Lord help us

I found a horrible article I wanted to share with you...it shakes me at my very core. We need to realize the evil that is out there. Please be in prayer for this man. He needs the saving grace only God can give through His Son Jesus.

Pedophile Says Sex With Boys Is Sacred Religious Ritual
By James F. McCarty
Religion News Service
CLEVELAND — An admitted pedophile offered a bizarre defense this
week to 74 charges of rape, drugs and pandering obscenity to minors.
Phillip Distasio, 34, told a Cuyahoga County judge Wednesday (Aug. 2)
that his apartment in Rocky River was a religious sanctuary where engaging
in sex with boys and smoking marijuana were considered sacred rituals and
are protected under civil rights laws.
"I'm a pedophile. I've been a pedophile for 20 years," Distasio said
during a pretrial court hearing. "The only reason I'm charged with rape is
that no one believes a child can consent to sex. The role of my ministry is
to get these cases out of the courtrooms."
Judge Kathleen Sutula warned Distasio, a self-appointed friar who
compares himself to St. Francis and St. Ignatius, to confine his arguments
to secular laws at his trial, scheduled to begin Sept. 11.
"If you want to challenge the law, that's your right to do so," Sutula
said. "But we're going to follow the laws of Ohio in this courtroom."
Police arrested Distasio last September on charges he molested two
disabled boys he was tutoring at his home and raped seven other autistic
children at a Cleveland school for special-needs students. All but one of
the boys was under 13, which carries a mandatory life-in-prison sentence if
he is convicted.
Police found journals at Distasio's apartment in which he described his
activities, plus child pornography and videotapes of him engaged in sex with
boys.
Distasio tried unsuccessfully in June to fire his court-appointed
lawyer, Thomas Shaughnessy, who refused to go along with his
religious-freedom defense.
"Not all pedophilia is bad, and sex (with boys) can be healthy,"
Distasio said. "It's an argument that I'm willing to make, but my attorney
is not."
Sutula decided to allow Distasio to represent himself at trial on the
condition that Shaughnessy remain as his advisory counsel.
In motions filed with Sutula, Distasio accused prosecutors of
threatening to dismantle his church, which he calls Arcadian Fields
Ministries.
He described his apartment as a sanctuary, a place of worship, and a
safe alternative to prison for a congregation of social dissidents. Distasio
said he and his congregation consider the justice system to be corrupt and
addicted to punishment, and believe it should be abandoned.