Lechery Quotes
When New Hampshire's Senate defeated a bill that would decriminalize adultery:
The United States was governing the Philippines after the Spanish American war. Most Filipinos were Roman Catholic and before the Americans even took over there were a large number of Catholic priests who were sexually active in different ways. Many had housekeepers/concubines, others had relations with women who they learned were vulnerable in the confessional. Still others were homosexuals and preferred young boys. Americans were much more prudish than many other countries where lecherous men of the cloth had a long history. The American authorities simply removed these priests not realizing that there was still with many countries laws and traditions that left the disciplining of clergy, even for criminal matters, to the religious authorities. The Catholic Church was then very defensive about sexually predatory priests. The Vatican made many protestations that the U. S. Government were interfering with the prerogative of the church to run its own religious affairs. American Catholics and Catholic leaders also complained about the religious “interference”. Roosevelt knew full well that the Church had done little or nothing about the Filipino lecherous priests before the Americans took over, and he had no confidence that they would do so in the future. And he was adamant that religious officials should be subject to the civil law and civil authorities for behavior of all citizens with no exemptions for clergy. When the Catholic church realized the poor PR that they were getting from the worst priestly offenders, it tended to back off overt confrontation, and came to a diplomatic agreement with America over the issue. Most countries resolved this issue the way Roosevelt and the Americans did. Clergy were subject to civil law in all things.
