From the Council of Elvira 306: There were a host of Canons, internal church laws, which came out of this Ecumenical Council. Here are just two of many that speak to the subject of sexual abuse.1
18. Bishops, presbyters, and deacons, once they have taken their place in the ministry, shall not be given communion even at the time of death if they are guilty of sexual immorality. Such scandal is a serious offense.
71. Those who sexually abuse boys may not commune even when death approaches.
Laws are not written to protect children from things that don't occur and if the church enforced these laws today, the number of clerics receiving communion the world over would drop significantly.
The Eleventh Century: St. Peter Damian's Letter 31, the Book of Gomorrah (Liber Gomorrhianus), Randy Engel says it is "the most extensive treatment and condemnation by any Church Father of clerical pederasty and homosexual practices. [2] His manly discourse on the vice of sodomy in general and clerical homosexuality and pederasty in particular, is written in a plain and forthright style that makes it quite readable and easy to understand." 2
Pierre J. Prayer
translated Peter Damian's work and in his introduction, he makes this comment:
"One of his consistent themes was an attack on the sexual immorality of the
clergy and the laxness of the superiors who refused to take a strong hand
against it." 3
We can take away two things from this book. 1. The problem of sexual immorality had to be so widespread that Damian deemed it necessary to write this treatise in a time when writing was a tedious job done with quill and ink on very expensive paper. 2. If the Church Fathers had disagreed with Peter Damian, his treatise the on sexual immorality of the clergy would have never survived and he would never have attained sainthood.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
1
1
