We feel we must disagree with those prophets of gloom, who are always forecasting disaster, as though the end of the world were at hand.
Pope John XXIII
Opening Address of the Second Vatican Council
October 11, 1962
Opening Address of the Second Vatican Council
October 11, 1962
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As the shameful American Bishops would have us believe, blame "Woodstock"; or the "culture". As we know, in the pre-aggiornamento years, it was very common for priests to serve in boards of pro-pedophilia groups. From the Associated Press:
The Dutch Catholic Church and the Salesian order are investigating revelations that a Salesian priest served on the board of a group that promotes pedophilia with the full knowledge of his boss.
The order's top official in the Netherlands, Delegate Herman Spronck, confirmed in a statement that the priest _ identified by RTL Nieuws as 73-year-old "Father Van B." _ served on the board of "Martijn," a group that campaigns to end the Dutch ban on adult-child sex.
"Of course we reject this and distance ourselves from this personal initiative" on the part of the priest, Spronck said in a statement. "Membership in such organizations does not fit with the ethos of the Salesian order."
However, Spronck's own superior in Belgium said he will investigate both Spronck and Van B., after both men were quoted by RTL Nieuws as saying such relationships aren't always harmful....
"Society thinks these relationships are harmful. I disagree," RTL quoted Van B. as saying. He served on Martijn's board from 2008 until 2010, when its founder was arrested for alleged possession of child pornography, a case that is ongoing....In a second interview, RTL quoted Spronck as saying he was aware of Van B.'s pedophilia and membership in Martijn, and even of two instances where the priest had been fined by police for exposing himself in public. But he said he didn't think that was sufficient reason to ban him from the order.
"Removing someone from the order is something you would only do in the case of grave moral transgression, such as rape. There was never any question of that," Spronck was quoted as saying.
Spronck added that adult-child sexual relations do not necessarily have to be damaging, including with children as young as 12.
In a previous Radio Netherlands 2010 report on another case (the abuse of children in the Don Rua Salesian convent and school in 1964 and afterwards), Spronck had also been quoted: "Father Herman Spronck, currently the most senior Salesian in the Netherlands, denies all knowledge of abuse in ’s-Heerenberg and refers all inquiries to his predecessors. He is not opposed to an investigation and is keen to emphasise that sexual abuse goes against the vow taken by the Fathers of Don Bosco. 'At Don Bosco, the inviolable sanctity of youth is key to our system of education.'."
Right...
