The Slacktivist Does It Again

Fred Clark is an amazing and succinct writer.

Just in case readers think that I only care about hypocrisy in the Roman Catholic Church, Fred manages to take care of evangelical, fundamentalist hypocrisy and idiocy quite well. He could definitely label some of his posts.: "Just what is the colour (without the "u" of course) of the sky in their world".

Might I suggest that people read two of his recent posts.

The first: "It's not your 'stance', but who you're standing with". This is Fred's commentary on the sexual abuse of children in evangelical circles. His main point is as follows:

         The problem with Challies' response is not his "stance," but that he's standing in the wrong place, standing by the wrong people, standing on the wrong side. His allegiance is cast with the institution, not with the vulnerable.

The second: "Christian college fires woman for not getting abortion". The woman was only engaged when she became pregnant. The amazing part of this story is that the college then apparently offered the job to her fiancé. He didn't take it, but honestly! Read on!

The Slacktivist is on My Blog List in case you have trouble with links.

Just what is the colour of the sky in their world, part 4

Sexual abuse by clergy a 'mystery,' Pope says: Video statement may spark new anger among Irish Catholics

"How are we to explain the fact that people who regularly received the Lord's body and confessed their sins in the sacrament of Penance have offended in this way?" the Pope said, referring to church staff who abused children.

"It remains a mystery," he said. "Yet evidently their Christianity was no longer nourished by joyful encounter with Jesus Christ. It had become merely a matter of habit."

...

"Your forebears in the church in Ireland knew how to strive for holiness and constancy in their personal lives," Benedict said in his message.

Somehow I missed this particular story last June. Probably doing something else :-)

This is the sort of story that should make most Roman Catholics understand that they will get no true change from the Papacy and Curia. I understand the rationale behind Ratzinger's (PB16) comments. He is a true believer in the efficacy of the sacraments. He believes that when someone receives the blood and body in the sacrament of mass, it will have a magical edifying effect on the person who participates in the mass. This is especially true for priests who take both the wine & host. 

Now we come to the restatement of my original article's title (It can't be true, and if it is, it's not our fault). The latest paper will read "Well I guess it's true, but it's still not our fault" (will upload to the website after it is edited). It you read BP16's remarks closely, it is clear that this problem must be the fault of the priests, the people involved have actively refused the nourishment offered by the mass. This, of course, would go further than just the abusing priests. It must be, therefore, that the bishops, cardinals, etc. who didn't "do the right thing" also refused to be nourished by the mass.

Honestly I don't really expect the Pope et al to actually start questioning the theology and validity of the Roman Catholic sacramental theology but that is exactly what is in question here.

The second thing that is in question is the assumption that in the past, the priests were better & didn't sexually abuse children - were really nourished by the mass. How in heaven's name does he make that assumption? Hasn't he been integrating the understanding that we now have about the intergenerational nature of pedophilia? Obviously not. And if you read the 2004 report that came out of the Vatican*, which I will review on the website at a later date, you will understand why. However, even that document has a whole section (pp. 13-17, if I remember correctly) detailing how the church has been decrying this issue since the later part of the first century C.E. Clearly, another case of those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it - especially if they are locked into an ideological position from which they are afraid to depart.

*Hanson, R. Karl, Friedmann Pfafflin and Manfred Lutz, eds., Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church:Scientific and Legal Perspectives. Proceedings of the Conference “Abuse ofChildren and Young People by Catholic Priests and Religious” (Vatican City, April 2-5, 2003). Vatican City: Liberia Editrice Vaticana, 2004.

Commentary on Previous Post

Previous post: http://www.sheilaredmond.com/2012/07/just-what-is-colour-of-sky-in-their.html

So they're planning to secretly ordain women then cover it up when people find out???????????

Just what is the colour of the sky in their world, part 3

Vatican labels the ordination of women a 'grave crime' to be dealt with in the same way as sex abuse

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295012/Vatican-labels-ordination-women-grave-crime-par-sex-abuse.html#ixzz1zbJRCa4F

And here you can see one of my "favourite" Vatican spokespersons on the defensive: Monsignor Charles Scicluna, the Vatican's sex crimes prosecutor, talking to the media at the Vatican today.

Further to that:

Believe it or not, the rape of children is a "grave delict" against the Fifth/Sixth Commandment: "thou shalt not commit adultery" for Protestants (;-)) 

• So are priests married to holy Mother church? (whiff of incest there) or 

• Since they are "consecrated" to the Virgin Mary, is this considered a marriage (but no sex, please, we're Catholic priests)? (again, icky) 

It's like shooting fish in a barrel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just what is the colour of the sky in their world, part 2

Setting the Stage:

A Report on the Crisis in the Catholic Church in the United States The National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People Established by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. February 27, 2004

I will be doing a far more in depth analysis of the John Jay Reports at some point in the future but I wanted to make note of something that sets the stage for understanding so much about what has gone wrong & is going wrong with the RCC institutional response to their "pedophilia crisis". The following is an excerpt from the Report on the Crisis in the Catholic Church in the United States:

To understand the purpose and scope of the Report, it is helpful to emphasize what it is not. First, this Report is not intended to address Church doctrine or to serve as a sounding boards for those within the Church and outside the Church who wish to use this scandal to accomplish objectives unrelated to or tangential to the goal set forth above. The problem facing the Church was not caused by Church doctrine, and the solution does not lie in questioning doctrine. Second, this Report does not address specific instances of clerical sexual abuse or inadequate episcopal response. ... it is not the purpose of the Report to determine whether an individual priest or bishop was responsible for a specific act or omission. Finally, this Report is not, an does not purport to be, a scientific exercise. With the exception of the analysis of the John Jay College study, ... the Report does not rely upon the scientific method. Thus, for example, the Board has not attempted to conduct a comprehensive analysis of factors that may have made sexual abuse of minors more or less likely in a particular environment, or to develop an empirically-based profile of a typical sexual abuse offender.

However, the Board is confident that it has accurately placed in context the reasons for the current crisis. (pp. 7-8)

There you have it. The parameters of the report. It speaks for itself. I'll give them #2 but honestly, do they expect anyone to believe that they can "accurately place in context the reasons for the current crisis" with those parameters. It is no wonder that Robert S. Bennett, the Research Committee Chair, washed his hands of the whole mess.

A First Look at The John Jay Reports

1. The Nature and Scope of the Problem of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States.  A Research Study Conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice

2. The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010.  A Report Presented to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops by the John Jay College Research Team

First things, first. It should also be noted that although the Causes and Context Report (C&C) says 1950 -2010, all the graphs and statistics end as of 2002 with a couple of paragraphs & 3 graphs to cover to 2008: pp.32-33).

It would be interesting to do a comparison of the earlier "Nature & Scope" with this one - there are some changes in how the data is reported. Just one example: compare the Tables 4.4.5 &  4.4.6 (p.76) of the Nature & Scope report to Table 5.7 (p. 112 where the 2 previous tables are collapsed into 1)) of the Causes & Context report. The initial report (N&S) shows the gifts & enticements offered to victims in a raw count and as a percentage of incidents, while in C&C it is broken down into % of male victims & % of female victims. The C&C table makes it look far less of an issue - let's look at alcohol/drugs - In the N&S the table reads 712 count or 38.8% of 1,834 incidents. In the C&C table, it is now listed as 8.6% of males and 1.2% of females were offered alcohol and/or drugs - not so bad now, is it!

What is more egregious is the missing N&S tables in the C&C report. These are the tables (pp. 73-75) 4.4.1: Alleged Acts of Abuse by Gender; 4.4.3 Threats by Victim's Gender and 4.4.4 Type of Threats by Victim's Gender. These tables all discuss the true nature of what these priests did to their victims, 4.4.1 being the one that would truly upset the apple cart in a report that essentially would like to suggest that it really wasn't all that bad & besides it's getting better. Clearly, no one needs to be told about oral sex, manual penetration, penile penetration or group or coerced sex  Time to do my own blog on the report, I guess, even if it is a year later.

One sees the mighty hand of the Roman Catholic editors in the construction of the C&C report.

I seem to remember that when the initial Nature and Scope Report came out, it was really impossible to find. I had been reading references to it - it was talked about on the John Jay website, for example, but no links. At one point, it was up on the USCCB website and then I couldn't find it again - might have been my search engine :-). Anyway, I now have 2 copies of it, plus the Causes and Context Report.

Birds of a feather flock together

Pope Sexual Abuse Scandal: Benedict Implicated in Cover-up of Wisconsin Sexual Abuse Case



Just to reiterate. Why should anyone be surprised? All of these cases had to have gone through Cardinal Ratzinger, aka Pope Benedict XVI under John Paul II. He was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (re-branded Inquisition), and, was PJP2s gatekeeper and adviser. Watch the trailer for http://www.deliverusfromevilthemovie.com/index_flash.php. One of the reasons that I was never surprised at PJP2s conservatism.

The Roman Catholic Church is hierarchical bureaucratic institution. As with all bureaucracies, it has a vested interest in its own survival. We know exactly how the "sexual abuse scandal" has come about. The cover-ups begin at the lowest bureaucratic levels. However, as with all bureaucracies, extensive records are kept. (Oh to get hold of those records!!) I have know of only one archbishop who said "the buck stops here": Archbishop Penny in Newfoundland, who took on the responsibilities for the cover-ups in Newfoundland and then resigned. Now to be fair, this means that Rome could deny that it knew anything about this. So Penny "manned up" and took the flak for the Church, and they let him.

Ratzinger came up through the ranks. There is absolutely no way that he did not participate in "cover-ups" in his parishes, etc. The s**t has finally hit the fan in Europe - it will be no different there than anywhere else in Catholicism. What happened in North America, happened in Europe and everywhere else. We just need to wait as the cases fall out of the trees. Ratzinger/Benedict truly believes in those "old-fashioned" values of Roman Catholicism and its theology. Check out Gregory the VII, Pope Innocent the 3rd & the Fourth Lateran Council, the Council of Trent, Vatican 1 and even Vatican 2, the J-P2's Humanae Vitae.

People seem to be so shocked at what's going on. However, basic history of Christianity would show that "so it was, so it is". The question should be "so it ever shall be?" History tells us that if there is some sort of Council held over this issue & reform is in the air, the solutions will never go to the heart of the problem. The Church has already begun to retrench into its past theologies that allowed this to happen in the first place. The Church has been covering up child sexual abuse since its inception - why change now? Again read Doyle, Sipe & Wall. Sex, Priests, and Secret Codes: The Catholic Church's 2,000-Year Paper Trail of Sexual Abuse.

If people would just take off their blinders, things might get better.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Guess what? Don't worry! We've fixed it all.

On the news, this morning, a man stated that the inquiry in Cornwall Ontario concerning the sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests and by social services workers is like "asking an automobile manufacturer to do an inquiry into car problems from the 60s. Everything has changed. The problems have been fixed. Why waste all this money?"

And they wonder why there is still a problem. Outside of the sheer absurdity of comparing the destroyed lives of children to cars, there is the long term generational impact on those children's lives and the lives of everyone that they were associated with - including, but not limited to, their own children. This is not a problem with a quick fix - you can't just give these children pills that will take away the past - there's no faulty steering wheel to fix, no heating coil to replace, then everything will be as good as new. Flashbacks don't respond well to "fixing". Night terrors, fear of relationships, screwed up sexuality, drug addiction, alcoholism, and a host of little day to day little things that just won't go away forever. The worst of it might just be the loss of faith - the thing that leaves a great big hole where meaning is to be found.

Well, exactly what has changed?

Might I suggest a look at Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests ( http://www.snapnetwork.org) or BishopAccountability.org (http://www.bishop-accountability.org).