Masculine Secrecy and Clergy Abuse
Like mounds of dirt washed away by heavy rain, the Catholic Church can barely contain the assaults upon its moral authority. And why would that be so? Because around the world, from Berlin to Dublin, New York to Sydney, the Church is staging an almighty fight to stem the tide of child abuse allegations against its clergy. As a survivor of such abuse myself, I well know that this is not merely about depraved individuals or isolated incidents. It is a systemic pattern whereby perpetrator priests, brothers (etc.) are afforded by the Church the maximum opportunity to covertly continue their wanton acts. For example, in the diocese where I was abused, paedophile priests were simply moved from one parish to another or if the heat became too much, to another diocese. Yes, there was secrecy, but not as a characteristic of masculinity (see link, below). This secrecy was about the bloated men who run this rich and powerful organisation deliberately denying or thwarting justice. So would the Catholic Church benefit from having women in decision-making roles? Absolutely…!
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1001020.htm
Update: I can only hope that one day, the Australian Federal Government might hold a Royal Commission into child abuse by Catholic clergy, and the concerted attempts by the church itself to cover up that abuse. In Germany now (see link, below), as in Ireland, public scrutiny may not account for justice but is a far preferable alternative to that hideous silence…
www.theage.com.au/world/sex-abuse-scandal-entangles-pope-20100313-q528.html
Update: So many updates on this story. Like a champagne cork flying across the room, the Catholic Church can only try in vain to put their criminal legacy back into the bottle (see link, below)…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8572875.stm
Update: I have seen enough Law and Order episodes to know that there comes a time when you give up the crap and take your punishment on the chin. And that is what the Catholic Church (see link, below) needs to do here. That what happened in Ireland, Germany, the United States, and Australia in terms of the church’s response to clergy child abuse was either the world’s most miraculous coincidence or the tell-tale signs of a huge institution that can readily access top-flight legal advice. I am being facetious. I know that here in Sydney, the Catholic Church keeps at least four big law firms on retainer, ready to do whatever it takes to escape justice…
First, I’m sorry for your abuse. I think the Church handled the situation wrong, but was unprepared for it. The people who became priests in the promiscuous 60′s and 70′s were products of their upbringing and not really dedicated to God. The Church thinks that a man’s word is his word, and when he says I consecrate myself to be a priest, he means it. Many that did this did not mean it. At the time of most of the problems, the solution was to give the offenders counseling and move them to different parishes-this, in hindsight, was the wrong thing to do.
Women clergy would just muddy the waters.
If you look at what happened in Ireland (see link, below), where a government inquiry found that the Catholic Church systemically covered up clergy child abuse, or here in Australia, where the Broken Rites website (http://brokenrites.alphalink.com.au) provides details of case after case where the church hierarchy acted with reckless indifference to the safety and well-being of children by protecting paedophiles within its ranks, the same pattern emerges. That pattern is referred to in the linked article as:
‘…when confronted with evidence of sex abuse, religious authorities responded by transferring offenders to another location, where in many instances they were free to abuse again‘.
I am sure had the problem not become so enormous, the Catholic Church would have used whatever strategies it could to continue to keep ‘secret’ child abuse within its ranks. This was not merely a problem of depraved individual priests (etc.) but more significantly, of a huge bureaucracy that is trapped within an archaic ideology of silent subservience to authority. It is also testimony to the warped views about healthy sexuality held by the church, whereby they can, for example, odiously seek to conflate homosexuality with paedophilia. Their ‘solution’ to clergy child abuse, thus? To weed out gay priests.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/20/irish-catholic-schools-child-abuse-claims
While I’m sure it’s no consolation to you, we know that 95% of all priests are good priests who respect their vows and take them seriously. In humanity, there’s always that group of bad apples. I know they handled it wrong, in hindsight, but at the time they did the best they could with what they knew of the problem.
You also know that every human organization does the best they can to keep the evil underbelly from showing-that’s human nature. They tried to handle it from within when they didn’t have the right tools to do that.
It was, exactly, a problem of depraved individuals. What you characterize as silent subservience to authority, you have to realize is total obedience to God. Those individuals committed to that, but were unwilling to live up to what it really means.
Celibacy and continence in priestly vows are not the problem. Being willing to serve God by giving up our human nature is what being a priest is all about.
It’s the media that conflate/confuse the pedophilia with homosexuality. You have to realize that there should be no such thing as a ‘homosexual priest’ or ‘heterosexual priest’. Priests are called to celibacy.
I wish you well, friend, and understand where you’re coming from.
For your information…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/11/priestly-celibacy-catholic-sex-scandals
I disagree with the assertion made in this article (see link, above) that associates celibacy to paedophilia.
This is obviously a subject that hits close to home for you. It seems, though, there’s a disconnect between this post and most others. If men are not emotionally brain-damaged cretins, then why would the single-gendered (specifically, male) nature of church hierarchy a priori explain the problems of abuse and its cover-up?
My own thought is that the forced expansion of clergy celibacy in medieval times (which was done to appease monarchs nervous about church power) and the lack of recognition for natural homosexuality has led to a concentration of sexually frustrated men in a particular profession with built-in authority. Since the higher-ups are always “hired from within,” you get classic in-group protection behavior when one of their own transgresses. That they are men is perhaps tertiary in importance.
Yes, the issue of sexual frustration was covered well in Fred Schepsi’s film, ‘The Devil’s Playground’ (1976). And having been a student myself at an all-boys Catholic high school, I recall that the problems associated with repressed sexuality were manifest. But the overarching issue associated with paedophilia is not celibacy or repression but power. That is, power expressed as sexual violence. And as fate (and the evidence would have it), most paedophiles are male. The manner in which the Catholic Church is structured (in practice and in ideology) provides an almost ‘ideal’ venue in which paedophiles can exist, and flourish. Stopping child abuse within the Catholic Church will take a great deal more thought, debate, and action.
Dan, your characterization of why priests are celibate is mistaken.
Ultimo, what’s really funny (sad funny) is that this display of ‘power’ is, in fact, a display of extremem weakness on the part of the clergy. Jesus said that if we want to enter his kingdom, the last shall be first and the first shall be last. A priest is not supposed to repress his sexuality, he’s supposed to contain it. Celibacy helps the man or woman focus their being on God. It’s supposed to be a gift of the person to God, as in the giving of a real treasure because of your esteem for the other. Christ sacrificed himself totally. The priest sacrifices his ‘self’ by being celibate. The priests that did these tragic actions to you and all those others had no intention of giving themselves totally to God.
Dan, we recognize same-sex attraction as one of the possible forms of attraction. But sex outside of marriage is wrong, says the church, and homosexual sex is wrong for that reason. So having this proclivity isn’t the issue, acting on it is.
David. I don’t deny that celibacy is a valid and holy choice/calling for many in the church, specifically members of societies (i.e. nuns and monks). On the other hand, Catholic priests before medieval times did in fact get married and have kids. Many Christian denominations have married priests, and some have homosexual priests in committed relationships (which society is slowly recognizing as marriages).
By requiring celibacy to be an official agent of the church, some who want to serve but don’t have the spiritual gift of celibacy enter the priesthood anyways. This is in some ways an aside from abuse, which is generally a perverted application of power. Owning and recognizing the power and dignity each person has as a child of God is key.
I do not really care if people make a choice to be celibate. Every citizen is entitled to her or his own beliefs, and should have the freedom to express those beliefs to the point of not harming others. I would think that a choice to be celibate is something that few men or women could truly make, and most would instead struggle with the problem of repressed sexuality. I have worked therapeutically with such people who, for example, because they have been told by the Catholic Church that they are ‘intrinsically disordered’, ‘vile or depraved’ (the current Pope has moved from condemning homosexual acts to condemning homosexual persons), have been severely and often permanently traumatised. However, the problem of paedophilia has not flourished within the Catholic Church over past decades or centuries because of celibacy or repressed sexuality. It has flourished because of the culture of violence that exists within the church, and the repeated, abject refusal by those in positions of power within the church to stop it.
I can well understand that people of good faith can be confused about and protective of the Catholic Church. Few of us want to believe bad things about something we have been taught to cherish. They typically cling to doctrinal purity to vigorously defend the church, its acts and omissions. That is a serious, logical error. When I recall how priests who knew in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and to the present, that their colleagues were sexually abusing children in their care, and yet remained silent, any doctrinal purity is quashed by the harsh reality of evil. There can be few acts more morally repugnant than turning your back on the suffering of a child. That the Catholic Church here in Australia, as elsewhere, not only protected those priests who were paedophiles but rewarded those priests who kept the secret, characterises a morally bankrupt institution. Child abuse within the church was never just about individual clergy but remains indicative of a rank, systemic problem.
Dan, priests did not get married and have kids after their ordination. They were married, had kids, then became priests, not the other way around. And actually, after they became priests, they were committed to celibacy. Being that the Catholic Church is and was the original Church of Jesus Christ, it matters not what ‘denominations’ that came later chose to do. Becoming clergy in the Catholic Church requires total consecration to God. 100%.
Ultimo-God taught, and the Church continues to teach, that sex outside of a marriage (which is between a man and a woman) is intrinsically disordered, vile and depraved. So when they say that, it’s a whole lot of people who receive that condemnation. The real question to them is “Do you want to continue like that, or would you like help rising above it?” Your statement about a ‘culture of violence’- evidence please? Also show evidence that pedophilia has been an issue for ‘centuries’. While I know that every man is sinful, regardless if he is priest or not, and pedophilia is one of those (sins), but show that it’s been a big problem for centuries, please.
Regarding the understanding of the Catholic Church, most Catholics are realistic enough to know that we are ALL SINNERS. EVERY ONE OF US. (not shouting, just emphasising). We know that all me commit these things-the very first commandment is the hardest to keep (You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and strength) perfectly, and it goes downhill from there. Even the Pope goes to confession every week or so. We recognize that our Church is holy because of the One who instituted the Church, not because of the men who run it here on earth. You will also need to prove that others knew about the situation and did nothing to correct it. Those priests are just as faulty as the ones who did the deeds. (Note: I’m not saying it didn’t happen, but I don’t think it was widespread, and I’m also saying that when the problem manifested itself, the Church didn’t know how to handle it.)
I’ve only been Catholic for 4 years, but I went to Catholic high schools in the 70′s. The priests in one school were grumpy, sometimes mean people, but never knew of an example of one of them molesting a student. Then I went to a all-boys Christian Brothers school where the faculty was like a soap opera-the principal of the school had an open relationship with the female art teacher, the brother in charge of the spirit team (which was recruited from all-girls Catholic Schools) was ‘sampling’ some of them, and another brother was a marijuana smoker. Needless to say, my first experience with Catholics was not a good one. Your last sentence applies to the public school system here, as well as the rank and file clergy in the protestant churches as well. Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Baker come to mind, but those are just the big names.
The Catholic Church condemns homosexuals. Full stop. There’s no lack of clarity over that hatred. The current Pope has vowed to banish homosexual priests from the church, because he wants to scapegoat those priests as actual or potential paedophiles. The leading Catholic cleric in Australia, George Pell, has said that if homophobia leads to more young gay men killing themselves, then that’s all the more reason why they should turn away from homosexuality. I could go on.
No. The Catholic Church condemns homosexual acts. The pope should ban homosexual priests. He should ban heterosexual priests. Priests are supposed to be celibate and continent, which means there is no any-sexual priest. Priests are supposed to renounce sexuality. There should be only ‘priests’. Any priest who identifies sexually to the point of acting on it needs to be banned. Cardinal Pell is right. It’s better for someone to recognize their faults and weaknesses and work to better themselves. People with same-sex attraction have their cross to bear, just like an alcoholic or drug addict. So just as an alcoholic should never take another drink, and a drug addict should take himself away from that danger, so someone with same-sex attraction should turn away from the sin of having sex with someone who is not his spouse.
I wish you would go on.
A link about what is actually happening in Europe:
http://www.ncregister.com/blog/pope_benedict_transferred_paedophile/
I am glad that paedophilia within the Catholic Church is now out in the open. However, I have seen through the Australian example what extraordinary power the church has brought to bear to stop justice being served. I recall during World Youth Day 2008 how Fr Chris Riley, a good and decent man who has dedicated his entire working life to helping troubled young people, accused the church of stuffing up its response to child abuse by clergy. Fr Riley called upon the church to pass all such matters onto the police. His was a lone voice.
As for that other chestnut about does the Catholic Church condemn homosexuals or their sexual behaviours? The answer to that is, both. This stance causes much needless harm to so many people. The Catholic Church is well entitled to make its own rules for membership by clergy, including celibacy. We have these weird ‘RSL Clubs’ in Australia (for returned soldiers and others), that have this bizarre daily ritual of playing ‘God Save the Queen’, all standing in silence. Every club has its quirks and so long as members are free to join or to leave, who can have an issue with that? It is when the Catholic Church steps outside the door and wants to impose its creepy dogma on what is a highly secular society, that people start to freak out.
Ultimo, it may be different where you are, and it might be the attitude of the people that’s at fault-the cultural mindset, but the Church’s attitude is ‘love the sinner, hate the sin’. Plain and simple. It’s VERY hard to do-can you imagine loving the person who just attempted to kill you? John Paul 2 did just that. Same is true for us every day, no matter how hard it might seem. We value and cherish people, but hold disdain with some of their acts. If it’s different in Australia, I’ll pray for it to change. The Catholic Church does not require celibacy, God does-it says so right there in Exodus-”Thou shall not commit adultery.” Adultery is sex outside the bounds of a marriage. So anyone having sex outside of marriage is considered in objectively mortal sin. The Church is the shepherd of its flock, protecting it from error in every way. When we fail, she’s there to console us and help us up.
As for what Fr. Riley says about reporting to the police, I think that every case is reported to a higher authority for rectification. That’s the point of the link.
The Catholic Church can selectively quote cobbled-together folk stories and expect its adherents to follow the principles laid out in those stories. It cannot, however, seek to extend its authority to the rest of us, who are happily living our free and fulfilling lives. From Rome down, the church does preach hatred toward GLBTI people. There is no equivocation about that. Attempting to do that bizarre splitting thing (hate the act, not hate the person, even though the current pope does refer to gay men themselves, sexually active or not, as being sick) shows how ignorant the Catholic Church remains about human sexuality.
Re Fr Riley: I totally agree with him that child abuse by clergy matters should be reported directly and expeditiously to the police. The experience of the church across several continents is to do whatever it takes to prevent perpetrators coming to justice. That is why the Catholic Church now finds itself in the appalling situation of having to spend billions of dollars of parishoner and government funds to try and keep itself out of court, or to settle the ever-growing raft of claims brought against it. I would suggest you might look at the case of one diocese here in Australia, the Diocese of Maitland/Newcastle, NSW (see the Broken Rites website for detailed information), where over decades up until the appointment of the current Bishop, Michael Malone, the church hierarchy has aggressively fought to stop the voices of child abuse by clergy survivors being heard. It has become all too much for Bishop Malone (see link, below), who like Fr Riley represents those qualities of humility and humanity that are so wanting in the church nowadays. That justice is finally being served in some of these atrocious matters is in spite of the former bishops of Maitland/Newcastle and their pathetic acolytes, who floated so miserably to the top. Dedicated police officers in Newcastle had to fight like the devil to get past the church’s wall of silence, and even then, there is still so much evil that remains hidden within the church.
Unequivocally, the Church, from the top down, does not hate anyone. Period. They don’t preach it, and they don’t practice it. They preach that God loves everyone. EQUALLY. If you don’t know that, you don’t know the Catholic Church.
As for bending to secular authority, when the Church knows it has a higher authority than any earthly ruler, is absurd. Every case of abuse goes ultimately to the Vatican. By the way, to show you how effective the Church is at handling her own problem, the cases that are coming to light are…how old? 20, 30, 40, 50 years, certainly none younger than 10. Compare that to how government run schools are doing in the same arena, or any institution that involves children-Boy Scouts, on up the line.
Many people, I would suggest the billions over history who have been on the receiving end of Catholic hate, would disagree vehemently with your suggestion that the church does not hate anyone. The Catholic Church is full of righteous hate. As for the church’s attempts to stifle justice when it comes to clergy child abuse, this typifies a patrician view of how children should be treated and a reckless indifference to the horrendous abuse that has been meted out. The torture of children in Catholic orphanages, for example, was a systemic, ritualistic practice, not confined to any perverted individual priest, brother or nun but part of the culture.
Ultimo, I think you’ll need to back up your statement with facts and proof of the Catholic Church foisting its hate on anyone. You’ll also need to prove torture in orphanages. Most orphans would have been dead without the generosity of the Church.
I’m not saying there aren’t bad individuals that did bad things. I’m saying that it wasn’t under the direction of the Catholic Church, and that the Church did their best to help all those combined. Their best wasn’t good enough. Again, it seems that the Church is fighting old ghosts rather than new ones, showing that what they’ve done to resolve the issues is working.
I have seen many Catholics conflicted by not wanting to acknowledge things that are so morally repugnant about the church. I can understand that. It’s akin to the conflict that children experience when they are abused by a parent. The facts, however, stand for themselves. Catholic missions, Catholic orphanages, Catholic schools, and other church-based sites have all been forums in which the human rights of vulnerable people have been systemically abused. History tells us what can happen when people tie themselves to an ideology without questioning how that ideology is practiced.
Specific example of one of these historically abusive forums? Be careful, you’re looking at ancient things through modern eyes. Look at the incident with only the knowlege of the day. Catholics waded the Tiber to attempt to rescue children which were thrown into the Tiber to drown. Catholics bought slaves that Vikings were selling, and freed them. Catholic teaching has always been about social justice. The priests, brothers, and lay religious most often fought for the rights of those the secular governments wanted to subdue.
You can look at the New York Times website today (www.nytimes.com) or seek out a copy of the ‘Towards Healing’ review report here in Australia(fresh off the presses) to show that we are not talking about crossing the Tiber here. We are talking about now. Human rights abuses of the first order in the here and now, executed by men at the highest levels of the Catholic Church who consistently display the utmost contempt for human rights and for justice.