Gay “clubs” operate openly in Catholic seminaries, the institutions that prepare men for the priesthood, the late Pope Benedict XVI has claimed in a posthumously published book scathing of Pope Francis’s progressive agenda.
In a blistering attack on the state of the Catholic Church under his successor’s papacy, Benedict, who died on Dec 31 at the age of 95, said that the vocational training of the next generation of priests is on the verge of “collapse”.
He claimed that some bishops allow trainee priests to watch pornographic films as an outlet for their sexual urges.
Benedict gave instructions that the book, What Christianity Is, should be published after his death.
The existence of “homosexual clubs” is particularly prevalent in the US, Benedict said in his book, adding: “In several seminaries, homosexual clubs operate more or less openly
Maybe he should’ve done something about this when he was alive and Pope. Other than writing a book complaining about it and having it published after his death, I mean.
Better to have them shagging each other than shagging the choirboys, no? Or is it a slippery slope effect: breaking one taboo leads to breaking of others?
I am astonished that a male-only club which bans marriage but encourages dress-wearing attracts the gays…
Andrew – Seems unlikely that seminarians cracking off a wank to Rocco Does Brighton will improve child safeguarding or fill the Catholic Church’s empty pews.
Wasn’t he supposed to have batted for the other side himself? With a boyfriend who is now an Archbishop, the archbishopric (shut up, Butt-Head!) being something of a sinecure?
Indeed, the Knights of St. Columba have been, in certain parts of the realm, known for decades as the “Kinky Sex Club”.
Celibacy clearly isn’t for everyone, and appears to require some social and mental support in terms of maintaining it. Among Theravadan Buddhist monastics, for example, sex scandals are far less common despite the demands being far more severe. (No masturbation, no being left alone with women in situations which might be compromising, etc.) It might be that the ability to give up being a monk means that those not suited simply go back to (ahem!) lay life with no sense of shame or failure. But I suspect that the Catholic priesthood used to have some kind of spiritual support mechanism for celibacy, which is now lacking.
Within Anglicanism, the Catholic wing is absolutely rife with cottaging, obsessional discussion of sexuality, and ridiculous campery. We lived in a fairly catholic training institution for two years, and some groups of young single men acted like a 1970s Frankie Howerd tribute act.
Steve
“Maybe he should’ve done something about this when he was alive and Pope.”
He did. The complaint is that his reforms have been undone by Francis.
From wipda
“Cardinal Vincent Nichols wrote that in his role as head of the CDF “[Ratzinger] led important changes made in church law: the inclusion in canon law of internet offences against children, the extension of child abuse offences to include the sexual abuse of all under 18, the case by case waiving of the statute of limitation and the establishment of a fast-track dismissal from the clerical state for offenders.” According to Charles J. Scicluna, a former prosecutor handling sexual abuse cases, “Cardinal Ratzinger displayed great wisdom and firmness in handling those cases, also demonstrating great courage in facing some of the most difficult and thorny cases, sine acceptione personarum [without respect of persons]”. According to Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Ratzinger “made entirely clear efforts not to cover things up but to tackle and investigate them. This was not always met with approval in the Vatican”.
There is, of course, a simple solution to all this as given by Monty Python’s Australian Philosophers many decades ago: ” No Poofters!”.
While I am sure that would help a great deal with preventing priest-on-boy action, it would also rather decimate the Catholic clerisy.
A less discriminatory approach (and I say this as a batter of the other side), is to remove the sexual restrictions against getting married or knobbing women and, in essence, open the door to normal people rather than gays, asexuals and other weirdos.
“The existence of “homosexual clubs” is particularly prevalent in the US, Benedict said in his book, adding: “In several seminaries, homosexual clubs operate more or less openly”
Mebbe… The classic clubs were in specific Missions in Asia, Africa, and South America. Where Troubled and Troublesome priests were sent to. Far away from Civilised Rome. Flores in Indonesia was/is one of them.
Not exactly a secret…
Of course, the world has become a lot smaller in the past century, and the peccadillos of those priests are now coming back to haunt them…
“What Christianity Is” – it’s a bloody cheek a Pope writing that.
What Christianity Is is a belief in one God who has three facets (no, I don’t claim to understand that either). So you have to believe that Jesus was both human and divine and thereby believe in the resurrection. You also have to believe that Jesus’ teachings were at least broadly in line with what the Gospels say.
But there are also things you mustn’t believe in e.g. (i) You must worship no other gods so you can’t add a Neolithic/Bronze Age fertility Goddess to the ranks, and (ii) No mortal with divine powers e.g. no Infallible old farts.
Both of those seem to me to rule out any confusion of Roman Catholicism with Christianity. The first one rules out Orthodox Catholicism as Christianity too. On Nestorians and whatnot I have no view, being ignorant of their customs.
“But I suspect that the Catholic priesthood used to have some kind of spiritual support mechanism for celibacy, which is now lacking.”
I suspect the truth is that they were overwhelmingly a mix of nerds, queers, nonces and men shagging widows. And the power to get journalists or people who might blow the whistle to shut up. Powerful institutions are full of shit about how special they are.
In doing census research, I was stuck by the preponderance of Roman Catholic priests to have post-fertile live-in housekeepers. Maybe they had a pragmatic additional function. Mrs McCarthy! Tonight I will need… additional support… in my contemplations.
Catholics hold the Pope to be infallible only in respect of certain matters of doctrine. He has no greater ability to predict the winner of the 3:30 at Uttoxeter than you or I.
Is it OK for Christians to hold Pagan Solstice and Ostara celebrations?
Chris, that he is held to be Infallible at anything, however circumscribed, is clearly anti-Christian.
When the Roman Catholics flounced out of the general Catholic Church in 1054 none of the other patriarchs had claimed to be infallible. When did the notion appear? What purpose was it designed to serve? WKPD tells me:
“This doctrine, defined dogmatically at the First Vatican Council of 1869–1870 … is claimed to have existed in medieval theology”: “claimed” by whom, on what evidence?
“… and to have been the majority opinion at the time of the Counter-Reformation.” Ah, so is it all to do with the Reformation? Not too surprising if true, I suppose.