New York’s Roman Catholic Church is trying a novel approach to bring children into the Church – making them scared to death of priests. The diocese is alerting children to the danger of being sexually assaulted by a priest with an abuse-themed coloring book, officials said Tuesday.
“Being Friends, Being Safe, Being Catholic,” was distributed earlier this year to several hundred schools in the New York area as part of the church’s Safe Environment Program, a spokeswoman from the city’s Archdiocese said.
One image in the book features a guardian angel hovering over an altar boy with a priest lurking in the background.
“For safety’s sake, a child and an adult shouldn’t be alone in a closed room together,” the angel counsels. In another, the angel warns of a sexual predator attempting to chat with a child over the Internet.
David Clohessy, head of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, cautiously welcomed the initiative, but said it did not go far enough.
Yeah. That’s the problem with this. It doesn’t go far enough.
December 5, 2007 at 7:50 pm
There is only one picture of a priest in the coloring book and he isn’t “lurking.” He’s standing at the door (which is open) with his back turned while an altar boy is vesting. In fact, it’s not even clear that the figure is a priest, since (as his back is turned) you can’t see his collar and he’s wearing a suit. He could be a sacristan or usher.
I’m not thrilled with the subject matter of the book, and there is a picture of an immodestly-dressed “guardian angel” at the beach (she’s wearing a two-piece bathing suit), but the “priest” thing has been completely overblown. Here’s the image in question.
December 6, 2007 at 1:08 am
Possibly a coloring book admitting vatican II was a disaster and not inspired by the holy spirit but by the masons and others who hate the church would be next to go on the shelves for the adults
It is about time that the church stopped trying to cover for this horrible council between the explanation of bad implementations to whatever, it is the work of the devil
January 24, 2008 at 6:42 pm
all those liberals who love vatican ii so much and break all the rules are ruining the church and causing so many problems. you wont find orthodox priests engaged in pedophilia or pederasty. you can see that is pretty clear by reading the new book ‘sacrilege’ by leon podles.