tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31069882.post6066662026848326708..comments2023-12-16T16:17:43.886+00:00Comments on Fr Ray Blake's Blog: St Maria Goretti, a victim of abuseFr Ray Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05584140126211527252noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31069882.post-74802487526743532602012-07-17T08:31:43.372+01:002012-07-17T08:31:43.372+01:00Amen, Donna: Not a SINGLE male on the calendar li...Amen, Donna: Not a SINGLE male on the calendar listed as a 'virgin.' It would be nice if the lip service were backed up by proof.gemoftheoceanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05521207668262592414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31069882.post-73487860928517139522012-07-11T22:37:40.388+01:002012-07-11T22:37:40.388+01:00Village social structures can encourage or shield ...Village social structures can encourage or shield vice just as they do virtue, panie Tomaszu.<br /><br />(From a small average Mazovian village.)berenikehttp://exlaodicea.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31069882.post-32660208498830650102012-07-10T20:50:47.349+01:002012-07-10T20:50:47.349+01:00Found this moving for many reasons - thank you Fat...Found this moving for many reasons - thank you Father!<br /><br />One thing that struck my wife was that St Maria Goretti knew EXACTLY what was being done to her. And by God's grace she had the awareness to counsel her assailant even as she was being violated.<br /><br />As it happens we are home educators. If today we (and our Catholic schools) could give our children the same knowledge of purity and love of holiness that St Maria had, then that would be a Sex Education worthy of the name!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31069882.post-85063265261104683842012-07-09T17:50:01.327+01:002012-07-09T17:50:01.327+01:00>The Church honours virginity in >both its m...>The Church honours virginity in >both its male and female saints, Then why aren't men who were virgins listed on the calendar as such ?Donnanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31069882.post-68014823993411368412012-07-09T13:23:32.597+01:002012-07-09T13:23:32.597+01:00Apologies - I was being facetious.Apologies - I was being facetious.leicester ladnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31069882.post-44128961000684870762012-07-08T18:03:59.694+01:002012-07-08T18:03:59.694+01:00I remember some years ago talking to a woman whose...I remember some years ago talking to a woman whose Polish mother had involved all her children in abusive sexual practices, she, a sociologist and counsellor, was convinced that in rural societies, especially isolated ones such practices were "normal". I don't know.<br /><br />Wow, that's feminist Marxist talk about corporal punishment. Father, haven't you read the newest feminist treatises in which corporal punishment is always sexual in nature.Tomasznoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31069882.post-20259423731332908002012-07-07T01:26:14.417+01:002012-07-07T01:26:14.417+01:00The story of Saint Maria Gorretti has so many para...The story of Saint Maria Gorretti has so many parallels with current child abuse; it is in many ways a case study. Maria and her family had experienced significant domestic transition into shared accommodation; Maria had only her mother as her father had died (not a judgement but a significant factor in increasing her vulnerability to abuse) she was known to her attacker and had suffered previous abuse at his hands. It also highlights the the commonest scene of abuse is at home or very close to home. These are sadly all factors that will not be changed by a current CRB check. The majority of children today are abused by a family member or someone close to the family. Very few are abused by clerics and though the numbers we now know who were abused by clerics is shocking, this is alas only the tip of the iceberg of children who have been abused of which a far greater number is made up of abuse in familial and domestic settings.<br />Please pray for all children who have suffered abuse and for the people to care and protect them.Omphalomancerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14650498011295065898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31069882.post-48877584516032741182012-07-06T18:21:55.595+01:002012-07-06T18:21:55.595+01:00I found this confession on the internet by Alessan...I found this confession on the internet by Alessandro Serenelli. Its a kind of sign for our times in a way:<br /><br />"I'm nearly 80 years old. I'm about to depart.<br />"Looking back at my past, I can see that in my early youth, I chose a bad path which led me to ruin myself.<br /><br />"My behavior was influenced by print, mass-media and bad examples which are followed by the majority of young people without even thinking. And I did the same. I was not worried.<br /><br />"There were a lot of generous and devoted people who surrounded me, but I paid no attention to them because a violent force blinded me and pushed me toward a wrong way of life.<br /><br />"When I was 20 years-old, I committed a crime of passion. Now, that memory represents something horrible for me. Maria Goretti, now a Saint, was my good Angel, sent to me through Providence to guide and save me. I still have impressed upon my heart her words of rebuke and of pardon. She prayed for me, she interceded for her murderer. Thirty years of prison followed.<br /><br />"If I had been of age, I would have spent all my life in prison. I accepted to be condemned because it was my own fault.<br /><br />"Little Maria was really my light, my protectress; with her help, I behaved well during the 27 years of prison and tried to live honestly when I was again accepted among the members of society. The Brothers of St. Francis, Capuchins from Marche, welcomed me with angelic charity into their monastery as a brother, not as a servant. I've been living with their community for 24 years, and now I am serenely waiting to witness the vision of God, to hug my loved ones again, and to be next to my Guardian Angel and her dear mother, Assunta.<br /><br />"I hope this letter that I wrote can teach others the happy lesson of avoiding evil and of always following the right path, like little children. I feel that religion with its precepts is not something we can live without, but rather it is the real comfort, the real strength in life and the only safe way in every circumstance, even the most painful ones of life."<br /><br />Signature, Alessandro Serenelli<br /><br />BJCAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31069882.post-27142837059872768592012-07-06T18:12:21.263+01:002012-07-06T18:12:21.263+01:00Leicester lad, Presuming that you wrote out of sin...Leicester lad, Presuming that you wrote out of sincerity rather than sarcasm:<br /><br />Alessandro Serenelli was not employed by the Franciscans; he became a member of the order. It would seem that he repented of his crime/sin to the extent that he attended Maria Goretti's canonisation and sought her intercession daily. I understand that he accompanied Marie's mother to the canonisation, sitting next to her during the ceremony.<br /><br />Catholicism believes in the grace of repentance and Alessandro Serenelli repented. I am also sure that the good Franciscans were prudent in how he served the order. <br /><br />As for those guilty of knowingly protecting child abusers, be they ordained or not, they should be prosecuted.parepidemoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06416012601568784997noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31069882.post-30654572418243457972012-07-06T16:07:20.406+01:002012-07-06T16:07:20.406+01:00No doubt this story was posted with the best of in...No doubt this story was posted with the best of intentions, but I was horrified to learn that Serenelli was employed by a religious order as receptionist and gardener given his record. While the primitive Italian state of the 1950s-70s may have lacked the world-leading system of checks and balances we Britons enjoy following the introduction of enhanced CRB checks and the Sex Offenders' Register, did it not occur to someone that putting a murderous paedophile on front-of-house duties might lead to his coming into contact with children and vulnerable adults? I am shocked, appalled, and dismayed.<br /><br />One can only hope that an independent enquiry will be convened to investigate the matter as soon as possible, so that those guilty of criminal negligence at the time - some may still be alive - can be brought to justice.leicester ladnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31069882.post-91173734124158479502012-07-06T13:20:07.760+01:002012-07-06T13:20:07.760+01:00Fr., I recollect with revulsion a BBC religious pr...Fr., I recollect with revulsion a BBC religious programme when a laicised priest made a filthy joke about St. Maria.<br /><br />He was, of course, held to be a media darling relative to all things Catholic. His name evades me for the present.Sixupmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12486627001579821658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31069882.post-66845569371117354622012-07-06T13:19:22.373+01:002012-07-06T13:19:22.373+01:00"Serenelli later became a laybrother of the O..."Serenelli later became a laybrother of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, living in a monastery and working as its receptionist and gardener" <br /><br />How would he have been treated today?puzzlednoreply@blogger.com