But it's a good start!
Posted on 11/25/2002 3:22:05 PM PST by MadIvan
The Roman Catholic Church is backward, superstitious, morally conservative and bigoted. Yet it needs defending in the face of a barrage of accusations, on both sides of the Atlantic, of paedophilia among the priesthood. For much of the motivation of these attacks is an assault on commitment and authority per se — a new front opened in the culture wars.
Atheists who believe in reason and progress should be concerned that the Church of Rome is under threat from a regressive culture of cynicism, low expectations and relativism. Why else have the present scandals captured the public imagination? After all, the Catholic clergy, a declining breed, seems an unlikely threat to society. Since the 1960s the traditionally powerful parish priest has become an ageing, demoralised figure of pathos.
Nor does the extent of the abuse explain the column inches devoted to it. A sober assessment of the figures shows that the monster in a dog collar is rare: there is no evidence that Catholic clergy offend at a higher rate than other clergy or non-clergy who deal with children. So why has the priesthood become society’s whipping boy?
One of its crimes seems to be the vow of celibacy, popularly regarded as the root of child abuse. A poll by Newsweek this year found that most Americans think the celibacy rule should be scrapped. Society is cynical about people of faith who voluntarily sacrifice sexual relationships and dedicate themselves to God. How do we explain orders of chaste nuns and brothers dedicated to good works unless as a cover for perverts in cassocks?
Celibacy’s critics assume that an individual’s sexual proclivity is the dominant motivation in his life.Therefore chastity and celibacy are regarded as an undesirable — indeed unbelievable — repudiation of sexuality impossible for any individual to maintain. Not only does this reflect the rise of a determinist notion of sexuality, it is also a denial of any notion of self-sacrifice to a higher cause. In today’s highly sexualised society, with its demand for self-fulfilment and immediate gratification, we are suspicious of anyone who professes to give up their personal life for the greater good.
This prejudice has a significance beyond the Catholic Church: it implies that it is impossible for the individual to subordinate his desires to the achievement of a higher goal. Yet an element of self-sacrifice is the condition for any individual or social advance. In an era where the feeble view of human beings as capable only of the lowest level of commitment is common, and where ideas of public service and vocation in the professions are in crisis, we should be wary of the attack on celibacy.
Another common explanation for paedophile priests is that their authority as leaders in the community, and the power of the Church, provide criminal opportunity and protection. Unquestioned authority irks contemporary mores. Over recent years we have seen assaults on a range of authority figures, from doctors to dons, scientists to politicians, who have been told their presumption of knowledge was nothing less than arrogant bullying. Frequently commentators slip from tales of sexual abuse into condemnations of Jesuit-style discipline in schools, or of nuns and priests who dared to suggest that they knew the difference between right and wrong. The main crime of Catholic priests seems less their supposed sexual deviancy than their affront to moral relativism and scepticism.
If the priesthood was under assault for peddling myths and pre-Enlightenment irrationality, we might be right to celebrate its tarnishing. But as we pull priests off their pedestals simply because they have commanded positions of authority within a traditional institution, we should reflect on the way that relativism has sapped the morale of so many other authority figures. The real parable worth studying is the cultural consequences of a society that so easily elides authority and abuse, and concludes that dedication leads to deviancy.
The author is Director of The Institute of Ideas
The arrogant,American bishops many of whom lost their faith years ago,if they ever had any,contrived,with the help of the american media, this little fiasco,with the intent of destroying the Church in America. They,with their armies of canon lawyers,chancery staff and USCCB bureaucrats certainly knew that the stupid policy they submitted was not workable from any level.
To cite one example,the policy defined abuse as "not necessarily physical or verbal". When you juxtapose that with the fact that "everything' was to be reported to civil authorities,and there was to be zero tolerance of whatever this ill defined everything is,you get an idea of just how ludicrous and audaciously ugly and mean spirited these evil men are.The Vatican did what it had to do and eventually this may be the turning point,known as the critical event that saved Christendom and Westerm Civilization.
Yet one more example of media"itis" - pumped up and proud. Can you imagine the reaction if Newsweek were to run a poll on whether or not Hassidic males should shave their beards? Or, should the Amish abandon their horse drawn buggies in favor of a motorized vehicle?
Attack the catholics ... they won't retaliate.
Of course, none of the former descriptions has a shread of truth to it. The high figure I've heard on Catholic Priests is something like 2% of all priests have been accused of sexual misconduct (and may that 2% spend the rest of their days in a tiny prison cell with a big hairy guys named Ben Donver). But the overwhelming majority of Catholic priests are devout men of faith. So why is it ok or funny for Jay Leno to make that accusation once a week?
I believe they're putting 'bones' into that ban right now in Rome!
Reason #487 not to be Roman Catholic.
There appears (anecdotally, at least) to be a huge disparity in the sanctioning of priests who have stumbled with women (either adults or those in their later teens) versus those who screw around with boys. The one's who played with boys got a pass, while those who stumbeled with women got tossed out on their ears.
Possibly because those who are caught are not removed from positions of authority.
Well I'm be darned, someone just made an excellent argument for letting the Vatican develop nuclear weapons.
Drop the Bomb, John Paul II! Drop the BOMB!
But it's a good start!
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