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Home Page > News > Roman Catholic spiritual leader says ‘youngsters’ often to blame for priest’s sexual abuse

Roman Catholic spiritual leader says ‘youngsters’ often to blame for priest’s sexual abuse

Priest apologizes for saying priests are often seduced by children

ANTOINETTE KELLY,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Saturday, September 1, 2012, 7:01 AM

Updated Saturday, September 1, 2012, 7:01 AM

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Rev Benedict Groeschel has apologized for his shocking claims over sexual abuse in the Catholic Church

Photo by Google Images

A prominent Roman Catholic leader provoked outrage this week when he referred to sexual abuse victims as “youngsters” who were often to blame for seducing priests.

The comments made by Rev. Benedict Groeschel, were published on Monday by The National Catholic Register. When asked about his work with priests who were involved with abuse, he made the following remarks.

“Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him,” 79-year-old Fr Groeschel, said in the interview. “A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer.”

The founder of Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, Groeschel said that he was “inclined to think” that priests who were first time sexual abusers should avoid jail time because “their intention was not committing a crime”.

The New York based priest hosts a weekly show, "Sunday Night Prime," on EWTN, the Catholic television network, according to the New York Times.

On Thursday the comments were removed from the publications website as the publication's editor, Father Groeschel and his religious order apologized.

“I did not intend to blame the victim,” Groeschel wrote in a statement published on The Catholic
Register’s site. “A priest (or anyone else) who abuses a minor is always wrong and is always responsible. My mind and my way of expressing myself are not as clear as they used to be.”

Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York, described the comments as “terribly wrong”.

Responding to the remarks Deacon Bernard Nojadera, executive director of the Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said, "There is never a time when you can blame a minor who is sexually assaulted for the crime perpetrated upon him or her. The responsibility is always with the adult. Sexual abuse of a minor is abhorrent and indefensible. It is especially heinous when the abuse is perpetrated by a cleric."

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42 Comments

15 - 42 | See all comments

Springfield9 | Sep 05, 2012, 10:53 AM EDT

Find this old fellow a nice chalet in the Bavarian ALps ... and leave him there.

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merefalow | Sep 04, 2012, 07:13 PM EDT

no excuses of age, injury, senility,it was them,it was the non existant devil,etc etc,these people set themselves up as pillars of morality,hearing confessions,dispensing judgement ,and widely read and believed opinions world wide,conning people that they are men of god and that they have the ear of god,to the gullible/?,they are men,and bloody weird ones at that.

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merefalow | Sep 04, 2012, 06:49 PM EDT

of course they are,prancing around in their altar boy outfits seducing innocent priests,oh boy,how sick and out of touch unbelievable hypocrites are these whited sepulchers. Jesus reputedly said,beware the whited sepulchers,how very true.this is a totally unbelievable statement which provides a little window in to these sickos mindset.horrible that they have power and influence and sickening they are not disowned by their church.

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handsome68 | Sep 04, 2012, 12:00 PM EDT

I know he is wheelchair-bound and, as has been noted before, has been injured in some kind of vehicle accident, among other things. Before this, he did a lot of good, from what I understand. Just because he "shot himself in the foot" here, do we "throw out the baby with the bathwater" here? Maybe, maybe not.

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BigDaddy | Sep 03, 2012, 02:25 PM EDT

Deidra, Mac31...I believe you have hit the proverbial nail on the head. Despite a distinguished career, the old man (due to injury,old age, infirmity) let slip what he never would have had he been in possession of all his faculties.People who had suffered brain trauma are they more/less likely to espouse theories they never held before? Or are they more/less likely to fall back on previously held beliefs? It is possible that we should be thanking Rev. Groeschel for allowing us "inside" the mindset of those who hold positions of power; something he would never had told us had he not been injured or infirm.

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pilib04 | Sep 03, 2012, 10:40 AM EDT

Tom S, that is pretty much it. The raping of young boys is not a crime in our Church.

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pilib04 | Sep 03, 2012, 10:17 AM EDT

The church'e first response to the breaking pedophilia scandal was denial, it never happened! The so-called victims were unscrupulous, anti-Catholic frauds trying to rip off the church. When this strategy failed there was a reluctant admission that maybe there were a few incidents but they were very rare and, besides, what's the big deal, no one got hurt. Yes, there were churchly voices saying no one got hurt so where's the harm. Early push-back also included the sentiment that the boys themselves might have been the seducers - the Rev. Groeschel is not the first to echo this lament. In 2009, the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, appeared to compliment the abusing priests for "having the courage to face the facts" in accepting that what they had done was wrong and not merely "taking a bit of comfort from the boys." The primary reason the church has had such difficulty dealing with this scandal is simply because, in its very soul, it does not believe that this is a crime at all. Pedophilia has continued with the church for centuries, not just these past 30 or 40 years - and it has been regarded by its practitioners as almost an entitlement for doing their hard and lonely work. This is not to say that all clerics were pedophiles - it was probably never more than a very small percentage. The more egregious crime was the pervasive cover-up that continued for generations at all levels and especially within the Vatican. Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini's last interview before dying has just been published. It is a damning indictment of the church he served all of his life. This decent man was a lonely voice for change withing the Vatican power structure.The story is in today's Irish Independent. It's a good read.

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RockNReel | Sep 03, 2012, 09:59 AM EDT

Its no wonder the young people have turned their backs on the catholic church with lunatics like this being left to mouth off daftness like this. he is obviously very sick !!

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Sultracoo | Sep 03, 2012, 04:15 AM EDT

Father I passed you coming into St Anthony's of Padua on Rt 7 in Falls Church, VA the other day. It was raining and you were going to speak there. I been you your speaking at St John's the Beloved in Mclean. I've read many of your books. I am extremely knowledgeable about Christianity. I can't really believe that you said this. It reminds me I heard Seal recently apologizing about lying about his wife having sex while they were married. Basically kind of unforgivable. You not only have to watch were your walking but you have to watch what you say. As a comparison this is like having a mack truck come up behind you and run you over. You have said this it shows something is very wrong with your pattern of thought. You have a problem. I think you should get checked out. Seriously. God Bless you; you are a great great man regardless.

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Nicomax | Sep 03, 2012, 12:52 AM EDT

Just the sight of this guy with his silly beard, would cause almost any male into immediate impotence.

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pilib04 | Sep 02, 2012, 02:35 PM EDT

Groeschel should be forcibly retired and definitely should not be celebrating Mass.

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pilib04 | Sep 02, 2012, 02:29 PM EDT

Should we call what Bernard Groeschel is referring to "legitimate rape?"

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pilib04 | Sep 02, 2012, 11:29 AM EDT

surfsidetx3, your vile post is remarkably similiar to the poisoned pen of another poster whose name became so toxic on this website that it rarely seen now. He now posts under a different name, his rhetoric slightly toned down. Perhaps you are the same fellow, returning in the original form - as a criminal returns to the scene of his crime.

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TisEyerish | Sep 02, 2012, 10:19 AM EDT

Reading this makes one wonder how many children "seduced" this priest. What a blight he is to society and how sad that his words were even published in a public forum. Let's hope he never has the opportunity to ever touch a child again,for I would bet he has done so in the past.

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McNamara31 | Sep 02, 2012, 10:12 AM EDT

surfsidetx3 You obviously relate to the Benedict Groeschel way of thinking, which is abnormal. These abusers used their power and position to inflict harm (not sex) on these underage kids.

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