British bishops' spokesman reject Cardinal Bertone's argument on homosexuality
April 15, 2010
The secretary-general of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales has directly contradicted a public statement by the Vatican Secretary of State on the connection between homosexuality and sexual abuse.
Responding to the controversial statement by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone that homosexuality played an important role in the Church's sex-abuse crisis, Father Marcus Stock said that "there is no empirical data which concludes that sexual orientation is connected to child sexual abuse."
"The consensus among researchers is that the sexual abuse of children is not a question of sexual 'orientation', whether heterosexual or homosexual, but of a disordered attraction or 'fixation,'" Father Stock said.
The Vatican has disclosed that 60% of the sexual-abuse charges against Catholic clerics have involved same-sex relations, and only 10% have been instances of true pedophilia (relations with young children) while the majority have involved teenagers. In the US, more than 80% of the complaints have involved same-sex relations.
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Posted by: rpp -
Apr. 16, 2010 5:10 PM ET USA
Homosexuality is a mental disorder as is pedophilia and pederasty. It is not uncommon for a person to suffer from multiple mental disorders, especially when they deal with the same basic drive, in this case sexual attraction and behavior.
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Posted by: drl12501082 -
Apr. 15, 2010 6:22 PM ET USA
George Orwell's "1984" is here and has been for some time. The lies of "political correctness" which is really "political control" is destructive to the whole world. How many are willing to accept this "mind control?" Where are the independent thinkers?
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Posted by: -
Apr. 15, 2010 6:15 PM ET USA
The spokesperson perspective would be relevant if these were children not adolescents and there was not overwhelming evidence to suggest that this is a male-male problem.
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Posted by: -
Apr. 15, 2010 5:25 PM ET USA
Of course! Relations between two males are heterosexual in nature! If we don't, even now, have the courage to state the obvious, when will this be over?
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Posted by: Lucius49 -
Apr. 15, 2010 5:16 PM ET USA
This is a response coming from having one's head in the sand and this is why the Church has sustained such casualties in England and Ireland, Germany and the US. Denial. Until such blinded responses change, there will be more of the same because reality is not being addressed. The Church-leadership-spokesmen must stop dancing to tunes composed by the world and pc culture.
