Pederasty and Paedophilia – What’s the Difference? And What Difference Does It Make? – Part II

By: Randy Engel

[Click HERE for Part I]

A Short Primer on the Nature of Perversion

One of the unique hallmarks of contemporary society has been the successful organization, politicalization, and in some cases, the institutionalization, of perversions, that is, sexually deviant behaviors. Heretofore, sexual outlaws accepted the prevailing definition of their behavior as “deviant” and remained in the shadows of the criminal underworld. Today they organize collectively and sound the trumpet of “liberation” and “rights.” (From The Rite of Sodomy – Homosexuality and the Roman Catholic Church)                            

When I wrote the above introduction to my chapter on “The Homosexual Collective” more than ten years ago, I never imagined how prophetic these words were especially in light of the total collapse of the current pontificate with regard to the safeguarding and propagation of Catholic morals.

Originally, the term pervert (perversion) possessed a religious meaning. A. pervert was an apostate, one who had forsaken a doctrine or system regarded as true. After the publication of Dr. Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing’s 1886 monumental work, Sexual Psychopathy: A Clinical-Forensic Study, the term became associated almost exclusively with sexual deviancies. Krafft-Ebing, an Austrian psychiatrist, described as perverse, any sexual desire and its expression that does not correspond with the purpose of nature — i.e., the propagation of the species.

In civilized societies, sexual perversions and the ideologies which fuel them have always been viewed as anti-social, revolutionary acts. All sexual perversions manifest an erotic form of hatred – hatred of God, of self, and of neighbor. Other characteristics of perversion include aggression, strong feelings of guilt, narcissism, risk-taking, unresolved conflicts, fantasy, denial and the remaking of reality.

A sexual pervert is not born that way. Rather, the man or woman caught in the vice of a sexual perversion is an artificial construct produced by destructive forms of emotional and social conditioning, that is to say, sexual deviancy is a form of conditioned behavior. It is not related to constitutional errors or genetics, although there may be individual constitutional characteristics which play a role in the adaptation of the perversion. The epidemiology of different perversions varies, but the three levels of acquired deviant behaviors – learning, experience and habituation – are common to all.

In summary, perverts live in a fantasy world. Their recovery begins, in part, when they come to grips with reality.

Paedophilia – A Double Deviancy

The term paedophilia (also spelled pedophilia in this article), derived from the Greek pais, child, and philia, love for, was coined by Krafft-Ebing to describe the condition in which an adult is erotically attracted to infants and prepubescent children usually of the opposite sex. The practice reflects an expressed desire for immature sexual gratification.

Acts of paedophilia represent a double deviancy, that is, the young age of the victim as well as the highly infantile nature of the sexual acts performed on the female infant or child. The crime of paedophilia is often associated with other criminal sexual offenses, usually misdemeanors but and in some cases felonies, including the paraphilias of exhibitionism (indecent exposure), and voyeurism (window-peeping).

Although Krafft-Ebing attributed paedophilia erotica to an acquired mental weakness and/or mental debility, we know today that the pedophile rarely suffers from mental deficiency or a psychotic mental illness.

In recent years there has been a concerted attempt to expand and clarify the clinical definition of paedophilia to distinguish it from other types of sexual offenses against minors under the legal age of consent, such as pederasty.z

Part of the difficulty in defining paedophilia stems from the fact that the word “child” can be used to describe a boy or girl who has not yet entered puberty as well as a minor who has reached or passed puberty but has not reached the age of consent and is still considered a minor under the law.

Another problem is that although the term paedophilia has become synonymous with the act of child molestation, not every paedophile acts on his urges and commits the crime of child molestation.

Currently, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fifth Edition) describes the criteria for a diagnosis of “pedophilic disorder” as: “occurring over a period of at least six months;  recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviours involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children; the person has acted on these sexual urges, or the sexual urges or fantasies cause marked distress or interpersonal difficulty; and the person is at least age 16 years and at least 5 years older than the child or children in the first criterion. But, as we shall see, few convicted Catholic clerical sex offenders labelled as “paedophiles” by the Vatican and the secular media meet this criteria of the clinical definition.

The Toronto Study on Pedophilia (Paedophilia)

In 1964, a groundbreaking study titled Pedophilia and Exhibitionism was carried out by a team of specialists from the Forensic Clinic of the Toronto Psychiatric Hospital and Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto in order to provide a more effective basis for the assessment and treatment of the disorder by the medical community and the courts.

The research subjects consisted of convicted sex offenders from the Toronto Forensic Clinic, and patients who were referred from local mental health agencies and community groups or had voluntarily submitted themselves for treatment. While admitting it was difficult to make generalizations about all sex offenders, and pedophiles in particular, the researchers were able to arrive at some basic conclusions regarding true pedophiles as a group.

“The pedophile act,” the researchers explained, “represents an arrested development in which the offender has never grown psychosexually beyond the immature pre-pubertal stage, or a regression or return to this stage due to certain stresses in adult life, or a modification of the sexual drive in old age.”

It is not surprising, therefore, that the nature of the pedophile’s sexual offenses reflected his desire for immature, generally non-coital sexual gratification that included fondling and being fondled and sometimes exposure of the genitals. Penetration was rare. Generally speaking, the element of sadomasochism found in pederast acts was absent from pedophile acts. Overt acts of violence such as rape or murder and deviant sexual acts were atypical for the pedophile sex offender in the Toronto study. When they did occur, it was likely that the child victim was simply unfortunate enough to be at the wrong location at the wrong time.

The age distribution of the convicted pedophiles in the study groups tended to cluster around peak periods of the life cycle, that is, puberty, mid-to-late 30s, and mid-to-late 50s – the largest aggregate being middle age, not, as popularly supposed, older men. Some of the offenders were chronic pedophiles since their adolescence, while some older patients were first time offenders.

Typically, the pedophile was a heterosexual male, married with children (or stepchildren) of his own. His early family life appeared to be rather nondescript and utilitarian. This grouping included “situational” sex offenders whose primary sex attraction was normally directed at adult women not children, but who under extra-ordinary conditions of severe stress including the death or catastrophic illness of a spouse may act out his immature sexual impulses with a child including a daughter (incest) or female stepchild.

The prototype pedophile was of normal intelligence and conventional in his overt behavior and his religious beliefs. His occupation was gender-traditional as was his recreation that included an interest in sports and other masculine hobbies.

His child victims were prepubescent girls from six to twelve years with peak ages between eight and ten years, although the perpetrator may have had more than one preferred sexual outlet.

These victims were more likely to be someone he knew and liked, for example, a relative or a neighbor’s child or a child of a casual acquaintance. On occasion the girl child was a stranger who presented the pedophile with an opportunity for abuse that was too inviting to be passed up.

The site selected for the altercation was always a location without adult supervision such as the offender’s home or his car or some out of the way place in a public facility such as a park.

Although some pedophiles were alcoholic, alcoholism itself was rarely a cause of child molestation since the successful seduction of children requires much grooming and pre-planning in a sober state. Alcohol, however, may have played a role in lowering inhibitions when the molester was ready to act.

Pedophilia Can Be Successfully Treated

Perhaps the most surprising conclusion of the early Toronto study was that pedophilia (paedophilia), contrary to a widely-held public opinion that the condition is untreatable, can in fact be successfully treated especially for adolescent perpetrators and first time offenders or where the sexual molestation involved “situational” pedophilia as described earlier.

According to the Toronto report, the key to effective treatment of pedophilia is the breaking of denial by exposing the cognitive distortions used by the pedophile to excuse his actions and the development of empathy with their victims. He cannot achieve a balanced, functional emotional life unless he can identify his emotions accurately and understand their dysfunctions.

“The prognosis for sex offenders is generally good,” said Professor Kenneth G. Gray, M.D., Q.C., in his foreword to the Canadian study, “but it is better for some categories of offenders than others.”

He noted that the recidivism rate varies with such factors as the type of offense, the nature of the act, and previous criminal record. For example, “the heterosexual pedophile who is a first time offender is not likely to repeat,” he concluded.

And what kind of sex offender was the least likely to be successfully rehabilitated?

According to Gray, he was the homosexual pedophile with a criminal record (the typical pederast) who is the subject of our continuing report on the difference between pedophilia and what difference does it make.

Homosexual Pederasty – A Triple Deviancy

The Romans called ephebic love, that is, male homosexuality practiced with adolescent males, “the Greek vice.” The term pederasty (also spelled paederasty) is defined as any sexual act between an adult male with a youth who has entered puberty but not yet reached maturity.

Unfortunately, pederasty today holds the same inordinate attraction for adult homosexual males worldwide as it did in certain academic and military circles found in ancient Greece.

While paedophilia represents a double deviancy, pederasty represents a triple deviancy.

First, it is a gender deviancy with regard to the sex object – another male. Unlike the female victims of the heterosexual paedophile, young adolescent male victims must face a gender identity issue.

Pederasty also embraces an age deviancy, but this time the victim is a pubescent boy; and, perhaps most significantly, unlike paedophilia, it represents a high degree of sexual deviancy since the homosexual acts performed on the young victim are of an adult nature and include forced oral sex and violent anal penetration.

The Pederast is a Homosexual

With the exception of the indiscriminate heterosexual libertine who may seek out adolescents of both sexes, the contemporary pederast is first and foremost, a homosexual, with all that the sexual deviancy implies.

Since the anti-culture of the Homosexual Collective is basically a youth phenomenon, it is not surprising that homosexuals are over-represented in sexual offense cases against minor males.

Aging comes very early to homosexuals. Frequently referred to as “youthism,” the term applies to the widely held belief of young homosexuals that older people including homosexual “aunties” are inferior in every way including their sexual prowess – thus the high premium homosexuals and lesbians put on the acquisition of young partners by active recruitment.

For critics who are wont to dismiss any of the above observations as simply “homophobic hyperbole,” I offer the following statements made by prominent homosexual activists.

According to David Thorstad, a former president of New York’s Gay Activists Alliance and a founding member of the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), pederasty has been the most enduring and universal form of homosexuality in the recorded history of mankind.

Speaking always to over-flowing and enthusiastic “gay” audiences without fear of contradiction, Thorstad explains:

Man-boy love relationships are …a happy feature of the rebellion of youth and its irrepressible search for self-discovery. …Most of us, given the opportunity and the assurance of safety, would no doubt choose to share our sexuality with someone under the age of consent.

Tom Reeves, another hunter of young boys calls pederasty “a central feature of gay life,” as reflected in the many prominent pederastic institutions that characterize urban “gay” communities such as the teenage meat-racks and youth-oriented fads and hangouts.

William A. Percy, a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, complained that he tried to get NAMBLA to compromise on an age of consent, say 14 or 15 years of age, so that “…people could see us as a little more reasonable,” but without success.

If we examine the ordinary language of the Homosexual Collective it is clear that man/boy sex plays an important role in contemporary homosexual relations. The “gay” lexicon is resplendent with descriptions of and references to underage boy recruits.                         

According to Ed Hermance, former owner of Giovanni’s Room in Philadelphia, one of the nation’s oldest homosexual bookstores, pederasty is the foundation of all “gay” literature.

“If we pulled all the books that had adult-youth sexual themes, we wouldn’t have many novels, memoirs, or biographies left,” he told reporter Benoit Denizet-Lewis in a 2001 interview for Boston Magazine.

In its heart of hearts, the Homosexual Collective shares NAMBLA’s anti-child, anti-nurturing characteristics and is indifferent to the true welfare of children, youth and their families including the young victims of predatory homosexuals and lesbians.

This truism is backed by the institutionalized silence of the Collective with regard to informing police authorities of sex crimes against young boys and teens of which they have knowledge. In the more than two decades I have studied clerical abuse cases, I never saw a single case in which the Homosexual Collective turned the name of a known priest or religious pederast in to either Church or secular authorities.

The Etiology of Pederasty

The age range of male victims for pederasts is wider than for the pedophile. The cluster, however, for pederasts in general, and clerical pederasts in particular is between 12 and 15 years of age. Thus homosexual pederasty begins where pedophilia leaves off.

It should be noted, also, that while the pederast may prefer adolescent boys, he will continue to engage in adult homosexual relations with known or anonymous partners at various stages of his life.

Like the pedophile, the pederast recognizes that emotional manipulation is a key factor in grooming victims. However, the grooming of victims by pederasts is more elaborate and complicated than the average pedophile given the adult nature of the deviant nature of homosexual acts performed on the young male victims including masturbation and interfemoral frottage, fellatio, and sodomy.

Unlike the typical heterosexual pedophile who deals with young children, the pederast requires the reduction of the young man’s natural inhibitions with alcohol, drugs and pornography.

Pornography, like poly-drug use, is a staple of homosexual sexual perversions. Like drugs, it unleashes the unrestricted pursuit of erotic pleasure. Homosexual porn and S&M porn provide instruction on perverted practices. “Gay” porn has a political aspect also in that it promotes aggressiveness in homosexual male viewers. “Gay” porn “fights the oppression of the patriarchy. It re-enforces “gay” sexual practices, and the social, fashion (hyper-masculinity), political and ideology of the Homosexual Collective. It introduces new, more deviant trends in homosexual practices and assuages the guilty conscience of the homosexual pederast.

Threats of violence against family members is commonly used by the pederast to insure continued secrecy.

Another danger faced by the victims of pederasty is the contraction of sexually transmitted diseases including AIDS.

The pederast/homosexual, including the clerical perpetrator, is a “disease reservoir.” Universally speaking, pederasts are universally disinclined to use condoms. Male semen acts as an immunosuppressant in another male, thus, the practice of sodomy in the young male can produce a marked immuno-depressed state in addition to transmitting AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases.

One of the not-so-surprising major findings of a 2002 Center for Disease Control study of “high-risk” behavior in “gay” and “bisexual” men was that gay and bisexual men are more likely to engage in high-risk sexual behavior, that is, “unprotected anal intercourse with partners of unknown or different HIV status,” if their partners are younger. Thus homosexuals were more willing to gamble with the lives of rent boys and young male hustlers than with their peers or regular partners.

Pederasts and the Depersonalization of Sex

In sharp contrast to the pedophile who may actually feel some kind of “affection” for his young female victim, the lack of empathy by pederasts for their male victims is legendary.

The depersonalized acts of the pederast reflect the depersonalized life of homosexuals.

The practice of sexual objectification is Gnostic in nature. The homosexual pederast separates his body from his psyche and soul. He cares nothing for his victim. His primary focus is on obtaining erotic satisfaction. True affection may exist in the pederast, but it is usually reserved for his mother, for relatives and frequently former partners with whom the pederast no longer shares sexual contact.

One thing is for certain. The pederast can never, ever have enough victims.  Homosexual lust can’t be satisfied.

How Pederast Victims Are Transformed into Sodomites

Premature Sexual Seduction is one of the key links in the adaptation of homosexuality.

Normally, the initial homosexual seduction of a young boy produces negative feelings of fear, disgust, and loathing. But, later, after the trauma subsides, the boy may fantasize about the   same-sex contact. Thus, the initial homosexual experience may provide the fantasy for subsequent masturbation. Where heterosexual stimuli are not reinforced, homosexual feelings may dominate.

It is no coincidence that studies based on interviews with young male prostitutes, reveal that their first sexual experience followed by an orgasm, was a homosexual one, initiated by an older and more powerful male.

Nor is it a coincidence that some organizations ostensibly created to fight against “paedophilia” in the Catholic Church have large homosexual constituents among its victim-members and generally follow the line of the Homosexual Collective.

Under normal circumstances a gender-confident young man is less vulnerable to homosexual seduction as is the youth from a two-parent, religious family where the young man has a strong male model in his father and confidence in God, the Father.  If the perpetrator is a priest or religious, however, this generalization may not hold true. The young man’s natural aversion to homosexual seduction may be overridden by his trust in the perpetrator, as has been the case with many altar boys.

This statement does not hold true, however, if the perpetrator is a priest or religious, the boy’s natural aversion to homosexual seduction may be overridden by his trust in the perpetrator.

This is one reason why all adolescent victims of clerical pederasty should receive clear and competent counseling on the matter of homosexuality lest they misconceive themselves as homosexuals because they attracted a homosexual’s attention.

A Poor Prognosis for Habituated Pederasts

Among sex offenders, the habituated homosexual pederast has one of the highest incidences of recidivism.

Readers of this blog may be familiar with the name Father Gerald Fitzgerald founder of the Congregation of the Servants of the Paraclete in 1941. Based in Jemez Springs, New Mexico, Father Fitzgerald’s Paraclete Center was one of the first Catholic facilities to treat clerical sexual perversions including pederasty.

Father Fitzgerald understood the incorrigibility of priests and religious who sexually abused adolescent boys, stating that they “would never be free of the temptation to act out.”  He recommended the involuntary laicization of these men, or at the very least, that they be restricted to the seclusion of a monastery. Under no circumstances were they to be permitted to exercise their ministry in the outside world. Father Fitzgerald even went so far as to make a down payment on an island in the Caribbean to be used to house sexual offenders including pederasts and prevent them from re-entering society. The plan never came to fruition.

To his everlasting credit, before his death in 1969, Father Fitzgerald shared his first-hand knowledge of the crime of pederasty with the Vatican during the pontificate of three popes – Pope Pius XII, Pope John XXIII, and Pope Paul VI. Numerous bishops in the United States received letters warning them of the dangers of homosexuality and pederasty in the clergy and religious life.

Conclusion

The crime of pederasty, including clerical pederasty, as evidenced by the early writings of Saint Peter Damian in the 11th century; in the tragedy of the Piarist Order in the 17^th century; and the recorded history of the founder of the Paraclete Fathers in modern times, has been a reality of clerical life since the earliest days of the Catholic Church.

So please let’s have no more nonsense from either Rome and/or the Catholic Hierarchy that pederasty is a new and largely unknown phenomenon in the Church, and that pederasty has nothing to do with homosexuality. I know these statements to be falsehoods, and now dear reader, if you didn’t know it before, you know it now.