Rooting Predators From the Church

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.  This week’s item is from FoxNews.com, April 23, 2002 with a headline: “Pope: Church has no place for predators,” dateline: Vatican City.The Pope spoke out about the Catholic Church sex scandal Tuesday and told American Cardinals that the abuse is a crime and there is no place in the Church for pedophiles.“The abuse which has caused this crisis is by every standard wrong and rightly considered a crime by society.It is also an appalling sin in the eyes of God,” Pope John Paul II said at the start of the two day meeting.“People need to know that there is no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young.”Twelve cardinals and two bishops from the United States met with Vatican officials in Rome to find ways to stem the scandal that has shaken the confidence of the faithful, led to the resignation of one bishop, and cost the church millions of dollars in legal settlements.Church officials have been accused of covering up misconduct by priests, in some cases by moving known abusers from job to job. The Pope’s remarks appear to indicate that the church would put up no impediments to cooperation with authorities investigating crimes.Cardinal Roger Mahoney of Los Angeles said the Americans would meet Tuesday night and work out a list of formal proposals for the U. S. church that should lead to a specific communiqué at the end of the meeting.“One cardinal has proposed creating a nation-wide panel of prominent Catholic laymen and women to make sure we have the best possible standards,” Mahoney said.Mahoney said, “The Pope made the strongest language I’ve seen about what we call at home zero tolerance for abusive priests.The Pope made it very clear that there is no place in the priesthood for anyone who abuses minors,” he said.But Chicago’s Archbishop George said the issues wasn’t entirely clear because the Pope spoke of the possibility of Christian conversion, that radical decision to turn away from sin and back to God.Detroit Cardinal Adam Maida said that while in the past sexual abuse was seen as a sin; today we view it as a crime.He said reports of abuse in his archdiocese were taken to civil authorities for investigation.That’s the way to handle it he said.We need to root out the priests or other people who would take advantage of our young people he said.Another issue on the table is whether homosexuals should be excluded from the priesthood as suggested recently by the Pope’s spokesman Joachim Navarro-Valls.Bishop Wilton Gregory, the head of the U. S. Conference of Bishops who participated in the meeting said it is an ongoing struggle to make sure that the Catholic priesthood is not dominated by homosexual men.The church officially does not forbid homosexually oriented priests but it requires that all priests maintain celibacy.Maida referring to the sex scandal said, “I think what the behavioral scientists are telling us, the sociologists, it’s not truly a pedophilia-type problem, but a homosexual problem.

Tom:

Dave, this is a stunning report, but we’ve sort of been stunned by exposure of this scandal for quite awhile.But you addressed it in A Woman Rides the Beast and that was how many years ago?

Dave:

Tom, I have thick files about this, so a number of questions: Why didn’t the Pope say this before?This has been going on not for a few years, but since the beginning.In A Woman Rides the Beast for example, I name celibate popes who were the sons of celibate popes.It’s not just pedophilia.But you had a group of I think ½ dozen women from France a few years ago, asking for an audience with the Pope.They said we represent thousands of women who have children by priests and we can’t tell our children the names of their fathers.Please get rid of this celibacy thing.It doesn’t work, it’s not practiced, it’s a delusion.The Pope is insisting on celibacy.This is the problem because you’re forcing people—they want to be a priest.Now to be a priest, they have to then swear to a lifestyle that is not normal.It is not natural and it is not biblical.The Bible didn’t ask this.Peter, the man they say was the first Pope, had a wife.Paul talks about that.Then they talk about homosexuals.This is an incredible statement: The church officially does not forbid homosexually oriented priests, but it requires that all priests maintain celibacy.Then it says we have a tough time to be sure that the Catholic priesthood is not dominated by homosexual men.Wait a minute!Some seminaries, they acknowledge—not my accusation, they acknowledge 70% homosexuality.By the way that refutes the idea that homosexual behavior is normal.That it’s in your genes.Oh, they all end up in the same seminary?No, this is a sin.It’s against the Word of God, but there is a temptation to this.If you can’t have normal relations with a woman and you’re in a seminary with all men, come on, this is the problem.And they’ve been covering this up for years.The problem is not with these priests, but this has been condoned.They’ve moved them from parish to parish.Finally people have had enough.We live in an age when they sue, they speak out.Tom it is a worse scandal than the church is willing to acknowledge.The cause is celibacy enforced.

Tom:

Dave, also they seem to be identifying the United States as the main culprit here.

Dave:

The United States is where people sue.

Tom:

Yes, well Canada, big time.They are coming out.Certainly throughout Europe once ball gets rolling, as it were, we are going to see it all over.Because it is the same church.It’s the same problem as you said—celibacy.Dave, this statement as you said, there were a lot of startling things in here.Bishop Maida referring to the sex scandal said I think that the behavioral scientists are telling us sociologists it is not truly a pedophilia type problem, but a homosexual problem.That’s a bit startling for the church to admit that when they’ve been ordaining—recognizing that these men are homosexuals, yet ordaining them.

Dave:

Tom, I lose patience.This has been going on for centuries.Now suddenly the Pope is going to put his foot down?Why?

Tom:

Such strong language.

Dave:

He would only have done this—Tom he has been forced to do this by the publicity.Otherwise the church has been covering this up and they have been condoning it for centuries.In fact, as you know, the church has said homosexuality was not a sin; was not a crime.And they’ve known that it’s been practiced among the priests.Also a lot of priests are having sex with women and so forth.Tom, it’s been going on forever.This is hypocrisy to the inth degree in my opinion.But the Pope is going to somehow, he’s going to—

Tom:

Restore the credibility of the Church.

Dave:

Right.