Paying The Debt Forward
Former Canadian Bishop Raymond Lahey disgraced his respected position as an elite official of the Roman Catholic Church, in his Nova Scotia parish, the Diocese of Antigonish. He had served long and faithfully. He was highly respected, and had received great acclaim for the diplomatic and humane manner in which he settled a $15-million claim out of court for sexual abuse suffered at the hands of the clergy.
He was lauded for the manner in which he took charge. For his empathetic approach to the situation. For sparing the sufferers of sexual abuse from further, public appraisal of the sordid past imposed upon them that a trial would highlight. For making the decision to accept that a poor diocese would have to struggle mightily to come up with $15-million, but that it was right and just that it do so.
"I think parishioners would want us to do the right thing. I think that's the overriding consideration", he said at that time, and he received enthusiastic accolades for taking that stance. It was moral and ethical, highly considerate of the violations visited upon the helpless and the hapless.
And this is a man who was discovered to have had a computer containing "pornographic stories - one running to 300 pages in length- that he categorized under five themes: mastery and slavery involving adults and young boys; humiliation of young boys; torture of young boys; sex acts between young boys; and degradation of young boys or forcing sex acts on them."
While he succumbed to his addiction, he was, seemingly aware of the dreadful contradictions in his life. He pleaded guilty and asked to be jailed immediately. The Crown, as a result of his responsible reaction, withdrew a more serious charge of importation of pornography, since the discovery had been made as he returned to Canada from a trip to the United States.
There are those who view this paradoxical set of events and the mind of the man involved as indicative of just how complex and multi-faceted the human mind and psyche can be. "I don't need to reconcile the two things" (what Bishop Lahey accomplished for victims of clergy abuse, as opposed to his degrading, indefensible attraction to child pornography).
"But cases like his just go to show you can never know what's really going on with someone", according to a Halifax lawyer.
He was lauded for the manner in which he took charge. For his empathetic approach to the situation. For sparing the sufferers of sexual abuse from further, public appraisal of the sordid past imposed upon them that a trial would highlight. For making the decision to accept that a poor diocese would have to struggle mightily to come up with $15-million, but that it was right and just that it do so.
"I think parishioners would want us to do the right thing. I think that's the overriding consideration", he said at that time, and he received enthusiastic accolades for taking that stance. It was moral and ethical, highly considerate of the violations visited upon the helpless and the hapless.
And this is a man who was discovered to have had a computer containing "pornographic stories - one running to 300 pages in length- that he categorized under five themes: mastery and slavery involving adults and young boys; humiliation of young boys; torture of young boys; sex acts between young boys; and degradation of young boys or forcing sex acts on them."
While he succumbed to his addiction, he was, seemingly aware of the dreadful contradictions in his life. He pleaded guilty and asked to be jailed immediately. The Crown, as a result of his responsible reaction, withdrew a more serious charge of importation of pornography, since the discovery had been made as he returned to Canada from a trip to the United States.
There are those who view this paradoxical set of events and the mind of the man involved as indicative of just how complex and multi-faceted the human mind and psyche can be. "I don't need to reconcile the two things" (what Bishop Lahey accomplished for victims of clergy abuse, as opposed to his degrading, indefensible attraction to child pornography).
"But cases like his just go to show you can never know what's really going on with someone", according to a Halifax lawyer.
Labels: Canada, Human Fallibility, Human Relations, Society
posted by Pieface | 7:58 PM
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