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Monday, July 1, 2013

Criminal Justice Quote: The Catholic Church's Justification of Pedophilia in the 1980s

Contrary to most state laws, which criminalize sex with adolescents under 16 or 18, the Catholic Church considered [in the 1980s] the age of consent to be as young as 12. This provided a convenient rationale for the Milwaukee archbishop Rembert Weakland, who shifted the blame onto teenage victims in a 1988 article for The Catholic Herald. "Sometimes not all adolescent victims are so innocent," he opined. "Some can be sexually very active and aggressive and often quite streetwise."

Janet Reitman in a New York Times review of Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal (2013), by Michael D'Antonio 

2 comments:

  1. Please provide a source for the claim "the Catholic Church considered [in the 1980s] the age of consent to be as young as 12"

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