Father Benedict Groeschel has
apologized for saying that child victims of sexual abuse often
initiate such encounters and that a first-time offender should not go
to jail.
Groeschel, a prominent Franciscan
priest, made his comments in an interview published Monday in the
National Catholic Register. The publication has since removed the
item and replaced it with an apology.
“I did not intend to blame the
victim. A priest (or anyone else) who abuses a minor is always wrong
and is always responsible,” Groeschel said. “My mind and my way
of expressing myself are not as clear as they used to be. I have
spent my life trying to help others the best that I could. I deeply
regret any harm I have caused to anyone.”
In the interview, Groeschel described
convicted child sex abuser and former Penn State football coach Jerry
Sandusky as “this poor guy.”
“People have this picture in their
minds of a person planning to – a psychopath. But that's not the
case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a
youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster – 14,
16, 18 – is the seducer. … It's not so hard to see – a kid
looking for a father and didn't have his own – and they won't be
planning to get into heavy-duty sex, but almost romantic, embracing,
kissing, perhaps sleeping but not having intercourse or anything like
that.”
“It's an understandable thing …
there are the relatively rare cases where a priest is involved in a
homosexual way with a minor,” Groeschel said.
Groeschel, 79, is the author of The
Courage to be Chaste, which calls on gay men to honor God by
leading a life of celibacy, and a co-founder of the Catholic support
group Courage, which also claims gay people should lead chaste lives,
according to a report on Box
Turtle Bulletin.