In Richmond Virginia a 36 year old woman got 25 years for sexting a 16 year old student in her class. How does she get all that time for sending pictures of her boobs? This man is sick and twisted. Gross.

Would this act be considered "terrorism of our youth?"

the red hats say nothing about ridding their church of pedophiles ..but they sure raise hell about paying for contraceptives for their employees Birth control is a sin to the catholic church child molestation is not

Timewonttell,

You make a good point about the disparity of concern. On the one hand if a priest prays with a woman (saying the Mass) he is IMMEDIATELY punished from Rome. Immediately! And yet how many priests are defrocked from raping children? I probably don't need more than one hand to count them.

Just let that detonate in your brain.

Birth control is a sin to the catholic church child molestation is not

If boys could get pregnant, the vatican would be selling condoms through their website and priests would earn commissions on the condoms they sold after mass.

I contend that being a pervert is a basic requirement for entering priesthood in the first place. Normal and balanced people don't do it; don't want it; wouldn't dream of it. If we examine the 'WHY' of it (becoming a priest), we would discover more about what makes these men do what they do.

The Bible says 'Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness' of your daughter, son, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, etc.However, the Bible says nothing about not uncovering the nakedness of other peoples' children.

Back when the Bible was written, life was hard, times were tough, and if you wanted to have at least ONE child survive to adulthood, you started females childbearing as soon as they were capable of it. Jewish law in practice at the time Jesus was born specified that a betrothal could be arranged for a girl any time afterbirth, and the marriage would be consummated when she had her first vaginal discharge (period) or when she turned 15, whichever came first. Any female who had reached her late teens and not yet had a child would be anathema, since God's Commandment as to 'be fruitful and multiply'.

Mary, therefore, would have been somewhere between the age of 9 and 15 when she gave birth to Jesus--making her still a child by today's standards. Something that the majority of Christians tend to forget when setting up those Nativity scenes--and something they also forget when they castigate the Muslim prophet Muhammad for having a 'child wife'.

However, that does not make sexual acts involving children right. We don't live in Biblical times anymore,science has proved that a girl having children too early creates dangerous situations for infant and mother mortality, and they are by Jesus's command supposed to abide by the laws of the land they are living in. They need to stop protecting these priests under the cloak of religion.

8 years?

and 5 of them outside of prison walls?

glad to know our judicial system reflects american values...and dont dare disagree with me.

these laws can change, these prison sentences can all change - if we really wanted them to.

clearly, we think drug dealers pose a bigger threat to american society than child rapists...

these are our american values, own em folks.

Let's see if I've got this straight. A priest gets jail time for having pictures of nude kids but little happens to a priest that forces himself on a child. WOW!! Is this a great country or what?

Catholics Come Home...

They are against birth control? Well, that is more victims to be born into the church. The tender age of 5 I'm sure is perfect for these nasty old white perverts. You know their peckers have got to be small in order in engage with a small child, and the parents not know what is going on with their boys.

Jessica... He was convicted of possessing pornography, NOT being a "child rapist".

Yes: both are absolutely disgusting crimes, but there is a difference.

No, Athiest, not all Catholics will defend this man. You are making the erroneous assumption that all Catholics walk to the beat of the same drum. Much like how those from other countries claim that all Americans are rich and selfish. We all know that isn't the truth. Or that all lawyers are crooks. Or that all those in politics are... You get the point. Catholics aren't all cut from the same cloth. Many Catholics -- and dare I say most - find this kind of behavior, within the church or without, to be disgusting, immoral and severly punishable by the laws of the land.

Priests are no different than anyone else. Just because you put on a little white collar doesn't suddenly make you God-like.

In fact it almost seems like pedophiles are drawn to the Priest hood because people think they are above reporach and they can get away with just about anything.

Humans are a sorry lot. Needing to be lead around by the hand and unable to think for themselves.

I am a Catholic and I Do not defend this sack of @!$%#. I think he should get 18 years, not just 8 years. But then the church does not allow priests to marry which is stupid, and forces them into strange behavior. Before a priest becomes a priest, he is a man after all. They should let them marry and there may be less of this sh@t going on.

This is so very sad... I'm convinced that forced celibacy only leads to all sorts of sexual deviations among Catholic priests. This absurd practice is ruining the Church.

I'm kind of curious why they had somebody "trained to identify sexual predators". Did they suspect something? Also, I'm glad the guy was caught, but I don't need any training if I see a guy with pictures of naked underaged kids. I'd just call the cops.

@Robert Duck,

I had the same thoughts exactly, and wonder how it is relevant to the story that he'd had that training, when all he had to do was look at the monitor.

There is an old joke about how to get a nun pregnant. ("Dress her up like an altar boy.") Hey, it's still funny, even aside from the darkness of that so-called "Priest" behavior.

@Robert Duck and inMYday,

In the Catholic church and in Catholic schools, lay people are now trained to identify sexual predators because of a program the church started after all the lawsuits started coming out.

8 years is a pathetic sentence.

High time the Catholic priests are being held accountable for their crimes, especially against children who are taught to trust these "authority figures" by their parents. Guess this priest was thrown under the bus by the same Catholic Church that 'rewarded' a former Cardinal who was hustled off by the Holy Father to escape prosecution in the U.S. We remember that Cardinal's name as the disgraced former Boston Cardinal Bernard Law.

There are many of us Catholics who don't easily or quickly forget: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/21/cardinal-bernard-law-quits-rome-post

God is not great-Christopher Hitchens

AllyH

@Robert Duck and inMYday,

In the Catholic church and in Catholic schools, lay people are now trained to identify sexual predators because of a program the church started after all the lawsuits started coming out.

How very Christian of them to wait until sued to take action. Superior morality indeed.... :/

Yea, and it's a sin that Massachusetts didn't INSIST that the Vatican ship the red hat Law back to Boston. At best the Vatican only gives lip service to this problem. Hypocrites!

Hanne, reading your post, "Why is it always with little boys", made me think, maybe it's because they have teency- tiney toys that they play with when they spend the rest of the week watching porn?

Well, at least little girls are safe around them! At least most of them! Trouble is, about 40% of them who are not homosexual or pedophiles have immoral connections with females. A few, I have heard, keep a personal sheep.

it is not just catholic priests ..it is clergy from all faiths .. these pedophiles choose a profession that allows them access to children ..CHURCHES. if they cant get into a real school of theology they get a degree on the internet ($40)and start their own church

"Why is it always little boys?"

It isn't. Priests rape little girls too and women. It's just that the news doesn't pay as much attention to it because society still treats women as inferior and that they are somehow at fault for what happened to them.

I wouldnt be surprised if a lot of the pedophiles who become priests arent thinking "I know there's something wrong with me, I cant talk to anyone about it, GOD will fix me - I just have to devote myself to him, believe in him, love him, and in time he'll cure me of this sickness" - and think becoming a priest, taking a vow of celibacy, and focusing on GOD will be the answer.

and I think MOST of know thats just crazy line of thinking...because IF (and we know it's not that big of an if) GOD doesnt fix them, and they still lust after little boys or girls, they have just put themselves in the best position to act on their feelings.

and I dont believe for a nano-second that MOST of them wanting GOD to fix them, didnt also consider the easy access they'd have to kids if GOD chose not to fix them. perhaps, it was their consolation prize for at least trying?

When our dog humped people's legs, he only did it before we neutered him. I suspect neutering a priest would have the same salubrious effect on unwanted and misdirected sexual behavior.

Are you not deeply proud of the high educational level of our nation? The use of language is directly related to IQ and educational level!

Well said sandan.

"I like your Christ. I do not like you Christians. You Christians are so unlike your Christ."--Ghandi

in Australia the catholic church is still defending 2 former priests that have been convicted of child molestation the former priests are fighting their conviction thru the appeals process and the catholic church is footing the bill .. all this after the pedofhiles were convicted amazeing

Do normal men wish to live a life of celibacy?

We have spent almost no time examining the biological underpinnings of pedophilia and until we do, this behavior will persist. Unfortunately trying to "cure" someone of it is like trying to cure someone of heterosexuality or homosexuality. You can curb the behavior, but I doubt you can change the preference. Time to start doing some serious research on the physiological, psychological, and genetic basis of this condition.

A person has to be a sexually-repressed pervert to even want to enter this corrupt and disgusting occupation. Sanity and morality prevents normal people from even considering it.

Why do you remain Catholic? In other words, what would the Catholic Leadership have to do to make you leave? What if the Bishops were found boiling babies and eating them, would you leave then? I am serious and would like to know just what it would take.

Thanks

I agree Atheist. I just don't understand why anyone would remain a Catholic. And it's not just this issue, it's the overall anger and hostility to anyone who is perceived to be different or who disagrees with them about anything. And let's not even get into their determination to legislate their beliefs onto the rest of us.

Ed Burke,

I have some general ideas why people remain in the same faith of their parents or of their nation in the case of Islam. But I'm really curious what hypothetical would speak to a Catholic whereby they say, "THAT'S ENOUGH!" Raping children isn't quite grotesque enough?

I want to understand.

Being a former Catholic this one of my biggest reasons, the Catholic church taught me that God gave us free will. At that point in time I realized I didn't need a church to teach me right from wrong. I didn't need a conduit to God. Then as I got older I realized more and more what a false idol the church worshipped. Then I finally realized that we are on our own because any "loving" God would have poked his head out of the clouds and stated loudly, "I do exist and this isn't what I created" and instead of waiting for the chalk to crumble he would have erased the board and started all over.

Now I wonder what compels a man to become a Catholic priest, is it truly his love of God and spreading the word or is it the protection offered for a sick and twisted mind?

Atheist - Brainwashing children from birth into any idealogy is a horrendous thing to do, but religious fundamentalists excel at it. And it is very difficult to shake off this kind of indoctrination. On the bright side, Catholics have left the Church in this Country by the tens of millions in recent years. They are closing churches everywhere, fewer masses, and fewer people practicing. Good signs.

Yes, I love FFRF! One of the best charities I have supported this year. ffrf.org

Nice! I like the way you think Veg.

Cheers!

ps. All good Atheists and Agnostics support the Ocean Conservancy.