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Article: Tragedy will continue until church asks right questions: Vatican's new rules obscure causes of sexual abuse. (Viewpoint).(Brief Article)(Column)
- Article from:
- National Catholic Reporter
- Article date:
- February 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 National Catholic Reporter. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Let's get the question straight.
What explains the tragic worldwide explosion of sexual abuse by priests and other religious personnel? These men and women were presumably trained over many years in seminaries and religious houses to understand and practice chastity as a condition of their calling. How could they, then, suddenly have found unresolved sexual problems bringing intractable pain to those they abused and incomparable suffering to themselves?
One could suggest that they were all simultaneously possessed by Satan, that the smoking hoof prints of the Prince of Darkness link rectories and religious houses in a circuit of temptation.
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