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Video Description
This lecture argues that child sexual abuse in the early church was not the work of a few bad priests but a deliberate part of how new believers were made. The source material is the writing of early church figures such as Cyril of Jerusalem, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Ambrose. The video reconstructs what it calls the catechetical method, a word it traces to the Greek katechesis (κατήχησις), teaching placed into the ears.
As the episode describes the ritual, orphaned boys were taken from the streets, fasted, recited to, and led into a hidden chamber, where they were stripped, blindfolded, and anointed from head to foot with an oil the video says contained drugs. An exorcist then summoned the one the priests called the devil, and the boys were told to reject the temptation it offered. What the video calls the fires of temptation is read as forced anal intercourse, framed to the children as a trial they must renounce in order to be saved, after which they were bathed, robed, and warned to keep the ritual secret.
The conclusion is the part Ammon Hillman presents as the cover-up. Because the initiates were threatened with hell if they spoke, the practice stayed quiet, and the video treats that secrecy as the reason bishops have been able to protect abusers across the centuries. The claim is that the modern problem cannot be fixed by removing a few criminals because, in this reading, the abuse sits at the foundation rather than at the edge of the institution.
Full Video Transcript
The child rape ritual exposed. Early Christian priests altered perceptions of sexuality in Roman
culture by employing child rape 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 priests
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 it 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 christ fires of temptation contemporary roman christians knew of this ritual
as applying quote 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
priest the world is full of demons and these demons have a peculiar affinity for naive
spiritually pure pre-pubertal boys tertullian wrote in apologeticus about the belief that
christians possessed a 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 that cyril of jerusalem one of the greatest advocates of ritual sodomy wrote in
the pro catechesis and mystagogical catechesis about the process of breathing or blowing upon
young nude oiled boys be earnest he says in submitting to the exorcisms if you are 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 won 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
remained 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 ritual of abuse 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 quote 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 worshipped 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 fasts 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
priest naked cyril commanded that they 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 in 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 exercised oil from the top most hairs of your head to the lowest parts of your
body 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 burning fires
of the devil following cyril’s instructions priests supplied 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 naked oiled children once
the children were prepped in this manner and knelt in 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 misinterpret it and cause 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 afforded them an opportunity to rebuke the pleasure of the
sin and thus obtain salvation 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 the 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 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 taught that 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 that 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 rape 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 rape 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 rape 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 Catholic Church has remained very much the same for 2,000 years
problem of child rape may never be rooted out of the church because it is
integral to the very foundations of Christianity
Source: Lady Babylon