Madam, - I am a 60-year-old Catholic. I accept and believe in the Church with its hierarchical authority of pope, bishop, priest and religious. I cling to the faith taught me in my youth without compromise, and realise that today I could be classed as a dinosaur even within my own Church. With this qualification I should like to comment on the current scandal of clerical child-abuse that has broken out in America and Ireland and God knows where else.
If anyone thinks that inquiries, disclosures, compensation or apologies shall resolve the real problem for the Church they know nothing. Unless there is a perfectly honest, open debate there can be no hope of a satisfactory resolution, nor can the stain of the scandal be removed from innocent priests and religious so that they can resume their function among us without any suspicion.
Already I see the well-intended but unhelpful apologists trying to exonerate the Hierarchy with little more than pious rhetoric, giving the impression that nice Bishop This or nice Cardinal That can do no harm merely because of the holy position they hold. So too Catholic newspapers, reporting in a manner so as not to offend their paymasters (oh yes, it's the bishops and PPs who decide whose stuff is sold in their Churches) or their faithful readers.
The hard fact is that clerical sex abuse in America for example is, as the Catholic investigative writer Michael Rose claims, "at least 100 times worse" than that portrayed in the saturation media coverage. This indicates a problem far greater than an incidental accumulation of individual perverts infiltrating here and there, and points to a symptom contained within the Church itself these past 40 or 50 years, something that is no longer recognised for what it is, but for what has now become acceptable as normal behaviour by society in general and now by the Church Hierarchy - something that must not be mentioned as having any contribution to the current torrent of child abuse.
What we are talking about is homosexuality, an orientation that among the priesthood proved to be a recipe for disaster. Yes, in despite of the best efforts of a liberal media and the gay lobby to hide the fact behind endless headlines about "paedophile priests", clerical sexual abusers are overwhelmingly homosexual ephebophiles - i.e., molesters of young male adolescents. Only a small percentage are (heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual) paedophiles, i.e., abusers of pre-pubescent children. Thus, ephebophilia, viz. homosexuality is the overriding concern.
Attention should also be given to the recent findings of the renowned US researcher Dr Judith Reisman, which reveal that on average 3 to 4.5 boys are victimised per homosexual male offender as opposed to only one girl victimised per heterosexual male offender. Since obviously only a small percentage of active homosexual males assault boys, Reisman concludes that a vast subset of the "gay" population "commits multiple, repeated child sex offences" (full details at http://rsvpamerica.org).
As is well documented, ongoing disregard of the Church's official prohibition of 1961, which direct that anyone showing homosexual orientation must be excluded from religious vows and ordination, can be proven to be a major contributing factor to the sex abuse scandals. In this regard, only the existence of a sizeable number of liberal bishops, some even homosexual, whether active or chaste, could possibly account for such scandalous episcopal toleration or promotion of homosexuality in just about every Western country in the post-Vatican II era, especially within the seminaries and religious houses under their care.
As is also well documented, Rome is well aware of the situation, and has been for decades, but has proven to be impotent under the present papacy and the new-found concept of collegiality. Thus the outcome of the mini-summit held in Rome on April 23rd to 24th 2002, between the US cardinals and the Holy Father to discuss the crisis can only be viewed with cold-eyed cynicism. Despite the fine words and action plans it is hard to escape the conclusion that nothing but a radical return to traditional practices and standards can save the crisis of a shortage of good priests, holy priests, and save the reputations of all those good priests and holy priests who serve the faithful so well.
Alas, the chances of that happening are zero, unless there be divine intervention, that is. No, as we can all see, not even for the reputation of the Church itself, or for the reputation of the priesthood, will anything change, for that would be an admission that the Vatican II experiment has failed drastically, and has led to the emptying of the churches. Wasn't it the Lord Himself who told us how to judge the situation: "By their fruits you shall know them."
Finally, for those among the flock who are now heartbroken at the revelations and must suffer quietly lest they attract attention or ridicule: keep the faith, and be comforted that God has given you the grace to discern between us sinners and the faith, for the former does not tarnish the latter. - Yours, etc.,
J.R. O'HANLON, Braemor Road, Dublin 14.