Paedophilia 'not a criminal condition', says leading Catholic

[marmar]

(Independent UK) A South African cardinal has said paedophilia is not "a criminal condition", but a psychological illness.

The church is still dealing with historic international evidence of sexual abuse by priests and allegations of a cover-up.

As recently as this month, the BBC claimed to have seen evidence that bishops in the Catholic Church in Scotland knew about 20 allegations of child sex abuse by priests between 1985 and 1995.

Wilfrid Fox Napier, The Catholic Archbishop of Durban, told BBC Radio 5 Live that people who were abused during childhood and became paedophiles were not criminally responsible for their actions in the same way as somebody "who chooses to do something like that". ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/paedophilia-not-a-criminal-condition-says-leading-catholic-8537193.html

[lunasun]

1. Oh OK

edit to add this too

[B2G]

2. It might be an illness

But is also a crime.

A particularly disgusting one at that.

[MattBaggins]

3. Agreed. It is both

[Dorian Gray]

14. Yes

Crime and illness.

[treestar]

4. Well, I wonder if he will extend that sentiment to other things

Such as depression and schizophrenia.

[Buzz Clik]

5. Well, maybe.

If you tell your priests that they can't have sex with women but give them access to vulnerable boys, you're creating the perfect storm.

[LuvNewcastle]

6. This is a cardinal saying this shit?

Rotten to the core, I tell you.

[ellie]

18. Yes,

there is no hope.

[enough]

7. Pedophilia is not a crime, since it is a mental condition.

ACTS of pedophilia are crimes.

[LuvNewcastle]

8. He's not talking about impure thoughts here.

He said they weren't "criminally responsible for their actions..."

[enough]

30. Thank you, I missed that. You are completely right.

It's sickening.

[Apophis]

9. It's both.

No wonder so many are turning away from the Catholic church. They're saying stupid stuff like this.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

10. Statements like this make it seem like they don't take it seriously

which actually makes a lot of sense in light of how they've handled the issue for several decades. It also begs the question why, if they believe it's an illness, they don't remove the priests from being around children and insist that they get help for their "illness"? I mean, if you know that somebody is suicidal, you don't make it easier for them to kill themselves, right?

[cleanhippie]

11. Perhaps the impulse is psychological, but the act is criminal and vile.

I love me some religious apologetics in the morning.

[Dorian Gray]

15. I agree

impulse is a huge psychological illness. The act wholly and completely criminal. Priests (or anybody who have perpetuated this act) need to be prosecuted for their actions.

[n2doc]

12. Funny, I didn't know the Church had any input into what is illegal or not!

And it shouldn't. Cases like this provide the example.

[white_wolf]

17. I didn't think the Church was qualified to decide what is a mental illness either.

I guess I was wrong.

[Earth_First]

13. What is this, a lead up to something?

Why the sudden need to clarify it's criminality within the church?

In closing,

[white_wolf]

16. I suppose if its all in your head and you don't act on it and you seek mental counseling

then it is a mental illness and not a crime, but the moment you act on it, it becomes a horrible crime.

[randr]

19. A psychological illness that leads to criminal behavior

[BainsBane]

20. It's both

and the perpetrator needs to be locked up to protect the overall population. And those who covered it up absolutely need to be locked up as well.

The best move Pope Francis could make is to encourage all of these assholes to turn themselves into the police.

[idwiyo]

21. Oh oh.. Confession to follow?

[Doctor_J]

22. AS opposed to using birth control, I suppose

[HereSince1628]

23. OK, so then Wayne says take his gun away!

Still have vivid memories of 'this is my rifle!, this is my gun!'

[NYC Liberal]

24. Just because you're an alcoholic doesn't mean you get to drive drunk.

It doesn't matter if there's some disorder or illness behind it.

[SoCalDem]

25. So is pyromania, isn't it? But that IS a crime..

and what about kleptomania? they get locked up for stealing

The good ole boy clergy needs to stop protecting men who molest children, and needs to turn them over to the police..

If they end up with no priests left, then so be it..

[malaise]

26. That simple

One more attempt to cover up their crimes

[Moonwalk]

27. How much we want to bet that, even as he argues this, he believes homosexuality is a crime?

...and a mental illness? Never mind that it's between two consenting adults who love each other.

[Dawson Leery]

28. The time for this evil institution to disappear has arrived.

[appleannie1]

29. We're not criminals, we're just ill.

[jsr]

31. He's going to be in trouble with the new guy:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/15/pope-francis-book-radical-progressive

Pope Francis's book reveals a radical progressive in the making

...He is critical of those who covered up the paedophile scandal that has done so much damage to the church he now leads.

"The idea that celibacy produces paedophiles can be forgotten," he says. "If a priest is a paedophile, he is so before he becomes a priest. But when this happens you must never look away. You cannot be in a position of power and use it to destroy the life of another person."

Bergoglio says he has never had to deal with such a case, but when a bishop asked what he should do, he told him the priest should be sacked and tried, that putting the church's reputation first was a mistake.

"I think that is the solution that was once proposed in the United States; of switching them to other parishes," he says. "That is stupid, because the priest continues to carry the problem in his backpack." The only answer to the problem, he adds, is zero tolerance.

[RainDog]

32. that's hopeful

I think the apologia in the OP is to set up a justification to explain why popes, going all the way back to Paul VI, shielded pedophiles rather than turned them over to prosecution before the law in the land in which they were living.

that's what DISGUSTS me about this pedophile issue - the EXPLICIT attitude that the church is above the law. If this is the case and the belief, such an entity has no business existing in the U.S. because such an opinion is in direct contradiction to democracy - which is based upon rule of law, not divining tea leaves of one god or another. that way leads to the dark ages.

however, I find it hard to call him "radical progressive in the making" since he is part of the conservative faction of Catholicism and, while it is laudable for him to not offer an excuse for shielding pedophiles, his appt., it seems to me, is a way to make it possible for Ratzinger to avoid testimony about pedophile abuse cases since Ratzinger was the church official who was in charge of those documents. No doubt Ratzinger will also suffer from "dementia" and be unable to testify should any actual criminal charges be filed - for instance, against the LA archbishop.

It's pretty clear that Ratzinger had to go with the arrest of the guy in L.A. who tried to move priests away to avoid prosecution for their crimes, in the same way that church officials in Argentina hid the priest who murdered and tortured dissidents during Argentina's dirty war.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/22/us-usa-church-abuse-idUSBRE90L06D20130122

I would say that the current guy is like Gerald Ford to Ratzinger's Nixon.

[Recursion]

33. The attraction is an illness. Acting on it is a crime.

[Initech]

34. That'd be like asking Rod Blagojevich what he thinks of political corruption.