A Letter To The Editor: LAITY, DROP YOUR STONES

National Catholic Register ^ | June 23-29,2002 | John Ryan

[Lady In Blue]

Laity,Drop Your Stones

It has been extremely difficult and painful to confront the reality of the Church's abuse scandals.However, as with any scandal, now that it out in the open there is a real opportunity for healing to occur.

As a layperson, my greatest concern at this point is how the laity has been addressing this issue. Those who have been most vocal seem to put all the responsibility on priests and bishops. How self-righteous we are. Perhaps it's time address the plank in our own eye.After all we, the laity, have our scandals to address.

Though many of the lay groups that are forming to address this issue call theselves "faithful," the majority of the laity over the past several decades have been anything but.Indeed, I would suggest that a good place to start addressing our own scandals would our widespread unfaithfulness to the Church's teachings. And our collective disobedience has been most prominent in - of all areas - sexual morality!

Does anyone really believe it's just a coincidence that after 30 to 40 years of thumbing our collective nose at the teaching authority of the Church in this regard, we find the Church mired in a sex scandal? Where in the world do we think these priests and bishops came from,anyway?The Church didn't raise them.We did.They came out of our families. I believe that it's well past time that we put down our rocks,get on our knees and undertake our own purification in this regard.

The time has long since passed for the laity to put aside the cafeteria-Catholicism of the past several decades and truly partake of the banquet the Church has to offer.If we do, this can truly become the "springtime of hope" the Pope envisions.The only question is: Do we have the maturity,the integrity - and the faith - to face this scandal at its core? For our sake and that of our children and of the world, I pray that we do.

John Ryan

Ballwin, Missouri

[yendu bwam]

If we all do our parts, Parents(as the first teachers of the faith),bishops and priests,we can turn our Church around with the Lord's help.

I really object to this statement. My wife and I work very hard to inculcate our children (2 sons, 1 daughter) with authentic Catholic teaching on sexual morality. But we are ALONE. It's not taught in our CCD classes (despite having a 'conservative' pastor). It's NEVER, NEVER mentioned in homilies. There are no teen workshops on it in our parish. Our kids are being bombarded by sexually immoral ideas on TV and in our schools, including a full embrace of premarital sex and homosexual activity and NOT A PEEP from our Church (or any Catholic Church in our area). This should be a central focus of our Church leaders, if they truly cared about our kids. Then, because of our Church, we ARE FORCED TO EXPLAIN TO OUR KIDS THE NATURE OF THINGS LIKE ANAL RAPE, MALE/MALE FONDLING, ORAL SODOMY. Why? Because our kids have asked for details of what's been happening in the Church. Further, the schools are flooded with priest jokes. So, in sum, our Church just TOTALLY IGNORES traditional sexual morality, and forces us to explain total sexual perversion to our children. WE ARE DOING OUR PART - BUT WE ARE TOTALLY ALONE IN OUR CHURCH. AND OUR CHURCH IS BECOMING OUR ENEMY IN THIS REGARD.

[yendu bwam]

But the problem didn't originate in the heart of Catholic families. Though many Catholic families are now largely corrupted by the almost unconscious acceptance of dissent, this is the result of the moral crimes of a previous generations of theological leaders, not the cause.

Exactly. Well-stated. Thank you.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

There is probably some basis for the idea that to the extent that some Catholic lay persons have abandoned traditional sexual morality that this has furthered an environment and atmosphere of rebellion with some residual
impact and influence on some clergy. What's going on essentially is the cultural and ideological misinterpretation of the meaning of sexuality. That may be part of the rationale which gives aid and comfort to activist homosexuals. But homosexuality and obsessive-compulsive homosexual ephebophilia are not caused merely by ideology and cultural attitudes. There is a psychiatric dimension to these disorders which is undeniable. What actually causes someone like Paul Shanley to experience obsessive and impulsive desires to have sex with young boys can in no way be blamed on normal Catholic lay people. That's a new one in passing the buck.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

"What can be said in defense of the clerics who wreaked such havoc? They didn't know better? Their formation was poor?"

There may be a slight distortion in the media coverage of this as "Catholic" priests molesting children rather than as "homosexuals" infiltrating the Church. The question which needs to be asked is why homosexuals (who happen to be Catholics) consider the Church an appropriate and desirable place to stage their perversion. This is almost in the order of unusual fetishes in sexual perversion. In terms of the relevant psychological disorder what seems to be going on is a linkage of two things which usually don't go together - Catholic religiosity and sexual perversion. This is a psychiatric problem which needs further study and clarification. It has been suggested that they are working out "anger" through this misbehavior. At some level, there is an "in-your-face" hostility being directed at the Church, its teachings, and normal heterosexuals. I mean, not everybody who dissents from Humanae Vitae molests teenagers of the same gender. These are highly unusual and disturbed people involved in these scandals.

[yendu bwam]

I agree with you.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

There's no doubt that there are many levels to this scandal. But you have to have mentally disturbed homosexual ephebophiles posing as priests to begin with. Where they come from and how they got that way is still a hot debate in psychiatry and psychology.

The atmopshere of dissent and liberalism which came into fashion after Vatican II at about the same time as the sexual revolution in secular American counter-culture obviously created the impression that it was suddenly OK to act out this stuff. So far the media has placed emphasis on the "Catholic" institutional side of the scandals while downplaying the "homosexual" and counter-cultural dimensions of the phenomenon. Sorting through this maze can get a little mind-boggling and confusing. When someone says "Catholics molesting" rather than "homosexuals" (posing as priests) molesting, the impression created is quite different. As Ann Coulter pointed out a while back it ends up sounding like Catholicism causes sodomy. Utter nonsense. This is overwhelmingly a scandal of homosexual subculture NOT Catholicism. We're just not reading about the non-Catholic homosexual ephebophiles (as if none exist).

[narses]

There is merit in what you say, but I see a super-natural problem as well as the natural problem you posit. The Church ash always been assaulted by Satan, he even tried to tempt and subvert Our Lord. It appears that Satan has taken a beachhead in the Church and is running amok. The failure to properly provide the Sacraments (the new Mass translated -perhaps deliberately with errors- calling into question the validity of the Sacrament, confession abandoned in many places, marraige seen as disposable, Baptism performed casually and even incorrectly) -- these things are a turning away from God by His own people. Just as the Israelites did with the Golden Calf, many are choosing to worship the world and its pleasures rather than God. Is there a price to pay? You betcha. Is there a cure, you betcha. Return to God. Sadly I didn't see many in Dallas express themselves towards that.

[narses]

Shoot your TV, home school your children if the local Parish doesn't offer decent education, help your children choose among the faithful for their friends and acquaintances. (Free, unsolicited advice from a parent who has done these things.) :)

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

All sin takes place within the supernatural drama.
But that doesn't preclude psychiatric and developmental dimensions to "psychic disorders" (recognized by the Church). As expressions of original sin and fallen nature, they are also manifestations of human vulnerability to evil. It just doesn't make much sense though for someone to suggest that mere ideological "dissent" from Church teachings is an exhaustive or causal explanation of the homosexual epidemic in the current headlines. The ultimate explanation, of course, would be incomplete without reference to the "mystery of iniquity." Sex abuse is certainly demonic.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

And the behavior of homosexual pedophiles and ephebophiles has to be understood from both perspectives - psychiatric and moral-theological.

That they are experiencing frequent, obsessive, psychologically abnormal compulsions to engage in bizarre sexual behavior seems to involve involuntary mechanisms similar to a drug addict but not entirely understood. But it's the organizational structure and networking of such abnormal individuals into an activist homosexual subculture which is the primary source of the current problems in the Church. That's the cultural and ideological dimension. Weird social phenomenon. Deviant subcultures.

[yendu bwam]

So where am I? I feel betrayed right now, and don't know how to look at any priest anymore and not wonder if he is worthy to stand at the altar of God.

Hey Sandyeggoo! WE have been betrayed by the Church. But still, there are many good and wonderful and faithful people and priests in it. We have put into practice this plan: 1) we have searched for a parish with solid and faithful leadership (and on questions of sexual morality and other matters, I interviewed the priests before we joined); 2) we review matters of faith every night at the beginning of dinner - sometimes we read from the New Testament, sometimes we discuss tough issues in society like abortion; 3) we try to be good moral examples to our children every day; 4) we attend Church regularly and make it part of our kids' lives; 5) we go to the bookstore and find authentic Catholic books for our children, and make sure they read them. Then we discuss them with them. As an example, there's a book - Do Adam and Eve Have Belly Buttons - that answers teenagers' questions on every subject (from heaven to dating to homosexuality to corrupt priests, to the history of the Catholic Church, etc.) And 6) we surround ourselves with friends who also head devout Catholic families. But it's tough sometimes. Good luck. May God be with you.

[redhead]

"But it's the organizational structure and networking of such abnormal individuals into an activist homosexual subculture which is the primary source of the current problems in the Church. That's the cultural and ideological dimension. Weird social phenomenon. Deviant subcultures."

BINGO!! I am not a sociologist or a psychiatrist, but I know deviant behavior when I see it. The queer activists have promised for years that they could undermine the Catholic Church and make it "theirs" with little or no trouble. (What did they know, and when did they know it?)

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Speaking of the organizational structure and networking of the abnormal:

Activist Gay and Lesbian Ministry http://www.stbernadette.org/gay-lesb.htm

National Directory of "Gay Friendly Parishes" http://www.stbernadette.org/frparish.htm

[Starwind]

I have to ask Do Adam and Eve Have Belly Buttons?

So, do they?

[yendu bwam]

I dunno. But it sure is an interesting question! (The book didn't answer it either - the only unanswered question from a teenager.)

[Havoc]

"The congregation made me do it"?