Virtus “child protection program” from hell

Some years ago, when I went through the initial presentation of the Virtus so-called child-protection program, I raised my hand and quietly related some difficulties I had with the presentation and accompanying film, including:

(1) An actual pedophile in the film was highly praised because of the great concern he supposedly had for the welfare of his teenage victim, whose emotional progress he had been following from prison, all of which is gravely mistaken and wrong on just so very many levels. Is this what a priest chaplain, for instance, is supposed to think? Should priests encourage pedophiles to follow the progress of their victims, convinced of the great concern of pedophiles for their victims? I think not.

(2) A number of suspicious behaviors of pedophiles were listed as a way to determine if someone might be a pedophile, but it was said that two behaviors or more regarding the same person were necessary to be concerned that a person might be a pedophile, so that showing porn to youngsters would not, on its own, raise any extremely grave concerns, which is just so wrong on so very many levels. So, should a priest overlook someone showing porn to youngersters? I think not.

(3) The result of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice report about a strong statistical indication of homosexual interest in youngsters was not mentioned at all in regard to the abuse of youngsters, which I think is a travesty. The program material might well have been published in all its parts before this report was published, but it should have been revised immediately to include this information. Or are priests to labor under the lie that there is no homosexual preponderance to sexual abuse of youngsters?

I think I had a further grave issue, but I can’t remember what it was now… Maybe some readers can come up with a few more.

I put this up on the HSH blog, for the reason that part of the hermitage effort is to help out priests in this life. Programs like Virtus do little but make the priest be treated like a criminal just for having been ordained.  The priest is supposed to suck in the rubbish that criminal pedophiles have great concern for their victims as part of child protection training, overlook porn, etc. Nope. I suggest that any (arch)diocese using this program find something else. I also suggest that the backgrounds of those who make such programs be investigated. Why do makers of this program push for respecting the concerned conscience of the pedophile?

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2 Responses to Virtus “child protection program” from hell

  1. Holy Souls Hermitage

    [[This comment was sent in by a reader:]]

    I agree with you that Virtus training itself is a problem. From what I remember, although they had the two pedophiles (weird and creepy that they’d be stalking their victims while in prison), they had several young people whose abusers were from a variety of backgrounds. I was pleased with that as the media focuses on Catholic priests to the exclusion of other potential abusers, which is doing a disservice; since the majority of abusers are found in the family and home, focus on priests isn’t preventative. I did learn a lot about methods of abusers and am happy to have examples of problematic behaviors, but I agree with you that porn alone is a problem. Especially since its usual companions are drugs/alcohol and abuse.

  2. I took the course last year, so that I could teach Latin to children at my parish. Not only was the John Jay report not mentioned, but we were specifically told that homosexuals are no more likely to abuse children than heterosexuals. Never mind the clear evidence to the contrary. There was also a strong scare factor; they made it sound like there are abusers in every park and classroom, just waiting to snag your kid the first time your back is turned.

    To some extent, it felt like a ‘how not to get caught’ course for abusers. I suppose that’s inevitable; you can’t tell parents the warning signs without telling offenders the signs to avoid showing. It was still creepy.

    I did learn a few things from the course: not ways to spot pedophiles, which were all pretty common sense, but ways to protect myself from false accusations. Things like keeping the classroom door open so anyone can see in at any time. Still common sense, but not entirely useless.

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