I wasn’t going to cover this story, as its such an embarrassment to all Catholics, but I am still thinking about it and I believe there is a lesson to be learned here:
A South African cardinal...apologized for offending victims of child abuse when he described pedophilia as an illness and not a crime in a media interview. Victims' rights groups and others said the comments by Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, the Catholic Archbishop of Durban, comments were insensitive, especially given perceptions the Catholic Church has not done enough to root out abuse. "I apologize sincerely and unreservedly to all who were offended by the botched interview, and especially to those who have been abused and need every help and support that the Church can give," Napier said in a statement. Napier, one of the 115 cardinals who took part in the Vatican conclave that elected Pope Francis, had told BBC Radio 5 that pedophilia was a 'disorder' that needed to be treated.”
Unfortunately, this mindset prevailed through much of the scandal ridden 1970s and 80s, from which many of the child abuse cases within the Church occurred. Dr. Judith Reisman summed up the insane philosophy that the Church adopted, in her seminal work: “Sexual Sabotage.” In Chapter 11, she details the horrendous path of psychological excuses for the evil that possessed some of it's priests; she wrote: “According to the Boston Globe...Fred Berlin, MD, is a major Catholic commission adviser on issues of sexual abuse. In 1994, Berlin was course director for a training program sold to judges, 'health professionals,' lawyers, legislators, police officers, and child advocacy workers. Among other things, Berlin taught that 'pedophilia...can be effectively controlled with appropriate psychiatric intervention.'”
His cohort was none other than Dr. John Money, whom I wrote about in an earlier blog, whose unsuccessful attempt to switch the sexual gender of a mutilated infant, resulted in the boy's later suicide. Both Berlin and Money came out of the Kinsey-ian based theory of the inherent sexual maturity in children. And, these were the men the Catholic Church, at least in the US, were asking for advice and sending child-molesting priests to for help. Many reemerged from these botched therapy groups, still demonic, and free to molest all over again.
My point: that some in the Church, the above Cardinal as an example, have apparently disregarded the satanic influence upon the whole priest sex abuse scandal. Were these priests who raped children possessed by the devil? Were they mentally ill? Or were they just evil? I think there is a case to be made that all three played a factor: sometimes all at once in the same person. But, I do believe that their were priests who came under the direct influence of the devil. For example, this is something that I have never revealed publicly: when I was a member of a small religious order on the East Coast, hiding out from my porn past, one priest in our congregation always worried me. He seemed overly interested, exhibited odd obsessive compulsive behaviors, and could foretell my future. Immediately, after, I learned that he was accused of molesting a boy, I recalled all that had happened and wondered if he had been possessed; for clairvoyance is a sure sign of demonic possession.
More on the Money case: