Counter-Currents
1,788 words
The Catholic Church continues to be embroiled in its sex abuse scandal nearly 20 years after it was first revealed.
Last summer reignited the scandal when it was reported that the powerful former Washington archbishop Theodore McCarrick was a serial predator, preying on both minors and seminarians. McCarrick, ironically, led the American Church’s investigation into sex abuse in the 2000s.
The McCarrick revelations resulted in a new round of accusations and allegations. State officials across the world released horrifying details about sexual abuse in several dioceses. A Pennsylvania grand jury report found over 300 priests in the state had sexually abused children. The report covered seven decades and six of the state’s eight dioceses. It concluded the church hierarchy had protected the vast majority of abusers, who are estimated to have abused thousands of children.
The German Catholic Church’s report in September found over 1,600 German clerics sexually abused children from 1946 to 2014. The estimated number of victims is 3,677. At least 60 percent of the abusers escaped punishment. It was revealed the same month that the majority of Dutch Catholic bishops covered up child sex abuse between 1945 and 2010.
McCarrick’s antics prompted coverage of the widespread sexual predation in seminaries. Dioceses across America ordered investigations into seminaries after it was reported multiple senior clerics preyed on young seminarians. Nearly 50 Honduran seminarians alleged homosexual abuse is rife at the nation’s primary seminary and is covered up by papal confidant Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga.
Other black marks for the church include the trial and conviction of Australian prelate Cardinal George Pell of child molestation, and rape charges for a prominent Indian bishop. Maryland and New York have opened their own investigations into clerical sex abuse in their own states following Pennsylvania’s stunning report.
These are the worst headlines for the Church in over a decade. The hierarchy, in its own particular manner, has responded. McCarrick was defrocked, and a few other bishops were replaced. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops held a summit on the abuse, and so has the international church. But no solid solution has emerged outside of another commitment to “zero tolerance.”
The scandal prompted Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI to break his silence earlier this month. He believes the Sexual Revolution is to blame for rampant clerical pedophilia.
“Among the freedoms that the Revolution of 1968 sought to fight for was this all-out sexual freedom, one which no longer conceded any norms,” Benedict wrote in a papally-approved letter. “The mental collapse was also linked to a propensity for violence. That is why sex films were no longer allowed on airplanes because violence would break out among the small community of passengers. And since the clothing of that time equally provoked aggression, school principals also made attempts at introducing school uniforms with a view to facilitating a climate of learning.”
He added, “Part of the physiognomy of the Revolution of ‘68 was that pedophilia was then also diagnosed as allowed and appropriate.”
Benedict diagnosed the Church’s decline and decline in morals as a result of the changes wrought by Vatican II–an event he shaped as a young theologian. No longer was moral teaching based on Church tradition and authority. Instead, a “biblical morality” was sought out, leading the Church down a dark path. According to the former pope, no longer would absolute good prevail, “only relative value judgments” would be elevated. He also lamented how the authority of the church was doubted, “forc[ing] her to remain silent precisely where the boundary between truth and lies is at stake.”
Ultimately, the moral rot in the Church and society are a result of the abandonment of God: “Western society is a society in which God is absent in the public sphere and has nothing left to offer it. And that is why it is a society in which the measure of humanity is increasingly lost. At individual points it becomes suddenly apparent that what is evil and destroys man has become a matter of course.” Benedict believes the only way to fight back against sex abuse and moral degradation is to revive the Church and the West’s belief in God.
The retired pope was savaged in the press for his remarks. The journo consensus was that the letter was the work of a bitter old man who’s slowly losing his mind. How could anyone blame the 1960s for the church abuse crisis?
However, the journos have a point. Benedict was a powerful cardinal during the height of the crisis and oversaw the problem as a pope. The reason why there’s so much outrage at the Church is not just because so many priests raped children. It’s because the Church protected these pedophiles and covered up the abuse.
This isn’t a new issue for the Church.
St. Peter Damian complained about the sexual degeneracy of priests nearly a thousand years ago. The pre-Reformation Church was notorious for its sexual immorality. The powerful Piarist order was embroiled in a pedophilia scandal in the 17th century. The Third Reich prosecuted dozens of priests for sexual deviance in what observers saw as anti-Catholic persecution. Knowing the current abuse scandal, it’s likely some of those “persecuted” priests were actual pedophiles. All of these events happened long before the Sexual Revolution.
While Benedict points the finger at liberal bishops for this scandal, conservative prelates share much of the blame for it. The face of sex abuse cover-up in America is the late Bernard Law, a conservative cardinal who served as Archbishop of Boston. Law protected dozens of priests from punishment all while championing conservative theology and helping to write the Vatican’s 1992 catechism. He was close with John Paul II and the future pope Cardinal Josef Ratzinger. While Law lost his archbishopric following the cover-up revelations in 2002, he was gifted with a plum job in the Vatican.
Legion of Christ founder Marcial Maciel was one of the worst predators in the Church, raping dozens of young men and girls throughout his clerical career. Maciel was also a staunch conservative who upheld church dogma and fought against liberal interpretations. Under his leadership, the Legion was one of the most powerful groups in the Church and raked in millions for the Vatican. Maciel’s power kept his predation from being punished.
Cardinal Pell, the recently convicted Australian prelate, is another conservative who was involved in the church abuse scandal. Not only was he convicted for abuse, but he also protected clerical abusers.
Pope John Paul II, a conservative icon, served as pontiff during the time most of the abuse occurred and was covered up. He did not overlook pedophilia because of his liberal theology.
The new church sex abuse scandal has been a lightning rod for conservative Catholics. They have pointed to the crisis as justification for radical reform and a return to tradition. Vatican II is the culprit for this degradation and medieval penalties must be imposed on abusers and their enablers. They have also cheered on the state investigations into dioceses and have fantasized about dawn raids on corrupt bishops.
Yet, these very same conservatives defended Pell and insisted he was the victim of anti-Catholic persecution. State power is only good when it’s used against liberal bishops, according to conservative Catholics.
A more tangible culprit for the abuse is the “gay mafia” that allegedly controls the Church. Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who once served as the papal nuncio to the U.S., alleged such a conspiracy in a letter last August. Vigano accused Pope Francis of protecting Cardinal McCarrick and other abuse enablers. He also claimed an influential cabal is trying to alter the Church’s position on homosexuality. Vigano’s solution was for Francis to resign.
Francis is still pope, however.
Conservative Catholics have wanted the Vatican to purge all gays from the priesthood, an impossible task. It’s estimated that at least a third of all American priests are gay and make up half of some religious orders. The Church already has a priest shortage, and it’s not like millions of straight men want to trade sex and marriage for the cassock. Also, some of conservatives’ favorite bishops and cardinals may be gay as well. Finally, purging homosexuals does nothing to stop heterosexual rapists and predators, who also exist.
The sex abuse crisis is the most obvious sign of the Catholic Church’s decline. It has led to a weakened faith, particularly in Ireland, once considered the most Catholic country in Europe. In 40 years, weekly Irish church attendance has plunged from 80 percent to 35 percent.
The present problem is that the Church enabled the abuse for many years and we now have a news media that will make us all aware of the crimes. Past abuses didn’t lead to a decline in church membership and faith. Now it does.
Here are important things to keep in mind in seeing the abuse scandal:
- The celibacy demand for priests is what makes so many of them sexual deviants. Very few straight men, no matter how devout, will give up a family to hang around fellow celibates for the rest of their lives. It’s also a profession that prizes feminine virtues over masculine ones. It’s no surprise pedophiles would be a disproportionate number of priests. The self-denial and other requirements of the priesthood results in strange men. A real solution would be for Catholics to follow the Orthodox in allowing priests to marry. Yes, there would still be some abuse, but there would be far less and it would likely break up the lavender mafia. But there’s hardly any chance this may happen in the near future.
- The state investigations into the Church is bad for Catholics and won’t lead to reform. Most of the state attorneys generals are Jewish and are motivated by the desire to destroy the Church. They hate it because it upholds conservative values. These sex abuse investigations allow them to humiliate these reactionaries and encourage more people to stop attending church. It is right to expose the abuse and hold enablers accountable. But trads are idiots for thinking these investigations help their cause.
- Vatican II is not responsible for the scandal. Trads and conservative Catholics blame everything on the ecumenical council. Church support for mass immigration? Vatican II. Decline in church attendance? Vatican II. Pedophile priests? Vatican II. Outside of a degraded liturgy and more dialogue with other religions, Vatican II is not responsible for all of the church’s woes. Reversing the ecumenical council would do little about the sex abuse. Pedophile priests have been with the Church for centuries. One council did not create them out of thin air.
The sex abuse scandal won’t destroy the church, but it does hasten its decline as a powerful western institution. It will continue to exist but exert less influence and be at greater mercy of secular forces.
12 comments
Ending clerical celibacy, though necessary to stem the entryism of degenerates into the clergy, will not of itself avert the decline of the Catholic Church.
Anglican Priests (who are regarded by the Latins as merely laypersons) are permitted to marry, but that has not prevented the rise of a large and vocal faction of homosexuals, lesbians and gender-fluid persons, the constantly escalating demands of whom now dominate every Synod.
Congregations are repelled by the minutiae of these debates: it seems clear to them that an active gay lifestyle, let alone the others, is not compatible with the traditional teachings of the Christianity concerning priesthood.
Of course in the present epoch the rules must be dictated by the Oppressed, and in their own favour, certainly not by Tradition. Now that the current Pope has genuflected to leftist ideology in his public statements on immigration, nationalism and Islam we cannot expect him to take any substantive action to put his own House in order.
Perverts are far more prevalent in the Anglican Church. The base of the ‘Sisters of Perpeual Indulgence’, all men, is in the Anglican or (for Americans, Episcopalian) Church.
Well said.
However, the Catholic doctrine is to regard those ordained through apostolic succession as ‘irregular priests’. So, most sacraments are valid.
I don’t think it applies to the muff-munching female ‘priests’ of the Anglican/Episcopalian churches of now.
The Christian churches foster a belief in the essential equality of all hominids and therefore represent an obstacle to civilizational advancement.
That’s an atheistic and anti-liberal view. The Church only stresses the potential “salvific equality” (spiritual equality in Christ) of all persons. Says nothing about equality of ability, rights, wealth, etc.
Christianity is not “Marxism + God” (in distinction to 21st century liberalism, which is “Marxism – God”) .
It would be a good suggestion, worthy of consideration, save for the fact that it contradicts Jesus, e.g., “[f]or there are eunuchs, who were born so from their mother’s womb: and there are eunuchs, who were made so by men: and there are eunuchs, who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. He that can take, let him take it.” (Mt. xix 12). It’s unclear to me how a suggestion which entails the Church is merely a man-made insitution, subject to change, is going to be helpful.
One does not fix the Church by compromising on Dogma. We can certainly see how well that has worked with the “opening ourselves up to the world” foisted on us by Vatican II. See also: “[a]nd when they came to the floor of Nachon, Oza put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it: because the oxen kicked and made it lean aside. And the indignation of the Lord was enkindled against Oza, and he struck him for his rashness: and he died there before the ark of God. (2 Sam. vi. 6-8). Do not sin, even if it seems good will come of it. Why? Because it never does.
I intended to make these points earlier but posted too soon.
(1) It seems to me that many men (me included) may be tempted to use power and influence to obtain (i) material goods; and, (ii) women. Here, I think we find a compelling secular reason for priestly celibacy. Specifically, a priest or spiritual leader should have considerable influence on the community. How to guard against abuse of that influence? Disallow those spiritual leaders from pursuing those worldly ends. C.f. various protestant pastors with private jets or who enjoy the highest salary in the congregation. The more direct benefit is that only those who absolutely put God above all else will pursue the priesthood, at least in a healthy system. While Catholic priests do not take vows of poverty, per se, their salaries are modest. Unfortunately, the spirit of this is greatly abused by many within the ranks of the Church to a degree that would put the aforementioned protestants to shame.
(2) Lest I be accused of arguing in circles, (1) above would not be a good trade-off if it entailed clergy sex abuse. Two things should be noted. First, I’ve not been able to find a dispositive answer, but it seems that percentage-wise Catholic priests abuse in equal proportions relative to other professions. That is of course not the standard, as any abuse is wrong. But, it does make an interesting point when one considers that (((those))) in the media harp on the “Catholic sex abuse scandal” and not the plumbers association, or the Christian Zionists, or whatever, when proportions are similar. The adversary knows where the truth resides; a point analogous to the lack of reports of graham crackers being stolen from Seven Day Adventists by Satanists, who evidently only judge one Church’s hosts worth stealing for their rituals. Second, as another poster indicated, much of the abuse is homosexual, as it involves post-pubescent males, not pedophilia. To be clear, those young men were victims and were grievously wronged. This just shows why those with homosexual tendencies should be treated humanely but should not be priests; and, why girls should not be servers, lest the same issues arise for heterosexual priests. See Generally Mike Rose, Goodbye Good Men.
This article is a good summary of the sex abuse problem in the Church but I agree with other commenters that ending priestly celibacy will not solve the problem. Most of the abuse has been homosexual in nature (primarily teenage boys) so this “solution” misses the mark.
Also – while no one can deny that there is a huge problem with perverts among the clergy, this scandal has been used as a weapon by those who hate the Church for their own reasons. For example Cardinal Pell is hated in Australia because he is an uncompromising “conservative” and there is good reason to believe he was wrongly convicted. This article sets out some of the reasons for this:
https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/truth-and-justice-after-the-pell-verdict#
Who estimates that a third of all American priests are homo, and half of all religious orders?
That is an ignorant article on at least two points.
One would assume, and from reading, see, that Benedictus XVI intended to do something about such problems.
However, he was conviently replaced by Francesco, who enjoys licking the feet of illegal migrant invaders, but also enjoyed supporting the murderous actions of the Argentinian junta as a bishop, and now likes to make vaguely pro-homosexual statements.
Cardinal Pell, I have read much on it, he is an inoccent man, accused by a fantasist (plain liar).
You, Robert are a jerk to not have read the details. The government even ran double jeopardy against him, with acquittal on the first round (ten to two), then a guilty verdict on the second round, with specially selected jurors.
The accusing fantasist didn’t even appear at the second trial, they simply played a video of his lies at the first.
If you think that is any kind of justice, I have a bridge to sell you in Noo Yawk.
As of now, Cardinal Pell is in solitary confinement.
There are many more details to support my statements, perhaps you, Robert, may learn a little of what you are writing about before spewing word salad on things of which you know nothing.
Celibacy and celibate religious orders have a long and successful history of prosecuting the greatest human causes causes, often militantly. The medieval monastic orders and the Jesuits achieved great things in their day and were instrumental in preserving the Catholic ecumene. The catholic church itself would probably not still be standing if clerical celibacy had not forced lay nobles and their progeny from church offices.
For those who think that this is all the past note that Buddhist orders are still going strong. And there has rarely been a hesitation to violence by such groupings. Militant orders like the Templars, Hospitalars and Teutonic Knights (who actually formed the initial substrate of what became Prussia) come to mind. But they have their correspondents in the ferocious warrior monks of Japan and China (the famous Shaolin monks who are of the Chan sect, which not surprisingly is the Chinese equivalent of Zen). Men can do incredible things when not distracted by personal entanglements.
Given the modern sexual dysfunction depriving so many young men today or proper relationships an ascetic path might prove very attractive to many today, if only inspired by an intense warrior ideal rather than the insipid and bankrupt doctrines of the modern church.
All celibate orders probably have a problem with a bad element to a degree, but it seems to be the Catholic church in particular which suffers these problems, indicating a deeper sickness.
And that brings us to Vatican II and its shock to the modern Church. It’s true that Catholicism had been declining for at least two centuries prior, but the Vatican II conference broke the dam so to speak. It was largely the work of cryptos and subversives in the Church hierarchy and its success essentially institutionalised their influence,
More importantly it emboldened an endless procession of hostile activitists while demoralising defenders whose only real defence was to hold fast to an unchanging Tradition. To characterise the kind of chain reaction from such shocks think of an army suddenly retreating unexpectedly and systematically becoming a rout.
Sex abuse scandals exists in all religions all over the world, but western mainstream media only reports the scandals inside the catholic church, not defending the church only the bias..
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