Re: [xmca] Church Report Cites social and sexual turmoil of the 1960s and ’70s to blame in Priest Scandals

[Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net>]

A supplementary to what I said ... the real societal question is why did 
all this sexual exploitation stuff start coming out in the 70s and 80s? 
After generations of abuse, suddenly Ireland is full of horror stories 
about what the priests and nuns do with the children in their care? And 
ironcially one could answer : "Woodstock"! That is, the social movements 
of the 1960s did not create conditions for sexual abuse (that belongs to 
the mediaeval structures of the Church), but they created the conditions 
for people who were absued to come out in public and denounce their 
tormentors.

Andy

Andy Blunden wrote:
> Yes, this was an astounding claim. The Church has studied all the 
> sexual abuse of children over the decades and decided that the cause 
> was not celebacy, or homosexuality but Woodstock (all their words). 
> They claim that the Church was simply a part of a social problem which 
> affected the larger social body, viz,. the 1960s Free Love movement. 
> This is how the report has been reported here in Australia.
>
> I don't accept this at all. It is crazy. Abuse of small children by 
> adult priests is nothing to do with free love, or love of any kind. 
> Also nothing to do with celebacy or homosexuality. I believe it is an 
> issue to which Activity Theory gives us an effective lens though 
> because it was not only the Catholic Church and its celebate priests 
> who are implicated, but all hierarchical organisations, especially 
> those built around a doctrine and/or demanding tight loyalty. It 
> affects the even IMF actually. Where you have a situation where one 
> person has absolute power over another (a relation which can be 
> estabished by doctrine, but to an extent also by economic relations) 
> then this kind of sexual subordination and exploitation occurs. It 
> occurs in families, too. The question is the quality of the person to 
> person relations on which a large social formation is based.
>
> Andy


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