Early Christian priests altered perceptions of sexuality in Roman culture by employing child r4pe as a means of reinforcing indoctrination. Ancient child abuse within the church was not the product of a few Rogue pedophile priests, it was a deliberative purposeful act meant to change Roman perspectives on sexual intercourse and religion. the Christian hierarchy used the sexual assault of minors as a means of transforming a society steeped in the veneration of female sexual allure and feminine spiritual and political Authority. The Christian war on classical values redefined morality, and enabled priests to use extremely brutal mechanisms for changing the way people thought about sex.
All levels of the Christian hierarchy including priests, exorcists, and even Bishops, advocated and defended the use of ritual sodomy. It appears that the ritual was most prominent in the catechetical school of Alexandria, and likely Finds Its Origins there. It is also likely the gospel writer Mark actually founded the catechetical school in Alexandria. Many church leaders including Clement, Origin, and Jerome, were involved in its rigorous method of training new converts. Based on the writings of the early church fathers, including prominent bishops, priests, intellectuals, and even monks, it is possible to reconstruct much of the child sodomy ritual. Authors connected with catechetical schools yield a wealth of evidence that reveals ritual abuse to be a consistent, brutal, and highly effective means of indoctrination. According to our ancient sources, if you were a Christian priest living in the earliest era of the church, you knew what had to be done. Nothing was more merciful in the long run. Remove the masses of unfortunate orphaned children from the streets, a few at a time, and prepare them for salvation.
Starve them, recite creeds to them with a steady droning persistent repetition, and then gather them together into the secret chamber. A place that only priests were allowed to frequent. A place where the devil could be summoned. A place where a priest could forever purge them of their desire for sexual intimacy. It may be hard for a modern audience to understand, but in the early centuries of the Common Era, salvation was no joke. Original sin was a doctrine that non-christians ignored, and even mocked, but Exorcist priests took it very seriously, and were specially trained to root out. Every good Christian knew that young boys, particularly orphaned children without the protection of living parents, were susceptible to sexual impurity. Something that would drag their souls directly to hell. The only way to purge this impulse, the only way to save their souls, was to force them to undergo a sacred ceremony. A mysterious initiation that would forever cleanse them of inappropriate sexual desire, and deliver them to Christ.
Contemporary Roman Christians knew of this ritual as applying "The fires of Temptation; It was a devastatingly difficult indoctrination meant to rescue the damned". It even required that a priest be on hand after its completion, to fully debrief and counsel the shell-shocked initiates. The severity of Christian initiation Disturbed the Romans, but in the eyes of the church hierarchy, desperate spiritual times called for desperate spiritual measures. Ritual exorcism is not difficult to comprehend, its theology is as elegant as its rationale is unquestionable. In the mind of the Christian priests, the world is full of demons, and these demons have a peculiar affinity for naive spiritually pure, pre-pubertal boys. Turtleian (160-240) wrote an apologeticus about the belief that Christians possess the fiery breath that was able to send demons out of the bodies of the possessed. He says that demons flee to the touch of Christians, or their breath. This fits the historical context well, we consider the Cyril of Jerusalem (313-386) one of the greatest Advocates of ritual sodomy, wrote in the pro-catechesis and mystogical catechesis about the process of breathing or blowing upon young nude oiled boys.
ON THE POWERS OF EXORCISM OIL
ON CHRISTIAN INITIATION
"Be Earnest", he says "in submitting to the exorcisms. If you were blown upon and exercised, the process brings you to Salvation". The battle for the soul revolved around the sexual encounter of these youths, and the Christians thought it could be one if the young were given a chance to renounce the devil in the face of direct unavoidable temptation. What better way to give sexually inexperienced children the opportunity to embrace salvation than to summon Lucifer himself. Let the devil offer the Pains of Temptation, and then let the young reject him and flee to Jesus. The reasoning of The Exorcist priests who ended up sodomizing boys, was really that simple. Post-ritual counseling was invaluable, after all, that's what Cyril the bishop of Jerusalem had commanded of his Exorcist priests, that's what Clement the head of the catechetical school in Alexandria required of his students, and church Elders like Cyril and Clement were after all bearers of the Divine commission. They were only a few Generations removed from the master himself. Their Authority was impeccable, and their dictates were obeyed, because they were coming "directly from God". If you were a priest involved with catechesis, you were expected to teach children that forced intercourse is only a sin if it is enjoyed. The distinction between willful enjoyment of sodomy and forced enjoyment was critical to Cyril. After all, according to Christian dogma, if shunned, any sort of sexual activity became a means of purification. That is, the job of The Exorcist was to summon the devil, let the Prince of Darkness offer the Temptation through you, and then let the child reject the act. The successful initiate would be guaranteed salvation, and you the priest would be doing the work of Christ. The ritual purification by sodomy was carefully prescribed and executed. The catechetical schools insisted that the mystery remain consistent throughout the Empire. According to the bishop of Jerusalem, there must be an orthodox method of exorcism. This meant that Exorcist priests were bound to follow the writings of Bishops and to allow local authorities to determine who was worthy of assisting in such sacred duties. Saint Ambrose tells us that priests elders and Bishops were all present but most importantly, priests and initiates were forbidden from discussing the details of what happened during this sacred mystery on pain of Eternal damnation.
Priests believe that only those who bore the onerous burden of summoning the Devil Himself, and those who were successfully initiated, could understand the value of ritual sexual abuse. All others should be excluded from knowledge of its specifics, wrote Cyril in "Pro catechesis": "make sure that you don't talk carelessly not because what you were told isn't fair to talk about, but because the listener isn't fit to hear it". The church fathers were well aware that the pagans would eventually accuse Priests of crimes if they ever learned all the particulars of the initiation. Precisely because they had not been "born again" into the way, and their natural inclination was to defend the demons they worshiped. In short, pagans were considered to be "of the spirit of antichrist" and not to be trusted with the secrets of initiations.
Young boys taken from the streets of large Urban centers were prepared over a period of weeks for their catechesis. Priests enforced a rigorous series of fast and constant indoctrination. This reinforced repetition of Christian doctrine, was the reason the process came to be known as catechesis. Which is just a Greek word for placing Doctrine into the ears of novitiates. In Latin, catechesis is transliterated as indoctrination. After weeks of starvation and repetitive indoctrination, children deemed ready for the initiation ceremony were taken to an out of the way chamber or location where they were sequestered from the general population of novitiates. In the first step of the process of initiation, priests removed all of the clothing of these boys. If the children showed any evidence of being ashamed, to stand before a group of priests naked, Cyril commanded that they'd be reminded that Jesus was himself crucified without his clothing. They had no need of embarrassment to stand as Jesus stood naked before the world.
Cyril's own words, from his mystagogical catechesis, "as soon as you entered, you took off your tunic. once you had taken it off, you were naked. what a wonderful thing. you were naked in the eyes of all, and felt no shame. then once you had removed your clothes you were Anointed with exercise oil from the top most hairs of your head to the lowest parts of your body".
ON THE DEVIL
After disrobing the children, the priests blindfolded them, and then explained that their actions were a necessary step in protecting the children from "The Gaze of the devil". Next, the priest rubbed the boys generously with a sacred oil. The sacred oil, like the anointing oils also used by the Christians, contained drugs that would undoubtedly facilitate the process of exposing the children to the Temptation offered by Lucifer. In short, it would numb them to the burning fires of the devil.
Following Cyril's instructions priests applied the oil to the boys, from the crown of their heads, to the soles of their feet. It was an important Priestly duty to ensure that the children were completely covered, and that the holy oil was rubbed into the skin thoroughly. After all it served as a barrier for their own protection. And once it was applied, the boys were forever consecrated to Christ. Cyril delights in this particular detail of the ritual, and speaks about the necessity of rubbing the entire body with oil.
Once the children were prepped in this manner and knelt and the hidden recesses of the church, naked, blindfolded, and covered with oil. The Exorcist then proceeded to summon the devil. Once Lucifer had been summoned, he made his presence known to the initiates. They heard his voice, and became terribly afraid. The boys were then commanded to rebuke the devil, while facing him. Then they were told to turn their back to him. At this point, the possessed Exorcist applied the "fires of Temptation". Cyril forbade this knowledge from becoming public, lest the Pagan World misinterpreted and caused criminal trouble for priests. What we do know about The Fires of Temptation is that at least one Christian author reveals them as the act of sodomy. In other words, the Prince of Darkness, the author of the first Temptation, while inhabiting the body of an exorcist, forced prepubescent boys to submit to anal intercourse. The devil was said to have done this in a violent manner, but the children were allowed to suffer the Temptation forced on them by the possessed Exorcist, because this supported them an opportunity to rebuke the pleasure of the sin and thus obtain salvation.
The priests who were present during the application of The Fires of Temptation, encouraged the children to flee the sexual advances of the devil, and they were told that they should not enjoy the experience. The priests helped the children to call upon the name of the Lord to see past the pain of Temptation, to the relief of Salvation. When the devil was present, applying the sexual Temptation, the boys were told to rebuke him in the name of Jesus. They rebuked his acts of violence, they rebuked his offer of carnal pleasure, helping the children to renounce this forced sexual act allowed them to accept Eternal salvation.
After the devil was rebuked, he reportedly fled the scene, and the priests witnessed The Exorcist's exhausting release. The children were then taken to a sacred bath, where they were baptized, and thus cleansed of any stain. They emerged from the Waters of cleansing to a New Life. Then they were given white robes to cover their nakedness, a symbol of the Purity they gained from renouncing the devil. These robes would have been made of the same material as the bandage that covered the naked boy who was with Jesus in a Garden of Gethsemane, when he was arrested.
After this ceremony, the boys were returned to the priests involved in their initiation in order to purge themselves of any violent memories of the Fires of Temptation. The priests then repeated their instructions that the details of their initiations were to remain a mystery. Telling others about their experience was a sin. The boys were reminded that hell awaits those who are disobedient. Finally, they were given food. To a Christian priest living in the earliest years of the church, salvation was not a joke. Priests thought the children allowed to go on living as pagans would be sent to hell for eternity. Initiating them into the way, would ultimately save their souls from an eternity of pain and suffering. This must be the reason the priests took such drastic measures to save the Youth of the world. The Pains of the fires of sexual Temptation were far less horrific, than an eternity in the Underworld.
Whether or not modern Catholic priests are following the tradition of institutional r4pe created by the earliest Christian clergy, has so far eluded the public. Even a cursory look at the earliest writings of the Christians reveals that ritual r4pe was an Institutional standard used in processing initiates. It is not unreasonable to assume that the theological justification for sodomizing young boys is still present in the ranks of Catholic priests.
The r4pe of children in the modern Christian Church may not be as organized as it was when the church first developed, but child abuse clearly remains an Institutional problem. For reasons that continue to elude investigators, the church actively Fosters and protects the practice of child molestation and sexual assault. Priests have sexually abused children for centuries, and Bishops have always protected these rapists from prosecution. The Catholic church has remained very much the same for two thousand years. The problem of child r4pe may never be rooted out of the church, because it is integral to the very foundations of Christianity.