Editorials
Priests & sex , ertainly there is an element of sensationalism in the recent media coverage involving Catholic priests and the sexual molestation of children. Prurient interest, a staple of...
...So Catholics have reason to think that the frontpage stories reflect as much the culture war over sexual issues as they do genuine alarm over priests and pedophilia...
...Catholicism can help restore much of what is missing between men and women today by affirming its traditional belief that sexuality is part of God's design, a sign of his love and of Christ's relationship to his church...
...Some critics suggest that broken vows of celibacy—and what some characterize as a "clerical homosexual subculture"—make it harder for priests to confront their peers about abusing children...
...Nor is there any evidence that the effort to live celibately exacerbates the problem...
...A church that forbids the use of artificial contraception, yet 90 percent of whose members disagree with the ban, is not an institution whose pronouncements on sex are readily believable...
...In addition to the review board, Chicago's program includes a lay administrator with expertise in the pathology of child abuse to review cases, a victim-assistance minister, psychological screening and preventive educational programs for the clergy, public reporting requirements, and centralized personnel record-keeping...
...Bishops must err on the side of public disclosure in these matters...
...The hierarchy's failure to engage these questions honestly, imaginatively, and with a high degree of pastoral skill, is an ongoing scandal all its own...
...Those inclined to use the scandal of child abuse to condemn the celibate priesthood are misinterpreting the evidence and promoting the worst stereotypes of priests...
...Still, to the extent that celibacy remains a difficult task that priests fail at, whether they are heterosexual or homosexual, there is some evidence that an attitude of denial may exist among the clergy...
...The radical embrace of the sexual paradoxes of celibacy is one of the most palpable signs of Christ's presence in the church and the world, and one of Catholicism's great spiritual strengths...
...Canice Connors, O.F.M...
...When it comes to priestly celibacy, artificial contraception, the status of women, divorce, homosexuality, sex outside of marriage—and, in fact, abortion—the church's persuasiveness even among its own is weak and perhaps waning...
...Now, perhaps more than at any other time in recent memory, the Catholic witness to the sacramental nature of human sexuality needs to be heard in a world that longs for such a hallowing of life and love...
...Prurient interest, a staple of popular culture, accounts for some of this fascination...
...But skepticism about the mixed motives of the press should not lead to complacency, nor to denial that church authorities failed to ensure the safety of children...
...If that is the case, the church has a more serious problem than even the current scandal indicates...
...Church leaders must not underestimate the toll even the appearance of laxity in these matters takes on the faithful...
...Bernardin's efforts should be a model for the church nationwide...
...How the church failed in the past and what needs to be done is becoming clearer...
...Conv., a staff therapist at St...
...The very idea of celibacy as well as Catholic attitudes and beliefs about the sacramental character of sexuality, so at odds with the utilitarian ethos of secular culture, also make Catholic clergy an inviting target...
...Luke 20 November 1992: 3 Institute in Suitland, Maryland, a treatment center for priest pedophiles (men attracted to prepubescent children) and ephebophiles (men attracted to adolescents), also cautions against drawing unwarranted conclusions about the priesthood from such incidents...
...Catholics want to trust their priests, but the institutional structure of the church, where decision making and clerical assignments take place out of the public eye and beyond lay influence, makes it tempting to equate hierarchical governance with clerical privilege, including a lack of accountability...
...Sidetracked by an understanding of "natural" birth control that approaches mere fideism, the church forfeits the opportunity to find compelling ways to communicate more abiding truths about sexual morality...
...Public scandals involving Covenant House founder Bruce Ritter among others, lawsuits, and the work of reporters such as Jason Berry (Lead Us Not into Temptation, Doubleday) in New Orleans, have compelled the church to face the problem...
...Loose chatter on pedophilia" helps no one, least of all the victims, he warns...
...4. 20 November 1992...
...Sadly, some of the eagerness to believe the worst about priests stems from the everyday knowledge of the enormous disparity between what the church teaches about sexuality and what its clergy and faithful actually believe and practice...
...But for that reality to flourish the institutional church must find the courage to bring a new honesty to all that it has to say about sexual life...
...The explosive nature of this controversy is linked to the church's general lack of credibility on questions of sex...
...As Cardinal Joseph Bernardin announced in September, in establishing a pathbreaking independent (six lay persons and three priests) review board for the Archdiocese of Chicago, the church's first concern "is the safety of children...
...Sexual malfeasance by the clergy is hardly an isolated issue...
...Exposing the sexual hypocrisy or worse of Catholic priests is an old story and an old controversy...
...But it is easy to let natural revulsion over such crimes blind us to the clinical nature of pedophilia and the difficult therapeutic steps that can lead to repentance and reconciliation...
...More important, facing up to the inadequacy of its current teaching will enable the church to reclaim a vital and living appreciation of freely chosen celibacy as a way of bearing witness to the Kingdom of God...
...The kinds of procedures and safeguards that should have been there all along are finally being put in place...
...A bureaucratic propensity to protect the organization, coupled with a poor understanding of sexual psychopathology, led church officials to put institutional reputation before regard for victims...
...Celibacy did not create the problem of child abuse," he wrote in America (May 9, 1992...
Vol. 119 • November 1992 • No. 20
