History Main / PedophilePriest

--->'''Maxwell:''' ''[[YouveGotToBeKiddingMe Wow.]]''

** The episode 4 preview has Maxwell interrogating a member of the Vatican who has been selling information to Millenium. Maxwell assumes the priest was motivated by promises of immortality, but it turns out he was bribed with little boys to have his way with. The priest does not survive, having his brains blown out by Heinkel soon after the interrogation is over.

* A priest and a Rabbi are sitting on a park bench when the priest turns and says "Hey, I have an idea. Let's go out and screw some little boys!" Puzzled, the Rabbi replies "...Out of ''what?''"

* Played around with in ''Literature/SkippyDies''. The students assume that Father Green is this, and the fact that he teaches French which makes him "[[BilingualBonus Père Vert]]" doesn't help. In the end, [[spoiler:after his death, everyone agrees to blame him for Skippy's abuse, rather than the [[KarmaHoudini swimming coach who's actually responsible]]. DoubleSubverted in that Father Green actually ''does'' fantasize about molesting children but never acts on it.]]
** However, some of his inner monologue [[spoiler:implies that he did molest children in Africa when he was there as a missionary.]]
* [[SinisterMinister Primate Annias]] from ''Literature/TheElenium'' was posthumously revealed to be this. It was already known that he'd slept with [[TheVamp Princess Arissa]] [[spoiler:and had a child with her]], but a mind-reading of one of his associates some time after his death reveals that they first got together when she was only 12.

-->'''Peter''': Pat's an icon. That statue belongs right here in the park, next to the statue of Quahog's greatest missionary, Father Touchboys.\\

* Series/LesGuignolsDeLInfo'':

-->'''Cardinal Sylvestre:''' We should speed up, the reinforced glass isn't going to last much longer.

** Music/{{Rammstein}}

* ''Series/{{Dateline}}'''s flagship show, "To Catch a Predator", has had a number of pedophile priests and preachers among the predators that Chris Hansen has taken down.

* Surprisingly, mostly averted in ''Series/FatherTed'' of all places. Still mentioned a few times, though. Father Jack once made a class of teenage girls in Catholic School do P.E. without their tracksuit tops, however. His horrific molester-face whilst this goes on is clearly meant to invoke this trope.
** He does shout "GIRLS!!", among other things, in his alcoholic fugues...

* ''Series/{{Frontline}}'' has had a few episodes about pedophiles in the clergy:
** The 1994 episode "Judge And Jury" revolves around a young woman who accuses her parish priest of raping her. ''Frontline'' runs the story with a rebuttal from the priest, but edits it in such a way that it makes him look unreliable. The priest ends up killing himself offscreen, and when ''Frontline'' interviews the woman again, she quickly destroys her own credibility by claiming to have been abducted by aliens.

* Music/{{Rammstein}}'s "Halleluja" is about a priest ''not'' trying to resist his urges.
** Rosenrot may count too, at least the video. Well technically will be a hebephile as the girl is in her middle to late teens, but is still invoking the trope.
*** Actually Cătălina Lavric was 14 at the time which caused certain controversy then (as Rammstein videos ''normally'' do).
* In the very cuss-laden "Pope Song", Music/TimMinchin takes aim at then-Pope Benedict XVI, who allegedly covered for priests that molested kids back when he was still a cardinal, and calls him no better than the priests in question because of this.
** "Come home (Cardinal Pell)" is a direct appeal/accusation to one of the priests alleged to have covered up abuse to face a court in Australia. It references Gerald Risdale, Pell's former flatmate and one of the most prolific abusers. The money from the sale of that song was used to fly victims to Rome so they could be physically present when Pell gave his evidence via video link.

* The Music/BadReligion song "Sinister Rogue" contains a mention of this, among other attacks on the Catholic church.

* In the French satiric show ''Series/LesGuignolsDeLInfo'', Cardinal Sylvestre and just about any Catholic priest shown (except the Pope) are portrayed as this. Comedic variant, of course. There is one skit were the [[{{Thememobile}} Popemobile]] is used to isolate the choirboys from a flock of such priests, forcing the Pope and his cardinals to walk beside.

** The show makes jokes about the Catholic Church pedophile scandals, usually in the form of Alucard mockingly accusing members of Iscariot of pedophilia.

* During the episode of ''WebVideo/BerserkAbridged'' where it looked like they switched to doing Hellsing, Alucard makes a zing about this to the vampire holding Seras hostage. The two then debate if it was too much before Zod showed up and began asking what happened to his usual show.

The accused need not even be guilty; the simple accusation of pedophilia/molestation is usually enough to set off a PaedoHunt, which a villain may take full advantage of as a RedHerring to cover up or distract from their crimes (or to justify [[RageAgainstTheHeavens a crusade against the priest's entire religion]]). Another way this trope can be used on a non-villainous character is that he has joined the church not only to get an excuse to remain a bachelor, but also as a way to fight against [[SexIsEvilAndIAmHorny his urges]] and [[ChasteHero remain chaste]].[[note]]It's been speculated that this is also a major reason in real life for the seemingly-disproportionate number of pedophiles in the priesthood, though there are ''also'' clear cases of pedophiles becoming priests specifically to be in a position of power that has access to young children.[[/note]]

* In the ''Manga/BlackButler'' anime, the leader of the Pure Church is implied to be one, which is why they were getting Ciel cleaned up. [[spoiler:Oddly enough, it may have been an InvokedTrope. The "leader" was actually [[OurZombiesAreDifferent assembled from the reanimated corpses of Ciel's parents]] acting as a puppet leader at Angela's behest. While it's unlikely to have had any independent sex-drives, this ''is'' [[AxCrazy Ang]][[AnythingThatMoves ela]] we're talking about...]]

* Somewhat inverted in Creator/OsamuTezuka's ''Manga/{{MW}}''. As a teenager, Garai sexually abuses the 9-year old Yuuki Michio & later becomes a priest to atone for his sinful past.

* Played for laughs with Garterbelt of ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'', although he seems to be more pederast than pedophile. He's awfully fond of [[ButtMonkey Brief]] and organizes a naked marathon for high schoolers for the sake of getting his jollies on. [[spoiler:[[FridgeBrilliance The Season Finale suggests that he was actually trying to keep an eye on Brief, whose dick happens to be the key to hell.]]]] We can even see him singing a song about his big and black sausage in the ninth episode, selling sausage in the beach.
* Subverted in the ''Manga/FairyTail'' omake about the punishment game. Cana has Wendy try on a lot of skimpy and/or furtive clothing (like a wedding dress), and when Wendy worriedly asks why, Cana tells that she'll take Wendy to an old priest who likes that sort of "stuff". Wendy understandably becomes terrified, but when they actually meet the priest, there is nothing pedophile about him. The only reason Cana wanted Wendy to wear those clothes was that she wanted Wendy to make a good first impression by wearing fashionable clothing, but since Cana has no idea what fashionable clothing is, she just chose the skimpiest clothes as she always wears a skimpy outfit herself.

* The corrupt bishop from ''ComicBook/VForVendetta''. As part of the government attempt to hush him up, he is sent a different little girl every Sunday afternoon after the service. V intercepts his usual source and sends Evey, a 16-year-old, dressed as a preteen. When she first arrives, the priest expresses concern that she might be too ''old'' for him.

* {{Defied|Trope}} in ''WebVideo/SailorMoonAbridged'', both in and out of universe. Molly considers taking a shot at the oneshot Catholic priest character, but decides it would be too easy.

* DiscussedTrope A parish priest implies to it when Vernon went to pick up Harry from the church that he believes this is what what he believes Vernon would [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8115510/3/Dear-Mummy "make allegations"]] when he was delving into Harry's abusive homelife.

* A deleted scene of ''Film/InBruges'' would have subverted this. Ray assumes that the priest he killed was a pedophile, because his boss is protective of children. However, Ken says that he was just opposing their boss' land grab.

* ''Le souffle au cœur'' (''Murmur of the Heart''). Laurent, 14 and a half, is in confession when his priest and teacher makes a pass at him. Laurent asks to go back to class. The priest, annoyed, gives him an excessive penance: thirty Hail Marys. The priest seems to have a reputation for making passes at the boys. However, during the private lessons he later gives a convalescent Laurent nothing much, if anything, happens.

* ''The Least of These'' features Father Andre James ([[Series/GreysAnatomy Isaiah Washington]]) being transferred to a small, out of the way boarding school after the disappearance of a former priest. As the movie proceeds, much darker things are revealed in both the cases of the disappeared priest and his own past.[[labelnote:*]]Father Andre is not the Pedophile Priest himself. In fact, he actively discourages even light sexual shenanigans, as we see in one scene where he chooses to dine in the main hall with the boys instead of in the private dining room with the older priests; he also takes the opportunity to confiscate the [[PornStash dirty magazines]] one of the boys brings to dinner, dumping them right in the trash and calling out one of the boys who was looking at them, without even looking over his shoulder.[[/labelnote]]

* In ''Film/TheDeparted'', while discussing Billy Costigan's family background Sgt. Dignam notes than all of the men aside from Billy's father were criminals. Billy points out one of his uncles is a priest, but Dignam replies that he's currently "married to a 12-year-old boy, living on a beach in Thailand."

* A janitor is mopping the church when the priest grabs him. The priest exclaims that he has an important meeting he has to attend and cannot miss, but was scheduled to take confessions instead. The priest shoves a list of sins into the janitor's hands and tells him just listen to the confessions, look up the penance, and tell the confessor how many "Hail Mary"s to say. The janitor doesn't mind helping, and goes into the confessional while the priest grabs his golf clubs and leaves. The people come in, the janitor looks up the sin and says the penance. This goes on just fine for a bit, until a man confesses he got a blow job. The janitor checks every page of his instructions -- it's not listed. Panicking, the janitor peeks outside of the confessional and sees an altar boy walking past. "Psst! Hey, kid: how much does the priest give for a blow job?" the janitor whispers to the altar boy. The altar boy replies "20 bucks and a candy bar."
* A Baptist pastor, a Catholic priest, a rabbi and a group of children are on board the Titanic. When the iceberg hits, the pastor yells "save the children!". The Rabbi says "fuck the children!". The priest says "do we have time for that?"

* Father Ralph de Bricassart in ''Literature/TheThornBirds'' is a vague example of this. Although nothing happens between him and Meggie until she is in her mid-20's, it is strongly implied that he has had feelings for her since he met her, when he was 28, and she was ''10''.

* ''In Literature/TheKid'', the protagonist is molested by two of these at the catholic orphanage he lives in. It's implied the only reason he even ended up there is because [[{{Squick}} one of them took a liking to him.]]

* The subject of several ''Series/BlueHeelers'' episodes, to the point where if a newly introduced member of church appears (outside regular characters like Brian Heggity and Grace Curtis), odds are they are either abused or abusers.

* ''Series/Ultraviolet1998''. In the episode "Mea Culpa", a 12-year old boy kills a priest and the team is sent to investigate if the killing is vampire-related. The priest in charge of the team, Pearse Harman, gets annoyed when ex-cop Michael Colefield thinks it's child abuse-related, {{Lampshading}} the pedophile Catholic priest cliché. Subverted at the end when it turns out the priest was innocent and vampires ''were'' involved, yet Harman cynically allows the public to believe the priest was a pedophile to maintain the {{Masquerade}}.

* ''Series/TrueBlood'': One mini episode sees [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSN-e_xmhgM&t=206s a creepy old pastor try to hit on]] Jessica Hamby. Of course, he constantly denigrates her by calling her a "whore". [[TheDogBitesBack Jessica bares her fangs, makes him admit he's married, then tells him to go back to his wife and have sex with her like it's his first time]]. Finally, Jessica makes him leave the bar, but not before she makes him shout "I'M A BIG FUCKING PERVERT WITH A BIG BONER FOR JESUS!"

** The trope was both [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] and [[ExploitedTrope exploited]] in "Glued", when the team was investigating the death of an 8-year-old boy in a Catholic neighborhood and realized that the killer had [[{{confessional}} confessed]] the murder to a priest. They brought the main suspect and the priest to headquarters and told the suspect that the priest had left the Church in protest for the pedophile cases and was no longer under the vow to keep silent. This made the suspect panic and confess himself.

* ''Series/NipTuck'' features one in a memorable role. Sean and Christian operate to remove a large birthmark from a patient's penis, with his excuse being that it made his fiancee uncomfortable. Later they see a news report, which shows a local Catholic priest (the patient, who'd been using a fake name and accent with the doctors) has been exonerated of molesting multiple boys at the church, after an examination from the court showed no birthmark, which had been a key part of the boys' testimony. Horrified, the doctors attempt to report their work to the police, but cannot do so directly because of their own skeletons in the closet, and their anonymous tip falls through. Christian, who was sexually abused as a child, takes the revelation particularly hard, and ends up cornering the priest in the confessional with a scalpel and threatening to murder him if he doesn't confess to the police. He does.

* "Priest", by Music/StephenLynch, is a song of a priest barely trying to resist his urges toward one of the altar-boys.

* Music/SineadOConnor has campaigned for years about exposing pedophilia in the Catholic Church, and often incorporates the fight into her music and performances.

** The first verse of "Victory": "The velveteen and oaken fixtures soothed the lonely child/The parent s watched the escort take him while they stood outside/The priest was kind and gentle as he positioned his head/The pain was like brimstone but the kid hardly bled"

* Nekroi Theoi's "Simony of Hollow Christs", about sexually predatory youth pastors using their positions to groom young churchgoers.

* In the French satiric show ''Series/LesGuignolsDeLInfo'', Cardinal Sylvestre and just about any Catholic priest shown (except the Pope) are portrayed as this. Comedic variant, of course. There is one skit were the [[{{Thememobile}} Popemobile]] is used to isolate the choirboys from a flock of such priests, forcing the Pope and his cardinals to walk besides.

* Implied in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood''. One of the town criers' announcements is a citywide ban of the song about "The Little Boy of Prussia", since minstrels singing it have caused "embarrassing physical juttings" for priests wandering through town who hear it.

** Peter at one point comments that they're going to keep drinking until they've brought up repressed memories of being molested by a priest. Only Cleveland is shown to have recovered on.

** In "Hell on Earth 2006," all the Catholic priests are shown leading around naked boys on leashes. No-one appears to notice or care even when they are in public.

%% Really, no real life examples.

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Reincarnation}}'' game, ''The Clergy of Unholy'', the demon protagonist, whose job it is to track down Reincarnies (those that have EscapedFromHell and reincarnated on earth) and send them back to Hell, takes on a Reincarny who turns out to be one of these. When the demon discovers a drugged-up altar boy in Saul's bedroom while searching through his church, it provides all the proof that the demon needs to send Saul back to Hell.

* A few months after the 2006 documentary film ''Deliver Us From Evil'' was released, a reporter and camera crew from [[Creator/TheBBC BBC]] documentary series ''Series/{{Panorama}}'' caught up with the pedophile priest profiled in the movie. Following his deportation from the United States, he was shown trying to get close to children yet again, all without the knowledge of the locals of his previous conviction for child molestation. According to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, a few weeks after the episode ran, he slipped out of Ireland. He turned up in UsefulNotes/TheNetherlands in 2010 volunteering at a local parish under a pseudonym. A few months after that, he was found in UsefulNotes/{{Ireland}} to have kiddie porn on his laptop and several storage devices. In 2012 he was sentenced to just three years in prison for it.

Needless to say, the subject is ''[[FlameBait extremely]]'' controversial in RealLife. Therefore, '''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease''' Just let Wiki/TheOtherWiki [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_sexual_abuse_cases provide the facts.]]

Given the implicit trust associated with the profession, this is typically portrayed as the ultimate betrayal of innocence and a MoralEventHorizon for everyone involved. Due to the cultural impact of the late-twentieth to early 21st-century child molestation scandals in the Catholic Church, Catholic priests are by far the most likely to be involved in a molestation accusation in modern media, although neither Protestant ministers nor the clergy of other religions are by any means immune, and, of course, in real life a pedophile also can be a parent or other relative, a [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24075588 teacher or caregiver,]] a babysitter, a neighbor, a family friend, or even a random person online,[[note]]although for this to happen, a meeting must be arranged ''first'', and personal information given that any parent worth his/her salt teaches their children to ''never'' give to strangers, making the terrible internet DeathTrap [[NewMediaAreEvil not nearly as much of one as those who fear it believe]][[/note]] simply because — as with murderers, rapists, muggers, or any other type of violent criminal — pedophiles exist in all professions and at all levels of society.[[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/16/AR2010041602026.html Some studies have argued that Catholic priests are no more likely to be pedophiles than any other person.]] The main reason why abuse cases in the Catholic Churches drew far more media attention than, for example, cases in schools was because the Catholic Church cases were systematically covered up. This cover-up was exacerbated because, when clergy abuse accusations started to become more common in the mid-to-late 20th Century, it was believed pederasty could be cured with therapy, which is where offending priests were sent (instead of informing the authorities).

** There's also a skit where [[Film/TheTransporter Frank Martin]] has to escort a bunch of altar boys back home after the Sunday mass, with various lecherous clergymen attempting to get them and getting a beating from Frank as a result. The FinalBoss happens to be the Pope Benedict XVI's brother, and he's treated as TheBrute.

* ''The Least of These'' features Father Andre James ([[Series/GreysAnatomy Isaiah Washington]]) being transferred to a small, out of the way boarding school after the disappearance of a former priest. As the movie proceeds, much darker things are revealed in both the cases of the disappeared priest and his own past.[[labelnote:*]]Father Andre is not the PedophilePriest himself. In fact, he actively discourages even light sexual shenanigans, as we see in one scene where he chooses to dine in the main hall with the boys instead of in the private dining room with the older priests; he also takes the opportunity to confiscate the [[PornStash dirty magazines]] one of the boys brings to dinner, dumping them right in the trash and calling out one of the boys who was looking at them, without even looking over his shoulder.[[/labelnote]]

** The episode 4 preview has Maxwell interrogating a member of the Vatican who has been selling information to Millenium. Maxwell assumes the priest was motivated by promises of immortality, but it turns out he was bribed with children to molest.

* ''WebVideo/HellsingUltimateAbridged'' uses this trope [[{{Pun}} religiously]].
** [[HeroicComedicSociopath Alucard]] lets loose a parade of jokes about this trope when he first encounters Father Maxwell and Alexander Anderson. It comes back a couple times during Episode 8.
--->'''Alucard:''' Well, if it isn't the Catholic Church! And what's this? No Little Timmy glued to your crotch? Progress!\\\
'''Alucard:''' So what do you want, anyways? The nearest elementary school's at least ten kilometers away.\\\
'''Alucard:''' Honestly, if you're going to have a dickfighting competition with a woman, you must have started out with [[TeenyWeenie the world's cruelest handicap]]... which I'm sure benefits the nine-year old boy you have chained up in your private Vatican jet. Which was paid for how? Oh, right! Generous donations from your followers to spread the word of God. '''All over his back.'''\\\
'''Alucard''': Hey there, padre, how's little Timmy? You know what's good for getting cum stains out of altar boy robes? '''Holy water!!''' Did you miss me?!\\\
'''Anderson''': Any last words, ''monster''?\\
'''Alucard''': Have you ever thought about carbonating the blood of Christ? You know, give the kids something fizzy to drink, y'know, before they wake up in an hour?
** Seras "[[InSeriesNickname Police]] [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname Girl]]" Victoria later references the trope as well, although she was likely being entirely serious (or probably just scared shitless) given the circumstances -- namely, facing down psychotic BloodKnight Anderson.
--->'''Seras Victoria:''' (What do I do? What do I do?! Well, I could try seducing him... [[CrossesTheLineTwice Wait, I'm not an eight-year-old boy!]] [[OhCrap Shit!!]])
** And in the episode 4 preview, Father Maxwell has another priest executed because he's working for [[ThoseWackyNazis Millennium]], and for being one.
--->'''Priest:''' Oh, but I had no choice! They made it impossible to say no!\\
'''Maxwell:''' Ah, who could resist the temptation of immortality?\\
'''Priest:''' Amongst other things...\\
'''Maxwell:''' Oh, they didn't. What, did they just drive a truck of them up to your house?!\\
''[priest stammers wordlessly]''\\
'''Maxwell: ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards Wow]].'''''

* During the episode of ''WebVideo/BerserkAbridged'' where it looked like they switched to doing Hellsing, Alucard makes a zing about this to the vampire holding Seras hostage. The two then debate if it was too much before Zod showed up and began asking what happened to his usual show.

* ''WebVideo/HellsingAbridged'': Whenever Alucard talks to Father Anderson, this is the joke he makes every other sentence (see also: the top half of the quotes page).

* The Slash & Myles Kennedy song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufpmYcOw_-E The Unholy]] likewise deals with pedophile priests in it's lyrics.

Given the implicit trust associated with the profession, this is typically portrayed as the ultimate betrayal of innocence and a MoralEventHorizon for everyone involved. Due to the cultural impact of the late-twentieth to early 21st-century child molestation scandals in the Catholic Church, Catholic priests are by far the most likely to be involved in a molestation accusation in modern media, although neither Protestant ministers nor the clergy of other religions are by any means immune, and, of course, in real life a pedophile also can be a parent or other relative, a [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24075588 teacher or caregiver,]] a babysitter, a neighbor, a family friend, or even a random person online,[[note]]although for this to happen, a meeting must be arranged ''first'', and personal information given that any parent worth his/her salt teaches their children to ''never'' give to strangers, making the terrible internet DeathTrap [[NewMediaAreEvil not nearly as much of one as those who fear it believe]][[/note]] simply because — as with murderers, rapists, muggers, or any other type of violent criminal — pedophiles exist in all professions and at all levels of society. Hell, they can even be [[Creator/JimmySavile a children's TV presenter protected by having friends in high places]]. [[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/16/AR2010041602026.html Some studies have argued that Catholic priests are no more likely to be pedophiles than any other person.]] The main reason why abuse cases in the Catholic Churches drew far more media attention than, for example, cases in schools was because the Catholic Church cases were systematically covered up. This cover-up was exacerbated because, when clergy abuse accusations started to become more common in the mid-to-late 20th Century, it was believed pederasty could be cured with therapy, which is where offending priests were sent (instead of informing the authorities).

* ''Series/{{Ultraviolet}}''. In the episode "Mea Culpa", a 12-year old boy kills a priest and the team is sent to investigate if the killing is vampire-related. The priest in charge of the team, Pearse Harman, gets annoyed when ex-cop Michael Colefield thinks it's child abuse-related, {{Lampshading}} the pedophile Catholic priest cliché. Subverted at the end when it turns out the priest was innocent and vampires ''were'' involved, yet Harman cynically allows the public to believe the priest was a pedophile to maintain the {{Masquerade}}.

* Implied in ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment''. George Michael's [[TheFundamentalist Fundamentalist]] girlfriend Ann holds a [[BookBurning Music burning]] party where the only adult is her pastor, who's shown encouraging two boys to feel his biceps.