Wow, stop the presses. Cat-the-arch-conservative supports boysex while jd-the-militant-infantfucker-liberationist stands in the oppositional position.

I don't necessarily think your friend was "raped". In as much as I think rape implies physical force and voilence.

You may be right, but I believe at best it's a matter of terminology, and one of the few matters of semantics I would find insignifigant.

• The relationship was between an employer and an employee.

• The relationship, by virtue of the role of clergy, was essentially between a (religion-based) therapist/counselor and patient.

• Within the catholic church, the clergy claim, through confession and absolution, to hold power over disciplinary measures, creating the role of hostage/kidnapper or prisoner/guard relations under threat of force.

...all three of these are prosecutable among adults.

At some level your friend concented.
Even at 14 he had a choice.... He could have said no... but he chose to say yes because he was afraid.

...

I mention the concent issue because your friend may well be feeling the consequences of his choice. Something like... "If only I hadn't have been so scared I could have said 'no'". And could thus blame himself.

These are issues in cases of forcible rape, as well... not only as common psychological effects on the... umm, I prefer to avoid the word using the word 'victim' in a sentence between cradle to grave, but the target of the crime...

...but (...you call yourself a christian solider?) - it is also true at any time that a person with a gun to their head can, in fact, choose to follow their own heart instead of the violence of another and get their brains splattered on the sidewalk instead.

The fact that people's fears have no power over their actions does not mean we do not usually acknowledge when someone lets their fears lead them to actions they might not normally have taken. Both "mitigating factors" at sentencing and the recognition of rape at gunpoint as seperate from an uncoerced state acknowledge this.

if he enjoyed it on some level and feels guilty about that. Feeling cheated all these years, not taking action to prosecute the offender, dealing with his own sexuality in light of what happened...

All of these are commonly at issue in forcible rape, as well.

You're right; semantically, it's probably something other than rape, technically... but tangibly, it's something pretty identically congruent, all in all.

IMHO.

...now, I'm off to shake my head at the moment we all swore up and down would never be likely to happen. ;)