It is difficult to see and hear the unfolding news about paedophile priest, the late Fr Brendan Smyth.
The Norbertines were aware of his proclivity before he was ordained a priest and they went on and ordained him.
Had he been in a relationship with a woman would they have allowed him be ordained?
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4 comments:
To answer your question, if he had had an adult relationship, with either gender, he would not have been ordained, or indeed seen fit for the same. Reminds me of another case, where a priest's offences were known pre solemn profession, never mind ordination.
Brendan Smyth was not a once-off.
Sadly not at all, the same pattern seems to emerge again and again. The way in which the superiors from that time dismiss the idea of their own culpability is nothing short of arrogance mixed with a delusion of superiority. I remember the cringing feeling I felt when a former provincial told me the reason he never reported child sexual abuse to the police was because, and I quote, 'I did not know it was illegal'. He is still now a superior. The abuse dated from the time when consensual adult homosexual activity was still(wrongly) illegal. The former provincial now superior is of course an avid supporter of the ACP movement, and is now all nice and liberal( In public only), but will never ever admit to his won wrong doing.
A pity your post is anonymous. Strange too how the church knows so much about God's 'thinking' in all areas of sexual behaviour.
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