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Jesuit + Rage = Abuse

What They Knew
November 1, 2012

http://vu2103.katla.orangewebsite.com/jesuit-rage-abuse/

Adolfo Nicolas doesn’t know why society is so angry with his Jesuits.

The Society of Jesus is really angry. So angry they abuse children according to the Catholic News Service -Anger management vital for clergy and religious, Jesuit journal says.

We realize this is another shift from the Jesuits’ previous excuse “it was stress“. In the real world, both these theories are akin to asking “why” a hurricane struck rather than saving lives and cleaning up the mess it left first.

“Anger awareness and management are vital for priests and members of religious orders because they are called to be people of dialogue, fraternity, service, peace and justice, and to treat others with charity…”

Jesuits that lack “an adequate integration of aggression, they can become hostile, rigid and obstinate and risk exploding the often delicate and complex balance present in the communities” according to Jesuit Father Giovanni Cucci SJ, a professor of psychology and philosophy at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University, in an article in La Civilta Cattolica which was cleared for publication by the Vatican.

Fr. Cucci previously stated that society just all of a sudden woke up to child sex abuse recently and the Catholic Church has suffered from the collective “moral panic“. In this prior article, he argued “psychology is certainly not a mathematical discipline, from which it is possible to reach clear and distinct conclusions.”

But now Fr. Cucci has new insight into the mind of child rapists thanks to help from Msgr. Stephen Rossetti. ”The denial of rage certainly does not lead to a calmer or quieter life, but rather to a potentially more explosive situation; emotions rebel when they are not listened to, when they don’t find an adequate place” to vent.

Donald McGuire SJ was very angry.

“In fact, many perversions, including the sexual abuse of minors, are linked to the ‘dynamic of repressed anger’ that often is found together with psychological wounds caused by violence and abuse the perpetrator experienced and never recognized and worked through,” says the Jesuit. Not only hate the sin and not the sinner, but society needs to understand that these poor abusers are “victims” too. So much for that “victim first” policy.

The article relies heavily on the research done by Msgr. Stephen Rossetti, while he was director of St. Luke Institute in Maryland. According to Rossetti, with priests’ “deviancies and sexual pathologies there is a kind of pent-up rage or rage that has been eroticized.”

“The monsignor’s research showed that many priests who sexually abused minors said their acts were motivated by a desire to be a paternal figure and show the child the love they never received as children from their own fathers.” Wait that was Sandusky’s excuse…wasn’t it?

The rape of children is “a destructive act that sprung from their hidden rage and violence, and which leaves their victims terrified. They were reliving the violence they suffered as children with the same destructive results,”according to Msgr. Rossetti in the Jesuit article. We believe that’s called a cycle of violence, not an excuse for it.

According to the CNS author, “though it seems counterintuitive, ‘aggression is the natural foundation of hope’ because at the root of anger and rage is the belief that something can or must be done to right a wrong, protect the good or overcome a challenge.”

In Jesuit psychology “it is important above all to recognize the presence of anger, paying close attention to how it is then expressed,” Father Cucci writes.

Internal rage can become “a terrible poison” causing health problems, insomnia, obsessive-compulsive tendencies or passive-aggressive behaviors. When anger is denied and pent-up, it becomes “combustible,” and instead of solving problems, it makes them worse, resulting in often tragic consequences, the story said.

“The ideal of a Christian life is in fact, holiness, not perfect, unflappable serenity” or to simply “be well,” the Jesuit wrote. “Limits and fragility, even if they can become sources of suffering, are not something negative, to get rid of,” but are rather signs of being human.

But we think holiness might be an impossibility. So like most of the world we would settle for them to just stop raping children.

If the Jesuits were angry in the past when they allowed their brothers to run rampant, ruining the lives of countless innocent children, they must be seething now at the news society is finally starting to “express its rage”.

One example that should be particularly worrisome for Chicago Jesuits is what is happening at Penn State. The university president and two underlings have just been charged with numerous counts of perjury, obstruction of justice endangering the welfare of children and criminal conspiracy, based on the 2001 and 1998 emails and letters discussing concealing of past abuse by Sandusky according to the NY Times. They face 36 years in prison for their cover-up at Penn State.

So why should the Jesuits be angry? Let’s compare:

child sex abuse allegations from 1960s to 2004

numerous supervisors and superiors who knew about the abuse

lots and lots of emails / letters and documents showing that those supervisors knew about the allegations for decades and never reported to authorities

detailed evidence pointing to cover-up and protection of the institution over children

dates when the crimes were committed 1998-2001 or even later

So who are we talking about, the Jesuits or Penn State? Both.

The only difference we can find is that the Jesuit cover-up went on for longer until, 2008 or later, and has more damning evidence than Penn State.

Lisa Madigan speaking at Loyola. She knows Jesuits in Illinois are above the laws of man

Oh… and Pennsylvania and Illinois have different Attorney Generals.

The Illinois Attorney General, Lisa Madigan, attended The Latin School of Chicago for her secondary education, and received her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University in 1988. She received her J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

I think someone would be hard pressed to get a more Jesuit education than that.

Surprisingly she has never investigated or prosecuted the Chicago Jesuit Province, even after two criminal trials with mountains of evidence implicating Provincials, and even after she was asked nicely.

All that rage… no way to let go of it. Maybe they can do some yoga? Dance?

 

 

 

 

 




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