| As the American bishops meet this week in Dallas, the prayers of every faithful Catholic and most Americans of good will go out to them. Three large issues are raised by what we have learned.
The first is how should church policy deal with acts of pedophilia and the sexual use of minor teens by Catholic clergy? The second question: Why are so many Catholic clerics accused disproportionately of sexual abuse of boys (including teens), and what can we do in priestly formation to prevent it?
The third question is: How do we respond to the revelations of systemic sexual corruption in church leaders, including the apparent existence of an active gay priestly subculture of unknown but clearly not insubstantial proportions?
Unfortunately the American Catholic leadership seems ready to face only the first of these questions. Pedophilia and statutory rape are not just sins; they are crimes. Catholic bishops are apparently prepared to exercise zero tolerance toward pedophilia -- past and present -- and a one-strike policy for past sexual use of a minor adolescent.
The priest who, say, once fell in love with a teen-ager years ago and has since demonstrated manly self-control, can continue to serve. A priest who has ever been sexually attracted to children will be defrocked, if American bishops have their way. Abuses that are less than full sexual use (inappropriate language, or touching, or a romantically charged relationship) fall into a gray zone requiring judgment.
On the second question Catholics wonder about -- why so many boys? -- the bishops throw a few broad fig leaves in the direction of improved screening of candidates for the priesthood. But screening for what? Holiness, says Father Richard John Neuhaus. Psychological maturity, suggest others.
The idea of altering clerical celibacy has apparently been dropped. Good thing. Pedophiles seek out positions that allow them access to children, including marriage. In a 1995 study in the journal Child Abuse and Neglect, almost half of all child sex offenders (overwhelmingly male) had married.
There appears to be no consensus among the bishops on screening out men with same-sex attractions, despite the increasingly powerful evidence that same-sex culture in seminaries is driving normal men away from vocations. Continued... |