Nick Anderson for April 08, 2010

Walk a mile in the shoes?

They are not limited to the priests who have never married. One of the cases I’m familiar with involved a priest who took orders after his wife died. He had children.

^Gaack!!

My own personal hypothesis;

Maybe some of those priest already felt paedophile tendencies in their young years and turned to religion expecting it would protect them from that.

I find it hypocritical that popes, cardinals and bishops set standards for the conduct of marriages and family behavior, and priests are expected to be the counselors advising the laity on these standards when (almost) none of them have any actual experience in those matters!

^ Freud said that? What a coincidence! Ok, he said it first.

^^ Yeah, but don’t you see,Handrew–-DrCanuck is sharing his open mind unconditionally?

And by doing so, assisting others to open theirs?

Families handle it in the house when there is just a risk, not when rape actually took place…several times.

Reaction formation (says the psychologist) is not a crock, though much of Freud has failed to pass more recent scientific tests; but one must be careful not to overuse it. It is more true of those who are emotionally out of control on an issue – they are overreacting. One can be hostile to homosexuality, for example, without being a closet gay, but those with the most deepset irrational, emotional reactions are often (not always) expressing their fear that they might be gay as well. The tricky bit is that the fear of gays is not necessarily the same as suspecting you might be one. I expect, for example, that many of the children abused by priests are afraid of gay men (not lesbians, for example), for obvious reasons. That is an understandable reaction, whether or not one approves of it.

To the comic – Amen!