Accused of abuse, (another) priest put on leave (Rev. Steven Poitras, Hudson, Mass.)

Accused of abuse, priest put on leave
Hudson parish, state notified

By Charles A. Radin, Globe Staff | November 28, 2006

The Rev. Steven Poitras, associate pastor of St. Michael Parish in Hudson, has been placed on administrative leave pending investigation of an allegation that he sexually abused a child in 1994, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston announced yesterday.

The Massachusetts attorney general's office and the Essex district attorney's office have been notified of the accusation, the archdiocese said in a statement; an internal investigation has also been launched. "The decision to place Father Poitras on administrative leave does not represent a determination of his guilt or innocence," the archdiocese said.

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Dorothy Kennedy -- president of the Boston-area council of Voice of the Faithful, an organization of Catholics formed to support survivors of sexual abuse and to push for reform in the church -- said: "We are glad that they are announcing he will be placed on administrative leave. It is an indication of greater transparency."

But Kennedy and Ray Joyce, executive director of Voice of the Faithful's national office, said that activists are frustrated by the Boston archdiocese's refusal to release to the public a list of priests against whom credible allegations of sexual misconduct have been made. Joyce said that according to figures compiled by the state attorney general's office, more than 250 priests and other archdiocesan workers have been accused of molesting nearly 800 children.

More:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/11/28/accused_of_abuse_priest_put_on_leave/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+City%2FRegion+News

of why celibacy is a bad idea.

celibacy has nothing to do with it.

because one of the requirements of being a priest is that you have to repress your sexuality. People who repress their sexuality end up expressing it, but unfortunately it is more often then not, in inappropriate ways.

Seems like that is a compulsion that would be hard to break.

this isn't a major problem in the Episcopal Church.

I imagine that some of these guys may have chosen the priesthood as a means to gain access to vulnerable, young boys.

But there are probably even more who chose a vow of celibacy to suppress troubling sexual urges.

For example, a gay man, is told by his "church" that if he acts on his sexual desires for other adult men, that he is doomed to burn in Hell for eternity. For them, a life of celibacy might seem their only path out of damnation. And then, they find themselves surrounded by young boys, and succumbs to temptation.

In other words, celibacy may rob some gay men of their chance to have a happy, productive life as a normal gay person and instead transform them into child predators.

And in some instances, I'm sure that these predators don't begin as gay men, but have actually been pedophiles all their lives-- and the pedophiles enter the celibate priesthood either to suppress or to indulge their sickness.