Post #102

There are many priests in the Roman Catholic Church who suffer from severe psycho-sexual immaturity. They reach out for intimacy in ways that are often inappropriate but for which they have no life-experience to alert them to potential problems. It is in that context many of the scandals of the last fifty years or more have occurred. As more than one expert has said, many of the priests accused of sexual abuse had their psycho-sexual growth stunted around the same time as they reached puberty within a seminary formation system that chose sublimation of sexual urges over frank discussion.

In the seminaries, the situation regarding potential abuse was even worse than in public because, in the seminaries, the priests are the ultimate authorities as formation directors who can determine the future of a seminarian without much challenge from anyone. While there have been some changes in seminary administration, the contemporary seminarian is taught from the day he walks through the door that the correct answer is “how high Father”? For the young, impressionable seminarian who has been taught for most of his life that the priest is the spiritual authority, the opportunities for inappropriate behavior still exist.

A seminarian is unlikely to object to what might be an inappropriate touch or comment from a priest-formator because such an objection could mean the seminarian will be rejected by the seminary for reasons which may not always be valid. Similarly, inexperienced priest-formators without any training are being put in the position of determining the future of candidates for the priesthood while those same formators are still working out their own issues. There have been witnessed instances where priest-formators, supported by seminary rectors and disinterested bishops, have engaged in emotional and psychological abuse of seminarians. The bishops, who should be the final arbiter in such cases, are often so pre-occupied with their own personal issues and diocesan problems they are unable to effectively deal with such issues and abandon their authority to the seminaries.

Unfortunately, there is no incentive for change in the seminaries. Bishops and priests will tell you how glad they are to have “survived” the seminary and really don’t see a need for change. Priest-formators in seminaries are so comfortable in their authority structures that they reject any impetus for change and silence those who propose such change.

Dysfunction begets dysfunction.