Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!alberta!ncc!apss!jhp
From: jhp@apss.ab.ca (Herb Presley, Emergency Planning Officer)
Newsgroups: can.general
Subject: Re: Scene at a Roman Catholic cathedral near you a few years ago.
Summary: Your assumptions may be.........
Message-ID: <1479@apss.apss.ab.ca>
Date: 12 Aug 89 16:39:22 GMT
References: <3984@looking.on.ca>
Organization: Alberta Public Safety Services
Lines: 110

In article <3984@looking.on.ca>, brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton) writes:
> Bishop Murphy:  Shocking about Father Jones, isn't it?

I was waiting for someone to comment in a sarcastic way on one of the greatest 
human tragedies of our time.  Brad, you didn't disappoint me.  Your comments are
shallow, uncaring and show a callous disregard for the feelings of both 
pedophile and victim.
 
> Smith: What can we do?  We can't excommunicate him.

Your implied assumption that somehow the church is responsible for a priest's
behavior simply perpetrates the myth which fuels pedophilic bahavior.  The myth
is: "I am not responsible for my behavior.  I am this way because of.....(my
parents, my situation, the anger others arouse in me, the sexual arousal in me
WHICH I CAN'T CONTROL).....
 
> Murphy: No, that would get in all the papers.  We'll do what we always do.
 
The fact is neither the community, the family, the church, the school, the law,
has yet figured out how to deal with this problem.  It has always been with us,
it only surfaced as a high profile crime in the last decade or so.  Everybody
wants to hide the problem.  Mainly because most of us don't know how to deal
with our own feelings of sexual dominance over another human being and the
surfacing of a problem close to us makes us ashamed.  So we cover our feelings
up with anger, belligerence, flippancy, etc.  Why should the Roman Catholic
Church be singled out simply because the media decides for our benefit that the
crime in a religious context makes great headlines?

The fact of the matter is, several hundred arrests are made, charges laid and
convictions obtained every year in every province.  Only a small number involve
the RC clergy.  Many of the people are in trust positions with children.  Yet
they don't get national headline attention.  (No, I'm not a Roman Catholic).

I would bet that the situations that are revealled every year only involve the
tip of the iceberg.  Obviously I don't have many statistics.  But I do
volunteer prison work and the numbers are far greater than any that get
reported in the press!

> Smith: Newfoundland?
 
Brad, this is not only a crime, it is also a SOCIAL PROBLEM.  Much like the
history of Alcoholics Anonymous which dealt with alcoholism when it was still 
taboo to talk about it in our western society.  It is also a VALUE PROBLEM that
arises from our incapacity to discipline (O, O, a bad word!) ouselves in our
endless searching for sensual gratification and our insistence that children,
from the time time they are conceived in a mother's womb, are disposable pieces
of property, to be aborted at will and to use to satisfy our own needs whenever
we, in society, see fit.

> Murphy: Newfoundland.
> 
> Smith: They'll do no damage there.
 
Oh, brother.  I'm assuming that you're trying to be funny, so I'll make no
comment about how pedophelic behavior causes damage everywhere.

> Think about it.  What other reason can there be?  I mean 18 priests and
> brothers in a province with 600,000 people?  18 gay, non-celibate, pedophile
> RC priests & brothers?
> 
> No offense to Newfoundlanders, but it doesn't seem you've been treated
> well.

I don't know how you expected the RC church to deal with it in any different
way given the potentially explosive reaction from society.  Tell me Brad, do
you have any dark secrets that would turn off your employer, friends, family,
etc., if you were to reveal them?  Ever have any 'unacceptable' thoughts?  Huh?

Here's my suggestions for dealing with this problem:

1) Everybody in Canada, start to talk openly about this problem.  Let both 
   victim and pedophile know that you are a caring, supportive person who will 
   stick with them through all the trauma and hurt of a police investigation, a
   trial and a possible jail sentence;

2) Contact your local mental health authorities and see if you can get a
   support group started for pedophiles where they can come and honestly talk
   about their loneliness (a trademark of the behavior), their anxieties, and
   how to find a way out of a behavior in which they feel trapped.  (You'll
   likely only be able to deal with pedophiles who are the subject of a police
   investigation because the current laws now make you liable to criminal
   prosecution if you do not immediately report any suspected pedophilic
   behavior to the police or child welfare authorities).

3) Get a victim into therapy immediately, and go with them if necessary to
   ensure that they have the proper support to deal with their hurt, and their
   now problematic view of human relationships.  If not, this will cause them
   great pain in later life when everything has cooled off and they are left
   with the memories.  In addition, the police and crown prosecutors will often
   not be very helpful.  You have to remember that their job is to get a
   conviction, not be supportive.  They may create immense pressure on the
   victim to testify, and this will add to the trauma.

4) Write to your MP and urge them to get the police and courts to back off a
   little in their relentless pursuit of "justice".  Not every situation has to
   be handled by a jail sentence and the laws should allow judges a little more
   leeway in how they can deal with this problem.  For example, if someone is
   seeking counselling and help already, a jail sentence can often cause more
   grief and pain to both the victim and the pedophile, particularly in family
   situations.

This problem is a great human tragedy.  It needs clear and sober thinking.  Not
sarcasm and flippancy.

Put your money where your m**** is!  :-)
____________________________________________________________________
|* email : jhp@apss.ab.ca	(uunet!utai!alberta!ncc!apss!jhp)  |
|** mail : 10320 - 146 St. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada  T5N 3A2      |
|***  ph : (403) 451-7151				           |
--------------------------------------------------------------------