I think the funniest part of this whole thread is how priests get thrown in.
It's obvious that there are a lot of people who are angry that the priests have "gotten away with it" while they can't seem to get away from their own past and maybe present behavior.
My tip to them - give yourselves a break. Get over yourselves. Admit it and move on. Don't allow yourself to be trapped by it.
I had a great elementary school experience, going to Catholic school. But after the pedephile priest scandal broke out, I thought, how smarmy and deeply disgusting could it be to have such a priest hearing confessions of others and giving absolutions, while doing those awful things to boys. That's when I left the Church. And for the record, no, I wasn't molested either.
Years ago, in the mental health community, many homosexual men recounted a history of molestation as a pre-teen by a man, they held to be trustworthy at the time. They mistakenly thought that this early sexual contact meant that they were homosexual. They had a difficult time seeing it as a sexual violation of them, because they trusted the man at that time. It caused a big internal conflict in them. These days we know that rape and molestation is a crime of power, not sex. But the sequelae of childhood molestation leaves scars and confusion about the young person's own identity. I think it valid to bring up the priest scandal history, as it did affect the sexual identity issues of many gays years ago, adding to a cluster of historical issues regarding gay identity. I don't know about today.
One thing we do see as a abnormal reaction to molestation, is that some of those molested, take the direction of then molesting others or using others sexually, in a futile attempt to empower themselves by being the molestor, the ONE in control.
The need to be the ONE in control, and the inability to tolerate criticism or differences in others, can unfortunately dovetail into the development of a narcissistic personality.
