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	Letter Omits "Obsession with Sex Lives" By Aine De Paor The Irish Times March 23, 2010 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0323/1224266875876.html PRIEST'S RESPONSE: A LIMERICK-based priest has criticised Pope Benedict’s letter for not addressing what he said was the part played by the church in creating abusers through its teaching on sexuality. Fr Adrian Egan, head the Redemptorist order in Limerick, added he would not welcome the proposed Apostolic Visitation if this took the form of similar Vatican probes. “There was no recognition that the church has had a huge obsession with the sexual lives of people and no recognition of how this has contributed to the development of sexually dysfunctional people,” said Fr Egan. “A small number have been more seriously affected – and that stuff gets acted out in the most awful ways such as in the abuse of children.” The Redemptorist rector said there were some glaring omissions in the letter. “The church is the most male dominated institution in the world and there was no reference to the role of women. “The whole issue of the governance of the church and of how people have no involvement in deciding who becomes a bishop. The issue of celibacy and of how we haven’t followed through on the commitments of Vatican II.” Fr Egan also expressed concern about Pope Benedict’s proposed investigation of the Irish church saying that such probes have a history of being oppressive. “There’s an Apostolic Visitation going on at the moment of an order of nuns in America who were ministering to gay and lesbians,” he said. “With other cases also my sense has been that they move in, almost inquisition like, and if there is any modern thinking, any challenging of church teaching going on, it seems to be quashed.
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