Friday 6 March 2015

SEXUAL PREDATOR PRIESTS

SEXUAL PREDATOR PRIESTS

There are a small number of Catholic priests in Irish Dioceses and Religious Orders who are sexual predators of vulnerable women!



I am not talking about a priest who falls in love with one woman who then has to face the dilemma of either giving up the priesthood and leaving to marry the woman - or giving up the relationship and staying in the priesthood.  This is a very understandable human situation and is in fact a "tragedy" for the priest and woman. This can be solved by making celibacy for priests optional.

But I am talking about the cases of cynical "Jack The Lad" priests who are not in love with anyone - except themselves - who target woman after woman in order to have a highly active sex life. These priests quite typically have several women on the go at the one time!



The case of a religious order priest comes to mind. At the time I met ONE of his women he had three women on the go at the one time - a nun, a widow and a married woman.

The nun, he said, was his "spiritual wife" and he allowed himself to have full penetrative sex with the nun. The widow and the married woman were his "bits on the side" and he had non-penetrative sex with these two women.

What's more he made sure that all three women knew about each other's existence as he seemed to "get off" on having three women fighting over him!

The woman who came to me for help eventually, with my help, approached his superior and got nowhere? Why? Because the superior was himself in a relationship with a woman!

Thankfully my lady was able to cut him loose and over time has achieved some healing. But from what we hear he still has the other two on the go - and for all we know may have replaced my friend with another vulnerable woman?

This case is repeated time and time again in dioceses and religious up and down Ireland.

The two famous cases of womanising priests were the cases of Bishop Eamon Casey and Father Michael Cleary.

Casey and Cleary warming the crowd for the pope


Bishop Casey seduced Annie Murphy who was sent over to him by relatives from the USA so that he could help her overcome a recent divorce.

Pope and Casey after Casey had seduced Annie


Casey seduced her after drinking glasses of brandy and milk and he made Annie pregnant with Peter. Casey and some nuns tried to coerce Annie into giving Peter up for adoption - which she refused. Casey refused to acknowledge his son and eventually used diocesan money to make him a pay off. Was Annie Casey's only woman?

Peter - the bishop's son


Michael Cleary was the show biz priest who seduced Phylis Hamilton when she was 17 and had two children with her. Many in the clergy say that Cleary had other women - and indeed other children.

Cleary with Phylis and son Ross


When these priests belong to dioceses they usually have a woman in every parish they are sent to - and they often have more than one! In fact in one parish I know the parish priest was having sex with two twin sisters. Sometimes he slept with one, sometimes with the other - and occasionally with the two of them together!



Occasionally these priests get the women pregnant - pregnancies that end up in miscarriages or even in abortions in England!

Very often these affairs are the talk of the parish. Occasionally parishioners get so disgusted that they go and see the bishop. What does the bishop do? He moves the priest to another parish and the fun begins all over again!   

Of course the police never have to become involved because the priests and women are all well over the age of consent.

As I write this I am involved in two cases of predator priests in the one diocese. The cases have been referred to the bishop. 

Some years ago I founded a little group called BETHANY - a support group for women who have been involved in abusive relationships with priests. To date we have had contact with 120 + women. 

Some of the women - after joining the group - discovered they were actually sleeping with the same priest!

This is a very serious problem that bishops and religious superiors are going to have to address more aggressively.

A bishop or religious superior needs to be very compassionate when a priest falls in love with one women and they need to help the priest and woman to explore where their joint future lies.

But in the case of sexually predator priests we are dealing with a different matter completely. If a priest has a habit of seducing women everywhere he goes there is no place for him in the priesthood.

The bishop needs to suspend him from the priesthood and refer his case to Rome for further action.



Any bishop or religious superior who tolerates a "Jack The Lad" priest is guilty of being an accessory to sexual exploitation and sexual abuse. Such a bishop or religious superior should himself be expelled from his position and indeed from the priesthood.

+Pat Buckley 



17 comments:

  1. Very sadly 'predator priests' are a reality, past and present in this Diocese.
    The standard practice has been to move them to another parish or appointment, where they invariably begin their predatory activities again. As we all know the same practice was employed in relation to clergy who abused children.
    When will the Church view 'predatory priests' as what they really are ? ie Priests who abuse women(often vulnerable such as widows), and then discard them when they have "served their purpose".
    The behaviour of 'predatory priests' needs to be challenged & stopped, not facilitated by Bishops who are afraid to take action.

    Priest of D&C Diocese.

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    Replies
    1. I may have said this before but does anyone bother about care of souls these days

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  2. Father,

    Thank you for acknowledging a problem that many clergy - junior and senior - deny.

    Pat.

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  3. Some people, clergy included, deny many different things. The denial does NOT change the reality of any particular fact or event. Things are as they are, with or without denial.
    The Church should remember that the fact that it refused for decades to acknowledge the scale of clerical child abuse in Ireland, did not alter the devastating facts revealed in subsequent church & state investigations.
    Reality always wins through in the end.
    A Priest is called to protect the vulnerable in society( whatever their age, gender, or status), and NEVER to take advantage of them, to be a shepherd and NOT a wolf.
    We Priests would do well to remember these facts.

    Priest of D&C Diocese.

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  4. As an ordinary Catholic I can say that it is very very difficult to have fraudulent clerics and others in our midst. But the very nature of their fraud makes them very hard to spot or comprehend. However, I'm a believer in my grandmother's saying, the truth will out!

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    1. I am glad you used the word "clerics" and not "priests".

      Sadly many of these men are just clerics - functionaries of the system. If the had the heart of a true priest they could neither abuse or stand by and watch abuse occurring.

      In that sense clericalism is a disease of priesthood - a disease that is all too common/

      Pat

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    2. Pat, I agree with your blog on priestly sexual predators. But please, for the love of God (and my sexual sanity!), would you in future make your points without the help of photos featuring barely clad, gorgeous young women? I'm too old to get this hot under the collar!

      It may not have bothered you as an openly gay man, but it sure as hell gave me a struggle. ( No, I'm not one of those priestly sexual predators, but I am flesh and blood.)

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    3. Friend,

      I apologise for putting temptation your way.

      I just wanted you to see the type of twins parish priests are interested in.

      I will be more careful in the future.

      Pat

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    4. Fr, for goodness sake, there's worse on the TV screen every 5 mins!

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    5. Thanks, brother.

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    6. To Anonymous at 7 March at 21.39

      Is there? What channels? Please, for goodness sake, tell me!

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    7. Wonderful humour: love it.
      But there is a serious and relevant point in the initial request/criticism.
      It also relates back to recent requests on this site that contributors refrain from highly personalised critical comments, no matter how humourous they may be, or intended as such.
      We are invariably dealing here with significant important issues, so need to be aware that while lighthearted comment intended as such, and understood as such by most, may well often be misconstrued by others, particularly those seeking to find fault, and therefore selectively misquoted or used out of context against the originator.
      MourneManMichael

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  5. I have witnessed Church Of England Vicars "crossing over" to the R C side and am aware of cases where R C Priests became C o E Vicars. My point is that many a good priest was lost to ministry because of the celibacy rule. I also there is an opportunity for Church of Ireland to make use of ministers that were "prepared earlier" They also have an opportunity to grow their congregations by ministering to those "rejected by R C" This would not be a vindetta but a natural evolution of the people of God. Why have they been so quiet for so long. Itwould also take religion back to the altar and put less emphasis on the political influences that might be in play

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  6. In my church, we had a priest from france. He belonged to MEP ordered. He too actually have the same problem with the priest you described in this blog

    He left his priesthood last easter. The affair was so exaggerating with the rumors amongst the parioshioners such as;

    1. He had an affair with a widowed woman who apparently younger than him by 2 years.

    2. He is apparently has had relationship with a filipino woman.

    3. Archbishop found out that this french guy secretly registered his marriage.

    4. By the time he left priesthood, the woman he had been married to has gotten pregnant for 4 months.

    Frankly, his sermont was good. In fact, I worked very closely with him in my ministry. I also suspect that he wanted to target me before but he could not.


    I don't understand why he did not do such a proper discernment before entering priesthood. If catholic church continue to shelter such guy, it would tarnish church reputation.

    Anyway, we pray for those blacksheep clergy as well. Amen

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  7. church is all about sex , the priest are playing with women, and women are getting fool from the catholic and protestant priest, they should change their religion, and read about islam.

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  8. I was deeply in love with a priest who flirted with me without telling me he is a priest to start with. (I'm non religious) He would frequently come and see me middle of the nights, stay and leave in odd hours in the morning. After some times I then discovered he is flirting with a married woman in his parish and They are going away on weekend trips together. They call each other something like 30 times a day and when he stays at mine he would often call her from 12-2am, telling me he is helping a friend. I got very hurt but there is no channel within the Catholic religion to help the women. I ended up with depression up until now. The priest cut me off after I discovered the married woman, worrying about his social position, denying him creating me any harm, I thought he loved me but looks like he just loves himself.

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    Replies
    1. Have you heard about my work with Bethany - a support group for women hurt by priests?

      Get in touch

      bishoppatbuckley@hotmail.com

      07900 287283

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