A Christmas tale

This article reminds me of an event perhaps unrecorded in priestly history.

It involves a certain priest who made the mistake of sleeping with the wife of a vet.

On arriving home early and discovering them in the sack the vet got hold of his gelding shears, whacked the priest on the head and gelded him.

On waking soon after the priest was bleeding and in some pain. He survived, but due to the potential scandal, did not attempt to have the vet charged.

Unexpectedly his congregation was told he had come down with appendicitis and needed to go to hospital far away. The priest Did go to hospital, for emergency surgery, but not on the appendix. He was then sent to another diocese, also safely far away.

Moral of the story - randy priests should speak highly of NOT sleeping with vets' wives.

Planta

Seeing that religion is such an insidious club we should view every cleric as a potential danger to society. & give them no benefit of doubt.
Contain religion to inside the home. It has no place in public especially that we have more than ample evidence that they have no tolerance.

‘Because of the enormous power imbalance inherent in cleric/lay-person encounters, as well as an unconscious, psychological transference often accompanying such encounters, authentically free consent cannot be present.’

No one has power over another adult unless it is freely given to them or they take it by force. Clerics do not have an inherent power just by being clerics – they have it because people have an emotional dependence on religion and that logically means they have an emotional dependence on those whom they see as interpreters of religion. If you see another human being as having answers to your emotional problems then you have given them a power over you. Someone who has no such dependence will never be involved in such a power imbalance. The problem is not that there is a power imbalance in the relationship but that there is indeed such a relationship at all. Non-religious people can never be snared by such an emotional conundrum. They may have an emotional dependence on others for some other reason but they will never be victims of ‘clerical abuse’. You will never solve such problems by ignoring the responsibility that adults have for the relationships they form. Trying to shift the blame on to clerics is simply ignoring the elephant in the room. The blame belongs to the person who tries to solve their emotional problems by resorting to religious behaviour. No religious people – no clerics – no problem.

Hi phanto. You said the following at the end of your post: "Trying to shift the blame on to clerics is simply ignoring the elephant in the room. The blame belongs to the person who tries to solve their emotional problems by resorting to religious behaviour. No religious people – no clerics – no problem."

I am very worried about such a statement as I am sure many an abusive priest would be applauding it. It is in fact the same attitude and understanding of abuse/assault that the church would love to and in some cases actually promotes because it blames the victim for being abused/assaulted. However, in one sense - but ONLY in a philosophical sense and NOT on the individual level - I agree that religious people (but not JUST religious people) do allow abusive priests to abuse because of their putting them up on pedestals and giving them so much power over them - totally agree - and it the church system that teaches and encourages such a stance. However, to then blame that person for the abusive actions of a cleric,or,for the cleric deciding to abuse their power, is a very serious misjudgement of reality and shows a very shallow understanding of the dynamics involved in abuse.

There are enormous power differentials such as with clerics and lay people operating everywhere in society. You seriously don't believe, I hope, that this kind of abuse of power only happens in religions, surely not? You must be aware of the same dynamics operating in many professional relationships, families, even atheist groups. Please rethink your beliefs because they actually cause a great deal of damage and pain to victims who have not yet been able to rise out of the submissive processing they have been through. Your overall post while understandable is one which is totally idealistic and not grounded in the reality of normal people's lives with all its shortcomings and imperfections and criminal minds and behaviours.