Free Essays on Catholic Abuse

In the wake of the current scandal over child abuse by priests, I received a letter from an American woman in her mid-forties who was brought up Roman Catholic. She has two strong recollections from when she was seven. She was sexually abused by her parish priest in his car. And around the same time, a little school friend of hers, who had tragically died, went to hell because she was a Protestant. Or so my correspondent was led to believe by the then-prevalent doctrine in her church. Her view now is that, of these two examples of Roman Catholic child abuse, the one physical and the other mental, the second was by far the worst. She writes: Being fondled by the priest simply left the impression (from the mind of a 7 year old) as "yucky," while the memory of my friend going to hell was one of cold, immeasurable fear. I never lost sleep because of the priestbut I spent many a night being terrified that the people I loved would go to Hell. It gave me nightmares. I am sure her experience is far from unique. And what if we assume a less altruistic child, worried about her own eternity rather than a friend's? Odious as the physical abuse of children by priests undoubtediy is, I suspect that it may do them less lasting damage than the mental abuse of having been brought up Catholic in the first place. Happily I was spared the misfortune of a Roman Catholic upbringing (Anglicanism is a significantly less noxious strain of the virus). Being fondled by the Latin master in the squash court was a disagreeable sensation for a nine-year-old, a mixture of embarrassment and skin-crawling revulsion, but it was certainly not in the same league as being led to believe that I, or someone I knew, might go to everlasting fire. As soon as I could wriggl... Free Essays on Catholic Abuse Free Essays on Catholic Abuse In the wake of the current scandal over child abuse by priests, I received a letter from an American woman in her mid-forties who was brought up Roman Catholic. She has two strong recollections from when she was seven. She was sexually abused by her parish priest in his car. And around the same time, a little school friend of hers, who had tragically died, went to hell because she was a Protestant. Or so my correspondent was led to believe by the then-prevalent doctrine in her church. Her view now is that, of these two examples of Roman Catholic child abuse, the one physical and the other mental, the second was by far the worst. She writes: Being fondled by the priest simply left the impression (from the mind of a 7 year old) as "yucky," while the memory of my friend going to hell was one of cold, immeasurable fear. I never lost sleep because of the priestbut I spent many a night being terrified that the people I loved would go to Hell. It gave me nightmares. I am sure her experience is far from unique. And what if we assume a less altruistic child, worried about her own eternity rather than a friend's? Odious as the physical abuse of children by priests undoubtediy is, I suspect that it may do them less lasting damage than the mental abuse of having been brought up Catholic in the first place. Happily I was spared the misfortune of a Roman Catholic upbringing (Anglicanism is a significantly less noxious strain of the virus). Being fondled by the Latin master in the squash court was a disagreeable sensation for a nine-year-old, a mixture of embarrassment and skin-crawling revulsion, but it was certainly not in the same league as being led to believe that I, or someone I knew, might go to everlasting fire. As soon as I could wriggl...