42 Comments

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

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

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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 !!

• 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.

• 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.

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

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

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

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

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• seanomelb | Sep 02, 2012, 03:49 AM EDT

  My wife and children and grandchildren do not agree with your spiteful gutter remarks pedophile lover. You're a sad case surfsidetx3. When you crawl out of the gutter let me know as I do not wish to converse with a gutter snipe.

• EphraimKibbey | Sep 02, 2012, 12:24 AM EDT

  @surfsidetx3 - Thank you for showing us ALL exactly what kind of a person you are. We now know exactly what to think of all your future comments. Have a good day! *_*

• surfsidetx3 | Sep 01, 2012, 10:19 PM EDT

  yeah seanomelb. I didn't make those rules, that is reality. When you grow a backbone we can talk. The usual ad hominem attack from the craven and cowardly. Once you meet a woman and procreate children you can open your piehole. Have you ever been with a woman Sean? my gut feeling is no. Have any children sean? Or are you the master of the cheap shot? Ever have a woman after you? I mean women in their 20s-40s? Yeah Sean when you have had many women telling you how handsome and sexy you are maybe you can loosen up. I am guessing you are not handsome, sexy or desirable. but keep up your slanderous asides, You might think you are a man but every woman knows , you are not

• SingleDonald | Sep 01, 2012, 10:14 PM EDT

  I agree with surfsidetx3, with regard to the Texas teacher, Brittni Colleps. Those guys were 18, and the Texas law (4 other states have similar laws) is plain wrong! However, I think 17 is a valid age of consent, which is what it is here in New York. Fourteen is just too darn young! I'm surprised at Germany!

• seanomelb | Sep 01, 2012, 07:45 PM EDT

  I'm glad I do not live on planet surfsidetx3 where pedophiles make the rules.

• surfsidetx3 | Sep 01, 2012, 06:57 PM EDT

  Lets see, the age of consent in Germany is age 14, a sheriff in California lets us know it is de rigueur for 13 year old latin youths to have had intercourse to prove their manhood, in New Jersey at Peters Valley there is an old cemetery where children at 11 years and six months or less died in childbirth per their headstones, Mary was 13 when Jesus was conceived according to scholars, there is the Time magazine article about children having children and in New Jersey schools there were young women called June blooms as that's when the baby was due. So it may well be while the law puts the age of consent at 18 let's say in California, reality lets us know otherwise. I believe the Germans are on the mark with 14 years. Anything else just opens us up to useless prosecutions as in Texas where a teacher faces up to 25 years in prison for her ill thought out affair with a young man. The key word here is man. He is not a child. Please don't bombard me with slanderous asides worthy of a political hack. Reality is many highschool age men (and women) are criminals in the eyes of the law. Feel free to stock of the prisons with half the youth of this country

• Happyhippo | Sep 01, 2012, 05:55 PM EDT

  @Proud Canadian,i am born a catholic but i agree with you 100%, until people face up to and accept responsibility for their own actions,the healing process will not take place,but the option is always there.

• McNamara31 | Sep 01, 2012, 04:45 PM EDT

  This is more of Rev. Benedict Groeschel comments on the subject:...“Here's this poor guy – [Jerry] Sandusky – it went on for years. Interesting: Why didn’t anyone say anything? Apparently, a number of kids knew about it and didn't break the ice. Well, you know, until recent years, people did not register in their minds that it was a Crime. It was a moral failure, scandalous; but they didn't think of it in terms of legal things.”He added that he does NOT believe that a priest or “any responsible person in society” should go to jail on their first conviction of child sexual abuse because “their intention was not committing a crime.” My question is...who didn't think it was a crime; the Vatican, the church hierarchy, because if you asked anyone in normal society they would say it was a crime and they belonged behind bars. Rev. Benedict Groeschel does not sound like a man with an "unclear mind" instead he sounds like someone actually speaking about the real sub culture within the church when it come to the abuse of children by grown men in power.

• McNamara31 | Sep 01, 2012, 04:20 PM EDT

  Dailearie You mention:"I really think all of this is a bit of a witch hunt. Although I have no proof" How do you think victims feel when they read posts like yours. Proof and facts about abusive priests and their victims are readily available and easy to find in court records (online) if you take the time to know the truth.

• WoundedKnee | Sep 01, 2012, 04:10 PM EDT

  As I said earlier, this man has long struck me as quite unsuitable to represent the Church. He should have retired years ago. And I have no illusions that my Church has harbored evil men and women in this country, in Ireland, in Australia and probably in scores of other places. The Hierarchy from the Pope downwards have not managed to articulate proper contrition for any sins of omission they may be guilty of in permitting a culture to exist in which perversion flourished. Nevertheless, it is clear that there are cases in which children can be led to make charges of abuse where no abuse occurred. Anyone who has taken a Psych 101 course will have come in contact with the research on how memories can be "planted". And I am old enough to remember the furore in North Carolina at the time of the "Little Rascals" trial, when apparently credible accounts of abuse were shown to be untenable.

• JimmyJK | Sep 01, 2012, 02:53 PM EDT

  this is disgusting and sad.... well will our Church take responsibility for the sins of their laity and also make lasting change in the Church so to welcome congregants back?

• EphraimKibbey | Sep 01, 2012, 01:59 PM EDT

  "When asked about his work with priests who were involved with abuse..." If his work counseling abusive priests only gave him contact with the criminals, then he was party to only their way of viewing their crime. When dealing with criminals, many good people, naively, want to believe them out of human kindness. Many criminals have spent their lives honing their "con" and can play the innocent victim amazingly well. Many of them repeat their imaginary excuse so often to themselves and others that it takes the place of reality in their minds. Rev. Groeschel and the authorities within the RCC that enabled and continue to excuse these horrible crimes need to spend time with the REAL victims listening to THEIR histories and the effect that victimization has had on their lives. They need to listen with open minds unclouded by preconceived beliefs and with the realization that their actions (or lack of action) make them complicit in the crime. Only when the RCC authorities accept their own fallibility and take full responsibility for allowing these crimes to go on under their watch, can real healing begin. Denial of responsibility and shifting the blame to the blameless only deepen the wounds of the victims and the church itself. Being PRIESTS, you would think they would understand, and believe in, the healing power of CONFESSION.

• Deidra47 | Sep 01, 2012, 01:32 PM EDT

  I don't believe his statement was due entirely on age and any possible head trauma he might have sustained. This is probably a core belief that makes it easier to say due to lack of control caused by the entities effecting him. If he had these beliefs as a younger man, then he was stupid and ignorant and a poor excuse for a psychologist. The man needs to be in an ALF or nursing home or strict retirement home where someone can supervise him and not allow a press conference where he can say stuff like this. It doesn't help those dealing with the after math of priest sexual abuse.

• hermitTalker | Sep 01, 2012, 01:25 PM EDT

  portia and co: See my earlier post. He is over 80, is both psychologist and priest, was thrown from a car on his head in Orlando. he and his community and the diocese of NY have apologised, the story was taken down. Pray God that when you get to be 80, after a distinguished career, none of your grand-children makes fun of a mistake you made, even if you are never suffering from a stroke. Fr Ben could live to be 100 and you and your anti-Church cohorts could never hold a candle to what that one human being has done for good. Shame on you constant negative ranters on IC

• Dailearie | Sep 01, 2012, 01:18 PM EDT

  I was raised Catholic, went to Catholic schools etc. I really think all of this is a bit of a witch hunt. Although I have no proof, I suspect many of the accused may be innocent. I am not saying all, but I think many mentally endangered individuals may feel so guilty that they could confess to things they actually did not even do. I blame the sexual revolution for many ills of our society today. Everyone is subjected to everyday television that is rampant with all kinds of sex stuff. In my youth, my mother (a convert even) would have had a heart attack watching some of the commercials today. My father would have immediately followed her with his sister.

• cillowen | Sep 01, 2012, 01:16 PM EDT

  Church needs to purge the mentally ill who are that sick.

• jamthecat | Sep 01, 2012, 01:06 PM EDT

  It's not surprising there are people in the Catholic church who still blame the victim for their own abuse. Pedophiles use that excuse all the time. "I'm sorry, but the girl or boy I had sex with came on to me so much, I could not resist. I was seduced." Doesn't matter the age of the child. But that this "priest" would still offer that up as a justifiable excuse is disgusting. He didn't misspeak...except to reveal what he really believed. And sure enough, people like seanmor will agree, especially if a clever lawyer can make you think this is true...or that the accusation is false...or that if the child (or woman) was really a decent, god-fearing person, they never would have been raped, because rape only happens to bad people. It's amazing how many Medieval attitudes still exist in the tiny minds of today.

• Jerry Kelly | Sep 01, 2012, 12:54 PM EDT

  Meanwhile, it's a "Mystery" to the Pope how my church turned into a haven for pedophiles and their pimps.

• ProudCanadian | Sep 01, 2012, 12:18 PM EDT

  Boy it takes all kinds of people to make this old world go round. The Catholics will blame everyone but themselves for these atrocities. When will they ever learn that they and only they are to blame for abuse of these kids. You know, before an addict is cured he must take full responsibilty for his problem and go through the necessary steps to get cured. These priests have to own up to what they have done and take what is coming to them before they are cured.

• Searlit | Sep 01, 2012, 12:18 PM EDT

  Again, these priests and their defenders try to point the finger at the teenagers, while the pedophiles are raping 8 yr. olds., in their midst.

• hermitTalker | Sep 01, 2012, 11:50 AM EDT

  record straight here; Fr Ben has an exemplary record of spiritual direction for clergy, works as a psychologist. Was thrown several feet on his head in a car accident in Orlando FL and recovered but all who watch him saw him deteriorate recently, searching for words. He did not refer specifically to clergy but any adult male who could be taken as care-giver for insecure minors. His words were unfortunate so let him retire and allow his stellar record of service to be his legacy. The NCR editor should should never have allowed a sentence go through without correction in the first place.

• WoundedKnee | Sep 01, 2012, 10:48 AM EDT

  I am a practicing Catholic but I am very disappointed with how the Catholic channel EWTN has developed over the years. This man and others such as the elderly nun whose name I forget should retire, and there should be a complete revamp of programming.

• OldMariner | Sep 01, 2012, 10:45 AM EDT

  I take the good Father at his word that his explanation of expressing himself is not as clear as it once was. As a 70 something myself I can relate to his statement. For years I have watch Father Groeschel on TV and he was always on the spot with his common sense explanations of the gospel and of modern life. Where he is off the mark this time, However, is that the vast majority of clerical secual abuse cases involve serial abusers and not the rare one time cases that he cites that should receive punitive leniency.

• PhlutiePhan | Sep 01, 2012, 10:25 AM EDT

  This is a sad issue. There is some truth in the comments of Fr. Groeschel. However, how much? It is difficult to tell. He mentions ages of 14,16,18 and I presume boys. Statutory rape usually has a cutoff of 17. Fourteen year old boys could be seductive but irrelevant. Basically, the same holds true for 16. However, there may well be extenuating circumstances involved with 18 year olds. Eighteen year olds are consenting adults unfortunately. In my home state, I reported suspicions of sexual interactions in a school between female teachers and female students. I was told by the state welfare department that they could not interfere in actions between consenting adults even within a school. The age of consent in this state is 17.

• Portia777 | Sep 01, 2012, 10:24 AM EDT

  Typical patriarchy- blaming them Eve ill children for tempting these men of god. Like Adam the males cannot resist, so blame the child. Yet molesting a child is a sacred rite for the men of god.

• Seanmor | Sep 01, 2012, 10:04 AM EDT

  Rev. Benedict doesn't offer any specifics to back his claim. However, I know of one priest who got a lot of publicity in the '80s because he was charged and tried for sexual abuse of a teenaged boy. The priest is Fr. Bernard Hughes and his accuser was a student at Mount St. michael School, Bronx. During the trial evidence indicated that the teenaged accuser had actually approached the priest for sex, but the priest refused. Then the boy felt rejected and fasely accused the priest. Fr. Hughes was acquitted of all charges, thank God.

• manhattan | Sep 01, 2012, 07:36 AM EDT

  This is the kind of thinking that allowed abuse to go on forever in the church. This Man needs to retire.