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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Salamendacious@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

TOLEDO, Ohio (WKRC) - A Catholic priest in Ohio was sentenced to life in prison for grooming and sex trafficking children and adults.

56-year-old Rev. Michael Jude Zacharias was convicted on one count of sex trafficking of a minor, two counts of sex trafficking of a minor by force, fraud, or coercion, and two counts of sex trafficking an adult by force, fraud, or coercion.

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 96 points 1 year ago

Weird, he doesn't look trans to me.

[-] carl_dungeon@lemmy.world 47 points 1 year ago

Maybe a drag queen? Just cant tell from the pic.

[-] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Considering priests wear dresses, they're the OG cross dressers.

[-] killeronthecorner@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

He was gay for God. Gottem.

[-] Additional_Prune@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago

Not a drag queen or a trans person--a priest

[-] ArugulaZ@kbin.social 23 points 1 year ago
[-] SaakoPaahtaa@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago

Always the one you most expect

[-] killeronthecorner@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

I don't understand why priests do this. Like they can just literally have sex with oh I do see the problem yeah.

[-] mightyfoolish@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Seriously, can someone make it so priests can get married at this point? Maybe then Catholicism can return to be a religion instead of what seems like a business front-end for a shady "hobby." It wouldn't cure these men of their "issues" but at least adults who like other adults would be pushed towards the front more.

Also, people need to stop going to Toledo. It's literally one of the worst places in the US for sex trafficking.

[-] crackajack@reddthat.com 5 points 1 year ago

It's all about accumulation of power and wealth. Catholic priests used to be allowed to be married but the Vatican wants the property to be kept to themselves, rather than passed on to the offsprings of priests. Since then, it has become source of controversies and psychological problems for Catholics for millenia.

Having been raised Catholic (now I'm agnostic), I remember growing up when people make a big deal of priests falling in love and getting married (nevermind their sexual proclivities due to sexual repression). It is a huge source of gossips and a taboo. It is unthinkable. It is though as if they committed a sin to god. And then you have other Christian denominations whose priests allow to be married and it is non-issue. The Orthodox Christian is as old as the Catholic church but they allow marriage among clergies and you hear little to no abuse, unlike the Catholics. As with most religious, Catholic laymen and women are stuck in their own bubble and do not think that clerical marriages should not be an issue.

[-] mightyfoolish@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

That makes sense even though the reason is strange. Why would working somewhere imply the priest owns the place?

[-] crackajack@reddthat.com 1 points 1 year ago

I meant that the priest still has private property. Of course, if the priest has his own family and passed away, all his possessions will go to the family. The Catholic church wouldn't want that.

[-] mightyfoolish@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

But the Catholic Church is it's own business entity. If the priest owned property, the church would have to buy it?

[-] crackajack@reddthat.com 3 points 1 year ago

Not sure to be honest. But the Catholic requirement for celibacy for priests definitely stems from owning poroperty:

"...But the early Christian church had no hard and fast rule against clergy marrying and having children. Peter, a Galilee fisherman, whom the Catholic Church considers the first Pope, was married. Some Popes were the sons of Popes.

The first written mandate requiring priests to be chaste came in AD 304. Canon 33 of the Council of Elvira stated that all"bishops, presbyters, and deacons and all other clerics" were to"abstain completely from their wives and not to have children." A short time later, in 325, the Council of Nicea, convened by Constantine, rejected a ban on priests marrying requested by Spanish clerics.

The practice of priestly celibacy began to spread in the Western Church in the early Middle Ages. In the early 11th century Pope Benedict VIII responded to the decline in priestly morality by issuing a rule prohibiting the children of priests from inheriting property. A few decades later Pope Gregory VII issued a decree against clerical marriages."

https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/696

To be fair, there is theological argument to ban marriage of Catholic priests if you read the entirety of the link, but who are we kidding that it's about morality.

[-] ParsnipWitch@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You believe people become abusing sex traffickers because they don't have a wife?

People who seek to control other people are attracted to positions where they have access to vulnerable people.

You could also argue that religious people have surprisingly often fucked up moral values. Beginning with believing you can pray away your sins instead of taking responsibility. Or that people are of different worth.

But the idea that marriage makes people less likely to be abusers is a theroy that doesn't make a lot of sense in my opinion.

[-] mightyfoolish@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

"It wouldn’t cure these men of their “issues” but at least adults who like other adults would be pushed towards the front more."

[-] Salamendacious@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I agree completely. The church could put certain restrictions on it if they wanted. For example, all relationships need to be approved, only priests and nuns can marry, you need to have already been a priest for a certain time before you can get married, etc. I don't think it'll happen in the near future unfortunately.

[-] kingludd@lemmy.basedcount.com 1 points 1 year ago

When pope francis stepped up, therewas a petition to allow married men to be priests. As far as I can tell it didn't go anywhere. But at least it's been brought up officially.

[-] mightyfoolish@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

As another person replied, the issue is related to property. It seems the Catholic Church is worried somehow the priest's offspring will somehow inherit church property?

[-] A_Toasty_Strudel@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

How the mighty have fallen. Lol

[-] HikingVet@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 year ago

What did Paul Giamatti do to you?

[-] Zink@programming.dev 8 points 1 year ago

He entertained me and gave me hope, damn it!

[-] ThatOneDudeFromOhio@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago
[-] HikingVet@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

They'll just cancel after the first season if it's any good.

[-] VubDapple@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

This guy is straight up 100% a sociopath.

[-] BigMacHole@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago

Look at that Gay Drag Queen!

[-] kandoh@reddthat.com 4 points 1 year ago
[-] DieguiTux8623@feddit.it 3 points 1 year ago

I wondered priest of which denomination, opened the article, "catholic". shit.

this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2023
412 points (98.8% liked)

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