# Catholic or Ex-Catholic Dopers: What PERSONAL Experience/Knowledge Have You of Lecherous Priests? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 21, 2013, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-or-ex-catholic-dopers-what-personal-experience-knowledge-have-you-of-lecherous-priests/653537 "2013-03-21T14:59:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![CraterLayer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/87869e/32.png) [@CraterLayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CraterLayer)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-or-ex-catholic-dopers-what-personal-experience-knowledge-have-you-of-lecherous-priests/653537/41 "2014-04-14T00:28:41Z")
I attended a classic Catholic grammar school in the sixties (tuns of nuns, and two priests plus an ancient Monsignor) and I became an Altar boy in the fifth grade. The priest in charge of the altar boys was a classic “beloved by everybody” priest. He was friendly physical with us, squishing our noses, pinching our cheeks, pulling our ears, hugging. One morning (in sixth grade) after serving at a funeral and waiting in the Rectory to serve at another, some change fell through a hole in my right pants pocket, down my leg and onto the floor. (I remember my best friend, my altar boy partner, trying to grab the coins before me. Oh, to be young again.) Father’s reaction was to put his hand in my pocket, and stick his finger through the hole. After he kept doing this, I sewed the pocket halfway up. I had two pair of pants though, and he would continue put his hand down in my pocket to make sure there were no holes. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-or-ex-catholic-dopers-what-personal-experience-knowledge-have-you-of-lecherous-priests/653537/42 "2014-04-14T02:05:58Z")
Cradle Catholic. No experience or knowledge at all. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-or-ex-catholic-dopers-what-personal-experience-knowledge-have-you-of-lecherous-priests/653537/43 "2014-04-14T03:02:25Z")
I was an altar boy - no skeevy priests in my experience. On the contrary, one of my parish priests was a real role model for me and I adored him. Was devastated when he transferred to another parish and even went to visit him a few times. I’m an atheist now, but I’m still grateful for his influence in my life. We did have one visiting priest who was unusually stern, and I was told he had actually slapped an altar boy once. But I had no trouble with him. ---
**Author:** ![nani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58956e/32.png) [@nani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nani)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-or-ex-catholic-dopers-what-personal-experience-knowledge-have-you-of-lecherous-priests/653537/44 "2014-04-14T03:46:47Z")
I had relatively limited access to priests despite being from a Mass-every-Sunday and confession-every-couple-months family, and no bad experiences that happened either to me or to anyone else I’ve heard about. Priests I met as a youth were as a rule, intelligent, compassionate, and kind. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-or-ex-catholic-dopers-what-personal-experience-knowledge-have-you-of-lecherous-priests/653537/45 "2014-04-14T04:06:40Z")
I grew up Catholic. I don’t ever recall hearing about any priests being involved in any sexual scandals in my experience. There were a few occasions where there were drinking problems mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-or-ex-catholic-dopers-what-personal-experience-knowledge-have-you-of-lecherous-priests/653537/46 "2014-04-14T05:19:08Z")
Raised Catholic, Catholic school K-8, now lapsed. I never came accross any, although the [pastor](http://articles.latimes.com/1998/nov/16/news/mn-43412) at church was almost charged with embezzling millions from the church funds. It was a death bed confession, though, and he died a month later, so they really couldn’t do anything to him. His secretary was found guilty as well. (There’s speculation that they were lovers, but no real proof). It was a HUGE scandal around here when it happened. They even tried to blame the missing funds at first on a church secretary who had a brain tumor. :dubious: (What I remember most about the guy was that he was always telling us in his sermons to give to the church, that we needed more funds. Gee, I wonder why?) One reason that we didn’t have as many molestation problems could be that while I was growing up, we had [Donald Wuerl](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Wuerl#Child_abuse) as our bishop, (now a Cardinal at the Vatican), who’s known for a really strict, [zero-tolerance policy](http://old.post-gazette.com/localnews/20030615wuerl0615p2.asp) for child abuse. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-or-ex-catholic-dopers-what-personal-experience-knowledge-have-you-of-lecherous-priests/653537/47 "2014-04-14T08:17:26Z")
No bad experiences whatsoever. And my family moved a good bit when I was a kid so we were under a lot of different priests in different parishes. All good. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-or-ex-catholic-dopers-what-personal-experience-knowledge-have-you-of-lecherous-priests/653537/48 "2014-04-14T08:36:20Z")
> [@kambria](#): > > Absolutely nothing; I’ve been Catholic my whole life. > > There aren’t more pedophile priests than there are teachers/lawyers/doctors/etc. The tragedy is that they should know better…and that a very small percentage besmirch the good reputation of so many really great men. God bless the rest of the priests who live through this scandal innocent of charges. They so often are considered guilty by association. Absolutely. It’s terrible that there was even one. Worse that the Church turned a blind eye. I personally have known no priests who could be regarded as lecherous in the slightest. ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-or-ex-catholic-dopers-what-personal-experience-knowledge-have-you-of-lecherous-priests/653537/49 "2014-04-14T09:21:48Z")
Raised Catholic and was a regular server. No shenanigans whatsoever. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-or-ex-catholic-dopers-what-personal-experience-knowledge-have-you-of-lecherous-priests/653537/50 "2014-04-14T10:06:43Z")
I have no personal knowledge or experience, but then again, I can be pretty clueless sometimes, and I was lots worse as a kid. I don’t recall any talk or suggestions of anything ever going on. I always wanted to ask the choir boys about the choir leader - he absolutely \*refused \*to let women or girls sing in the choir, and long after I’d moved away, I started to wonder about him… One thing that did surprise me, tho - when all the abuse stories were thick in the news, my dad, who was born in 1930, said when he was a kid, all the altar boys knew about one particular priest. In fact, my dad said that priest was the reason he didn’t become an altar boy. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-or-ex-catholic-dopers-what-personal-experience-knowledge-have-you-of-lecherous-priests/653537/51 "2014-04-14T11:01:55Z")
None ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-or-ex-catholic-dopers-what-personal-experience-knowledge-have-you-of-lecherous-priests/653537/52 "2014-04-14T11:02:28Z")
Irish and baptised Catholic so yeah had priests, christian brothers and nuns in my life all the way through school and was an alter boy. Had a few brothers in school that were vicious bastards who like corporal punishment\* a bit too much but also had normal teachers who were the same. Never saw or heard of anything of a sexual nature. - Legal then (70/80’s ), not now. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-or-ex-catholic-dopers-what-personal-experience-knowledge-have-you-of-lecherous-priests/653537/53 "2014-04-14T12:53:16Z")
Strong Irish catholic roots on one side of the family. Italian catholic on the other. But it fizzled out in my generation. I only lasted through confirmation. My brother went to a Catholic high school. Never even a rumor that I heard. The worst I heard was that our parish priest hit the sacrificial wine a bit too much and had a lousy palate. Also that they couldn’t hire any more female teachers at my brother’s high school because it inevitably led to one of the brothers leaving the order to get married. ---
**Author:** ![Melchior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Melchior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melchior)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-or-ex-catholic-dopers-what-personal-experience-knowledge-have-you-of-lecherous-priests/653537/54 "2014-04-14T14:22:02Z")
I was raised Catholic and was an altar boy. I am no longer religious. I had no bad experiences of any kind. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-or-ex-catholic-dopers-what-personal-experience-knowledge-have-you-of-lecherous-priests/653537/55 "2014-04-14T20:21:16Z")
There was a Christian Brother at my secondary school who died when I was in 1st year (thankfully). I never had him for any subject but my siblings and older friends did and he was apt to feel them up, unbutton shirts and rub their chests and all sorts of inappropriate behaviour. A generation earlier my mother had a priest ask her sexual questions when she was about 9 or 10. She told her mother and her mother just said he was a bit odd and told her to avoid going to confession with him again. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-or-ex-catholic-dopers-what-personal-experience-knowledge-have-you-of-lecherous-priests/653537/56 "2014-04-14T20:26:39Z")
Ooops I already commented in post #25. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-or-ex-catholic-dopers-what-personal-experience-knowledge-have-you-of-lecherous-priests/653537/57 "2014-04-14T22:08:16Z")
[This guy](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/86260.stm) was the elderly Father Jack type in our parish. I was an altar server many times with him on the altar. I never experienced anything regarding him and it was quite the shock when it came out. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-or-ex-catholic-dopers-what-personal-experience-knowledge-have-you-of-lecherous-priests/653537/58 "2014-04-14T22:18:27Z")
Raised Catholic and was an altar boy. Neither of the priests I dealt with did anything. I went to a catholic high-school and at least two of the brothers there have since done jail time for molesting students while I was there (not me, but one was a good friend who has since commited suicide - the Brother who abused him used to send him a card every Xmas. :mad: ) It’s since become clear that the school principal and the larger organisation knew what was going on but covered it all up. ---
**Author:** ![Calatin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/439d5e/32.png) [@Calatin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calatin)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-or-ex-catholic-dopers-what-personal-experience-knowledge-have-you-of-lecherous-priests/653537/59 "2014-04-14T22:43:45Z")
I’m not Catholic, but I am Protestant and was very active in my high school’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes program. There was a pastor who was very involved as a sponsor and always gave me the creeps - shorter, chubby guy (not that there’s anything wrong with that) but just seemed like pairing for our group. He was close friends with our high school football coach, and he would do the play-by-play at all our games, so he was always in the locker room. The following is a story that one of my teammates told me. He pulled a muscle in a game one night, and the sponsor overheard him talking about it. The pastor offered to give the guy a massage, and told my friend that he’d done it for a bunch of players, including the coach’s son. The friend was extremely hesitant, but knowing how close the sponsor was to the coach’s family, and since he was an integral part of FCA, he eventually relented and went to the pastor’s house one night. Friend gets to the pastor’s house and there is a table set up, and the pastor convinces the friend to strip down to his boxers for the massage. Outside of some touching, the friend swears nothing happened, and the touching seemed a little excessive, but nothing so overt or obvious that it made my friend leap up from the table. He said it lasted about an hour, and it really freaked him out, so after that evening, the friend tried to keep his distance from the pastor. Flash-forward about 7 years, and a bunch of the players (including the coach’s son) are all together, catching up over the holidays. We mention the pastor and my friend chimes in asking if anyone else found his massages inappropriate. The room fell silent. Suddenly, the friend realized that nobody else present had received a massage from the pastor. The room erupts in laughter, but then a kind of horror settles in when we realize that he was still active with the FCA program. After hearing that, I spoke w/ a family member who worked for the school, and I told my friend to do the same, but I’m not sure if anything ever was done about the matter. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-or-ex-catholic-dopers-what-personal-experience-knowledge-have-you-of-lecherous-priests/653537/60 "2014-04-14T23:46:02Z")
I attended Catholic school for 12 years, was an altar server, attended religious ed classes and was involved in a number of church sponsored sports and arts activities. This was in Pakistan. Never experienced anything or heard of anything. When our daughter was entering Kindergarten we visited several parish schools. At one school we were given a copy of the rules in place to protect children. Quite extensive and seemed very reassurance. When we went for the classroom observation, what we observed was a priest coming into the school and taking a girl out of a second grade class. You can have all the rules you want but so long as the priests are treated as more than human by some, it’s an invitation to trouble. Sure enough, a year or so later the priest was dismissed, and is under investigation for “inappropriate contact with a minor”. He was taking kids out of CCD classes for special instruction. Two lay CCD teachers did not seem to be able to challenge him. Even now one of them refuses to allow the possibility that the priest was up to no good. She is a Girl Scout leader with the troop meeting in the parish hall. Needless to say, my daughter is in another troop now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-or-ex-catholic-dopers-what-personal-experience-knowledge-have-you-of-lecherous-priests/653537.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-or-ex-catholic-dopers-what-personal-experience-knowledge-have-you-of-lecherous-priests/653537.md?page=4)