-abuse scandal is no mystery: insular groups of men often do bad things. So why not break up the all-male club?
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/04/02/a-woman-s-place-is-in-the-church.html
It's very thought provoking stuff. As a man this stuck out at me.
"On her diplomatic mission to the Vatican, Kerry Robinson had another, more spiritual goal. Over the years, stories from the Gospels and the Old Testament about women have slowly disappeared from the Sunday lectionary, the scheduled Bible readings that massgoers hear. Robinson gently brought this to the cardinals' attention and found that some hadn't noticed the stories were gone. "It's all men, all the time," says Robinson. "They go to mass all the time, they don't distinguish, they don't think of it from the perspective of a woman who goes to mass on Sunday."
I compiled a local history once and only afterward realized that I did not include a single woman. It was not intentional, I just never noticed. Everyone I worked with was a man and they didn't notice either.
I think there's a lot of truth there.
Agree
By Anonymous (not verified) on Sunday, July 18, 2010As a hippie lefto progressive I have to agree with you. They are fighting a quixotic battle neither they nor their great-great-great-great-grandnieces can win. In addition to the "first millenium" churches you list I've known some so-called "first century Christians" in the tiny United Church of God, an International Association and they're as traditional as they come on this subject. I could be wrong and have been in the past but I don't think the Church will ever change on this. That being said I don't understand what it is so scared about that it would put it on the front pages with child rape.
Pedophilia and Women's Ordination
By Michele Somerville (not verified) on Sunday, July 18, 2010Pedophilia and Women’s Ordination: Two Grievous Transgressions:
http://tiny.cc/wd86o
Child Abuse Scandal: Seeking Accountability: http://tiny.cc/6i6uw
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