Just let priests get married and fuck, holy shit. Raised Catholic, constantly unsurprised by all these stories. It really is an epidemic. I'm expecting the diocese and the Vatican organization that deals with sexual abuse to do nothing or even actively discredit her.
this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2025
254 points (99.2% liked)
News
32220 readers
3159 users here now
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.
Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
7. No duplicate posts.
If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners.
The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
254
Alabama priest investigated after woman alleges ‘private companionship’ arrangement beginning at 17
(www.theguardian.com)
The original reason for it is not even valid anymore (church losing land due to the priests' children inheriting it).
I've never heard that being a reason; I've always heard that they were following the single-minded devotion of John the Baptist and Jesus.
Basically nothing in the catholic church (and mostly christianity in general) is actually based in Faith. It is all about protecting the business/feudal powers of catholicism.
Basically everything is, at best, stolen from the religions they were trying to conquer (Think about why The Savior was apparently born just in time for Yule celebrations...) or were all about building up sales for businesses that catholicism had money in.
I guess for most of history they were allowed to have mistresses. An arrangement I'm sure was also rife with abuse.
The original idea as far as I understand it, was to prevent dynasties emerging within the church. Making the church a thing that "rose above nations", not just another country with a pointy hat for a crown.
But yes, I agree. Let the priests fuck (consenting adults) already.
That's also something you could prevent by not allowing children of clergy to become priests.
Come to think of it, that may be a good idea for politicians as well. Children of politicians often get internships and opportunities through their parents, which gives them a massive networking advantage if they eventually want to hold office themselves.
You think they’re not gonna take advantage of women and children if they’re allowed to marry? I doubt it, because the big issue is the power dynamic, not his inability to get married. If he wanted to fuck he can go ahead and find an escort or leave the church and get married.
The church attracts abusers and creeps, and many people who want to be celibate because they know they’re pedos. Letting them marry isn’t going to stop the church attracting abusers
Of course abuse is still going to happen, it happens outside of the priesthood too. Putting words in my mouth is just dumb.
There are tons of pedos who are/were married, this argument is completely idiotic. Positions of authority will always attract abusers, that doesn't mean that having to be celibate and unmarried isn't a large part of why priests molest others and then try to cover it up.
Where would a priest even get hundreds of thousands of dollars? I thought they had their basic needs paid for along with a modest stipend? Probably some kind of pension?
And the obvious answer is embezzling donations, but it can't be so easy to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from an organization that has accountants without them noticing.
it can't be so easy to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from an organization that has accountants without them noticing.
You'd be surprised. It happens all the time, in lots of organizations. Sometimes the accountants are in on it, sometimes (more often) they're incompetent.
Yeah the last company I worked at the CFO embezzled like $300,000 in two years, and we weren’t big, maybe 30 employees.
That CFO had a “Greed is Good” quote on top of an American flag poster in his office.
And that was after a previous CFO had secretly signed the company up for a bunch of grants and then pocketed that money for himself, and nobody noticed until one day he showed up in like $110,000 Porsche and claimed it was a “rental.”
That company was (and probably still is since it looks like it hasn’t completely died yet) so corrupt, I’m glad I got out before it imploded
Selling information from the confessional, maybe?
he traded financial support for “private companionship”
Uh... traded to whom? I feel like there are a few extra culprits involved in this.
she tried to make ends meet by working as a dancer at an “adult establishment” outside Birmingham.
Jones reported meeting Sullivan at that establishment when she was 17. He was a regular patron, tipped her during her shifts and soon offered to “help change [her] life” if she called him on his phone number, she wrote.
Sullivan proposed “to form an ongoing relationship that would include financial support in exchange for private companionship”, wrote Jones, who told the Guardian that the term encompassed sex.
A club pimping out underage girls is bad on its face. A state that turns a blind eye seems complicit on multiple fronts.
Legally, she wasn't underage in the state. It's still gross and creepy as fuck, but unfortunately the only crime he committed was embezzlement.
Sex solicitation is still a crime in Alabama
Yep. And the club should be in trouble for employing a 17 year old.
It’s Alabama, owner is probably an active Republican donor
Not a drag queen…
Ever. Single. Time.
Huh. I wonder how he'll like abusing kids in Georgia or Mississippi in a few weeks.
An organization that doesn't allow a change as simple as sex is OK is a stupid org. But man this guy, at 30 going for a 17 year old is just fucked up. But its explainable. Priests get to know who's mentally vulnerable and they are sexually restrained. Do naturally they know where to get sex from. The whole religion concept is so stupid.