Here's some food for thought:
21st Century In-QUEER-sition
U.S. Roman Catholic Bishops Now Blame The Sex-Abuse Crisis On Homosexual Priests
Richard Blow is a journalist living in New York. His book, American Son: A Portrait of John F. Kennedy, Jr., will be published in May by Henry Holt.
When it comes to sexual abuse, the Catholic Church loves to blame everyone but itself.
First, the molestation was the fault of the victims, who were stigmatized by church officials, such as Boston Cardinal Bernard Law, when they reported incidents of abuse. Then church officials claimed that the molestation was just an ?American problem,? the result of our filth-ridden, hyper-sexual culture. And now, some Catholic bishops and priests are saying that it?s all the gays? fault. Consider the following recent statements made by high-ranking Catholics.
* Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said on April 23rd that some seminaries suffer from a "homosexual atmosphere" that "makes heterosexual young men think twice" about joining the priesthood. Dealing with gays in the priesthood, he added, "is an ongoing struggle. It is most importantly a struggle to make sure that the Catholic priesthood is not dominated by homosexual men [and] that the candidates that we receive are healthy in every way."
* According to the April 24th Washington Post, Cardinal Adam Maida said that "behavioral scientists are telling us... it?s not truly a pedophilia-type problem, but a homosexual-type problem." Consequently, he explained, "We have to look at the homosexual element as it exists, to what extent it is operative in our seminaries and our priesthood...."
* On April 21st, Msgr. Eugene V. Clark announced that "in some seminaries in the United States, known homosexual young men have been accepted as candidates against every rule of church wisdom and church requirements. One need say no more of this as a breeding ground for later homosexual practice after ordination, and the manifest danger of man-boy relationships."
Such statements are so bizarre, they almost defy serious analysis. But they are coded with hidden meaning. So, just for the record -- and because when priests speak, many people listen -- let?s expose them to the cold light of logic.
The un-subtle implication of these men of God is that homosexuality leads to child abuse -- if not invariably, then at least in dramatically higher numbers than acts traceable to heterosexual priests. And indeed, church officials have hopefully suggested that most of the recent allegations involve gay men and boys, though they?ve offered no proof.
But that implication is wrong. There is no clear link between homosexuality and child abuse; the research on the subject suggests that gays are no more likely to abuse children than straights. And all those speakers have to do is read the work of wiser, more thoughtful Catholics to know it.
Writing in the April 22nd issue of the Jesuit magazine America, Catholic scholars Melvin C. Blanchette and Gerald D. Coleman carefully demonstrate that homosexuality and child abuse have no causal connection. They separate child molesters into two categories: pedophiles, who ?possess a primary sexual desire toward children between 1 and 13?; and ephebophiles, who possess ?a primary sexual desire toward children between 14 and 17.?
The sexual desire of such individuals is malformed and undeveloped, Blanchette and Coleman write. ?A regressed pedophile or ephebophile is usually a heterosexual, who under extreme stress regresses to developmentally impaired behavior and engages in sex with children. ?A pedophile or ephebophile is normally not a homosexual.?
But conservatives such as Gregory, Maida, and Clark disagree. Their language is stern and ominous; they speak of the ?homosexual element,? the ?homosexual atmosphere,? the ?struggle? against gay ?domination? of the priesthood. These holy men suggest that nice heterosexual lads are so unnerved by predatory homosexuals, they don?t want to be priests anymore. (In truth, judging from declining numbers of seminary students, very few men, straight or gay, want to be priests anymore.) That argument doesn?t make much sense: No one is suggesting an epidemic of sexual abuse of seminarians. Just children.
The language of these Catholic leaders inadvertently reveals how out-of-touch they are. With their attacks on the sinister pink menace, they sound like Joe McCarthy warning of Reds in the State Department, George Wallace lamenting school integration, Richard Nixon decrying Jews in the media. Perhaps these priests have been preaching to captive audiences for too long. Do they really expect American Catholics, who are often more progressive than their priests, to swallow such fear-mongering?
But maybe calling these church officials ignorant is to give them too much credit. Maybe they?re just floating a trial balloon to see if they?ve found a useful scapegoat. Maybe they?re whipping up prejudice to re-direct the public?s attention from the root causes of the Catholic Church?s sexual abuse scandal.
Because in the end, it isn?t gay or straight priests who are on trial here. It is Catholic dogma, the church doctrine dictating that priests must be male and must be celibate. In trying to shut off the faucet of human sexuality, the Church has created an unhealthy atmosphere, a single-sex House of Usher, in which frustrated men engage in sexual behavior they would not otherwise resort to.
Sexually speaking, the church is akin to a prison, where men who are not gay have sex with other men -- and children -- because they desperately need an outlet for their sexual desires. The solution is to open the priesthood to women and abolish the celibacy requirement. But as the set of proposals American cardinals released on April 25th shows, those eminently sensible proposals aren?t even up for discussion.
Instead, Catholic officials are now talking about heightened ?screening? of applicants to the priesthood, as if gays were terrorists trying to board airplanes. They want to ensure that gays and child molesters -- in church parlance, they?re often the same thing -- don?t slip through some psychological safety net.
One wonders if the Church would have expelled Father Mychal Judge, the beloved New York City fire department chaplain whose body was the first recovered in the World Trade Center attacks -- and who just happened to be gay.
Let?s be honest here: The problem the Catholic Church has isn?t homosexuals becoming priests so that they can have a steady supply of children to molest. It?s that the anti-sexual culture of the Catholic Church turns some ?normal? men into perverts.
No wonder the Catholic hierarchy wants to blame gays. That?s a lot easier than admitting the truth. But a great and important institution can and should do better.
Published: Apr 25 2002
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