2 Dec 2010

Mexican bishop adds internet porn, erotic TV and loose morals in society to list of excuses for why priests commit sex crimes

Reuters - April 16, 2010

Porn to blame for priest abuse: Mexico bishop

By Miguel Angel Gutierrez and Cyntia Barrera Diaz, Reuters


MEXICO CITY - A prominent Roman Catholic bishop in Mexico blamed eroticism on television and Internet pornography for child abuse by priests, in the latest incendiary comments on sex scandals in the church.

"With so much invasion of eroticism, sometimes it's not easy to stay celibate or to respect children," Bishop Felipe Arizmendi said during an annual meeting of Mexican bishops near Mexico City on Thursday.

"If on television and on the Internet and in so many media outlets there is pornography, it is very difficult to stay pure and chaste," said Arizmendi, an influential bishop from the colonial town of San Cristobal de las Casas in southern Mexico.

"Obviously when there is generalized sexual freedom it's more likely there could be cases of pedophilia," he added.

The bishop was in charge of the formation of priests for two decades in Mexico but said that loose morals in society had made it difficult to keep seminarians committed to the faith.

The timing of his comments comes as Pope Benedict turned 83 Friday and the Catholic hierarchy has been rattled by revelations of sexual abuse scandals in parishes around the world.

It also follows several controversial comments made by Catholic clergy, including Monday when the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said priest pedophilia was linked to homosexuality not celibacy.

"Many psychologists and psychiatrists have shown that there is no link between celibacy and pedophilia, but many others have shown, I have recently been told, that there is a relationship between homosexuality and pedophilia," he told a news conference in Santiago, Chile.

Mexico is home to the world's second-largest Roman Catholic population after Brazil and the country has been rocked by its own share of allegations against Catholic leaders.

Last year, the pope ordered an inquiry into the powerful Legionaries of Christ order whose Mexican founder, Marcial Maciel, was discovered to be a sexual molester of young boys. Maciel, who died in 2008, also was known to have fathered at least one child.

The Vatican was hit by another embarrassing revelation this week when a website posted a letter by a senior cardinal heartily congratulating a French bishop in 2001 for not denouncing a self-confessed abusive priest to the police.


This article was found at:

http://www.canada.com/health/story.html?id=2917190

1 comment:

  1. Fabio Martinez Castilla: Abortion is Worse Than Child Rape, Says Mexican Archbishop

    by T. Chase Meacham, Policymic May 2013

    Fabio Martínez Castilla, Archbishop of Tuxla Gutiérrez sparked some controversy over remarks made on Tuesday at a homily in the Metropolitan Cathedral of San Marcos, by claiming that “abortion is much more serious than rape of children by priests.”

    Appointed Archbishop last May by then Pope Benedict XVI, Castilla went on to clarify that both abuse and abortion “quantitatively do much harm and deserve punishment.” He is a firm believer in the Church’s stance on contraceptives and condoms as “patches” to avoid responsibility.

    Though abortion has become gradually more controversial in the Catholic Church, access in the country is limited to just Mexico City where abortion until twelve weeks’ gestation was first legalized in 2007. Specific laws protecting human life from natural birth until natural death are on the books in many parts of the country.

    Many women outside the capital turn to the drug misoprostol (Cytotec), made by Pfizer, which is available over-the-counter in Mexico and is frequently used for clandestine abortions. Though in America doctors tend to pair it with the drug mifepristone (formerly RU-486) to induce a “medical abortion,” the World Health Organization has said that misoprostol by itself can be effective until nine weeks’ of gestation. Though due to cultural stigma and lack of education, many women are poorly instructed by pharmacists on proper dosage, if at all.

    Pope Benedict XVI himself sparked controversy in Latin America when, in a 2007 trip to Brazil, he insinuated that politicians who had advocated for abortion rights ought to be excommunicated from the church. “Yes, the excommunication isn’t something arbitrary — it’s part of the code,” the pope remarked.

    With regard to abuse cases, though the former pope was the first to openly apologize to victims of sexual assault by priests, his message was often mixed: “In the Church, priests are also sinners. But I am personally convinced that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the United States, is a planned campaign, as the percentage of these offenses among priests is not higher than in other categories, and is perhaps even lower…”

    Wounds are still fresh in America following a costly $660 million settlement made in 2007 by the Los Angeles archdiocese to 500 victims of sexual assault by priests. Just this year the diocese released an additional 12,000 pages of internal files on priests accused of sexually abusing children — information that had been redacted in original trials until Judge Emilie H. Elias overturned a previous decision and mandated that the information be made public.

    to read the links embedded in this article see:

    http://www.policymic.com/articles/39225/fabio-martinez-castilla-abortion-is-worse-than-child-rape-says-mexican-archbishop

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