Douthat declares in closing: “The first thing is truth.” But his essay avoids the truth like the plague.
The truth is: Catholic clergy’s sexual predation is merely a symptom of a more fundamental problem – the unnatural requirement of celibacy. Humans are wired for sex. To suggest that there is something virtuous in trying to suppress this drive is preposterous and, obviously, counterproductive.
Yet the Church, in its obsession with the cruel and fantastic, justifies such a requirement. According to Church Canon Law: “Clerics are obliged to observe perfect and perpetual continence for the sake of the kingdom of heaven and therefore are bound to celibacy which is a special gift of God by which sacred ministers can adhere more easily to Christ with an undivided heart and are able to dedicate themselves more freely to the service of God and humanity.”
Let’s see: God created the sex drive for the benefit of humanity, but forbids it for priests, and considers the prohibition a “special gift.” Its purpose is to allow priests to focus on their service rather than on sex. Well, so much for the perfect wisdom of God and his church.
It all seems like fodder for a Monty Python skit. Except that it’s not funny. The Church is an anachronistic boys club, obsessed with sex, shame, and ritualistic death, whose mission is the retention of power through the social engineering of gender roles and clergy behavior.
The supernatural is no match for the natural. That’s the truth.
132
Clearly, the Catholic Church is well aware of abusers in its midst and has chosen to do nothing about them unless forced to do so. And, when forced to do so, it hires lawyers to defend itself and to prevent facts from becoming public. It also hires lobbyists to change laws, or prevent laws from being changed, so that victims of abuse in the past have no means for redress against their abuser. Ultimately, the church writes checks to victims from funds donated by parishioners. This have been going on for more than a decade and yet this church still has so many who attend and support it. It boggles the mind.
42
Ross, please write a column explaining why you support (as I assume you do) the continuation of the rule of celibacy for Catholic clergy. Surely there would be less sexual abuse if priests were free to marry. Also, what can possibly justify the demand that anyone who wishes to be a priest deny himself the fulfillment of basic human needs for sex, intimacy, family, and a shared life with a loved one? I am very interested in your answer to this question!
59
Irony and evil are intertwined in such situations: religion as a body with two hands, one holding out to help, one grabbing the innocent for its own selfish satisfaction. Not being Catholic (but Episcopalian) makes it hard for me to understand, but I can still 'judge' -- those who cover up, excuse, and push away the horrific crimes done to children, youth and others for the sake of the Church's safety are not innocent. They are part and parcel of the collective problem, even sin. Silence is political, silence is conspiratorial.
The Episcopal Church itself has not been innocent, nor have others. But the Catholic Church continues to bury its most prominent guilty in positions of power, serving as a role model for moral corruption. We have a political president for that -- why do we need spiritual leaders to confound the issue? The Pope is so good at so many things -- he has failed us all on this one.
23
Reading this article reminds me of the scandals that leaked out in the late ‘80’s about Catholic priests abusing children and the settlements the victims & families reached with the Catholic Church. The most telling fact that, IMO, showed that this was a deeply systemic problem within the Church? The Catholic Church had INSURANCE to cover these types of claims/lawsuits and reach settlements.
Deals with the Devil, indeed.
25
Paedophilia and/or homosexuality among the Roman Catholic clergy are the consequences of the rule of celibacy. The spirit may be strong, but the flesh is weak. In the eyes of the laymen, all priests and friars are guilty, unless proven innocent.
15
Russ, not once do you mention the conservative side of anything ever objecting to this immoral man’s behavior, but you are quick to condemn the “liberal” press for not wanting to appear homophobic. So we are to take it that it his actions were okay with conservatives as long as he himself was seen as conservative and adhered to the strict church guidelines concerning abortion, women’s rights, canon law, etc.? “Uncle Ted” deserves to be prosecuted, but you won’t say it. How is it any wonder so many of us have left the church and believe now that their teachings are only so much hypocrisy? Thank you for strengthening my conviction that organized religion is a farcical construct meant only to control people.
43
I was an altar boy for years. I performed readings in my Catholic church for years. When I was 15 or 16, I started reading a lot and I realized the absurdity of what I'd been taught about religion.
Ross, when you realize that everything about religion is claptrap other than the one simple idea - Do unto others as you would have them do to you - then perhaps your eyes too will open to the true wonders of the world - which are far more wonderful when you know that they have evolved from a hot soup of atomic particles rather than being created (with less than a week's work!) by some bearded super-ghost. It is all so childish. I assure you, once you cross to the rational side, your current side will seem almost comic in its dress-and-miter-wearing absurdity. Almost comic, that is, except for the atrocities.
Unfortunately, the evils visited by church leaders upon innocent people are far from child's play. Because of its unrealistic views on sexuality, the church always has been and always will be a cesspool where immorality feeds and grows.
You occasionally have useful things to say. But never about religion. You are too deeply enmeshed in the cult.
55
The parallels with Weinstein are spurious.
He is indeed, awful; but a man of the cloth who preys is even worse.
35
Unfortunately, the Church has a much bigger problem when it comes to removing sexual predators. Most priests are hardworking, honest men who take their vows seriously. They now wrongly, all labor under the suspicions of being molesters. However, the Princes of the Church are all guilty of knowing what was going on and covering it up, moving the priests around, or molesting themselves. This problem goes right up to the Pope. Pope John Paul 2 elevated a lot of the present Archbishops and was best buddies with Father Marciel, who founded Legion of Christ in Mexico. He was accused of molesting the seminarians but nothing was done till the next Pope removed him. Pope Benedict was in power for 8 years and he still did not end the problems of molester priests. Just a few months ago, Pope Francis accused the victims of molestation by priests in Chile, of being liars. Really? This calls into question what he knew and allowed in his archdiocese. He apologized only after a lot of bad press. How long will it take for the head of the Church to have and enforce a zero tolerance policy?
31
I am not Catholic. I have always resented the Catholic Church for its claim to being the only true voice of Christianity, and of God's will, and the bearer of the only truth about moral issues. But I have always recognized the rights of its members to hold their beliefs, and even their right to try to make those beliefs, as they pertain to birth control, abortion, and sexual behavior, a part of the law of the land. (I do not agree to doing so; I just think they have a right to try, and hopefully fail, through the electoral process.)
This is a different and completely unrelated situation. It has been clear to me for some time that the Catholic Church has been taken over by people who are, essentially, Satanists. The priesthood is rife with men who molest children and engage in other sexual behaviors that their faith condemns, and which undoubtedly they themselves condemn from the pulpit. The hierarchy is rife with men who may not engage in such practices themselves, but allow them to continue while they look the other way, because of their manpower problem.
I maintain that it is not only these men who have irredeemably corrupted the Church--it is the people who continue as members of this organization. A true Christian would leave the group that calls itself the Catholic Church, and continue their worship independently, leaving the buildings and the money and the fancy clothes to the Satanists. Those who remain are as complicit as the Cardinals who oversee the orgy.
29
Here, Douthat once again shows the courage of his convictions.
Children are being caged in the Texas desert, Ross. I think that's what Christ would be concerned with.
31
The truth and the Catholic Church have been enemies for centuries.
43
I hope all religious communities are divinely inspired. Unfortunately, virtually all have been corrupted by humankind.
8
"Gaunt, intense, with a litany of esoteric grievances......"
Douthat describes a group of "fringe" Catholics he has observed at various conferences as enervating and annoying to deal with.
I am not part of the "traditionalist fringe" but definitely part of the "progressive fringe." I sat at parish council meetings wherein the pastor would talk about providing more opportunities for women and married couples to participate in the governance of parish affairs, and then enact his own wishes, never once revising a single aspect of any plan to take into account issues raised by us, even if it was just common sense.
We noticed things. I worked at a summer day camp run by a creepy priest we all hated. He once stuck his tongue in my ear as he danced with me at the end-of-summer staff party. Years later I woke up to the news that he was dead; stabbed by a young man at a known gay pickup spot who claimed self defense. I wonder how things would have been different if anyone at the chancery listened to us.
So, Ross, we folks on the fringe want you to know that we find people like you enervating and annoying to deal with too. With truth on our side we resist the rigid hypocrisy of the deeply flawed, sexual-deviant infested, patriarchal power structure of the church. You find it annoying that we might bend your ear at a conference. We find it annoying that you call yourself a journalist, knew about Cardinal McCarrick and wrote nothing about it until it became public knowledge.
63
Is sexual predation on the part of the clergy, the "glue" that holds the RC church together?
It would be fair to direct the same question at our academic institutions.
Authoritarian structures breed sexual predation, without a doubt.
14
Protestants are sure its the celibacy, but I'm in a Muslim country where Imams with 4 wives who are hired to teach children the Nobel Koran are accused of the same thing. The problem is not Roman celibates, but the fact that, after one Roman paedophile confessed, thousands of middle-aged men (many of whom were not Romans) filed civil suites against the Catholic Church, and, after the first civil suit succeeded, they all piled on.
1
Despite the horrors that have apparently lasted for centuries involving pedophilia and the treatment of young single mothers , approximately one billion people continue to seek moral advice from and believe in the tenets of an organization that has created its own moral dilemma through the practice of unspeakable acts committed against the most vulnerable members of its flock.
Why ?
23
It's all madness, Ross. Here we are, living in a culture that's endorsed sex on demand between and among genders and species. If it feels good, do it.
Ironically, where we have gotten stuck is on the razor's edge of who was abused and who took advantage. Why, we've now got a sizable group in this godless nation who think the joys of sex should not be denied to anyone or anything at anytime. And if they choose to use a condom, why the rest of us should pay for it.
What we fail to look at these days is the behaviors of those who can reason and yet consent to homosexual sex with one more "powerful" than they. Were they all seduced by the devil who made them do it?
We now have dioceses across this nation becoming bankrupt for the seduction sins of errant clerics, Hundreds of millions of dollars are being awarded to the seduced, as if money could make it all well. Yes, it can pay for counseling. But one-third of the "take" is funding the castles being built in the Caribbean by the attorneys who championed this cause.
The answer to this seduction conundrum is the same advice our parents gave us: Eschew unwanted sex. Don't get drunk or so high you don't know if your pants are up or down. Walk away. If you use good sense, you won't need thousands of dollars for counselling that still can't change what happened.
8
How useful has Catholic anxiety over sex been these past 70 generations?
The cult of the virgin?
Adam created in the image of God, Eve created in the image of Adam?
We need to study all religion as a natural phenomenon ( a la Dennet's Breaking the Spell). Who and what is it for? Why is it taboo both from the inside and the outside to study and subject religion to close scrutiny, to question, to criticism. They can't all be right?
I do not find it surprising that folks who are gullible for this kind of nonsense are easily preyed upon, and that many clerics are little more than predators of one stripe or another. Just look at the temple money changers (eg. Falwell, Graham 'dynasties') who lead the evangelicals, or the army of pedophile priests.
19
As a protestant it remains astonishing that the Roman denomination continues to appeal to the credulous, considering it has given us: Borgia popes, the inquisition, the subjugation of Aztecs and incas, the martyrdom of cathars, and now widespread sexual misconduct (not to mention absurdities like papal infallibility, the idolatry of mary, and the very concept of purgatory or limbo [itself here today and gone tomorrow]
29
I keep waiting for the definitive survey of priests -- completely confidential, of course -- that reveals how disproportionately queer the Catholic clergy are, and always have been. If you were a Catholic parent of a son who you perceived as being slightly 'bent' (not intended to be an insulting phrase, but rather an archaic one), you would encourage your son to become a priest. This was true for centuries and is probably true in some countries even today. Perhaps the priesthood could re-frame and cure his desires, the thinking was, and, at the very least, celibacy is protection. And so, instead of having a homosexual population that reflects that of society, the homosexual portion of Catholic clergy are probably way above that of society at large. While many people feel the ultimate solution would be to allow married men and women to become Catholic clergy, and I agree, it strikes me that the other part of the solution is to allow queer priests to "come out." No more self hate, no more furtive encounters, no more legal settlements. No more lies.
45
You say you knew stories, Russ, but you failed to write about them. You knew that a group of priests traveled to Rome to try and stop his elevation to archbishop and you were silent, again. And now you are willing to let this abhorrent man and his actions go away because he’s had his comeuppance? Thanks for jumping on the story now that it’s public, because it’s just what we need in these days of anger against the press, good work.
50
Religion attracts gullible people willing to believe claims unsupported by facts (and naturally many of them are young), and naturally the predators on such people follow.
7
Liberal or conservative has nothing to do with this, but you add it in anyway. Interesting that few Presbyterians or baptists or any other faith that allows its leaders to marry have this pervasive problem. Wake up Catholic Church and join the 21st century .
8
This isn't about celibacy; its not even about the Catholic church. This is about power, sex, and secrets. And the "open" secrets; the 'everybody knows' secrets are the most horrible. Everybody who knew and did nothing is guilty. As one of the victims who was raped by Jimmy Savile was told that "everyone knew you didn't go into a room alone with him" cried "I didn't know, I wasn't told". Everyone who knew and did nothing is guilty.
39
As long as the Catholic Church maintains the inhuman practice of celibacy of its priests, predators among its priests will continue to flourish and remain protected by the church hierarchy.
8
My wise almost 98 year old mother said it best about the vow of celibacy
for priests...."It's just not natural!!"
Amen Mama!!
20
I am happy that you backed off from your ridiculous comparison between official religious predation and Harvey Weinstein, whose sexual mission was not intermingled with a claim to represent a deity.
Religions are designed to fill a spiritual void with a fictitious account that is comforting to some. It used to comfort so many more before actual knowledge intervened. Now a known sexual predator is not only countenanced but also rewarded within a hierarchy that claims to represent goodness.
How confused people must be. They are weaned away from the Beatitudes to the reality of Huckabee, Pence, and Trump. Beloved by the religiously smitten, these are the sort of anti-heroes against whom David fought.
Ross, your ivory tower has been relocated to a Superfund site. Just don't come downstairs.
16
Conspicuously absent from this piece is any sense of responsibility or, for that matter, contrition by Mr. Douthat.
Let’s recap: He’s New York Times columnist who earns a living commenting on religion with an emphasis on sexual mores, and continuously uses his position to call for the good old days of church tradition. He hears about an abusive Bishop and does absolutely *nothing*.
Then the sordid story comes to light and his reaction? Provide a sorry excuse that he was “in the same position as everyone”, and “became accustomed to the idea that the story would never come out”.
Mr Douthat who has no qualms attacking liberals for the woes of the world with scant evidence, all of a sudden is rendered passive, “the same as everyone” when a bishop is to blame.
How about an acknowledgment of the double standard? An apology? A commitment to bring out similar stories he might learn (or already know)?
39
A Church that has so many abusers, of children, young men and women, and has harbored molesters and pedophiles, shifting them from parish to parish like a shell game, how can it have any moral authority whatsoever?
27
I clicked through the links to see what the dates were on the associated stories, particularly the one about Richard Sipe. 2010. So eight years ago there was a legal settlement against McCarrick, which in turn was eight years after "a major secular newspaper" was going to run a story on McCarrick's actions. So Ross, it's apparent that for a decade & a half it's been known that McCarrick was abusing his authority, to put it nicely. And yet for all of this time you've been using your bully pulpit to rail against the Clintons, President Obama, & any secular &/or liberal people, & remained silent on the archbishop's sexual abuse of people w/less power than he. You should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself. Silent = complicity.
43
People that still believe the earth revolves around the sun, or the earth is flat, or in alien abductions, or trickle down "economics", are members of a large group in our flawed species, those who believe irrational things, with no evidence to support the beliefs.
The most persistent fantasy-based invention of humanity is religion, the magical, superstitious parts. How much more evidence would a person need to conclude a priest is not a favored being, the bridge between an invisible entity and the believer? It's not just a coincidence that so many abusers become priests, that so many cult "gurus" sleep with cult members. Jimmy Swaggart, Aimee Semple McPherson, Jim, Bakker, the revelations of Marjoe Gortner.
Positions of power attract abusers of various types. All the facts about Trump were known before he was elected, the scandals in Trump World get worse everyday, yet 90% of Republicans are on his side, and his diehard base ignores any negative horror about their high priest of hate.
Who are the primitive savages? Blacks, Latinos, Japanese, Chinese, Jews, or slave masters, racists, homophobes, liars, and the cruel heartless humans of the modern GOP and Trump World, a fictional world where hysterics, mendacity, and viciousness and blatant lies in the thousands are business as usual.
Powerful predators, secular, political, and religious, cannot get away with such evil without teams of enablers.Currently, the most exceptional American trait is delusion.
12
When numerous people come forward accusing an individual then it is true.
We have a President who boasts about it and who has systematically gone to discredit the sources that can expose him - i.e. Journalists.
Combined that with a recent reports on Trump supporters and the excuses religion given them "We are all flawed" "No one is perfect" etc... and this behavior won't stop.
At least some legs of society are accepting homosexuals now; if it had been this way all along this Archbishop might just have been a happy gay man as opposed to a rapist. The Church's hypocrisy never ends.
9
The Roman Catholic Church is what the Roman Empire morphed into, and it is one of the great criminal enterprises of human history, an example of racketeering raised to high art. The centuries-long corruption of the church, be it selling indulgences, waging inquisitions, committing genocide against the native peoples of North and South America, flirtation with and support of fascist dictatorships or the sexual predation of children and even adults as exemplified by Mr. McCarrick (just to name a few), the crimes of the Church must rank up there at the top of the criminality heap. For far too long the Holy See has been more interested in protecting the institution, Pope Francis notwithstanding, than in protecting the victims of its clergy. Shame, shame, shame.
21
Catholicism as an institution was been fatally damaged by the sex scandals. It’s has gotten too comfortable with the power it wields and the wealth it has accumulated.
I look at Jesus and then look at the glittery Vatican and wonder what got lost in two thousand years. I guess the need to be humble.
17
"Their commitment to the church is supernaturally absolute and life-defining, the power their superiors exercise is greater even than that of a Hollywood producer, and the sexual acts themselves can seem so compromising — not just sex, but gay sex that breaks a vow of celibacy — as to make truthtelling feel not just costly but impossible."
Could someone please translate this for the non-Catholics on this forum?
12
My grandfather warned me in the 1960's that pedophilia was rampant in Southern Minnesota rural Catholic churches. I passed it off as sour grapes as he was an atheist and lost an election to a Catholic. 40 years later, he was proven right by a huge lawsuit settlement.
16
If Cardinal McCarrick is a Roman Catholic Liberal the Australian Cardinal George Pell heading for trial on similar charges is very much Conservative . Stay tuned .
10
How are we not shocked?
4
This column, as well as the initial story by Goodstein, sickens me: you print things said to you by someone "maniacal" years go, thereby putting them out there to be digested by the public and add to the suspicion, and you make a fallacious claim that these are the kinds of people to listen to because they are alienated. Your way of getting at a "liberal" bishop? Please. Goodstein's piece reporting things by Noaker, the victim's lawyer, is also cowardly. Alleging these things publicly in a newspaper before anybody goes to trial or any of this is proven in court is not what I would call due process, over fifty years after the alleged incidents. The victim gets to have his name hidden while he does this to a public figure? Cowardly--and also cowardly to cash in on this years later when, if any of the allegations are true, they should have been rectified at the time. Seminarians invited to "sleep" with him, and no one all these years ever said anything? Come on...
5
There is no evidence that straight men, unmarried, get lonely in middle-age and turn to young men, or boys. So if middle age men in the church, who have power over young men, and access to boys, act out, the suggestion is they are either gay men (pursuing young men). or gay pedophiles pursuing boys. I have no reason to believe that gay men are more prone to pedophilia than straight men. The ball park for pedophilia is about 2 percent. One man in 50. So among 1,000 men, 50 might be gay, one of those a pedophile. Among the straight men there would be about 19 pedophiles. But in the church the seminarians are young men, and the altar boys are, well, boys. So the opportunity for mischief among the straight men is limited by lack of opportunity. They, if necessary, turn to drink, or porn, although I believe most turn to prayer. I am not aware that the rate of pedophilia is higher among Catholic priests than Episcopal priests, rabbis, or imams. Or for that matter journalists or people who write letters to the editor. That's my take on all this.
2
I pray for Theodore, broken child of God, and the children of God he hurt. Lift us all up, o Lord, into your light and help us understand.
3
Douthat belongs to a boys club which has protected all members who are criminals from time immemorial, yet Douthat would like us to believe that only "extreme-seeming types, traditionalists and radicals" knew of it "because they were the only ones sufficiently alienated from the institution to actually dig into its rot."
Douthat going on about the need "dig" to find the truth reminded of Irish Studies Professor Emer O'Toole's writings about all of the children’s remains which lie in a mass grave adjacent to a former home for unmarried mothers run by the Bon Secours Sisters in Tuam, County Galway.
The archbishop of Tuam, Michael Neary, had said he was "deeply shocked and horrified". O'Toole's response: "Deeply. Because what could the church have known about the abuse of children in its institutions?" She continued: "If I am shocked, it is by the pretense of so much shock. When Corless discovered death certificates for 796 children at the home between 1925 and 1961 but burial records for only two, it was clear that hundreds of bodies existed somewhere. They did not, after all, ascend into heaven like the virgin mother. Corless then uncovered oral histories from reliable local witnesses, offering evidence of where those children’s remains could be found."
As to Cardinal McCarrick, any surprise is disingenuous. Douthat tries to convince us that only those "alienated from" the Church "dig into its rot," when in reality they spoke of things which everyone already knew about.
15
I was reared in the 1950’s and 1960’s Catholic Church of sadomasochistic love of obedience above other all loves. To be a good Catholic, and to adequately demonstrate your fidelity to the Church came down to obedience. Obey the Church. Sure charity and humility were important too, but even charity and humility as a command of the Church was infinitely more important than self directed charity and humility. After all the Church does not get credit for the good deeds of independent self directed Catholics, I.e., Mother Teresa, which the Church was at first reluctant to recognize. All things must be funnel through and be sanctioned by the Church. So powerful is the Church that millions of Catholics in all walks of life including catholic journalists have known about the Church abuse for decades, generations in fact, and have said nothing. If Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein have to now go away, is it not time for the Church to also go away? If not, when is it time for an organization so powerful and so fully corrupt to be deemed too hazardous.
Keep the Catholics, but dump the Church would be a good #MeToo response.
11
John Paul II had ONE great achievement: He ended centuries of teaching the dogma that ALL Jews who ever lived, and who would ever live, had the blood of Jesus on their hands. However, when it came to pedophile priests, John Paul II turned a blind eye to the problem, or if you like Biblical metaphors, he wasjed his hand of the problem, much like Pontius Pilate did when Jesus was brought before him.
11
Always strikes me as odd when Douthat and his ilk belatedly and tepidly come to the realization that their institutions, churches - and political parties for that matter - are imperfect vessels.
Their feint always includes a whiff of kneejerk whataboutism - Douthat couldn't resist the jab at McCarrick's liberalism - but in the end always places the blame on individual bad actors. Terrible "Uncle Ted"; rude and incivil POTUS!
But the deepest and most unforgivable sins here are institutional, Ross. The Catholic Church is irredeemable at the core - deeply dogmatic, anti-female, anti-sexuality, corrupt and richer than a thousand Croesuses. Not much different from the GOP, who have chosen to sacrifice democracy itself on the Republican platform/altar. And Douthat has been a willing convert; a johnny-come-lately to a loathsome pair. Lukewarm Ross, your lord would spit thee out of his mouth.
12
Thank God Richard Sipe is not afraid of the Pope!
4
I've read the last thirty posts, or so. I was very disappointed that almost every one was full of vituperation against, alternatively, the repressive traditional Catholic Church, the Francis reformers in the Church, political conservatives, liberals, and Mr. Douthat for waiting so long and for not naming more names.
I think that we should be grateful that #MeToo is coming to the Church and to large corporations, as well as to the media. Douthat's column is a modest step in the right direction, and should be appreciated as that.
12
How can anyone still believe that Catholicism in anything other than a haven for homosexuals. They have to be celibate, which is nothing more than a rejection of females. Being human which they all are in spite of their pretense of "spirituality," that necessarily would select for homosexuality. The real threat to Catholicism is the legalization of homosexuality which is why they appose it so vehemently.
13
'The first thing is the truth. And the way out of purgatory is through.'
ross, please apply this parable to your next column about the current administration.
22
For heaven’s sake, Ross, wake up. Have you ever visited a Catholic seminary? News alert: the Catholic priesthood is the gayest profession outside of hairdressers and florists. Most seminarians — and most priests — are active homosexuals. Among themselves, they define celibacy as “unmarried.” Wink, wink. I don’t say this critically — homosexuals make fine priests. The real scandal here is not sexually active men: it’s the centuries-old, deep-seated hatred and fear of women among the Catholic hierarchy. When the Catholic Church finally ordains women, a lot of its problems will lessen. It — and you — need to join other Christian denominations and embrace the real world instead of clinging to the on-its-face ridiculous belief that suppressing a basic human instinct is somehow a spiritual advantage.
29
Paul was single all of his life. His letters showed him wrestling with powerful inner emotions and bodily desires. Under the Jewish law homosexuality was punished by ostracism and even death by stoning. Therefore, it has been suggested that his conversion to Christianity may have been prompted by the sudden realization that under Jesus Christ there was no separation from GOD’S love. All are accepted, including homosexuals. GOD’S love is so strong that there is nothing that can separate us from it. This was not the message of the Torah. There is no hope for the homosexuals in Torah.
www.InquiryAbraham.com
7
Yes, let the truth come out. About all the corruption in the Catholic Church. It's sexual immorality and amorality. It's Marxist political subversion of Capitalism. It's corrupt banking and secretive banking practices. And primarily, it's utter failure, since Vatican II, to proclaim the traditional Catholicism having replaced it with a false religion based on subjectivity and emotionalism where truth is replaced by an evolving conscience.
4
As a partial solution to this abuse problem, I suggest that the only people allowed to be priests are married or divorced or widowed women with children who have at least finished high school. This from a very elderly man, lukewarm conservative, lukewarm Catholic, former altar boy and engineer.
23
Who else should be exposed Ross? Who else do you know? You must expose them. Your salvation depends on it.
8
The purpose of this article is for Ross to reveal and emphasize that McCarrick is a "famous liberal."
18
It would be nice if the tax man comes for the Archbishop as well. Just how an organization whose main criterion for leadership is a predilection for pedophilia is somehow "revered" is beyond me. Then there's their refusal to provide a full spectrum of 21st century medical care in their hospitals. I understand that they do some good as well, but basically they are rotted with sexual perversity from the top down and the insane claim that their doctrine is somehow infallible. Really too much.
25
They're not pedophiles. These priests who break their vows prefer young post-pubescent boys and teens for the most part. Pedophiles prefer pre-pubescent children of either sex. They're homosexual men who can manipulate young men in their pastoral care: the truth that dare not speak its name.
9
I believe in God and living a generous and good life on Earth. I just don't much believe in large organized religion, for numerous reasons.
The stuff described in this article is just more of the decades of revelations about Catholic Church priest misconduct and coverups by senior Church leaders. But horrible acts done in the name of religion are nothing new. Wars have been fought in the name of religion, forced conversions under threat of death made in the name of religion, and murders of "non-believers" in the name of one religion or because of they belonged to another religion. Religion has begat slavery, subjugation of women, child marriage, embezzlement, fakes and frauds, to name but a few.
Evangelicals, however, are my current favorite. They have a lot of opinions (supposedly backed up by the Bible) about how we should all live our lives, yet unwaveringly support a president who upholds virtually none of the Bible teachings they would impose on the rest of us. Apparently their dear leader can be a narcissistic, vain, cheating, lying, ungenerous lout, so long as he lets them keep their guns, stops all abortions and family planning, and keeps those black and brown people in their place (blacks in big city public housing and shacks at the edge of town, browns back south of the border in whatever country they came from).
I wish I could be a fly on God's wall when these people actually meet him. I think they may be in for a surprise.
24
It is too bad that you ignored that first so called "fringe" man. You could have had the courage to listen patiently and perhaps started an investigation as the Jounalist you are supposed to be. You, with your mighty pen and journalist pulpit could have saved other Seminarians from being raped by this most irreligious of men.
Cardinal McCarrick would be defrocked by now if it weren't for people like you who disregard the suffering of this obviously traumatized man.
I am so disappointed to read that the powerless almost always are ignored by those who could have made a difference for them.
You have the power of the pen in your hands yet you choose access to the powerful in the Catholic Church cloud your judgement
This column does not eradicate your actions or lack thereof.
26
The leftost, socialist latim American Pope to the rescue. Ross, you have to be happy that he's trying to fix what JP II and Benedict wouldn't even admit was a problem.
17
" I really don't care. Do U ? ". YOUR Church, Sir.
26
McCarrick is no liberal or a conservative. He is just a criminal, a sexual predator. Period. Were it not for the Church's unholy secrecy and not allowing law authorities to hand-cuff and charge him for sexual assault, he is happily retired ensconced in his beach home (!!) instead of a high security prison for 10 years! Church Justice! No wonder Jesus could'nt wait to join his Father in Heaven. His suffering for all those who sinned was in vain. Especially with the likes of McCarrick whose sin cannot be condoned and is beyond redemption.
11
"the sexual acts themselves can seem so compromising — not just sex, but gay sex that breaks a vow of celibacy — as to make truthtelling feel not just costly but impossible."
On the eve of gay pride how appropriate that a Catholic apologist would write, (with a gasp!) that it wasn't just sex! It was GAY sex!
O-M-G!!!
Dear Ross, please join the vast majority of us in the 21st century. It's not whether it's gay or straight sex that makes it shocking. It's that it is coerced. THAT is what is so disturbing, so shameful and so wrong.
26
I was almost taken in by Douthat's admission of sexual predation in the Catholic church's ranks, almost. With thousands of sexual predators in the Roman Catholic hierarchy to chose from, he picks only one to talk about, and labels him a liberal. He even dutifully throws in the "both sides are equally to blame" and "look at Hollywood" nonsense from his party's playbook. When I see a column where he condemns all of his church's leaders, all of whom are involved in predation and/or its coverup, including all Popes, I"ll reconsider my opinion of him as dutiful, dishonest right-wing mouthpiece.
23
In the Marquis de Sade’s, “The 120 Days of Sodom,” four libertines—a duke, a bishop, a judge and a banker—lock themselves away in a castle with a following that includes two groups (three people being enough) of boys and girls specially abducted for the occasion. That de Sade; a writer of fiction, we know all too well; but that he was also a politician and philosopher; well, that we may not. Oddly, he’s becoming a hero. That a man, who; lived such an outrageous libertine life himself and repeatedly procured young prostitutes as well as employees of both sexes in his castle; well, that seems an unlikely person to claim truth. After all, his greatest “offense” of the time was blasphemy, Blasphemy!?—his insulting and showing contempt to a deity, or something sacred. Perfect!—yes, blasphemy. That the very authorities; the authorities where he procured his “fiction,” well, that they may accuse him of blasphemy, and not sodomy, rape, etc, that makes perfect sense. You don’t want to expose the thing you are; right? That this is all so ambiguous, all so hypocritical and two–faced should not be shocking. That both sides of this #MeToo movement are involved, like our hero and villains themselves; in scandalous and shocking displays—well, what gives? This shouldn’t shock anyone. Acting as if we’re going to clean all this up, rid our planet of the Dukes, Bishops, Produces or just fanatical, insane libertines like de Sade—well, that’s just shear madness, and quite absurd!
3
In the beginning,
there was faith,
which is childish;
trust, which is vain;
and illusion, which is dangerous.
Elie Wiesel "Night"
#NeverAgain2018
#StopFascism2018
#VoteBlue2018
November 6, 2018
14
Ross continues to castigate the royalty of the Catholic Church. This miscreant priests are narcissistic elites who take advantage of their position for their own gratifications with no idea of how destructive their behavior really is. Destructive to themselves and others. Seems to me that the more appropriate modern metaphor that will be recognized by all those Americans who do not follow the Catholic faith, is the modern Republican Party and their narcissistic leader, the mad clown king, Donald Trump.
12
Ross, like Bruni, is Catholic and knows the score and is not afraid to say so. I do wish he and others however, would forever stop using the word, 'celibacy' or 'celibate' to describe a Catholic cleric's infraction with the Church. Celibacy refers to the institution of marriage where, yes, sex is permissible and encouraged (for the procreation of children). Not being chaste, however, more defines the abuse that is referred to here where the act of sexual contact outside the realm of marriage is occurring. Compounded by the fact that it is being used as a weapon against those less empowered only indicts clergy like Cardinal McCarrick all the more.
Such abuse of power is a damning paradox of Catholic faith because the Holy Spirit, a co-equal component of the divine Holy Trinity, who is supposed to be the deity of enlightenment and guidance, is either asleep at the wheel sort of speak, or just doesn't exist - allowing characters as McCarrick to hypocritically parade themselves as something they are not.
3
Ross Douthat is intent in comparing sexually abusive Catholic priests with Harvey Weinstein, the poster child for any writer who wants to prove that politically liberal men can be sleazy thugs.
OK. Got it. So what’s our problem?
Hmmm.
Men with power and an itch they need to scratch?
So, let’s imagine alternatives that might reform Catholicism (we’ll imagine reforming all men in the next episode). How about female priests?
Mix things up a little.
Picture the end of the Catholic regime that teaches only (allegedly) celibate men can speak directly to God the Father and administer the sacraments. Picture the end of the Catholic patriarchal regime that tells women they must use no contraception because God the Father likes them to be repeatedly pregnant. That’s what He made them for. If they disobey? They’re going to hell.
Ah. Reformation.
Ross, it’s sweet of you to toy with confessions of your own skepticism about priestly nastiness.
And it’s time for you to look much farther ...
14
Not once does Douthat ask why McCarrick isn't indicted by a civil court. Yet I believe that is the clue. As long as we as society ignore the issue the Vatican will too. But as soon as there will be public trials they will hurry to clean up: nothing motivates as much as (the threat of) bad publicity.
We tend to see the Catholic church too much as a loose collection of idealist semi-saints. But it is also a bureaucracy with familiar mechanisms like keeping the dirty laundry hidden and not rocking the boat.
10
Civil courts do not indict. That’s a criminal procedural process within which a statute of limitations likely applies.
3
Perhaps the root of the problem as it affects the RC Church is the fact that it continues to enforce the rules that disqualify over half of its membership from the sacrament of ordination. Arbitrarily restricting participation in its ruling power structure to unmarried men isolates that cohort from the corrective perceptions and influence of the full congregation.
That enables the most corrupting priority of any institution - protecting and enforcing its authority regardless of its results. A growing portion of the laity has been focusing on the Scriptural passage, "You shall know them by their fruits." That's why so many of us have turned away.
14
Mumbo jumbo
Free yourself from sexually repressed, old, misogynistic men.
god is in you and everything around you. If you think you’re going to find “it” in a church or any (dis)organized religion, you’re not looking in the obvious place, in yourself.
22
Has any Catholic priest ever gone to prison for his misdeeds? We see at the very end of their life, after many decades of raping young children, they are finally are denounced, removed from office, but then go and retire on a comfortable pension in a different country.
31
Ross, maybe you could start by listing the names ranks and serial number of all of the pedophiles and rapists etcetera that you know. I did a year in a catholic school when I was 5. couldn't go to a public school because I was no t 6. My 1 year experience was terrifying. The sisters never made any sexual moves on me but they were vicious with the ruler, It was a rare day that I did not have to hold out my hand for smashing blow. I was called up[ to sisters desk and had to present my head so she could grab my hair and shake my head back and forth.I could feel my brain slopping around in my skull and I would make a large pile of hair on my desk that had been pulled during the shaking thing...there is more but you get the idea.
29
I attended Catholic school from K-8 under similar circumstances but found that it made me stronger. But then, I have less of the entitled personality that afflicts most if my fellow boomers.
1
Surviving child abuse may make you stronger. But it’s still child abuse.
2
As a seven year old girl, I went to Catholic school for 2 weeks when my parents moved to be closer to extended family. My grandma was the mother of a priest/chaplan who had been killed in Europe during the war. My aunt had a gay son she had pushed into the priesthood. The pressure on my parents to enroll me at the local parish school was not subtle. But after experiencing 2 weeks of emotional abuse and intimidation as you describe, a kid named Norman wet his pants because he was denied permission to use the bathroom. The nun accused him of trying to get attention! Next day I locked myself in the bathroom and said I would not come out until I was promised I would never have to go back to that school. My mum stood up for me and I never did. Later I attended a Jesuit university...same abusive disempowering treatment, especially to women. I never gave the Catholic Church a third chance.
8
My best friend in America was seduced by a Catholic priest at the age of fourteen in 1961 in Fairfield, Connecticut. Until then he had been a happy straight A student. The trauma that he underwent led to his becoming a juvenile delinquent. He was locked up in a mental hospital and then killed in prison at the age of twenty-seven in 1975.
36
So sad. This is why no one should be afraid, for any reason, to identify a sexual predator.
9
My friend’s name was Mark Frechette. He starred in Antonioni’s film Zabriskie Point. You can read our story in my book What Rough Beast.
6
Wasn't the archbishop appointed to his post by the now Sainted Pope John Paul II? The sexual molestation crisis became known during his papacy, yet he did almost nothing to stop it. Did he really deserve sainthood?
42
You know, Ross.. you are right. The first thing is the truth. But your opinion pieces always seem to have a 'while I'm making my point I'll just throw in a dig about the other side' quality. Example: your comment here about how liberal journalists don't want to seem homophobic, so they they may be reluctant to tell the truth about priests abusing young men. I guess you ARE an opinion writer after all, but whenever I read your pieces this is my overriding feeling - that you just have to stick in a jibe about the liberals. Why was that necessary here?
43
If you look at the statistics, the vast majority of priest sex abuse cases involved teenage boys. In other words, they were targets of opportunity for homosexual priests. Some people don't want to admit that, or face that hard truth. Many cases were not so much cases of pedophilia, as they were cases of homosexual priests taking what they could get through rape and abuses of authority and trust. The accusations that priests were raping 6, 7, 8 year old boys are largely false and misinformed. Most victims were 13 - 19. Again, many don't want to go down that rabbit hole, least of all those sympathetic to LGBTQ causes.
6
Because, eventually, the NY Times will need to report on how in the past it killed its own journalistic reportage about Ted McCarrick's behavior with seminarians and priests. I suggest Ronan Farrow be assigned to the team that will help the Times report on itself in this regard. Rod Dreher has been providing the background on this. The Times would wound itself - and very badly - by trying to ignore or finesse the matter.
4
Most religious people are hypocrites. Take the evangelicals. They want to protect the unborn. They are the most fervent defenders of guns, death penalty and torture. Caging of children and traumatizing them is ok. Religions are brutal to people who are different. They all protect their own. If trump would shoot someone they would defend him. Religions are able to turn good people into monsters. Lots of people protected this guy. They protect their guru. Trumpists lie to protect their guru.
21
Ross; you are a journalist. If there is a story at your unwashed feet, you gotta persue it. It actually isn’t difficult. Status quo is over, it’s wrecked and institutions are whiplashed and tottering. You sir, have an important role to play and it’s not standing there in a neck brace. Glad you wrote this, but get to it! #MeToo
9
Religion has alway been used to rob and abuse people.
Always will be.
Let it go.
22
Could say the same about human government. Should we just "let it go?"
Newsflash: People do bad things!
1
Many years ago, a former Catholic monk told me that he thought his vow of celibacy would quell his homosexual urges.
Instead, he found himself cloistered with a bunch of other gay guys in a perfect setting to play out their sexual desires.
31
The rule of celibacy flies in the face of all things natural.
How can we be "fruitful and multiply" and be celibate at the same time? (The strongest, natural drives for survival involve food and sex for man and beast alike.) Just look at the havoc and disgrace this unnatural, artificial demand for celibacy has wrought on the Catholic church. (And wasn't Saint Peter a married man?)
Is there a good reason why the Pope, could not fix this twisted, misguided interpretation of what we think God wants from us with the stroke of a pen, allowing priests to enjoy sinless/guiltless sex, short of pedophilia, of course. Have a revelation? In the name of all the young who have been victimized by all the libido we can't seem to control.
"Relative safety on-shipboard is enjoyed by the hedge hog alone....," is a reminder to us of man's apparent inability to control his natural drive for sex, and then there is the verse about "the cabin boy" from the bawdy sea shanty, "The North Atlantic Squadron" ....
WHEN will we ever learn, when will we EVER...????
8
Celibacy is not the impossibility that too make treat it like. By definition, adults have self-control. Unfortunately, we have lost the definition of needs and regularly confuse wants with needs. Our high levels of self-indulgence age lack of self-discipline continue to erode the meaning of needs.
3
The fact that celibacy is possible doesn’t make it necessary, or advisable...
1
Msgr. Carlo Alberto Capella goes to {Vatican} prison:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/23/world/europe/vatican-child-pornograph...
And Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C.? He just gets outed in an op-ed?
12
"It were better for him that a millstone be hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea than that he should scandalize the little ones." Luke 17:2
16
At the very heart of every Catholic prelate or devoted follower, there sits the inalterable belief that the Roman Catholic Church, and it alone has final say over who enters into eternal life. Inescapable obedience to the power of that authority has kept its parishioners and clergy in line for millennia, and is the root cause of the abuse this article describes.
Even the papal coat of arms (a bishop’s mitre atop a pair of crossed keys, the “Keys to the Kingdom” of Matthew’s gospel) reinforces the authority claimed by the Catholic clergy to be the sole gatekeepers and arbiters of who is and who is not to enter into God’s eternity. You cannot have more power over a religious person than to be able to say, ”Defy us if you will, but by decree on this side of time, we, and we alone determine your fate for Heaven or Hell”.
In the face of having to choose between what that person knows is right and being ‘cast into darkness', a wife must endure her husband’s beatings as divorce is sin against the those keys; the couple in poverty must keep producing children for the church or risk damnation; or a young curate who wants nothing more than to serve God with a pure heart must offer his flesh to become sinful within and to himself as the price to remain in holy priesthood. For shame.
When the Church rattles those keys to have its way, it is no hymn to grace; it is the wanton misuse of what Christ Himself entrusted to his shepherds. Change this dogma, and you end the abuse.
21
Harvey Weinstein is not the best juxtaposition to Cardinal McCarrick because, as media goes, Weinstein was a bad boy but, after all, that's Hollywood, the purveyor of sexual license. No surprise there.
McCarrick, on the other hand, represents the Catholic Church, a bastion of conservative sexual behavior. There is a mountain of hypocrisy in the way the media treats "sexual misbehavior" -if is there still is such a thing. Oh, yes, #MeToo. But that is not about sex, that's about women.
I am tired of sex immersion everywhere. The Press will slough around in it forever while the society drowns in suicide and opioids and IPhone addiction and mommy journalism. Enough about sex. Yes, believe it or not, even sex gets boring.
3
As a boy & later a youth, always having compassion for my best friends, born & raised in the Catholic faith, who unlike myself, weren't able to dash away from the smiling predators lurking in the thicket or marsh, stepping out of the brush & attempting to fondle one on the way home from school. Sometimes faced with socially sanctioned predators lodged in their faith, my friends faced a conundrum.
I was also aware of a generally tougher & more knowing attitude toward life my friends had adopted.
My best mentors were always lapsed Catholics. One devilish fellow I knew, as a teenager, would spin fantastic ribald tales of his sexual exploits with the girls & get the young priest to suffer labored breathing & plead for more description before offering absolution in the confessional. What prompted this from my friend..was it abuse he'd suffered in his past? This was never disclosed.
The best defense against the predators in the institution? Walk, run or confront & to hell with the consequences. This BTW precludes homophobia.
2
The Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal continually resurfaces in the media. Each report chips away another portion of the credibility the Church so desperately needs to fulfill its primary mission of transmitting the faith. This steady erosion of credibility, plus an unshakeable marginalization of women, translate into millions shorn of faith, the armor that lets us survive life's hammer blows. Wake up laity and reclaim your Church before it's too late!!
4
“Faith the armor that lets us survive life’s hammer blows?”
Really?
Good luck with that!
1
"That was before I realized that ... you had to listen to the extreme-seeming types, ... the only ones sufficiently alienated from the institution to actually dig into its rot." Is a sad description of the operation of the Catholic Church AS WELL as the dynamics in Catholic communities. The indoctrination that takes millions to help cover up crimes starts early on, pressing children to accept an authoritarian regime of unquestioned loyalty. The Church is not God, yet at each step, clerics equate their authority to that of a Divine and direct messenger of God. #MeToo will be fully realize when it effectively influences social dynamics, in the Church, in corporations in the military, to shape a more democratic society with leadership through out the organizations. With that, changes will follow: the ordination of women, and a layered ordination structure, with different vows and roles, in which celibacy is an option as is the use of birth control (clerics do not have salaries to support large families). Above all, @meToo should inspire people to end the secrecy and hypocrisy which permeates the Catholic communities.
1
The primary issue isn't the Sex.
We have a full blown Blasphemy crisis brewing across denominations with finger pointing and just plain willful abrogation of Sacred Vows.
Paul warns do not ordain too young. It is a far worse problem to take Vows and then fail to follow then, than to never take Vows in the first place. The sages teach Credibility is like Virginity. When you lose it, it is gone for good. And don't forget, he who condones the bad behavior is as if he himself did it.
Fortunately this can be fixed. Truth. And lots of it! (Vatican 3???)
2
Congratulations, Mr. Douthat. It is my habit to copy and archive wise sayings once in a while, wandering the web. Yours is the first from an Opinion Columnist: "The first thing is the truth. And the way out of purgatory is through." Well done, sir.
3
I left the Catholic Church 56 years ago and not because of sexual abuse. I came to know the church as an institution that was all about preserving and protecting the institution and its hierarchy and not about the care of its followers. This sexual predation and decades of cover up well illustrate this point. Karl Marx truly was correct in his observation that religion is the opium of the people.
12
Institutions protect their own, both knowingly and through the innocence, naivety and loyalty of those connected to the institution. The Catholic Church is no exception, because no matter how you look at it, it is run by a vast organization of powerful men.
The Bishops squandered their moral authority covering up the abuse of children, turning a blind eye and leaving children at risk of permanent physical, emotional and spiritual harm. Hardly any of us are surprised that they did not learn their lesson quickly. Our own Cardinal Egan went kicking through the whole scandal with his carefully lawyered, passive voice, subjunctive case "if anyone was harmed then sorrow is felt" sort of apologia.
Yes we need a #MeToo moment. But don't think of it as only about sexual assault. Look at it as a need to get rid of our own special Pharisees, so sure that they know what is right that they focused on little details and miss the big picture.
Satan tempted Jesus, showed him the world and told him he could have untold power, to do all he needed, to have everything he wanted. Jesus rejected the devil. It is a story we should keep in mind.
8
Scientology has come under enormous heat in the last few years for it's "foibles", and rightly so. To call this "new" religion "toxic" would be a kindness it doesn't deserve.
But really, as an organization are it's misdeeds any more evil than the ongoing cover up for the abominable actions of the Catholic Church hierarchy?
As an atheist, it's too easy for me to understand the complete, unmitigated and inherent idiocy of any belief system that is based upon an unseen deity. As such, stories like this are not surprising, but to be expected.
Hypocrisy is their lifeblood, without it they would all shrivel and die.
And wouldn't that be a great day for mankind.
4
A quarter of a century or so of expose into the Roman Catholic Church's sexual deviancy and abuse problem, it is time to label this institution for what it is- a criminal enterprise. Anyone who contributes to this organization is aiding and abetting in the sexual assault on children and subsequent cover up of these crimes. Prosecutors should consider charging the Church under the RICO statutes the way any other criminal organization would be. Additionally members of the Church need to seriously reconsider whether they want to be associated with this institution.
14
Great to hear from Ross Douthat about the predators in the Catholic church without making twisted explanation of crimes.
I wish this had come sooner but sooner than never. This is gross misuse of power. Thank you Ross for exposing how the rot has extended from the priests locally to the archbishops in Rome. And like a true believer you just brushed it off just like other Catholics. Blind faith and blind followers sworn to secrecy and blackmailed into silence for fear of being ostracized enabled these sexual predators without fear of reprisal resulted in these crimes and allowed to continue because the perpetrators had no fear of reprisal from the followers or their superiors. Besides only the church could address and mete out punishment. The crimes were under wraps. The law authorities were shut out. And so the criminals
kept getting bolder hiding behind dogma, threats and blackmail. And Ross, were you not disdainful of Pope Francis who refused to be dogmatic, too liberal for trying to bring the the real original message of his Prophet? I kept on agreeing with you while reading this very blunt op-ed about church hypocrisy, the unholy crimes committed, the blackmail of the believers. But then you threw in that line McCarrick was a liberal. McCarrick's politics has nothing to do with this ugliness. Bottom line is he is a sexual predator, conservative or liberal.
17
While the complicity of fellow priests, bishops as well as the Pope who with prior knowledge of McCarrick's depredations appointed him Archbishop suggests that it is highly unlikely that any reformation will come from within the institution, the continuing adherence to the church by Catholics whose dollars fund the million dollar settlements forced by secular law is even more disturbing in that it suggests that the Church can get away with almost anything so long as its communicants perceive it as a conduit to Heaven which according to doctrine will be populated by the offending pedophiles and their victims, perhaps in a hierarchical distribution similar to the one they now enjoy.
2
Father Douthat concludes this column on the sordid behavior of a high level Catholic priest by noting that such exposures and debates must go on without heed to "make either side of Catholicism’s civil war look good." He then mentions that McCarrick was "a famous liberal, but the next case might be a conservative."
Only Father Douthat sees this in light of a political dichotomy. To most liberals, a person's political orientation is not relevant if he is a sexual predator or rapist or misogynist. Father McCarrick is a sexual predator, period. There is no OTOH argument to be had. This entire column is a feeble attempt to soften the blow in case a future conservative priest is the target of such accusations.
19
Finally. You admit that the truth is more important than anything else. When we "belong" to an organization like the church we tend to excuse shortcomings which is another way of lying. Sooo. What about the GOP? If you are "pro-life" is it ok to lie about economic reality? Or climate change? If you want truth, can you support a political party and politicians that lie and lie and lie? You call for cleansing of the Roman Catholic Church. Will you call for cleansing of the Republican Party?
10
Reminds me of Strom Thurmond's open secret. The great segregationist who as a young man freely (or forcibly?) integrated with a black servant fathering a black daughter who he refused to love (albeit contributed some money to her upbringing).
Supposedly Jesus summed the law, that is how to live:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Institutions however - whether religious, political or commercial sum the law differently where the powerful are concerned:
"Do as I say, not as I do."
I am troubled by one paragraph of Douthat's
"Their commitment to the church is supernaturally absolute and life-defining..., and the sexual acts themselves can seem so compromising — not just sex, but gay sex that breaks a vow of celibacy — as to make truthtelling feel not just costly but impossible."
The commitment to the church is not supernatural nor absolute. It is a human choice. Anyone who feels a calling could easily join high church Episcopalians if truly serving people is the point. They still get the smells and bells and hierarchy; they also might enjoy an environment with a little more mental health.
Douthat makes weird conflation of gay sex that breaks a vow of celibacy. Why the qualifier? Is Douthat implying that hetero sex does not violate celibacy?
7
I'm not sure why we should care about the political leanings of a pedophile but I might be able to give you guidance about how complicated it is for a seminarian to suss out just what to do after being molested. When I attended a seminary in upstate New York in the seventies there was a priest who plied his sick sexual trade on anyone he could lay his hands on. The night he chose me was a total waste of his time (the hour, the inexperience, the confusion) but after escorting me back to bed he woke the boy, two bunks down, to try again. Keep in mind that I was a devout Catholic with no experience of a sexual nature in my past. The next day he pulled me aside to apologize and asked that I "pray for Father Matt". I was so naive I wasn't even sure what the crime was (sex with a man, sex outside of marriage, sex in general)? Pedophilia was not in my lexicon. Months later he was reassigned to another outpost, presumably when those in the know couldn't pretend to not know anymore but the damage was done. To think that young and virginal boys should understand what the next step should have been is asking too much of the victim. If it's taken this long for the truth to come out it could be because of the #Me Too movement or it could be, as with many Trump supporters, you just don't want to admit the truth because that would mean everything would have to change in your world. And that world was safe, sacred and promised salvation.
7
I do not know what is true and untrue about the alleged behavior of Theodore Cardinal McCarrick. That is not my purpose in commenting. Nor, his administrative and/or diplomatic skills, though he was called n diplomatic missions.
When he spoke at conferences, his theme was simple: ‘trust in Jesus.’ No matter what happens, trust in Jesus.
Now, the Catholic Church preaches forgiveness—and that is not a ‘get out of jail’ card. It is about regretting past behavior and changing one’s attitude as you humbly and truly seek forgiveness of that which you know to be wrong. A fairly large challenge.
So I wonder if this 86-year old dude sought remission of sins as he accepted the burdens and prestige of higher office. I suspect and hope he did. And, so, I wonder if the communion of saints and sinners would accept this human being, having demonstrated contrition for his failures that demonstrate human frailty, as a child of God.
Matters of state are different and I will not comment. I do not know what pain has been inflicted. I hope any hurt has been healed as I hope Roman Catholicism understands the powerful influence of biological chemistry on the consequences of so-called divine teaching.
1
Reality wins.
A few weeks ago, Ross wrote something like, "Republicans are acting like the worst liberal caricatures of them."
Those crazy liberals. The sounded like extreme voices then, but now they sound like people who had a more realistic view.
Time to abandon the GOP.
6
McCarrick’s behavior was disgraceful. As a practicing Catholic he was fully aware of the fact that his actions were seriously sinful - he was also aware that he was causing other young men to sin as well. As bad as this is, the worst has to be the fact that so many others enabled his actions - even when they had credible testimony as to what was happening. Consecreting such a person a bishop was a blasphemy. Allowing such a person to celebrate the Mass was a blasphemy. This is why churches are emptying out. They will have much to answer for.
5
A rape victim isn't sinning when they are raped!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(if of course you believe that sex is sinning)
If this story was set in a part of the world where rape victims are treated as "sluts," condemned to marry their rapist, or stoned for having sex outside of marriage, our hearts would be with the victims.
Why don't we see the same thing here, too?
5
These poisonous priests aren't into denial but silence. They have corrupted the very heart of the church in which the gift of silence has always been seen as a blessing of self contemplation and an opportunity to commune with God; a place of safety and love.Transforming this blessing of silence into evil they have used the very heart strings of the church to strangle the lambs of their flock.
1
The Roman Catholic Church canonized John Paul II, who, though likely not a pedophile himself, actively facilitated the systemic sexual abuse--let's just call it rape--of thousands upon thousands of children. The Catholic university I went to taught me a phrase, "objective moral evil." I now see that the phrase applies to the church itself: it is an objective moral evil. And anyone who remains in this church is fully complicit in this evil. Don't try to pretend otherwise.
8
I take it from reading Douthat’s last column, “The Handmaids of Capitalism,” that Douthat looks to the #MeToo movement to help lead us back from the freedom of the Sexual Revolution. But for the Catholic priesthood that “freedom” appears to date back to the Renaissance, if not earlier. It is almost an ancient “perquisite.” And #MeToo followers probably resent being linked to a call for renewed celibacy. Nevertheless, the #MeToo movement seems to usher in a chill wind after the breezy morals of the last four decades. I agree with Mr. Douthat that exhaustive new rules of consent, filled out in triplicate, fall far short of addressing the problems revealed in #MeToo exposés (or “inquisitions” as Ross calls them—“in a good way.”)
1
“Once I learned all this, I was in the same position as the “everyone” who knew about Harvey Weinstein or any other powerful man with a history of pressuring subordinates into sex. And in that position you become accustomed to the idea that the story will never come out no matter what...”
What you didn’t address, Mr. Douthat, is what you personally did with this knowledge. If you kept quiet you are as culpable as all those who protected Harvey Weinstein. As a journalist you have a duty to pursue the truth. As an often pontificating Catholic journalist you had a greater duty to pursue the truth about injustices and abuses within the Catholic Church. You should have pursued witnesses and publish the facts. Journalists frequently use anonymous sources.
You often write about and dress down lapsed Catholics such as myself, it’s now time to hold yourself to the same standard you expect of others. It is the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of the Church that drove me away. I didn’t leave because I don’t believe. I left because of people like you. I left because of priests who preach a good sermon on Sunday morning but don’t live that sermon themselves.
Too many journalists sat on these stories for far too long.
10
Truth telling and ethics as the priority. Self-protection, lies and equilibrating to be set aside. As a Catholic I applaud your joining those of us who believe the rot can be addressed and the church made better. Now, if only you could bring truth-telling and ethics to politics to address the rot in Republicanism. You know Ross, the only way out of purgatory is through.
2
Years ago the BBC had a show called “Father Ted” about priests on a remote island. One of them was an unabashed lecher, drunkard and all-round sleaze. And everyone knew about him and also knew he wasn’t the only priest like that. The show was a comedy but like all the best comedy, was based on the truth. And to be clear, it isn’t only the Catholic Church that has this issue. Religious leaders of all faiths have abused their followers in similar ways for generations. And “everyone knew about it “.
2
Just to note for the record: if you want to know the truth about climate change, the "extreme-seeming types" are the ones making the most accurate claims on that topic too.
8
Ah, repressive religion - the gift that keep on giving. Truly exemplify that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
10
The reason Catholics and “The Church” are not doing more to expose this issue is that there are not a few Uncle Teds in the Church, there are thousands. Complete transparency might just bring down the institution, which would mean the end of siphoning cash out of the poor though guilt, which pays for grand robes, fine wines, world travel, and servants, sexual or otherwise. In other words, exposing the Church for what it is - fake.
12
Ok gang let's go over it again for the umpteenth time re clergy sexual abuse cases or sexual abuse cases in general.
Prior to app. 1980 the victim in either case had very little recourse since in both cases in was de facto legal to do it ie the predator was handled with kid gloves and the victim not believed.
It all changed app. 1980 when in both cases it became clearly illegal. Since then countless people have complained, sued etc. and had the abuse end and justice done.
After this time if you don't complain, wait 20 yrs. to do it, only complain when the promotions, monetary rewards and or worse start the sexual contact you become an enabler and co dependent of the predator.
Predators live for this type of person.
There will always be predators. The way to minimize them and paint them into a corner is not to enable or co depend them.
2
The Catholic Church is a medieval institution which still operates on a version of the Divine Right of Kings.
--Power flows from “God” down to the “best people”, the nobility at the top, or in the church’s case, to the Pope, the cardinals, and the bishops, on down.
--The unwashed, ignorant, uninitiated masses of the laity are at the bottom of this pyramid scheme.
Western Civilization has largely moved beyond this model, at least in theory, to one of power emanating from below, i.e. democracy. This evolution in political organization might be considered part of Catholicism’s own “Mysterium Magnum”, or an unfolding of truth in history as history itself unfolds.
Stuck in the 11th and 12th Centuries as it is when it comes to power and hierarchy, and with no lay checks and balances, the Catholic Church will remain a breeding ground for more McCarricks in Washington/Newark, Laws in Boston, Barroses in Chile, and maybe Pells in Australia. Institutional sins of pride and idolatry will ensure the latter point, as the Catholic hierarchy continues to mistake the intellectual and theological vogues of the 11th and 12th Centuries, and its own organization, for “immutable truth”.
By its very nature, Catholicism is an institution that cannot be trusted.
Finally, one rhetorical question might be: how much of the child abuse in the Catholic Church would have been avoided if women had held positions of power and authority in the institution?
14
"The first thing is the truth. And the way out of purgatory is through." Mr. Douthat you have been writing for a powerful newspaper since 2009. You have apparently known about this archbishop for a number of years before that. Why did you not speak out before now? You have a very powerful platform, and you are a well respected journalist (even if I seldom agree with you, I do respect your intelligence). Why do you remain in a hypocritical Church which has turned a blind eye to this type of behavior for decades, and which has sought to vilify victims, many of whom have had their lives destroyed because of the abhorrent behavior of people in positions of authority and trust and who were supposed to be spiritual leaders. Why did you mention that McCarrick is a liberal? Is that really germane to his repugnant behavior?
20
When Douthat describes a traditionalist Catholic from the church’s fringes, I had a good chuckle because I thought at first he was talking about himself. He certainly COULD have been describing himself.
4
Mr. Douthat,
Clever title and reference to a classic novel but then it is the work of the editorial staff.
Your distaste might be lessened were you to view non-heterosexual sexual expressions as merely varieties of human sexuality. How do you excuse your God from having created the members of the LGBTQI+ community? Or aren't we all equally in the divine image?
I find it incredible that you with all of your connections into institutional religious are not able to name names. Practice what you call others to and call them out. At this juncture your silence creates a mere fellow traveler.
t
3
Absolute power corrupts as does a demand for blind unquestioning obedience. For a very long time we as a society have been conditioned not to question those who are in charge. Add in the shame and stigma attached to sexual abuse and abusers are able to get away with their behavior carte blanche. Abusers are predators who understand us better than we understand ourselves and they count on our shame and obedience to get away with their behavior without any consequences.
It doesn't matter if it's the Catholic Church, the boy scouts, Hollywood, or the family home the dynamic is the same. Anyone who knows but stays silent or refuses to listen to the victim when they are brave enough for speaking their truth, or forces the victim into non disclosure agreements to protect the reputation of the institution is complicit.
2
Ross, you say you know of other perpetrators, but you don't "know" about them in "quite the way" you "knew" about McCarrick. In what way DO you "know" about them? At what point did you know enough about McCarrick to have spoken up? When will you feel you know enough about these other guys? The only way to stop being part of the "everybody" who "knows" is to not just do the exact same thing again.
12
"... a group of Catholics went to Rome to warn against making him Washington’s archbishop (to no avail)". This goes to the core of the problems with the hierarchy of the RC Church - Arrogance, Clericalism, Legalism and Disdain for the Laity.
10
this has been going-on for centuries. an isolated group of men ordained in a power structure designed to make them "special" and therefore entitled to help themselves. in the process of feeding upon young boys, this insulated and isolated power structure (the male clergy) made itself immune from moral and legal justice.
will it change? not until its priests are NOT ordained as a "JESUS" and not until they can marry women and not until women ca become "priests" and cardinals and popes.
until that happens, may a group of us abused people wreak our own justice and hopefully this evil religion will collapse onto itself and disappear.
5
Although this latest sex scandal has left its victims scarred for life, I'm glad to see that the cardinal has finally been exposed as the fraud he is. I used to work for a large company in Newark, and we were starting to build relationships with the leaders of the Puerto Rican community in northern New Jersey.
McCarrick was the keynote speaker at a luncheon, and he was about an hour late. The attendees started eating when their meals arrived. When the cardinal did show up, he scolded the guests for not waiting for him. He was quite condescending, and he treated them as if they were naughty children, instead of the distinguished guests they were.
I was appalled by his actions. He certainly acted in a non-Catholic way. (I am a lapsed Catholic.)
5
The archbishop is alleged to have committed sexual assaults against a young man.
Let us say that he did commit these assaults.
It takes more to conclude that the Catholic Church is at fault.
1
It's about the church covering up the known behavior of not just this priest, but many others as well. That is what the church is at fault for. And, the evidence on the church covering this sort of thing up has gone well past conclusive.
7
It's odd that after a half-million years of more or less human existence, Christianity attempts a do-over of human nature. Whatever did humans do before that to make themselves even more miserable than they needed to be?
8
Saying that "McCarrick was a famous liberal" makes me want to question you about the planet where you have been living. John Paul II and Benedict XVI did not appoint "liberals" to be bishops of dioceses. Some bishops may have been more "liberal" than other ones, but they did not rise in the Catholic hierarchy with a reputation of being "liberal."
17
So Ross tells his tale of a time when he was wrong about something but was able to learn the truth and grow by changing his opinion. Good for you Ross! Hopefully you will have many more such tales to tell as time goes by. Life is for learning, and the first lesson of true value is that one does not know everything. You may want to "rethink" your obsessive adherence to organized religion and conservatism. Two areas that need reexamination.
4
This is such a sad, terrible revelation. I remember McCarrick as a guest of Tim Russert’s after 9/11. My husband and son are Catholic, and we watched this seemingly honorable man comforting a nation. How I resent the betrayal of the people I love. With the ordination of former Episcopal priests who remain married, the requirement of celibacy reeks of hypocrisy.
6
Thank you for your courage and your analysis. I'm a regular reader who disagrees with your conclusions more often than not. I read because your analysis is almost always fair and because you are willing, when you deem it necessary, to speak outside of the label many of your readers place on you. I am sad for the Church's troubles, but happy that it has adherents willing to risk scorn for the truth. It is a commodity too rare in many groups and organizations.
3
This particular cult has flourished best when it served as an arm of political intent, and has diminished when its dogma and odd practices conflicted with monarchies, dictatorships and even democracies. For those who seriously depend on the supernatural, for whatever reasons, defending the structure of the Catholic Church must be a strain. This century will not be the end of organized religion, war justified by religion, or serious mismatch between law, concepts of morality, and religion. The current weird attempt of a new evangelical cult to become an arm of politics is not a singular event, although it bodes enormous evil for our country.
So the non-news that the structure of one particular cult would attract certain personality and sexual types is nothing to be worried about, even if correcting the worst of it is a good idea, and extremely difficult. Pushing on a rope.
4
The requirement of celibacy and an unmarried priesthood was imposed to prevent the high offices of the church from becoming hereditary positions (and even that didn't work). Is it so unthinkable that the church should now consider allowing its priests to marry (straight or gay) to prevent this kind of atrocity?
5
The problem is excess undeserved respect for clergy. User car salesmen would not get away with this without someone speaking up.
Yet clergy sells invisible cars, paid now, delivered after you die, with no warranty, and they should be respected accordingly. Maybe then someone will speak up.
5
Pope Francis is adamant about not wanting homosexual men to enter the priesthood. After all these sexual abuse scandals are finally coming to light, he is correct. I am a practicing Catholic and I think the Catholic Church should seriously consider cleaning house of any homosexual priests even if it means far fewer priests. These men are giving my beloved Church a bad name and one that is not deserved.
It must be noted that there are over 1.3 billion members in the Catholic Church today and it is one of the largest denominations in the world. They find it has meaning and purpose in their lives. What other institution can boast of that many members. Not too many,
2
Homosexuality is not the sin. Homosexuals who are ready to practice celibacy should be as welcomed into the priesthood as heterosexuals who are ready to practice celibacy. It is the abuse of power that is at stake and that is criminal. Please do not confuse the two. Douthat made that clear when he said that this confrontation with abuse is part of the MeToo movement.
4
Being gay does not mean being a sexual predator. Just as most straight men do not take sex by force, neither do gay men.
6
Just as there are heterosexual priests who adhere to their vow of celibacy, there are (and always have been) priests who adhere to their vow of celibacy. Priests of both orientations sometimes break that vow. Gay offenses make juicier news.
2
Most of my French acquaintances were brought up Catholic with the usual baptism ceremonies, first communions, and church weddings. Even when as adults they rarely attend church, these religious milestones are the occasion for the family celebrations which are so much a part of French life.
At a social gathering this weekend the video of the 92 year old priest slapping a crying baby he was baptizing (he referred to it as “”une caresse”) inevitably came up for discussion. What struck me most in the ensuing conversation was not that anyone, thankfully, had been, or to their knowledge, known anyone who had suffered sexual abuse from a cleric, but that everyone seemed anxious to tell stories of the general “meanest” they had encountered as children from the priests or other church representatives in catechism class, during pre-wedding “interrogations” ( their words not mine) as young adults, and other religious occasions.
After such discussions I am not surprised that only 8% of the French apparently go regularly to Mass, I am only surprised that any of them do.
4
Hijacking “me too” is misogyny of the worst kind. Women have suffered the effects of male privilege in every way since the dawn of time, from rape and the casting couch to the sexist prices they are charged by dry cleaners, hair cutters and shoe stores. Their ascent in every field has been blocked by the glass ceiling. They are paid a fraction of what men are and it is blamed on child rearing, which is undervalued. When some women exercise their right to serve their country in the armed forces most elite units, all women are punished for their temerity with a threatened draft. For decades, their educations were held back, and the eventual correction of that wrong shows us just how misplaced that attitude was through the fact that women are now graduating college at much higher rates then their percentage of the population. In fact, there is a rabid sexist pushback to this by those, male and (disappointingly) female who complain that boys are being ignored. Just look at the headlines - men are doing it to themselves with their opioid addictions.
4
Why don't more people ask why an institution organized like this is necessary? It's a model from hundreds of years ago, where mostly illiterate peasants were lectured and told what to think and do by priests (probably the only educated person in the village). Humanity was been so gullible in believing that people in religious costumes that have memorized scripture are inviolable agents of God (taking this to an extreme yields the Taliban). Is it really a surprise that an organization that declares itself beyond reproach, shields itself from scrutiny, and is run by men that are so selfless and pious they can "abandon" their sexuality for life, experiences such scandals?
10
Except for the celibacy pledge, your description sounds a lot like Trump's America.
2
It's nice to see Mr. Douthat write such a frank and sober assessment of sexual abuse in Catholicism. And, yes, sexual abuse applies "well beyond Catholicism." The sexual abuse I see as a lawyer also occurs within families; it's not just a clergy/youth-minister thing. I've seen cases where women beat their kids to death while reciting scripture, men having sex with daughters, who are isolated because of the religious cocoon, families imprisoned, starved ("fasted"), beat, the whole works. Civil government has an obligation to check on the welfare of children especially those living in IFB churches, fundamentalists, isolationist-type congregations. No, we shouldn't trust families. Children die and are abused when we do.
9
The Catholic Church got garroted on its own values. When "they" first heard about this kind of sexua sin, they dealt with it in the internal and avowed semi-Jesus-ordained method of confession and forgiveness. If a priest confessed, then there was a penance and he was forgiven. If it happened again, confession and forgiveness. The church has always looked at itself as outside/semi-above the state, which we allunderstand in the case of communism - but we do not see in the case of sexual abuse. I amsure that the Church authorities continued to freak out more as the problem grew, but they attributed tothe devil, and continued their only method of dealing with adherents who continually confessedand threw themselves onto the mercy of the Church. And more and more people bcome complicit, as events happen -and cops hear stories and do not beleiv them or hear th bishop say "There is something there, but we have dealt with this and Father Whoever has been transferred.
It is very hard forthe Chucrh to admit anything when the secular norm is (severe) punishment, with no forgiveness - the old testament norm. That punishment norm, many times, is not in the victim's best interest, even though everone assumes that - just like 'everyone knows.'
2
At what point does an institution become not worth saving? How much rot must there be before we tear it down and build something new?
4
Something is very wrong in the whole men's club/seminarian/celibate life style of the RCC. Priests should be able to marry and women should finally be treated as equals by being able to join the priesthood. Until those things happen, the RCC is going to continue paying the moral price for imposing such an impossible, artificial way of life upon its clergy.
3
Like most young men, perhaps, there was a period of time when older men continuously hit on me. This was back in the days when conservatives and zealots like Mr. Douthat forced gay men into closeted lives. And, like most young men, I learned to handle the unwanted attention, much the same way I imagine that young women do. So when I read that priests crawled into bed with seminarians, I really have to wonder about the seminarians. You sit up, turn the lights on, and ask what they heck he thinks he's doing and, since the very thing he finds attractive is that you are younger, stronger, and more agile, you demonstrate the way to the door. As an old guy, I can feel kind of sorry for these seminarians but I would not have felt sorry for them when I was 20.
5
@John in CA,
This situation for seminarians is basically sexual harassment on the job. The older priests--and the church hierarchy--control the future paths of seminarians. Just going to the seminary is no guarantee that you'll "pass" and get to be a priest. If you want to pursue your vocation as priest, you have to find a way to go forward without antagonizing these guys.
Lots of young men (and women!) don't have the social cleverness to successfully manage powerful older men.
4
I’m sorry, Mary, but this response makes no sense to me at all. In your view it seems the seminarians are willing to sell out quite cheaply. It is not the men who are held captive but their ambition.
Few things are as important to the future of the Church than allowing priests to marry. The truth is that celibacy has never worked because it is inherently unnatural. I and my fellow Catholics would welcome it. The old men who run the Church should pay heed.
4
The church offers hundreds, if not thousands, of examples of men in authority taking advantage of their power to compel sexual compliance. How are these people not in prison? The church is complicit in every sexual assault that is covered up. Covering up criminal acts is illegal and the church leadership should be prosecuted. Neither the church nor the state has any excuse for their inaction.
2
"... or what the revelations mean for debates about gay men in the priesthood or priestly celibacy or anything else."
And there's Douthat's real point: don't talk about reform or you're aiding in the cover up.
At it's best Christianity has a story that takes sexual energy and directs it toward an institution that provides safety, comfort, and belonging for people from birth to old age: the family. Obviously for many what that brought was oppression, but if there's anything I fear secularization will lose forever it is that incentive for family.
So, it's ironic that the Catholic Church managed to take that same sexual energy and, with its celibacy rules for priests, turn itself into a factory for pedophiles and predators. How many fewer children in the future would be raped if that rule were to go away?
1
Celibacy will end, as it must. Requiring priests to renounce one of the strongest human drives, the overwhelming need for physical contact, is nonsensical and cruel. And until it does end, the Catholic Church, my church, is well-positioned for more inevitable failures.
11
So sad. So very, very sad that people in powerful positions harm such vulnerable people. Evil runs rampant through this world. To all that this man harmed, I hope you are doing well. Peace to you.
3
I say this as Catholic, born and raised: That is that there are many times a line must be drawn between man-made laws and precepts of the Church and the universal moral code. There is a difference between the two. One is arbitrary, the other just, humane, and merciful. Our allegiance is to human rights for not only others but also for ourselves. A priest who is sexually abused by his superior is no more married to the Church than the wife who is continuously assaulted and violated by her husband. Both must annul their connections. They are not binding if one partner does not abide by the contractual rules of decency, civility, health and welfare. Yes, it takes courage to step forth and reveal the sordid truth, but we owe it to ourselves, our bodies and souls, our self-respect and dignity, to confront those perverse men and their perverse behavior.
3
"They are not binding", when applied to the sacrament of matrimony, it would imply nullity. For the predator cleric it would mean defrocking. You are suggesting to go all the way, right? Many think it, few say it as clear and explicit as I just wrote it - the pressure in the Catholic culture is intense. So we have adults tiptoeing around serious issues that demand immediate attention, people living double lives and secrecy, and often worst, hypocrisy masquerading as diplomacy being the norm in Catholic communities.
1
If a priest gets busted having an inappropriate relationship with a woman under his influence, but he’s popular, the response is “takes two to tango, at least it wasn’t a child or a man.”
4
The group SNAP (Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests) has been around now for quite a long time. Anything you read in a newspaper regarding Catholic clergy sexually abusing children and young adults has probably been common knowledge in SNAP for many years. Bishop Accountability (dot) org is also an excellent resource. Their database is so extensive, I found the names of abusive priests, with the same last names as my husband's family, my family of origin, my two best friends' and others (no relation to any, however).
For all of us who are victims for believing in these powerful church leaders, we continue to pray for the love of God to provide us strength. To the actually victim's nothing we can do in this life will ever repair the damage that was intentionally done to them. Only God can rectify there pain we know they are living a never ending nightmare. The Pope has been challenged for not addressing this sexual horror fast enough. However behind the scenes the truth is coming out slowly and painfully but the truth is coming out.
When I used to live in New Jersey over 20 years ago, it was an open secret about "Mildred" McCarrick and his escapades. It baffled many that he went on to higher and more prestigious positions in the Church. But let's face facts: McCarrick was a favored bishop who could get away with it. Your average front line priest would be outed and ousted (at least when the Church started to do the right thing). I'm glad to see Pope Francis start moving (albeit slowly) towards taking on even bishops in these scandals. But let's not forget that the Church can never really make this right for McCarrick's and other's victims, not be legal settlements or public shamings. This is what sin and its effects look like.
2
I'm deeply angered that victim complaints to the hierarchy were ignored and suppressed. I'm deeply grieved, as he aided us in creating a center at Seton Hall University bringing Church principles to economic justice to the workforce.
While there, the Pope sent a delegation to the Seminary looking for "evidence of homosexuality" and an outstanding scholar and administrator was castigated for coming out as gay. We were sad our friend Ted was leaving but happy he'd been elevated to Cardinal in DC with his fund-raising record and knowledge of foreign and public policy.
His successor ordered Priests to stop eulogies at funerals. He didn't come to grips with a suburban Priest the Bergen Prosecutor had nailed, negligence the Star-Ledger cited as cause for him to go back to Peoria.
The late Cardinal Avery Dulles told me the church must resist losing its property in sexual abuse suit settlements, otherwise medical and educational services would shrink, an institutional, not ethical stand.
The institutional cost of insisting on celibacy with inadequate screening out of people with lack of ability to relate or effective training to maintain the vow I saw at St. Thomas Seminary in Denver. Doing outplacement counseling for staff prior to closing, the graduates in class pictures in the hall steadily declined. Seton Hall's strategy was to import seminarians from third world areas. The magnificent Jesuit seminary building in Lennox, MA has been a yoga retreat center for decades.
Please note: there's no such thing as an empty forest. When a tree falls in a full-of-life forest, it's heard by all the many critters who live there. If this doesn't include any humans, oh well. The noise is still the music of life.
Pertaining to the article: I left the Catholic church long ago, as a young woman. I found no haven there. Human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights. The Catholic hierarchy is unaware of this reality, as this hearbreaking story shows.
6
It's long past time for ending tax exemption for religions. Why should a citizen be forced to subsidize something they don't believe in? Tax them all, let them deduct their charitable expenses like everyone else.
4
Same argument used in favor of defunding Planned Parenthood. The rules exist, and they need to be abided by, unless you can succeed in changing them. Next someone will come out in favor of ending tax exemption but only for religious organizations they don't like. Funny because a lost a friendship over this exact argument, when I suggested that picking and choosing from columns A and B might not work well in this world.
1
I'm a lapsed Catholic. The church I was raised in stopped providing for my spiritual needs many years ago, but it still hurts to hear the church of my religious foundation assailed as corrupt. It hurts, but as you say in the article, it's the only way forward to clear out the corruption & start out clean again.
2
Doesn't anyone else find it disturbing that it is the Catholic Church that is finally beginning to follow a movement of moral awareness which began in Hollywood, rather than the other way around?
5
So far as formal charges go, this is primarily a religious issue rather than a legal one. More on the religious concerns below. First, some points of law.
Douthat mentions that the accuser is a teenager. I immediately thought "maybe 13!" After all, a teenager of 18 or 19 wouldn't be a story: above the age of consent; no legal issue involved. We must be dealing here with a younger person. But, how much younger?
Not in the column, but online, I learned that the accuser is "about 16". So, what is the legal situation concerning a 16-year-old?
In DC, the age of consent is 16. Period. Thus, so far as the ages, only, are concerned, if the alleged groping occurred in the Archbishop's city, it was legal. Again: w/r ages, only.
Thus the implied horrifying charge, "under age", the one that made me read the column, falls away. One is left with momentary groping, a la our President.
Thus, it doesn't look like the Archbishop would be in big legal trouble.
He might end up in misdemeanor court with the Prez.
His major offenses are religious. Sexual aggression. Sexual aggression toward one of his flock. Toward a young man under his supervision. Homosexual behavior. Sexual behavior. Non-consensual sexual behavior.
Thus, except for groping, the proper trial venue is in the Church. An Orthodox Catholic, amicus curiae, I support that. Like many Roman Catholics, I should except generic sexual and homosexual behavior.
I doubt the Catholic Church is exempted from laws against sexual harassment in the workplace, though the statute of limitations has likely expired.
But there's no question, non-consensual sexual behavior is a criminal act. Priests are subject to the same laws against non-consensual sexual behavior as everyone else.
2
I commend Mr Douthat for his intelligent analysis of what must be a very difficult situation for members of his faith, and for his willingness to face the truth about the Catholic Church. He is particularly insightful when he says that “The obstacles to #MeToo in Catholicism seem more substantial . . . because . . . commitment to the church is supernaturally absolute and life-defining, the power their superiors exercise is greater even than that of a Hollywood producer . . . .” The problem is that Christianity, like the other major religions, is premised on a fundamental denial of reality. Keeping silent in the name of the “supernaturally absolute” is a way of life in Catholicism, as it is in any cult.
3
It is heartening to read Mr. Douthat's admission that only those of us who have already rejected the Catholic Church have the clear-sightedness to recognize its rot. The corollary to this is that people like Mr. Douthat are continually surprised at how much of it exists.
The Boston revelations are twenty years on and in the interim we have heard in America that things have improved.
Burn down the mission. Finally.
3
"meaning not just journalists covering Catholicism, but bishops and priests and church officials who are tired of being tacitly compromised themselves, as so many people around McCarrick must have been"
Tired of being compromised they might be, but the fact that you must speculate about whether the people around McCarrick "must have been" tells you all you need to know about them coming forward. If the people around McCarrick have yet to speak out about what they know and how long they've known it after his exposure and removal, they are either still too embarrassed about their silence, or too worried about the image of the church to own their part in this. That's not likely to change.
The truth is not likely to be forthcoming about others without the Church taking the high road and setting up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and saying to the People Who Knew that they can come forward without fear of penalty from their superiors and that they will be listened to without prejudice. Sadly, I doubt that fear and denial has been informed enough by reality yet to make this possible.
1
While I'm not a Catholic, I've long been horrified by priestly abuse of parishioners, and the systemic and concerted effort by the Church hierarchy to hide it.
Several years ago, I took it upon myself to read the Racketeer Influenced Crime Organization (RICO) statute, from beginning to end, and then I read it again. I didn't see a carve out for religious or not-for-profit organizations, such as the Church.
For the life of me, I cannot understand why the American justice system has not applied this statute to the institution that is the Catholic Church. This has always been about more than the ugly transgressions of an untold number of individual priests who have abused untold numbers of their vulnerable parishioners, many of them children who had been taught that you could always trust a priest.
As was said when Nixon was forced to resign to avoid likely impeachment and conviction, it is the coverup that often ends up trapping perpetrators of crimes. In this case, the coverup has been assiduously constructed and employed for a very long time by the institution of the Catholic Church, and it seems to me that the RICO statute is being conveniently ignored due solely to the political aspects of using against the Church.
19
Abuse by clergy isn't unique to the Catholic Church. There is abuse within the Southern Baptist convention, evangelicals, "mega-churches", and Mormon sects. Abuse of power is a universal scourge.
It seems to me there are just as many violations of RICO among evangelicals, especially televangelists. I don't recall his name but one recently called upon his followers to give him money for a personal jet to do God's work. Why not stick with his television pulpit?
1
You're correct. There are, of course, abusers within all religions, I would guess. The issue with the various Archdiocese is that there appears to have been a long-standing conspiracy to cover it all up, hide the perps and avoid paying the price.
It is heartening to see Douthat, a Catholic of a conservative bent if not of the hyper-traditionalist mold he describes, prioritize truth-telling and ethics so as to hold the feet of his church to the fire. He is quite right that the church's hierarchical system, not unlike the academic guild system, operates in a nearly medieval way, and is especially vulnerable to patterns of corruption and exploitation and a lack of transparency. What he does not go so far as to say, yet seems rather obvious, is that the celibacy requirement has played a role in creating an institutional culture in which sexual abuse is more likely to occur. In previous theologies marriage itself was commended as a remedy for sin, as a way of controlling sexual desire and channeling it towards an acceptable end (if less perfect, in the eyes of Paul, the Church, and others--incorrectly, in my view). The time has come to extend at least this kind of traditional reasoning to the priesthood itself and allow priests to marry. To my knowledge, the closest priesthood resembling the Catholic priesthood institutionally yet allowing marriage, namely, the Church of England, has not had comparable problems. I say this not as a partisan but as an outsider who wishes the church well in reforming itself in this and other matters. Ultimately it is time for the church to intimate Vatican III, to reform itself internally and its witness to the world, in continuity with the best of its past but looking to new things.
27
There are many sects reporting to Rome that are not Roman Catholic. And some, such as the Romanian Greek Orthodox, allows Priests to marry. It's not just Angilcans (Episcopalians).
I do not understand exactly what you mean in your opening line, though you may wish to consult Troeltsch on your usage of the word 'sect.'
My guess is that the Romanian Greek Orthodox priesthood would be so small and located in different cultural contexts as to be not very apt for comparison, but have they had a sexual crisis in their priesthood? The cultural context matters if one grants that sexual appetites are at least partly socially constructed and thus context specific. In excluding heterosexual men who are willing at least in principle to give up sex with women for their lives, the celibate RC priesthood draws from a pool of men whose sexual appetites are quite different from most men. The sexual appetites and orientations of the men in this pool will vary by context, I suspect, and may be quite different in various times and places.
Gosh, so Ross initially brushed aside an individual who made the claims against an authority figure with power and influence and invented a rationalization as to why to not to condemn. Unfortunately, that has become the very definition of a "conservative" these days.
55
Totally unfair. McCarrick was a "liberal," the guy who first told Douthat about him was a "conservative." He also appeared to be kind of out of it.
It would be insane to believe every accusation made. Should we believe Alex Jones?
When an "everyone knows" scandal is not covered in the media, reporters have a share of responsibility for the failure. However spreading blame often allows those directly involved in the cover up to avoid paying any consequences. In the case of Cardinal McCarrick, settlements were paid by the diocese, a group of knowledgeable Catholics flew to Rome to inform the highest authorities to prevent his appointment as a cardinal and it made no difference. The message to victims and other priests was clear; this abusive behavior is not a serious problem.
It is not only the Catholic Church that enables abusers to continue to abuse for decades. Other religions and secular institutions are equally guilty. Since the Church is controlled by a hierarchy it should be relatively easy to determine who participated in the cover up. On a local level the successful campaign by the Catholic Church and its allies against changing the strict statute of limitations in New York state which protects institutions that cover up abuse from both criminal and civil charges doesn't reflect the slightest willingness to pay any price for failure to protect victims.
33
It seems so quaint now that all of us in a small town parish knew that the Monsignor and his housekeeper were an "item" for years but never talked about it publicly. I was a teenager when I asked my mom about it - I had heard rumors-and she smiled and said "why honey everybody knows. And what do we expect? That a healthy man and woman who are so close to each other aren't going to have a relationship?" My mom who had converted to Catholicism was an incredibly emotionally intelligent woman and saw things how they were not how we wish them to be.
30
And yet there is a big difference between the situation between the monsignor and his housekeeper and a archbishop forcing the men he is suppose to be helping/leading into sex
4
An unmarried couple living together in sin? Oh, the horror!
The violation of vows of chastity? No, the violation of the Church's homosexual norm.
1
You’re right. I didn’t intend for it to be an equilvancy. My point was that the Church and its parishioners have kept things quiet forever. So didn’t surprise me that it kept the real scandal quiet
I have been wondering about why conservatism has evolved such effective tools at bending the truth to suit their agenda of power. It is religion, christianity and catholicism in this particular instance. For two thousand years, christianity has evolved the tools of intellectual deception. It buries reality and logic in the imaginary, defines the rules of access to that imaginary world. It creates a emotional realm and controls the access through fear. Conservatives embrace religion and borrow those rules to control the secular world. The real world is dominated by the imaginary world. The intent is to survive--a worthy human pursuit. But as the survival is founded on imaginary precepts, the goal can only be ultimately less effective than one based in reality.
45
Ross Douthat, I am aghast that the main theme of this column is not an abject apology for your complicity in not blowing the whistle on McClarrick as soon as you knew of his bad behavior. Instead you seem bent on explaining why your conduct was reasonable under the circumstances, the "everyone was doing it" excuse.
Moreover I do not see an argument for the end to absolutely authoritarian institutions but only a hopeless plea for better internal regulation of bodies that abhor and do their best to eliminate any regulation of bad behaviors by those in authority.
Try again.
150
You write that Douthat "knew" of the bad behavior. But he didn't "know", he heard about it from people who wouldn't go on the record. Not the same thing at all.
1
@Carol Goldstein: No se ofenda, but if 1 is neither a christian nor a catholic, why cast aspersion on any Christian denomination. Main problem for all Christian churches in the Western world is lack of fervor, of faith. On any given Christmas eve in St. Stephens, an espicopal church on lower main street in Port Washington, you will find mostly empty pews, and likewise for ST. PETERS OF Alcantara, a Catholic church on Middle Neck Road, you see the same low attendance. Compare the lack of turnout to that of synagogues in Port Washington and mosques, which are always full of congregants. Mosque on 96th and Second Avenue probably draws more worshipers in one week than above mentioned places of worship do in a year! But the problem of low attendance in Christian churches is related to a more profound problem , which is the absence of will among those in the West to survive. Any species must procreate in order to survive, but Western women are more concerned with legalized abortion than perpetuating the species. West is near zero population growth, so what does that mean for the future except submersion by other ethnic groups who are not Christian, and do not share our values? Had discussions along these lines with Dr. JEAN CLAUDE PEREZ, former head of ORO for Algerian OAS while he was "clandestin"in Algeria prior to independence and later when he had his "cabinet de medecin"in Paris centre.The "mrdecin de Bab el OUED called legalized abortion "a refusal of combat!"
This is easy to say if you've never been in a similar position. Have you ever exposed something unethical your employer or a professor was doing? An act that didn't affect you, but could come at significant potential cost to yourself, like the loss of a job your family needs?
I once reported a breech of ethics by a peer, something I was obligated to report; the response was that I had better keep it quiet or I'd be the one to suffer consequences. I chose to depart, but the career consequences have haunted me for decades. I would not make the same choice again.
What if a family friend—not your friend by choice, but a person, say, important to your beloved sibling—was committing an ongoing crime like selling drugs? How quick would you be to turn them in? What if you had reason to believe the police in your neighborhood already knew and willingly averted their eyes? To whom would you blow that whistle?
Or a more everyday level. What if someone you work with, someone who struck you as prone to exaggeration or misunderstanding, told you that a friend's husband was having an affair? Would you report this rumor to your friend without evidence?
It's nice to think that you are so heroic and impervious to social complexities that you would always choose to be the loner who make the hard and most moral choice. I congratulate you on your superiority, but such exceptional virtue in an individual sheds no useful light on how our institutions can go so wrong.
I am not Catholic, but always admired and appreciated their emphasis on education, especially by the Jesuits. Therefore, in 2013, I was please to be invited to an interview for a dean's position at a small Catholic liberal arts college that was run by an order of Brothers. From the moment I started until I left after two days, there was an underlying vibe among the faculty and administrators that the vast majority of them were gay, and few were celibate. In one particular tour, of the bookstore, my host and the person who ran it were most certainly lovers; the air was filled with their mutual affection, and was extremely uncomfortable for me. I later shared my thoughts with my friend, who is French, and he said, "yes everyone knows that priests are gay, that is why they joined the priesthood". This article has cemented my belief, began during that interview, that celibacy is a ridiculous and false standard, and that major changes in Catholic church leadership and teachings on human sexuality are the only way to save Catholicism.
78
I don't think it is worth saving. It should be scrapped. I like to be responsible for my actions and my thoughts. And no one has the right to manipulate them. I don't need God or any clergy to behave.
3
I have to ask why you would want to save Catholicism. For millennia, it has destroyed cultures rich in knowledge, kept its adherents ignorant, made women slaves to pregnancy and abuse (add to this, the overpopulation in developing countries, which itself adds to the climate disaster we are facing), and raped kids. I quit the church at 13 because of their absurd birth control policies. Nothing I’ve seen exposed over the ensuing 54 years has changed my opinion favorably. I wish all Christians would take a year off and actually read the Bible, if they claim to be followers of Christ. I would very strongly suggest the pope study the wiles of Satan in that book, and then take a hard look at which character from the Bible his organization seems to be following.
5
Born and raised a Catholic, and educated in Catholic institutions from grammar school through university, spanning the fifties and sixties, I have to say that perhaps inadvertently, Catholic ethos helped to foster the silence that surrounded predators. We were taught that priests and nuns were inviolable. We were steeped in humility. Suffering was good; a way to expiate our sins. And while many of us grew up with a strong moral code as a result of our education, it also may have led to a predisposition to disbelieve stories about the clergy. All of my friends, both Catholic and ex-Catholic, were horrified by the statistics cited in the movie “Spotlight.” How was it that we did not know? But now we do. The Catholic Church has to pursue truth. It is the moral thing to do, exactly what they taught us.
43
I don't have a lot to go on here - there are a few scholarly works - but I tend to think that we could use a lot more insight into the unconscious aspects of spirituality and sexuality. For those of us who attempt to consciously navigate this territory without hiding behind notions of "sin", it is fraught with a lot of danger. I can tell you from experience that men-priests are more likely than not to misinterpret and take advantage of the deep longings that can become exposed during "spiritual direction". Wise and experienced directors are few and far between. My advice to anyone seeking direction from a high level cleric, other than Pope Francis himself, is to proceed with extreme caution.
24
Why not abandon need to totally?
Perhaps celibacy is a gift that few have, and the Orthodox and Roman Eastern Rite Christian practice of married priests and celibate bishops more nearly deals with the complexities of human sexuality. There is no perfect system, but there are better and worse ones. Historically Christianity has always had ambiguities about human sexuality, witness St. Paul. A bit of honesty about the complexities of human nature would be helpful, rather than wishful thinking.
56
I would argue that celibacy is no gift. It is the church's solution to a hypocritical definition of purity - that there is no room for physical desire in spirituality. In fact, sexual perversions have always resulted from restrictions on sexuality. Descriptions of the cardinal's sexual activity are not descriptions of healthy gay sexuality. His actions appear to be secretive, seductive and likely coercive expressions of suppressed sexuality. Mature and healthy sexuality (inclusive of straight, gay and otherwise) develop most fruitfully in enlightened and non-punitive environments.
71
That ambiguity underlies Douthat's feelings about human sexuality. In an interview with David Remnick of the New Yorker he espouses the belief that a celibate lifestyle is the higher calling, not just for the clergy but for everyone. Keep in mind that to him sexuality is an arena fraught with danger, more of a moral lapse than an integral part of our nature.
22
Most pedophiles and abusers are married. Marriage will not prevent this abuse. It is the enabling culture that allows these abusers to continue.
1
"Gaunt, intense, with a litany of grievances" sounds like a person with PTSD reliving their trauma over and over. There are two reasons we don't hear the tree fall in the forest 1) we interpret accusations as the product of hypervigilant mental health issues (and therefore unreliable) rather than realizing that hypervigilant mental health issues are evidence of trauma and 2) we don't want to believe that our heroes are predators. Hopefully as a culture we're learning to stop gaslighting people's trauma symptoms, offer them compassion instead and avoid the pitfall of unconditional hero worship.
89
Mental health issues are evidence of nothing, other than that a person has a mental health issue. Evidence is; objective, empirical, external. If people don't want to be gas- lighted as you say or victims they have to work up the courage to think objectively. Once a person can do that they realize they aren't a victim.
9
Many so-called mental health issues are outward manifestations of internal damage. The patterned movement of neurotransmitters amid a perhaps dogmatically injured thought process is invisible to the naked eye. Victims are often gaslighted and the younger this gaslighting begins, the more deeply entrenched the confusion. Many people who were victimized very young speak up about it and sometimes over and over again because in the public sphere in general in within closed, secretive groups in particular, people often say they've never heard about whatever abuse is being discussed. I have a story to tell. I choose not to tell it here. I'm going to the golf course instead. I am still a victim.
Are you really saying that we should put full credence in what obviously disturbed people say? I thing Trump is pretty obviously disturbed.
Remember this wasn't someone Douthat knew, it was some random guy at a conference.
Can you really tell PTSD from every other mental disturbance?
Powerful authoritarian institutions need this sort of truth to be contained and denied and kept from damaging the reputation the powerful authoritarian institution needs to survive and prosper. Those who admire such institutions or think them necessary for civilization to survive will just have to put the toothpaste back in the tube; the success of Trump shows that the truth is not necessary.
God wants full churches and people who are moral out of fear; what is necessary to get there must be lived with and defended with enough sophistry and smoke to hide the essential dishonesty. Personally, I think the devil wants this and God is waiting impatiently for us to find the courage to try to live in the truth. Mr. Douthat disagrees; it is time for him to choose.
15
"to prosper" that is the goal. Nothing else is as important so it goes on.
sdavidc9.
“God wants full churches and people who are moral out of fear...”
Jesus preached that wherever two or more are gathered in his name is where the church is. No need for expensive buildings, that money is better spent feeding, clothing, and housing the needy.
For me, morality comes from within. One doesn’t need religion to be moral. There are many moral and ethical agnostics and atheists. We are presently witnessing the immorality and lack of ethics of self-proclaimed Christians condoning the Trump administration’s immigration policy that tears apart families at the US-Mexico border.
2
I disagree.
1
"Now the question is whether the at-long-last coverage of McCarrick’s sins will shake similar stories loose."
I certainly hope so. The Church needs it and our broader society needs it.
One of the cancers in the body of the Church is its loss of understanding of what celibacy means, in a spiritual sense, and why it has an important place within the clergy. Accompanying this loss of understanding, the Church has forgotten that only a few individuals are really fit for a celibate life. It is imposed on too many, and hypocritically, the many lapses are "overlooked".
The Church needs to give a larger place to the Lay Ministry, so that the impossible burden of celibacy can be removed from the shoulders of those incapable of bearing it, but who still want to contribute to the life of the Laity.
There are some, a few, who have the temperament for a celibate life. They should be welcomed and honored, as people who hold unique positions. But far too many who want to contribute do not have the temperament. The Church needs to make more space for them to contribute while being true to their own natures.
67
Part of that greater role for laity would include greater and wider roles for women.
3
So what does celibacy mean, "spiritually," Mr. Jenks? Two thousand years ago, it seemed to indicate a conviction that the human story was over -- that the end of this world was at hand. What does it mean now?
Celibacy is against nature. The only reason the Catholic Church imposes this on priests is purely economic.
Read Church history. Popes once were married. And their assets went to their families. Celibacy changed this.
It is strictly a man made rule, not mandated by Christ or God the Father.
4
Over twenty years ago, I visited a Catholic monastery in an out-of-the-way location. At the time, it was rumored to be a place where pedophile priests were sent to reflect on their sins, repent, and reform, or at least to be away from children. I am not identifying the location because I have no personal knowledge that the rumors were true. However, the very existence of the rumors shows that it was widely known that there were pedophiles throughout the Church, and that the Church hid the problem. It's great that Douthat is calling for all those who participated in the cover-up to come forward, but it was unrealistic then and it is unrealistic now.
To solve this problem, the first thing is not truth. It's using the power of the state and press to discover all the wrongdoers for the protection of the parishioners. When the penalty for covering up for pedophiles is significant, some cover-up participants will reveal what they know as part of plea bargains. Then we will start to know the truth.
74
We need states to follow the lead of PA where grand jury investigations were conducted into every diocese in the state.
1
No, no one needs the power of the state here. What they need to recognize it is that religion was a scam from the get go. Once you go down that road you will believe anything.
2
Here is a way out. Stop believing mystical non- sense and start demanding evidence. That's the only "truth" you will ever know.
2
Ross, Bravo. I disagree with you on so many topics and seem to always struggle to follow your line of thought. But I keep coming back to your column for the challenge and for the stimulation of having to work my brain. In this column, however, I could settle in and let you speak...in a way for both of us. We were on the same page for a change and I could only feel closer to you and great gratitude that you did not mince words or try to justify any of these prelates horrible deeds. And I was reminded of the Penn State scandal and the repercussions there of a legend who has fallen. Thanks Ross, for your unblinking candor and for your commitment to truth. paul in bessemer
69
My sentiments, exactly. I just posted this to Facebook to share with the clergy abuse community that follows me there. Thank you, Ross.
And by the way, in the early parts of the "Spotlight" movie, I was the one who the Boston Globe editors referred to as one of those fringe radicals. And I was also proven to be right.
115
I felt exactly the same. This was a great column!
The movie "Spotlight" did a great job of exploring the environment, within the Boston Archdiocese and the city itself, that fostered this sort of cover-up. Many people knew or suspected that priests were raping children, but very few took action to speak out or stop it. This type of scenario has been repeated in so many other dioceses across the country and as we see here, in the McCarrick case, too.
If you have not yet seen the film, and are open to being enlightened, it is available in many places, including on Netflix.
Accepting clerical authority and clerical authorities is a personal choice, and in my book not a good one. If you do not accept them as authorities in the first place, you see, they cannot disappoint you with their misbehavior. The fact that they publicly declare vows of celibacy and go around in strange clothing might cause you to regard them as a bit odd in the first place.
68
Who in today's world would accept clerical authority. It's mystical non- sense. If you swallow this pill I just don't understand. It isn't that you don't have a choice. You do, just work up the courage to think on your own feet. Open your eyes.
1
It's not a personal choice for children.
1
Yes it is. They can tell their parents. I can assure you, if this happened to my child I would see them in prison.
Only when the medieval, body-shaming, and misogynist requirement of celibacy is removed will the priesthood stop attracting so many predators like McCarrick. Human sexuality is a drive that defines us as human and enables us to love our husbands and wives with the greatest depth, joy, and intimacy. Everyone, including God's servants, should be able to experience this divine gift.
234
We are in Belgrade and my wife met an Orthodox Priest on the street in full regalia - pushing a pram. He had his wife and family with him and looked great :)
4
Well you have to first recognize that sex is not a divine gift, because there is no such thing. Its a very earthly gift. Its part of being an organism. The concept of divinity is a concoction.
3
With all due respect to the flight of ornate fancy, human sexuality is usually about as deep and divine as cats mating in the back yard, and often as violent.
i think that Dr. Sipe whom Ross cited is the expert to consult on this problem. In his definitive book on the subject of predatory clergy based on his extensive research and behavioral treatment of the perps, I think he said that about 5% of the clergy in 2nd half of the twenty century were sexual abusers. Maybe the figure is a bit higher for the intramural sexual abuse of subordinates and student clergy by their superiors. It is morally offensive and we know what the Master said should happen to such as these (Mill stone around the neck and thrown into the sea, or better yet not to have been born). But I think that there is a snide and schaden freude tinge in the reactions of the many of readers of Ross's article and it leads to the false conclusion that this abuse is going to bring the house down or the house of the church is already pretty much down for good. This stuff and worse has happened for centuries and it has not killed off the church and probably won't now, though it is necessary to confront it and repent.
23
I read somewhere that your 5% was more like 12%. I think this statistical guess came out of the Boston diocese's targeting of children. Big sample there.
13
The problem is not with a small number of active abusers.
Whether the percentage of active abusers is 5% or 12% or whatever, they have many more enablers, including the entire hierarchy.
The hierarchy has been corrupt, not just the abusers.
Can the hierarchy redeem itself? It seems highly unlikely.
116
One of the things that's going to come out in this next phase is the complicity of Catholic journalists in keeping these horror stories secret. These stories of networks of powerful predators who operated within the submissive adult clergy were eminently reportable, but reporters and editors were afraid to touch them. As the record will, alas, show.
133
A fair and telling point - but not necessarily true of one respected Catholic news source. In once resigning from a lay administrative post in a diocese fighting abuse charges, I described myself as a "National Catholic Reporter" type caught in "National Catholic Register" culture.
1
Cardinal McCarrick was elevated to archbishop and cardinal after settlements were reached with seminarians and/or young priests. The settlements were reached by and known by the diocese of Metuchen and the archdiocese of Newark. The depth of the corruption and complicity is unfathomable to me.
392
To me this is the greater sin, that knowing what had happened, what continued to happen, nonetheless, McCarrick was elevated to such a high position as cardinal giving the laity the impression that this predator was instead deserving of their admiration and respect. The church and its officials are complicit in these criminal activities. Shame on them.
1
A full investigation would look closely at these settlements.
We've seen folks who certainly do appear to be abusers claim they paid accusers off even though they weren't guilty. How often does that happen? I'm inclined to say quite rarely but I have no factual basis for that belief.
Perhaps these settlements were open and shut cases, perhaps there was some ambiguity.
We like to think that we know what happened in various incidents. So, for example, I think OJ was guilty; there's plenty of reasons for believing that. Can I say I know he did it? Guess it depends on your definition of know.
That is what always appalls me, in any field. That people know and they not only keep silent - they promote these men, they fawn on them, they help make them even more powerful. So they can do even more damage.
Think of all the people like me who have been so saddened and sickened, intimidated and abused, by these sorts of people, that they have to change their line of work - or cannot work any more at all. They'd have to work side by side every day, or come face to face every week or two, with these abusers and their enablers. Both kinds make me nauseous with anger.
1
I wonder — only that, just wonder — if the sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church would be less frequent if parish priests were free to marry. After all, priestly celibacy is a matter of practice, not doctrine. Many of Jesus’ disciples had wives and, presumably, families.
145
As a former sex crimes prosecutor, I can say that most of the pedophiles that I prosecuted were married or had an ongoing sexual relationship with an adult while they were sexually abusing their victims. The same was true of people who sexually abused teenagers or adults. Ending celibacy will not reduce incidents of sexual abuse.
I think it's important to note that even if the practice of celibacy were consigned to the dust bin of history, where it belongs, it would not guarantee the end of sexual abuse. Sexual predators are what they are and having a wife or husband doesn't cure them.
What irks me, is that the Church considers it a higher calling rather than just one way to develop your spiritual life. I thought Vatican 2 put an end to that trope.
I also think that the Church's motive for the practice of celibacy for it's worker bees was more economic then spiritual. Families are expensive and messy. Single folks are cheaper labor more easily controlled. So much for higher callings!
1
But he told them to leave their families behind.
I am old enough to remember clearly what it was like in the 1950s. Everything in our culture pressured us toward NOT speaking out against sexual abuse. If you spoke about it, you were implicated in it; you were guilty. People didn't want to hear it, authorities certainly did not want to hear it, parents did not want to hear it. If you did speak out, you would not be believed; you would be crucified. Slowly, very slowly, this has changed.
And now: the astonishing eruption of the #MeToo movement is one of those rare, historic, watersheds after which things are changed forever. It is a wonderful and remarkable step forward for human rights.
232
it is stunning to me that as soon as one of these
exposes comes out,whether it be cardinal or
conductor or comedian, a number of people
come out with columns or articles saying that
they had heard these things for decades.maybe
if they had come forward a lot sooner,many
people would have been spared a great deal
of misery.I don't mean trumpeting allegations
in a haphazard fashion,but quietly approaching
an investigative arm of a newspaper or TV station and making their inside information, if
you will,known to them.let experienced
investigative journalists look into them and decide if there is anything to them.
87
Didn't Douthat say he did that? A journalist needs evidence to run a story. There's lots of stories out there so if you can't find evidence in one after looking for a while it makes sense to move on.
"And without worrying, either, about whether the stories make either side of Catholicism’s civil war look good (McCarrick was a famous liberal, but the next case might be a conservative)..."
What a weird, off-tangent comment, Mr. Douthat.
Why would you even mention that McCarrick was a famous liberal?
What does that have to do with sexual abuse?
But, you've done your job because you made me think about McCarrick being a liberal.
Strange.
153
Actually, V, it's because too many Catholic controversialists decide not to look at the horror of the predation and manipulation for what it is, but to stress that of course this was done by one of THOSE Catholics whom the speaker abhors. All Douthat is saying is to cut out the noise of Catholicism's interior culture wars and take steps to prevent the abuse itself.
48
It's not strange to a Catholic. While I think "civil wars" is overblown, I'm aware of partisan differences and factionalism in the clergy and in the pews. So it's easy for me to imagine a response to this revelation of "what do you expect from a Liberal Cardinal". Ross's point is well taken.
9
it was his true point all along.
2
It's little surprise that religious folks like Brother Douthat are among the last to discovery reality, especially the ugly reality in their own sacred church pews.
That's the great allure of religion...an escape from pedestrian reality into a fictional fantasy world littered with figments of man's perverted and deranged imagination.
Religion's been a big hit over the years, mostly due to patriarchal bullying manifested in the form of medieval psychological abuse of women, children, the poor, the desperate and the intellectually defenseless.
But increasingly, it's become painfully obvious to those with an IQ above room temperature that organized religion is nothing more than a racketeering operation, a well-dressed and well rehearsed criminal syndicate happy to fleece society out of some cash in exchange for worthless life insurance, some good music and some nice architecture.....not to mention endless hypocrisy, Fundamentalist Derangement Syndrome, 2nd and 3rd-class citizenship for females, Bible Concussive Syndrome....and the destroyed lives of innocent boys by the world's premier institute for the pederasty arts.
"Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
- Steven Weinberg
One day, organized religion will close its corrupt doors for good, and the world will be a much finer, humane and decent place.
Thank 'God'.
359
I wish you were right on this one. But I fear that as long as there are humans there will be religion. It's a kind of selected for trait I think. It helps people survive for some reason, otherwise it wouldn't be so common. Just like IQ. Like Lincoln said, "God must love the common man, he made so many of them."
2
Thank 'God' indeed. Best comment yet with the most recommendations.
1
Precisely.
I am not going to offer another tired screed from an Atheist's perspective, but will just say that my personal opinion is that organized religion is seriously on the wane. (as any institution that does not have a modern point of view of human rights and inclusion for all)
Having said that, there is a unique dichotomy going in that certain religious entities are experiencing a serious uptick as they morph into 501c4's that supposedly do ''religious'' work, but are merely fronts for dark money to inundate all of us with their narrow political views. (much like the church itself)
It is time (after a few millenia) that we reorganized these institutions and shine an antiseptic light upon them. We need to eliminate the tax shelters that they are, and eliminate all of us subsidizing them for what we can achieve personally within all of hearts all by ourselves. (that is if we believe at all)
Those religions that offer full human rights and inclusion that are not hypocritical in protecting such heinous acts will flourish, while those that remain in the dark ages will not.
Just a thought.
16
I am not going to offer another tired screed from an Atheist's perspective, but will just say that my personal opinion is that organized religion is seriously on the wane. (as any institution that does not have a modern point of view of human rights and inclusion for all)
Having said that, there is a unique dichotomy going in that certain religious entities are experiencing a serious uptick as they morph into 501c4's that supposedly do ''religious'' work, but are merely fronts for dark money to inundate all of us with their narrow political views. (much like the church itself)
It is time (after a few millenia) that we reorganized these institutions and shine an antiseptic light upon them. We need to eliminate the tax shelters that they are, and eliminate all of us subsidizing them for what we can achieve personally within all of hearts all by ourselves. (that is if we believe at all)
Those religions that offer full human rights and inclusion that are not hypocritical in protecting such heinous acts will flourish, while those that remain in the dark ages will not.
Just a thought.
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@ Funky
I agree about your remarks about tax shelters. But we should go further.
All tax deductions for charitable donations should be eliminated. ALL of them, whether we like and approve of the cause, ourselves.
If one wants to make a charitable donation, by all means, do so. But the money should come from you, and not be deducted from general tax revenues.
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This Episcopalian agrees with you on that measure. As a matter of fact the Unitarian-Universalist Church in Buffalo has done that since the 1930s. Tax deduction for religious enterprises makes a mockery of the separation of church and state.
11
Excellent comment. Another institution where following the money will find corruption. Don't do as I do, do as I say and add more money to the collection plate. People will wise up but it will take generations.
4
As a member of the Catholic clergy I am so troubled by this systemic corruption and abuse of power. Unlike other institutions, the church has a solemn vow of obedience and the only way for a young priest to resist the power of those in whom it is vested is to leave the institution completely. Sexuality and a need and drive for intimate union with others is in the DNA of almost every human being. The combination of unfettered heirarchical power, repressed sexuality generally, and taboos related to homosexuality in particular, are deeply corrupting. The church must adapt somehow or risk losing all but the blindly loyal - even those who believe deeply in the divinity of Jesus and His real presence in the Eucharist. Perhaps it is time to put women and married men in positions of power. Amen.
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It is the solemn “vow of obedience” that corrupts above all else as it bestows absolute power upon the Church. Absolute power corrupts absolutely is as true of a saying as their ever was and still remains. The Church must first give up the “vow of obedience”. Instead, how about all clergy taking a solemn “vow of conscience”?
5
Harvey Weinstein was married and it did not stop him from sexually abusing dozens of women. Married men have been accused of sexual abuse so they are not immune from committing heinous crimes.
Sexual abuse is found to have occurred by single men, married men, single women, married women. It does not discriminate.
Some people are atheists and still believe in Christ's teachings. My grandfather was a scholar. He learned Greek and Sanskrit in order the read original texts. One influential translator mistakenly translated "young woman" as "virgin." The so-called Church never bothered to correct that mistake. Sexual predation is much, much worse.
#MeToo might provide a kind of model for other large public institutions that can grab headlines. But I see no reason to believe that either Hollywood's reform or the Church's offer any tools for change to the vast majority of society's victims, in anonymous working-class jobs. The media couldn't care less about the abusive motel or discount-store manager. But maybe the rich and the famous are the only ones we really care about, whether they are McCarricks & Frankens we take down, or the Trumps we protect.
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Exactly. The single mom who works in a fast food joint getting harassed won't even be getting $1 to keep her mouth shut, never mind $100,000.
2
Death Comes for the Archbishop has always been one of my favorite books. I’ve been done with the Catholic Church for quite some time, but I’ve always believed in Bishop Lamy’s story. Douthat found a way to tie a wonderful book, an homage to a very interesting figure in Southwest American history, to the Catholic abuse scandal. Nice going, Ross. Very thorough.
Willa Cather is rolling in her grave right now.
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What a surprise. Here’s a group of men who join a boys-only club that openly eschews female companionship and marriage. Turn out many are gay. But one’s sexuality is not something that that can be wished away, and boys will be boys. Some will be abused, but the cloistered nature of the arrangement ensures that people won’t be inclined to blab.
The stories of abuse have gone on for decades, but such was the power of the Church that priests on the inside and children on the outside who suffered abuse had nowhere to turn. This is the problem with fantastical organizations that prey on the gullibility of the flock. It’s fish in a barrel.
Maybe this is why the Church is so hard on married heterosexual couples who want a divorce, and which forbids contraception. If those straight couples want to have (ugh) s-e-x, then it better produce a few new Catholics to keep the engine running.
One could almost have cynical thoughts about whether the Church is anything other than a place that cloisters scam artists, fleeces the sheep for billions of dollars and makes them suffer their heterosexuality if they want to get into heaven.
This system is bolstered by the devout who have been cowed into keeping silent, thinking that the Church is divinely constituted. The punishment for such thinking is the institutionalized torment of young boys and the fear of one’s sexuality. Maybe it’s time to get real.
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You have to admit, for some seminarians it must be a thrill to cavort with one of the right-hands of God. Consider it an insurance policy years later when standing before the Pearly Gates, even if St. Peter’s right brow is arched disapprovingly.
Too over-the-top? Sorry, just finished Maureen’s column, and I needed to step down a notch.
On one hand, the Church can hardly complain about #MeToo, straight or gay: it’s apparently hitting EVERY wayward man. But not being a particularly cruel person, I almost have to believe that the faithful have been hit by too MANY pigeons over the past generation.
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I'm sure Dowd take on Ivanka does sting.
She, like the young Seminarians, is beholden to a flawed superior for position and money. If she distances herself, she, like the young Seminarians, will have to admit what she/they are involved in on an institutional level, and will have to be accountable and publicly exposed, both personally, and in the case of Ivanka, financially. She, like the young Seminarians, are both encouraged, nay required, to "protect the brand". Perhaps she can speak and advocate for the young Seminarians as well as for women and children's issues.
1
Not a particularly cruel person? Let others decide
1
I must admit the revelations about Cardinal McCarrick are shocking to me as a practicing Catholic. My parents attended an event while he was the Archbishop of Newark and they were very impressed with his intellect and dedication to the priesthood. They also thought he was a very nice priest and liked him a lot. They are now deceased and would be equally as shocked to learn of the disturbing and sad news about the cardinal.
I guess sexual abuse is more prevalent than I had realized within the Catholic Church. It appears to be occurring in every phase of life and no venue is immune from this scourge on our children and even adults. What is encouraging is that it is being discussed more freely today. The only way to rid ourselves of this evil is to confront it head on.
While I am sickened and angered by these revelations about the abuse of some of the Catholic clergy, it will never affect the strong devotion I have to the Catholic Church. I personally know many fine priests from my many years as a Catholic and they are as appalled and disgusted by this evil behavior as I am. They would never for one second violate a Catholic by violating them in any physical or emotional way. It goes against the teachings of the Catholic Church to which they take very seriously.
It must be said that those priests who are guilty of abuse are a small minority. Of course, one abusing priest is one too many. I will pray for the victims of abuse and also that this terrible abuse ends.
28
I, a non-Christian, spent over a decade hearing about and meeting victims of Marcial Maciel (aka Marcial Maciel Degollado in Spanish) (Mexico, 1920 - Italy 2008) and watching the Church (and, indeed, other sorts of Christian institutions) twist and turn to keep from seeing him for what he was and what his enablers were.
Time and time again, I recalled that the (Anglo-Catholic) historian (of the Papacy) and moralist, known simply as Lord Acton, said in a letter in 1887:
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."
The truth of this goes far beyond religious institutions, as we are seeing day by day right now.
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The vow of celibacy defies the basic nature of humanity. The practice is both archaic and barbaric. Cloaked in fallacious concepts of purity, celibacy at its core is a denial of our own physicality. As a result, it is unsustainable and leads to sinister expressions of immature sexuality (as described here). It would be far better for the Catholic church to opine on mature and healthy sexuality then to encourage stunted and pre-adolescent perspectives about sex in priests.
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Yes, yes, and yes. Great point about mature and healthy sexuality. Unfortunately, as long as the Catholic church upholds chastity as holy and the legend of the virgin birth as being the only way Christ could be incarnate, then it will never achieve a healthy and mature view of sex. Celibacy was not a requirement in the early church. It wasn't until the middle ages that prevailing patriarchal attitudes associated sex and the body with sin and shame. The church's attitude will always be stunted, adolescent, and misogynist.
When I was a young professional in NYC in teh 1970's I heard stories of Cardinal Spellman, as well as Bishop Sheen (then dead). So yes, I believe there are other high-profile Catholic clergy out there who haven't yet been outed and may never be. The best we can hope for it that from now on victims won't stay quiet out of guilt or misplaced obedience to the Church.
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