‘Poor Sandusky’: Catholic Priest Defends Child Sex Abusers ABC News Nobody could possibly defend convicted pedophile Jerry Sandusky, right? Nobody would possibly defend convicted pedophile Jerry Sandusky, right? Yeah, it happened. A high-profile Catholic priest who hosts a weekly religious television show did just that this week. Rev. Benedict Groeschel, the 79-year-old host of a show on the Catholic television network EWTN, made some jaw-dropping comments in an interview with the National Catholic Register. SEE ALSO: Boy Escapes From Underwear-Clad Priest The interview has been scrubbed from the paper’s website, but ABC News offers this verbatim account of Groeschel’s unbelievable comments: People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to – a psychopath. But that’s not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer. Well, it’s not so hard to see. A kid looking for a father and didn’t have his own — and they won’t be planning to get into heavy-duty sex, but almost romantic, embracing, kissing, perhaps sleeping, but not having intercourse or anything like that. I’s an understandable thing, and you know where you find it, among other clergy or important people; you look at teachers, attorneys, judges, social workers. Here’s this poor guy — Sandusky — it went on for years. Interesting: Why didn’t anyone say anything? Apparently, a number of kids knew about it and didn’t break the ice. Well, you know, until recent years, people did not register in their minds that it was a crime. It was a moral failure, scandalous; but they didn’t think of it in terms of legal things. At this point, (when) any priest, any clergyman, any social worker, any teacher, any responsible person in society would become involved in a single sexual act — not necessarily intercourse — they’re done. And I’m inclined to think, on their first offense, they should not go to jail because their intention was not committing a crime. “Tom Roberts of the National Catholic Reporter called the comments ‘particularly disturbing’ because of Groeschel’s background in psychology,” ABC reported. “He received a PhD in psychology from Columbia University.” SEE ALSO: • Jerry Sandusky: Officially Quite Guilty • Jeffrey Ross Attends Roseanne Roast Dressed As Joe Paterno • Catholic Church Pedophile Investigator Jailed for Child Porn • Pope Benedict’s First Tweet (Not @JustinBieber)