Growing up I had a bishop who was just trying to do his best. I get it, we all want to please the Lord. However he took it across the line a few times. This is one of those times and how it affected me later on.
When I turned 16 and was ready to advance into the office of a priest I went to my bishop’s home as he asked me and had an interview with him. It all went well until he started asking explicit masturbation questions. Now the fact of the matter is that masturbation is something every single teenage boy on earth has done or will done. That should be assumed, but not used as a means to guilt and shame someone.
Not to mention I was in this man’s home who had a daughter (around my age or younger) in the adjacent room relaxing all within ear reach of her dad asking me how often I touch myself, what I think of, how I do it etc. Way over the line. I’m skipping forward here.
Eventually I repented as instructed by my bishop, left on my mission to Knoxville Tennessee and I had worked so hard to get out there both spiritually and physically (for money). The guilt and shame I faced as a young man never escaped. I developed several ticks and was diagnosed with OCD on my mission. I was pumped full of SSRI’s and eventually I tried to kill myself… twice on my mission. There were several things building up to it but I can recall how disgusting and weird it was to have a 65 year old man asking a 16 year old boy about his masturbation habits. I would never want that for any child.