On CNN today twitter-themed anchor Rick Sanchez had Catholic League chief Bill Donahue, a frequent guest on CNN, appear to defend the church in light of questions of hiding the pedophilia scandal coursing through the institution. Through his clearly agitated ramblings, Donahue tried to make the points that because A) most of those molested were post-pubescent and B) most of those molested were boys; The problem was, in fact, not an issue of pedophilia, but an issue of homosexuality. Not all homosexuals are pedophiles, Donahue said, but most pedophiles in the church are homosexuals.
This is where I'm going to cut off his armchair psychology and pick apart all the things that are wrong with this and what he seeks to hide.
As can be seen in the documentary Deliver Us From Evil, a fantastic and unsettling first hand account of what it's like to be a pedophile priest, pedophilia is not necessarily gender specific. That is to say, there are pedophiles out there, like Father O'Grady, who don't seek victims of a specific gender. It's a psychological disorder, not a sexuality and the sooner people realize that, the sooner people are going to stop falling for this despicable stereotype of gay molester. In fact, it's not even true that most pedophiles go after young boys. It's been demonstrated that most pedophiles seek female victims. If it's Donahue's claim that most pedophile priests take male victims, he's got to qualify that with the fact that he's only referring to reported cases. (And even that isn't backed up by any facts or numbers). But to assume that because most reported cases involve a male victim that most cases involve a male victim is like assuming that because most cases were reported after a certain year, most cases happened after that year. Now, years later, we're seeing people come out everyday and say, 'yes it was the 60's, the 50's, the 40's and I was raped by father so-and-so then.'
OK, so the misinformation put forth by this Bill Donahue character is just off the charts and seeks to put your mind in so many places that distract you from the real lesson of this scandal. That priests are not trustworthy people.
The church depends on a community that trusts it so it does everything in it's power to gain and maintain that trust. Priests, religious leaders, are often mentioned among the roll call of adults that children should be able to go to for safety, along with police officers, friends' parents, and teachers. And even these people are to be trusted with a certain dose of suspicion. Priests shouldn't be immune from the same suspicion that children are taught to apply to a friend's parent or even their own step-parents.
But the Catholic church won't ever say that. They won't ever admit that a priest is not a person qualified to babysit, to educate or to unquestioningly trust. To do so would be the most damning possible scenario for the church. They depend on family devotion. That's why sacraments are centered around family activities, stages of life, rites of passage. The church only succeeds when families allow it to be integrated into their lives So they put the focus back on an old enemy: TEH GAYZ! They're not the traditional family. It's followers for the most part don't understand them. It makes it look like an insidious evil has snuck into their precious church. Perhaps queer 'ol Satan himself. They're playing to the base. It's the Bush/Rove strategy, if you rile up those who already support you, they'll make a stronger effort to support you.
Don't ever forget it. The lesson from the pedophilia scandal in the Catholic Church is that these are not trustworthy people, they are not qualified and parents would be fools to leave their children in the care of these people. And that's what they're really hiding.
