‘paedophiles Must Go to Jail’

By Chris Makhaye
New Age
March 19, 2013

http://www.thenewage.co.za/88191-1008-53-Paedophiles_must_go_to_jail

There are mixed feelings on the streets about Durban-based Roman Catholic priest Cardinal Wilfrid Napier’s comment that paedophilia was “an illness and not a criminal act”.

Most of those interviewed differed with Napier and said paedophiles should be tried in a court of law and if convicted, imprisoned.

Ramesh Mahabeer, a Durban businessman, said priests who were found to have committed the crime should be sentenced to long jail terms.

“We rely on priests for spiritual healing. We also rely on them to do God’s work. If they go out and rape and abuse young boys they are committing an unspeakable crime. They should be sent to jail for a long time like common criminals because they are abusing the trust that is placed in them. The community regard them as God’s own representatives,” Mahabeer said.

Lynette Smith of Morningside, Durban said cases of sexual abuse against priests should be brought before the court to decide on their guilt or innocence.

“In some cases people falsely accuse priests of having sexually abused them. But in cases where it can be proved they had indeed abused a child he (the priest) should face due punishment and if that means he should go to jail, so be it,” Smith said.

Peter Napier defended his brother and said the media had misquoted him. The comments in the media were attempts to discredit the Roman Catholic Church.

“The church has its own mistakes and blunders but only one and half percent of all priests have abused children. The rest of them are clean. Some of these cases are just hogwash,” he said.

Napier said other churches had people who had sexually abused young children “but these are swept under the carpet and the focus is only on the Roman Catholic Church”.

“You know that one of the first people to be charged under apartheid’s Immorality Act was a white Afrikaner priest of the Dutch Reformed Church for sleeping with his black maid.

“People are trying to bring both the church and a good man (Cardinal Napier) down.”

He said the family would have lunch with the cardinal at the weekend where he would get a chance to clarify some of these issues with him.

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