Church Moral: Breaking celibacy is worse than sexual abuse

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Stefan Loppacher, canon lawyer, spoke about the moral concepts of the church in an interview with the Tamedia newspapers. “I have seen files in which bishops and perpetrators say that masturbating as a priest with a twelve-year-old is just a game between boys. Sleeping with a woman is much worse and a real violation of celibacy.”

The reasoning of certain bishops and priests is “of course total nonsense,” Loppacher said in an interview with Tamedia. The canon lawyer heads the specialized committee ‘Sexual violence in ecclesiastical environments’ of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference. He is also a prevention officer in the diocese of Chur.

The woman is seen as less pure

Women are seen as less pure because of biblical and cultic ideas about purity. To this day, this shapes the church’s sexual morality and image of women. “Dark moral concepts have a direct influence on the trivialization of a serious crime,” Loppacher said.

For centuries, ecclesiastical criminal law was purely disciplinary law. “It was about protecting the perpetrators from themselves for their own salvation and getting them to return,” he said. Naming injustice and making amends is not part of this. “That of course sounds so naive that it almost makes you dizzy,” said the canon lawyer. But ecclesiastical criminal law is based on moral and theological convictions.

The church placed itself above the state

Those responsible for the church were also accustomed to placing themselves above the state. “The Catholic Church does not have a culture of mistakes,” Loppacher said. From the perspective of the state, canon law does not exist.

However, a large number of church employees were simply waiting for these issues to be resolved. According to Loppecher, the masses are necessary for cultural change. The fact that Swiss church representatives brought themselves to commission an investigation shows insight.

In a study Tuesday, the University of Zurich documented 1,002 cases of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Switzerland since the mid-20th century.

(SDA)

Source:Blick