Holy Shit! – Semantics with the Holy See.
The Queen has invited the Pope to ‘tea’ – “more tea Pope”? – next year at Buckingham Palace. According to The Catholic Herald, the Queen has “grown increasingly sympathetic” to the Catholic Church over the years while being “appalled”, along with the Prince of Wales, at developments in the Church of England. She might do better to be appalled at the behaviour of the Holy See.
The Holy See is a sovereign state and its senior clergy, safely ensconced in the Vatican out of reach of civil law, and answerable to no earthly power other than themselves – are entitled to a permanent seat at the United Nations.
Last month, in an address to the UN Human Rights Council by Keith Woods, representing the International Humanist and Ethical Union, the Holy See was criticised over its role in covering up the scale of child abuse by its priests and religious orders, and for failing to honour its obligations under international law.
Archbishop Thomasi duly exercised the Papal Nuncio’s right of reply – and what an extraordinary reply it was!
The statement petulantly complained that other religions had problems with sex abuse, too (true, but irrelevant in terms of the Catholic Church’s need to account for its endemic sex abuse), that Protestant churches’ and Jewish communities’ problems were worse than the Catholic Church’s problems (whether true or not, it was also irrelevant), and that ‘only’ 1.5% – 5% of Catholic clergy were involved in child sex abuse
There are about 1,500,000 Catholic clergy worldwide; ‘only’ 1.5% of that is 22,500 sexual predators, and if we take the 5% figure, it is 75,000 sexual predators – scarcely a reassuring rebuttal of the charge of systemic child abuse.
He then went on to engage is some interesting semantics – he said that rather than paedophilia, it would “be more correct” to speak of ephebophilia, a homosexual attraction to adolescent males.
“Of all priests involved in the abuses, 80 to 90% belong to this sexual orientation minority which is sexually engaged with adolescent boys between the ages of 11 and 17.”
If this rhetorical parsing weren’t already pathetic enough in its attempt to redirect blame onto the gay population of the church, it’s not even accurate; Ephebophilia is not the correct term for people who ’sexually engage’ with children ages 11-17. Ephebophilia refers to people who have a sexual preference for advanced adolescents; hebephilia refers to people who have a sexual preference for those in early puberty; and pedophilia refers to people who have a sexual preference for pre-pubescent children. Most 11-year-old are not advanced adolescents, and many, especially boys, are still pre-pubescent.
The Catholic Church has a problem with priests who rape children below the age of consent. That is a fact which is not changed by what name it’s called. Nor are we reassured by the fact that other churches may have in excess of the potential 75,000 child abusers that the Vatican admits to.
Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, head of the New York Board of Rabbis, said: “Comparative tragedy is a dangerous path on which to travel. All of us need to look within our own communities. Child abuse is sinful and shameful and we must expel them immediately from our midst.”
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October 13, 2009 at 12:52 pm -
“… the Holy See was criticised over its role in covering up the scale of child abuse by its priests and religious orders, and for failing to honour its obligations under international law. …”
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Earlier this year Channel 4 broadcast a stunning documentary which examined this in some depth. It was called Deliver Us From Evil but unfortunately it doesn’t appear to be available to view online. Watch it if it comes on again. -
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October 13, 2009 at 12:57 pm -
Whoops! It is available here:
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/deliver-us-from-evil/A certain cardinal who went on to be a certain Pope pops up in the programme in relation to the Church’s investigation of allegations.
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October 13, 2009 at 5:02 pm -
Do priests have to be CRB checked, just wondered if they were exempt!
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October 13, 2009 at 8:49 pm -
A review of the documentary from The Boston Globe when it was first aired in the US back in 2006.
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By Ty Burr
10/13/2006It isn’t often you get to meet the devil in all his glory, but here he is in “Deliver Us From Evil,” and his name is Father Oliver O’Grady.
A California priest who raped dozens of children from the 1970s until his arrest in 1993 — and who now lives in Ireland, a free man — “Father Ollie” was consistently protected by the diocese hierarchy, which moved him from one mid-state parish to another whenever complaints arose. Amy Berg’s scalding documentary wonders who’s the greater sinner: the deeply sick man who couldn’t control his impulses or the churchmen who knowingly allowed his reign of destruction to continue.
Maybe you’re burned out on tales of pedophile priests after the local events of recent years. Fair enough, but Berg convincingly argues that what happened in California — where well over 400 Catholic priests have been accused of sexual abuse — dwarfs what occurred in Boston. The film gives agonized voice to victims and their parents (and their attorneys), to theologians and child-abuse experts, and to the Rev. Thomas Doyle, who in 1985 warned the Vatican about the looming scandal and who has battled uphill on behalf of victims since.
Most shockingly, “Deliver Us From Evil” lets us hear from O’Grady himself. Interviewed by Berg in Ireland, the ex-priest is remorseful, freakishly candid, and eerily disassociated from the immense swath of psychological damage he left in his wake. With a bashful half-grin, he speaks of touching boys and girls where he shouldn’t have, and he almost has us convinced it could have been a momentary aberration until we hear from Ann Jyono and Nancy Sloan, women whose voices shake as they describe the regular, forceful sex acts visited upon them when they were as young as 5 .
At one point, O’Grady sends a letter out to his victims, inviting them to Ireland so he can personally apologize. “It’s going to be an interesting reunion,” he muses, his delusion complete. Responds Adam, one of the abused, “I get so angry to think that guy’s still alive. I would kill his mother.” The meeting never takes place.
The deeper rage, of the victims and the film, is reserved for a Catholic hierarchy headed by Cardinal Roger Mahoney, who knew O’Grady and protected him before Mahoney ascended to the position of archbishop of L A. Mahoney isn’t interviewed in “Deliver” — no one from the diocese would speak to Berg — but his videotaped testimony from recent civil suits offers a damning portrait of an entrenched bureaucracy clinging to power by obfuscation and stonewalling.
Just in case you’re unclear about where his superiors stood on O’Grady: They offered (and he accepted) a lifetime annuity in exchange for not testifying about their treatment of him. “My parents don’t get a pension from the church!” cries Jyono in bewilderment.
“Deliver Us From Evil” strains, however, to make a larger case: that the sexual abuse of children by priests is so deeply ingrained that its roots go back to the fifth century, when celibacy was implemented by the church to get control of priestly assets. Interesting theory, but the evidence here is drive-by.
Grander statements aren’t needed when the specific indictments are so plentiful and so horrifying. There have been recent news reports that the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office is considering charges against Mahoney, based on O’Grady’s comments in this film. “Deliver Us From Evil” wonders if the church could possibly do a better job of destroying faith, in itself as an institution and in religion in general. “There is no God,” mourns Jyono’s father, once a devout Catholic. “All these rules are made by man.”
Ty Burr can be reached at tburr@globe.com.
Watch the trailer: High bandwidth Low bandwidth
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So no, Jill, I don’t think that Catholic Priests are necessarily CRB checked; they are trusted by their flock and all the little members of their flock’s families…..
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October 13, 2009 at 9:12 pm -
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October 13, 2009 at 9:20 pm -
Thank you Anna, but all I did was watch the documentary, tell you about it and finally find where everyone else can watch the documentary. I recommend that everyone who reads this should watch the documentary. The Queen should watch it before she pours out a nice cuppa for ol’ Popey.
NB: I am married to a Catholic.
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October 13, 2009 at 9:44 pm -
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October 13, 2009 at 11:16 pm -
I expect that’s why it’s so quiet here – everyone’s peering into their flat screens for an hour watching a spellbinding documentary…. I make sure it’s a ‘habit’ of mine to see at least one in-depth documentary on a subject before I recommend it…
Either that or The Curse of Smudd struck early today….
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