The Catholic Church & the recent Pedophilia scandal

 Bambino I. Martins, Ph.D

The Catholic laity shouldn't bury its head in the sand while the scandal of Catholic priests molesting children continues unabated and the hierarchy plays musical chairs with the guilty priests shifting them from parish to parish.

Does the hierarchy believe that the guilt is proportional to the distance the criminal is  from the scene of the crime? Or is the hierarchy trying to cover up the trail of guilt in a process akin to money laundering?

I think a crime/sin should  be   forgiven,  but even if the sin is repeated seven times seven? However any attempt to cover up a sin multiplies the guilt because a cover-up, generally,  implies fore-thought, to a greater extent than the commissioning  of the crime itself.

I think the Catholic laity should respectfully request the hierarchy to, immediately, institute a policy of "zero-tolerance" towards pedophilia and immediately disclose past cases, while assuring fair compensation and full protection to innocent victims and punishment of guilty priest..

Of course the media, in its zest, to destroy the Catholic Church has seized this opportunity and are exploiting it to the fullest extent possible. In that process they are  trying to advance political agenda, such as doing away with celibacy, and instituting  women priest.

I am not an expert on pedophilia nor am I celibate. But I fail to see any intrinsic cause-effect relationship between the two. Celibacy is no more unnatural than pedophilia is natural. But while celibacy is a virtue, pedophilia is a vice and practice of a virtue can't cause vice.

If  practice of a virtue causes vice then sainthood which is the birthright of every baptized person is unachievable.

Catholic priests aren't the only people who "practice" pedophilia. Sexual abuse of children occurs even within a family, when the father, a married man sexually abuses his children.

I am not a statistician, but if the devil can quote the Bible, I hope I will be excused for quoting a stat.  A recent study indicated that pedophilia existed among married men, including Protestant married clergy, and in the general population,  to about the same extent  as among Catholic priests.

In fact, the tragedy of Catholicism in America is that it's practiced on a "cafeteria" style. Statistically there is very little difference in the beliefs and or behavior of Catholics compared to the beliefs and behavior of non Catholics around them.

I believe that's because the hierarchy "glosses" over certain doctrines of the Church for fear of parishioners deserting the Church and the "collection basket" turning up empty.

If the Church is forced to away with celibacy, what will be next? Homosexual priests? I will not provide a "laundry list" but anyone can add his/her favorite natural  vices that s/he wants   in the priests and
unnatural "despicable" virtues s/he doesn't want in a priest..

Because the flesh is willing and the Spirit is weak, it's difficult to practice virtue and very difficult to resist vice, specially in the raunchy culture that exists today.

Should the Church not require that priests be virtuous, because it's though to be virtuous forever? On the other hand should the Church permit priests to indulge in any vice they choose to, because resisting vice is considered unnatural by some people?  These  same people probably think practicing virtue is unnatural.

Do they want more "CHOICE"?

In the two thousand years of its existence, the Church has survived all kinds of scandals from the very beginning, starting with DENIAL by Peter, BETRAYAL by Judas and DESERTION by all except one of the twelve Apostles hand-picked by Christ Himself.

The Church also survived the corruption of some of the Popes during the darkness of the Dark Ages Having survived Voltaire and the Age of Reason. The Church will  go on after surviving  this scandal.

All, all Catholics have to do is PRAY as if everything depended on GOD and WORK, within the Church,   as if everything depended on us.

Bambino Martins
April 14, 2002

also submitted to the Catholic Goan Network, USA

Back to Front Page