Aarrgghh!!

The Church Does it Again

I'm a Catholic living in Philadelphia. I can't help but have an opinion on the new revelations of Church involvement with sex scandals. Let's get the disclaimers out of the way. I have never been abused. I have met one abusive priest. (Long before the allegations came to light.) I know many more priests who are or were decent, true, and noble men. I am going to explore the reasons behind the coverup in this post. While I am seeking an understanding of the cover-up, I'm not looking for anything to condone it, because I don't. I just want to understand why the cover up happened in so many places. Finally, let me make it clear, I may discuss the nature of pederasty as a sin, how it fits into the Catholic understanding of sin, but there are two things that are not question for me, that pederasty is indeed a sin, and further that except under certain impossible to fathom-by-me hypothetical situations, it is a mortal sin.

I don't fully understand the cover ups, I've never been satisfied with the "to cover their own asses" explanation, because priests and church leaders who were otherwise very decent also participated in the cover-up. Many priests did take it to their superiors, but then kept silent out of obedience. Oh - I'm sure that many of them were covering their own asses, or trying to protect the reputation of the Church, but I would like to put forth two other factors.

1. Privacy. This is, of course, what they always say - they need to protect the victim's privacy, and it does sound like bullshit. However, in one of the parishes I've spent time in, there was a priest who was exposed as a pederast. The victim was describe as "the child of a family that was friendly with the priest." If you had a passing knowledge of the family, you knew who the victim was. If you vaguely remembered the priest, you knew who the victim was. I think the public dismisses this part of the explanation a little too easily.

2. The Catholic conception of sin. According to my 12 years of Catholic school, we are all sinners. So the church can't defrock every sinning priest there would be none left. Additionally, you don't go broadcasting the sins of every sinners. You just don't do that. If they make an act of contrition, then the matter is settled. More serious sins might require more strenuous acts of contrition, but you don't have to advertise them.

I wonder if these two things helped make it easier for those in power to manipulate the decent lower-level whistle-blowing priests into keeping their mouths shut. I don't know, I hope so. I hope it was something as insidious as some corrupted men twisting other men's principals to their own ends.

Now, I can't speak to 1, but there is an obvious flaw in 2. The assumption that pederasty is just another sin it isn't in the sense that it isn't something that all of us are tempted to do. Anybody can be tempted to steal something, anyone can be tempted to lie. However for the non-pedophile it doesn't matter how many vulnerable children are around, there is no temptation. Additionally, since pedophilia is a compulsion, it is also extremely likely that pedophiles will seek out their temptations again. So the normal model for sin doesn't really work, because pedophiles are singularly and overly susceptible to such a catastrophic sin. A couple of Hail Mary's aren't going to fix it.

So a lot of this is rambling. But I just wanted to say something about this.

I still believe in the Church. I still believe it can be a force for good. I still believe truly good men who are priests that I know.

Finally I believe that there are mitered heads that need to roll.

September 24, 2005 Posted by Terrence Ryan at 2:57 AM

Philly, Religion,

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» Forgive and forget? from Life Like Weeds

This post started as a comment on Terrence’s post concerning the Philadelphia Catholic Church. His post brings up some ideas I have been knocking around my head over the past few days. It’s tough to get beyond gut reactions on pedophilia...
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Tracked on September 24, 2005 6:48 AM

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