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	Weakland’s Pedophilia Expert to Speak at Symposium Sponsored by Adults Attracted to Youngsters SNAP Wisconsin August 16, 2011 http://www.snapwisconsin.com/blog/2011/08/16/weakland%E2%80%99s-pedophilia-expert-to-speak-at-symposium-sponsored-by-adults-attracted-to-youngsters/ Fred Berlin cited by emeritus archbishop as the person who recommended keeping sexual abusers in the priesthood Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director and John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director CONTACT: 414.336.8575 Dr. Fred Berlin, a chief consultant for decades to the American Catholic Bishops and Religious Order Provincials on sex offender priests, will address tomorrow in Baltimore a controversial symposium sponsored by an organization that calls itself “B4U-ACT”. B4U-ACT advocates the decriminalization and tolerance of persons who have a lifelong attraction and desire for sexual contact with youngsters. B4U-ACT, when describing its core values states: “Individuals who are attracted to children are the focus of everything that we do.” Not surprisingly, Archbishop Emeritus Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee, in a deposition taken in 2008, cites Berlin as the chief expert on pedophilia that the U.S. bishops consulted when faced with the growing sexual abuse crisis. (Locally, Berlin was also hired by at least one major religious order, the Capuchin Franciscans.) Weakland explains that Berlin addressed the U.S. bishops in 1985 and urged them against removing pedophiles from the priesthood. Of course, no one, or virtually no one, especially the Vatican and John Paul II, was making such a recommendation, and Berlin as the company doctor was simply telling the CEO’s what they already wanted to hear. And, not surprisingly, as the bishop’s psychiatrist, Berlin still remains actively opposed to reporting sex offenders to the civil authorities, although all major psychiatric and mental health organizations and professional associations have strongly supported mandatory reporting for decades. In a typical interview posted on a diocesan website, Berlin explained what he believes are the generally beneficent motives and characteristics of the criminal behavior of priests against youngsters: “The most common thing we see with priests is that they enjoy the company of youngsters, like the companionship, want to do good for them, and then, unfortunately, as a bond develops emotionally, begin to feel sexually tempted and persuade the youngster to go along with sexual activity.” As if normal and healthy adult respect, affection and regard for a youngster can somehow naturally and effortlessly “morph” into a criminal drive to have repeated sexual thoughts and contact with a child. The sexual abuse crisis in the archdiocese of Milwaukee and elsewhere has shown that Berlin’s controversial policy recommendations, far outside the mainstream of the psychological and research communities, was eagerly accepted, if not sought, by Weakland and other bishops, providing a convenient excuse to maintain the church’s centuries long practice of protecting priest predators over the safety of children. If that’s not bad enough, at the B4U-ACT conference, Berlin will be discussing the ways in which “minor attracted individuals” (soon one can anticipate they will have their own acronym “MAI’s”) can contribute to the upcoming DSM 5 which is currently under revision, in order to change the expert mental health and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association. The DSM is the standard reference manual used by mental health professionals. Berlin and the B4U-ACT activists, in this regard, love to compare pedophilia to homosexuality, once stigmatized as a mental disorder, but is no longer. How dangerous is it to compare sexual acts between consenting adults, no matter what your personal or religious opinion of those acts, with sex acts forced or coerced by an adult with a child? Children do not possess the developmental, psychological and social capacity to consent to sexual acts with adults. The desire to normalize a deviant sexual desire which fantasizes that children are consenting to sex acts with adults is dangerous and, indeed, criminal and should never be compared to consenting acts between adults. Instead of addressing a conference sponsored by an organization to advocate the normalization of a clinically perverse and criminally dangerous sexual attraction to children, perhaps Dr. Berlin should instead address the countless victims of clergy sexual abuse, many of whom are victims, in part, because of his disastrous recommendations to the bishops in the 1980’s and since. SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims, with over 10,000 members in 72 chapters in the United States alone. Wisconsin SNAP was founded in 1992 (SNAPwisconsin.com).
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