Chicago Free Press Editorial: Memo to the Vatican: Stop blaming us

Chicago Free Press Editorial: Memo to the Vatican: Stop blaming us
Copyright by The Chicago Free Press
October 1, 2009
http://www.chicagofreepress.com/node/3941


The late Rev. Jerry Falwell, who most in the GLBT community probably don’t miss so much, had a famous quote about gays, reportedly told to his (gay) speechwriter Mel White: “Thank God for these gay demonstrators. If I didn’t have them, I’d have to invent them. They give me all the publicity I need.”

The same now goes for the Catholic Church. But the Church is not looking for free publicity in its rhetorical attacks on GLBTs; it’s looking for scapegoats.

Last week, according to the Guardian, a representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, Keith Porteous Wood, accused the Church of covering up child abuse and being in breach of several articles under the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Arch. Silvano Tomasini, the Vatican’s envoy to the U.N., responded to the charges, pointing out that abuse was prevalent in all religious communities and that “only one-and-a-half to five percent” of Catholic clergy were involved in abuse accusations.

Tomasini’s report further mentioned something the Vatican obviously felt was important to clarify: That the majority of Catholic clergy accused of committing such acts were not pedophiles, but, rather, gay men attracted to adolescent males.

By saying that these priests are gay, not pedophiles, the Vatican hopes to direct public anger towards gay men and deflect the charges by riding on a wave of anti-gay hysteria.

Indeed, while publicly maintaining that all should hate the sin and love the sinner, the Vatican does much to put stumbling blocks in the path of our community, from the Pope’s comments on dangers gay marriage supposedly poses to families to its financing of anti-same-sex marriage initiatives. Perhaps most disgraceful, though, is the Vatican’s implication of homosexuality as being the root cause of these abuse situations.

Certainly the argument can be made that abuse of children can go on in any religious setting or denomination. At the same time, most other religions have not institutionalized a seminary life that seems to leave the psychosexual growth of many participants stunted. We won’t venture guesses as to what the specific problems are, but “only one-and-a-half to five percent” of priests is way too many priests.

Something is rotten there, and the Church, for whatever reason, seems unwilling to do anything significant to fix it. But they need to stop mentioning gays in the same breath as all their abusive priests. We should be left out of their mess while they start getting their own house in order.