CBC reports from Canada
Disgraced former Roman Catholic bishop Raymond Lahey is not a pedophile and does not pose a risk to the community, his lawyers argued at his sentencing hearing Monday.
Lahey, 71, former head of the diocese of Antigonish, N.S., pleaded guilty earlier this year to possession of child pornography for the purposes of importation to Canada.
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Bradford said Lahey is not a pedophile and presents virtually no risk to commit a hands-on sexual offence.
Bradford said Lahey has a homosexual interest in adolescent males — aged 14 to 17 — and young men, as well as sadomasochistic interests.
But, he said, a pedophile is someone who is attracted to children under age 13 for more than six months.
“I evaluated him for pedophilia and I don’t think he has it,” said Bradford about the psychiatric disorder.
We can’t always get saints as bishops, but couldn’t they get someone of slightly higher caliber than this man. Is it just possible that the Vatican’s screening methods need some work?
Lee, given that St. Peter Damian published “Liber Gomorrahianus” (“The Book of Gomorrah”) a thousand years ago, I wouldn’t be surprised if the vast majority of the hierarchy is gay — and has been for longer than anyone would care to imagine. That’s probably a major reason for the hierarchy’s secretiveness and dismissal of accountability.
Leon, the news here in Canada is that Lahey was also in a ten year relationship with another man, after having, who knows how many, one night stands. His defense lawyer describes him as “addicted” to internet porn, and as enjoying the submissive role in sado-masochistic sex. Talk about a “double life”! I’m sympathetic to all manner of struggle, but this is someone who long ago gave up the fight. In the academy award winning film from Germany, The Lives of Other People, one of the characters says to an ex communist official “I can’t believe that people like you once ran a country.” I can’t believe that someone like Lahey once helped run the Church.
http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/inquiries-and-interviews/detail/articolo/olanda-netherlands-holanda-pedofilia-pedophilia-10958/
Why the Church keeps up the “post-1968” ridiculous explanation I don’t know. “Between 1945 and 2010”, 800 perps and 10,000 victims….and ecclesiastics who championed pedophilia.
Regarding screening methods at the Vatican: I think they should set up a Feedback department in the Congregation of Bishops so that we can tell them how horrible are some of the Bishops whom they have so cautiously selected for us.
Truth Lover, that would be a great idea. The only problem is that the vaticanisti have proven that they don’t give two hoots in the infernal regions about what the laity and lower clergy think about their bishops. Besides, the vaticanisti would interpret such complaints as reflecting their ability to judge the character of bishops…which, in turn, would affect adversely their bureaucratic positions and power, which is all they really care about.
I’m sorry to be so negative but I’m fed up with treacly sentimentality and mindless groupthink as a substitute for an appreciation for truth and true spiritual discernment.
It would seem the vaticanisti have little ability to judge character. Hence Marcel, Lahey, Weakland, and others.
Forgive me, but in a sewer only the excrement rises to the top.
Lahey is a perfect example of the soullessness writing and performing religious ritual for the “flock.” He was hearing confessions, baptizing infants, confirming the young, counselling couples and folks in distress, and on the side, he was not only impervious to the suffering of children, he enjoyed it…. The top of the sewer that has become roman catholic hierarchy.
AW
I am sure that many of these appointments have been based on a favoritism of the sexual variety. Even the worst bishops seem to have allies in various places in the Vatican. How did the Jadot boys rise to power so fast? The homosexual networks in the Vatican and the rest of the Church protect their own at all costs. Priests fooling around with women are but a side-show compared to the real spectacle of the lavender mafia, which seems to manifest itself everywhere in the Church…from the more liberal religious orders to even some traditionalist orders.
I mean, the Vatican Congregation of Bishops keeps a file on potential future bishops. They send out scouts to find out everything about a priest before advancing him to the bishopric. Wouldn’t it be a good idea for them to send to the priests and laity of a Diocese a form letter to be filled out after, say, five years of a bishop’s rule in a Diocese? That way they could test the accuracy of their own methods of scrutiny, and modify these methods accordingly. They have everything to gain by doing this.