With so much invasion of eroticism, sometimes it’s not easy to stay celibate or to respect children. If on television and on the Internet and in so many media outlets there is pornography, it is very difficult to stay pure and chaste. Obviously when there is generalized sexual freedom it’s more likely there could be cases of pedophilia.
—Mexico’s Bishop Felipe Arizmendi, speaking Thursday at an annual bishops conference, explaining that it’s not celibacy but web porn that’s to blame for children being violated [Reuters, via JMG]
Andy
I watch tons of porn. Not once had I the urge to rape adolescents or children. I sure hope there’s nothing wrong with me!
Peter
SO the Devil made him do it?
Rikard
I wish this kind of thing could be blamed on a sheltered ignorance, but you don’t get to be a bishop without being bright and acomplished, astute and adept. That being the case, as it is with many religious LEADERS this public relations message is intended to discredit the oposition and imunize the client in order to protect corporate assets. Not what Jesus would do.
Ms.Kumbaya
Well, porn has made us more desensitized, so it must affect people that are already deranged. And Brent Corrigan is a creep!
j
I find it easy to have a wank once or twice a day and not go and rape kids. Actually, I think even without the wank I’d find it fairly easy not to rape kids. The fact that this man DOESN’T find it easy, invasive eroticism or no, not to rape kids is slightly worrying and says more about him than the perils of secular society.
Jeremy
@Andy: Anybody who intentionally gave you a thumb down must be an dumbass with no sense of humor at all.
B
Bishop Felipe Arizmendi’s comments would be more understandable if he were much younger, but judging from the picture, he grew up before the public had Internet access and before nothing but G-rated content was available on TV, yet the Catholic sexual abuse problem was in full swing at that time (and for all we know, for a good chunk of the last 2000 years).
The more these prelates try to make excuses, the more ridiculous they become.
Mark
There were no such things as the web or speedos when I was ‘played with’ by the minister who abused me. What an ill-informed and silly comment.
EdWoody
Wow. That is the most nonsensical argument I’ve ever heard, ever. And on this site, that’s saying something.
Z.L.
Oh for fuck’s sake. I wish these dumb bastards would quit trying to blame everything in the world, including the victims, for the crimes that have been committed by Catholic priests.
Suck it up and admit it already, Fathers; your ordained pedophiles got caught with their hands in the Underoos draw and they have no one to blame but themselves.
B
No. 8 · Mark wrote, “There were no such things as the web or speedos” … Mark must be pretty old since speedos first came out in 1928! Seriously though, initially speedos were designed for competitive swimmers, with briefs starting in 1956 and skimpier designs in 1961, all in the name of reducing drag ever so slightly. Whether it made much difference in practice or not, people would go for whatever gave them a slight competitive edge (even a psychological one).
Once gays started using them though, the inevitable happened: baggy swimsuits became straight America’s punishment for its homophobia.
ksu499
Looks like we need to cut off the Vatican’s internet access.
OompaLoompa
We may not like him, or what he’s saying, but he is right in what he’s saying. Over and over, sexuality studies have shown there is more sexual violence nowadays due to the proliferation of porn, both straight and gay.
Fitz
One of the things that we have to do, as adults, is make decisions and take responsibility about what we have in our lives. You don’t blame alcoholism on the fact that there is a bar in town, do you?
Cam
I see the church is still continuing to throw every single excuse against the wall to see what sticks.
B
No. 13 · OompaLoompa wrote, “We may not like him, or what he’s saying, but he is right in what he’s saying. Over and over, sexuality studies have shown there is more sexual violence nowadays due to the proliferation of porn, both straight and gay.”
… probably not true. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States the amount of violent crime in the U.S. dropped substantially through the 1990s as porn proliferated. You might want to put in the effort to find the statistics for “sexual violence” if you want to make a case.
Don’t forget that demographics are important with fluctuating numbers of people in various age groups due to events like the baby boom, as rapes tend to be perpetrated by men in particular age groups.
JimD
Doesn’t the Vatican have the WORLD’S LARGEST COLLECTION OF “High Art” Porn by Old Masters ?