Priest defends pope, papal preacher

By Matt C. Abbott

Father James Farfaglia, a priest of the Diocese of Corpus Christi, Texas — and author of Man to Man: A Real Priest Speaks to Real Men about Marriage, Sexuality and Family Life — isn't afraid to speak his mind.

When asked by yours truly to comment on papal preacher Father Raniero Cantalamessa's controversial Good Friday sermon, Father Farfaglia said in an e-mail:

"He said nothing wrong. As soon as we mention the 'h'-word (homosexual) or the 'j'-word (Jews) everyone goes crazy. Problems will never get resolved if we can't be objective."

As for the Vicar of Christ himself, Father Farfaglia says the pope "is cleaning up the mess. He's part of the solution, not the problem. This is why he's hated."

And the causes of the clergy abuse crisis?

"I've been confronting the corruption in the Catholic Church head-on for the past 14 years," says Father. "Everything that's going on now does not surprise me at all. After the 2002 debacle in the U.S., I told everyone that this is only the beginning.

"International communism and masonry infiltrated the Catholic priesthood back in the late 1940s and a relentless battle has taken place to try and destroy the Catholic priesthood.

"The present crisis has nothing to do with women not being priests or priestly celibacy. The Catholic priesthood has been purposely infiltrated by a homosexual sub-culture, commonly known among faithful Catholic priests as the lavender mafia.

"This is not to say that every homosexual man is a child molester. However, studies have shown that the vast majority of abuse cases in the Catholic Church deal with boys over the age of 15. This affirms a problem with homosexuality. Homosexuals need healing and therapy, not positions of authority.

"Bishops, Vatican and/or chancery officials covered up abuse cases because they were blind or because they were part of the problem."

And, yes, there is research to back up Father Farfaglia's assertions.

In a 2005 essay titled "Child Molestation by Homosexuals and Heterosexuals," Brian Clowes, Ph.D., and David Sonnier wrote (excerpt; click here to read the full essay):

'Dignity USA and other homosexual groups strenuously deny any connection whatever between a homosexual orientation and child sexual molestation. They repeatedly claim, as Dignity USA does, that 'All credible evidence discounts any link between the molestation of children and homosexuality.'

'Yet these groups never cite any of this 'credible evidence,' nor do they quote any studies to buttress their claims that there is no such connection.

'In fact, a number of studies performed over a period spanning more than half a century — many of which were performed by homosexuals or their sympathizers — have shown that an extremely large percentage of sexually active homosexuals also participate in child sexual molestation.

'This is not 'homophobia' or 'hatred,' this is simple scientific fact.

'For example;


• Homosexual Alfred Kinsey, the preeminent sexual researcher in the history of sexual research, found in 1948 that 37 percent of all male homosexuals admitted to having sex with children under 17 years old.
  
  
• A very recent (2000) study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior found that 'The best epidemiological evidence indicates that only 2-4% of men attracted to adults prefer men. In contrast, around 25-40% of men attracted to children prefer boys. Thus, the rate of homosexual attraction is 620 times higher among pedophiles.'
  
  
• Another 2000 study in the Archives of Sexual Behavior found that '. . . all but 9 of the 48 homosexual men preferred the youngest two male age categories' for sexual activity; These age categories were fifteen and twenty years old.
  
  
• Yet another recent study in the Archives of Sexual Behavior found that 'Pedophilia appears to have a greater than chance association with two other statistically infrequent phenomena. The first of these is homosexuality . . . Recent surveys estimate the prevalence of homosexuality, among men attracted to adults, in the neighborhood of 2%. In contrast, the prevalence of homosexuality among pedophiles may be as high as 30-40%.'
  
  
• A 1989 study in the Journal of Sex Research noted that '. . . the proportion of sex offenders against male children among homosexual men is substantially larger than the proportion of sex offenders against female children among heterosexual men . . . the development of pedophilia is more closely linked with homosexuality than with heterosexuality.'
  
  
• A 1988 study of 229 convicted child molesters published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior found that 86% of pedophiles described themselves as homosexual or bisexual.
  
  
• In a 1984 Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy article, sex researchers found that 'The proportional prevalence of [male] offenders against male children in this group of 457 offenders against children was 36 percent.'
  
  
• Homosexual activists Karla Jay and I Allen Young revealed in their 1979 Gay Report that 73% of all homosexuals I have acted as 'chicken hawks' — that is, they have preyed on adolescent or younger boys.
  
  
• In a 1992 study published in the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, sex researchers K. Freud and R. I. Watson found that homosexual males are three times more likely than straight men to engage in pedophilia, and that the average pedophile victimizes between 20 and 150 boys before being arrested.
  
  
• A study by sex researchers Alan Bell and Martin Weinberg found that 25% of white homosexual men have had sex with boys sixteen years and younger.'
  
  

In a cogent April 1 editorial on LifeSiteNews.com, Steve Jalsevac writes (excerpt; click here for the full editorial):

'There has been an international media saturation of news stories focusing on the pope since the New York Times published its error-riddled hit piece against Pope Benedict's supposed personal negligence regarding two clergy abuse cases. Some of the articles that followed have been among the most biased, reckless and hateful of the Church that we have ever seen since LSN began.

'Deal Hudson of InsideCatholic.com asked Bill Donohue of the Catholic League, 'Why do media like the New York Times and the Washington Post hate the Catholic Church and the pope? What's the source of the animus?'

'Donohue replied, 'it stems from three issues: abortion, gay marriage, and women's ordination. So, when they can nail the Church on promiscuity, they love it. The goal is to weaken the moral authority of the Church so it won't be as persuasive on issues like health care.'

'Our several news reports have made it clear that Pope Benedict has been the victim of unjust accusations and that almost all the new revelations are about incidents that occurred decades ago, during the same time period that was the focus of the 2002 U.S. clergy sex abuse blow-up — the 1960s to early 1980s. The rate of clergy abuse incidents has continuously and dramatically decreased since John Paul II became pope in October 1978.

'However, we must also report that evidence reveals the Church leadership has in many ways brought this current catastrophe upon itself. Unless it rapidly makes crucial changes still called for, there is certain to be a devastating reckoning — if not this time around, then in the years not far ahead.

'Although there have been many positive changes in the Church in the U.S. and Canada and in Vatican policies since the horrific 2002 revelations, LSN has continuously warned that the fundamental problems that led to the abuses and subsequent crippling of the Catholic Church have still been far from fully resolved.

'Three issues are still of great concern:


1. The overwhelming unwillingness of most bishops to exercise their authority in response to serious rejection or indifference towards issues of critical Catholic beliefs and norms — especially regarding moral issues. That is, the bishops have not been actively upholding the faith with consequent serious harm resulting to the faith and lives of many people.
   
   
2. The public scandal of criminally negligent or otherwise seriously negligent or corrupt bishops still not having been appropriately held personally accountable. It has instead been the people in the pews and past large benefactors, who had nothing to do with the scandals, whose contributions have unjustly been taken to pay billions of dollars for settlements and obscene lawyers' fees. The victims of abuse have been denied justice.
   
   
3. The still on-going unwillingness to face or even mention the corruption caused by the tolerance of homosexuality within the clergy at all levels, including bishops and cardinals, within the religious orders and within Catholic Church institutions and colleges and schools. There has been much improvement on this item, especially thanks to Pope Benedict's strong re-affirmation of the rule that homosexuals must not be admitted into seminaries; but there is still far, far more that must be done to rid the Church of this widespread, cancerous influence within the Church body.'
   
   
Indeed.

Pertinent links:

Father Farfaglia's e-parish

Father Farfaglia's blog

"Clergy Sexual Abuse Study: It's Time for Common Sense"

© Matt C. Abbott