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A “Celibacy Problem”?
Catholic-Bashing, NAMBLA and the Dalai Lama
Celibacy
brings consolation, independence,
more
freedom. The Dalai Lama
(Posted May
2, 2010
www.RemnantNewspaper.com)
On April 4, 2010 the blog page of the London Review of Books
posted an article titled “The Celibacy Problem,” concerning
the current priest scandal in the Catholic Church. The
author, R.W. Johnson, states:
Nobody I knew at either my convent school or at the
Christian Brothers was ever the victim of
sexual
abuse. But I could
weep as I think back not just to the savage physical
punishments common to both schools and the quite obvious
fact that the sexual frustration of unnaturally celibate
young men and women was being poured into such punishments,
but at the sad way in which the nicer nuns, in particular,
would gather us up in their skirts and hug us in what were
clearly transports of maternal deprivation.
Johnson attempts to fashion a historical defense against the
vow of celibacy taken by Catholic priests, nuns and
religious:
Nobody seems to have said this in public but if you read
about the popes at the time of the Medici it is a continuous
story of bishops and popes with mistresses, often intriguing
to gain preferment in the Church for their illegitimate
offspring. That is, we know how thoroughly and lastingly the
Church’s rule of celibacy had broken down then. We also now
know how pervasive in modern times were not just lapses from
celibacy but the stooping to commission of appalling sexual
crimes against children. Surely I am not the only one who
joins up the dots and concludes that the rule of celibacy
enforced by the Church on all its priests, nuns and monastic
orders is so unnatural that it is bound to have led to
sexual transgressions not just in medieval times and now but
in all the centuries in between? What a large hidden history
must be there …. The initial problem lies simply with the
rule of celibacy. No wonder both the Protestant churches and
the Jews are sensible enough not to make such extreme
demands on their clergy.
R.W. Johnson closes his anti-celibacy diatribe with the
grandiose declaration that “[The Pope] will only be skirting
the issue if he doesn’t face up to the fact that Holy Mother
the Church has been plain wrong about celibacy for the past
2000 years, that it is a rule which has caused untold
suffering on all sides and that it has to go.” Dixit
Johnson!
Johnson has bought into the error that the current scandal
is a pedophilia problem. Pedophilia is a compulsive
disorder resulting in the abuse of prepubescent children by
an adult. However, the overwhelming number of cases of abuse
by Catholic priests involves ephebophilia,
the homosexual attraction of adult males to adolescent boys.
According to the Rev. Charles Fiore, a priest of 42 years
standing (who received clinical training at the Menninger
Clinic and the State Hospital in Topeka, KS, and has taught
at the Dominican Pontifical University in Rome), “More than
90 percent of the cases involve the clerical molestation of
teen-age young men."
The
Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders, 4th
Edition
(American Psychiatric Association, 1994) notes that the
majority of cases of abuse by catholic priests involves
ephebophilia, which often involves sexual activity by
homosexual priests "with young seminarians or 16- or
17-year-old boys … While such homosexual activities with
minors are criminal offenses – and immoral – they are
certainly not examples of pedophilia or child molestation."
While this distinction in no way diminishes the seriousness
of the offenses, it does (1) help to accurately diagnose the
situation, and therefore (2) aid in proposing a viable
solution.
In 2001, Oxford University Press published “Pedophiles and
Priests: Anatomy of a Contemporary Crisis” by
Philip
Jenkins,
Professor of History and Religious Studies at Pennsylvania
State University. Jenkins (a non-Catholic) noted at the time
that celibacy bore no causal relation to deviant sexual
behavior, and that the number of sexual abusers in the
priesthood was comparable to the rate among married men.
The Catholic Education Research Center summarized some of
the relevant points found in major research on this subject:
In the
general population, the majority of abusers are regressed
heterosexual men who sexually abuse girls. Women are also
found to be among those sexual abusers. While it's difficult
to obtain accurate statistics on childhood sexual abuse, the
characteristic patterns of repeat child sex offenders have
been well described. The profiles of child molesters
never include normal adults who become erotically attracted
to children as a result of abstinence (Fred Berlin,
"Compulsive Sexual Behaviors" in Addiction and Compulsive
Behaviors [Boston: NCBC, 1998]; Patrick J. Carnes,
"Sexual Compulsion: Challenge for Church Leaders" in
Addiction and Compulsion; Dale O'Leary, "Homosexuality
and Abuse").
R.W.
Johnson of the London Review of Books has knighted himself
defender of the world against the
“untold suffering” of clerical celibacy, eh? On October 21,
2007 the Associated Press reported that over 2,500
instances of sexual misconduct had been reported among
public school teachers during a five-year period, with
cases ranging “from bizarre to sadistic.”
Public-school teachers do not take vows of celibacy,
Mr. Johnson.
On March 20, 2010 the Associated Press reported that the Boy
Scouts of America were in possession of 1,247 documents
which they had classified as “perversion files” – i.e.,
1,247 internal documents used to track Scout leaders
suspected of sexually abusing young boys.
Scout leaders do not take vows of celibacy, Mr.
Johnson.
On October 13, 2009 the New York Times reported that, during
2009 alone, 26 child abuse arrests were made among
rabbis, yeshiva teachers, camp counselors, merchants and
family members of the Orthodox Jewish Community.
On June 18, 2007 the Insurance Journal reported, “The
three companies that insure the majority of Protestant
churches in America say they typically receive upward of
260 reports each year of young people under 18 being
sexually abused by clergy, church staff, volunteers or
congregation members.” But, of course, R.W. Johnson has
assured us that “both the
Protestant churches and the Jews are sensible enough not to
make such extreme demands [celibacy] on their clergy.”
In today’s pop-psychology parlance, Mr. Johnson would be
labeled an “enabler” – someone who enables another person to
persist in self-destructive behavior by providing excuses or
helping the person to avoid the consequences of such
behavior. Normal, heterosexual, celibate men do NOT suddenly
assault young boys merely because they happen to be in
proximity to them. That’s not the way it works, Mr.
Johnson. The current “priest scandal” is not a celibacy
problem. It is a homosexual predator problem – as
distinct from “homosexual problem,” which would unfairly
imply that all homosexuals are predators. It IS a homosexual
predator problem in that young men and boys are being
targeted by older men.
Since the time of Martin Luther, the Catholic priesthood has
been the target of choice for enemies of the Church. Both
“Reformation” England and “Revolutionary” France saw many
good priests senselessly slaughtered. In the 1950’s, former
American Communist Party official, Bella Dodd, testified
before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. Dodd,
who
had served as legal counselor to the Communist Party in the
U.S., revealed,
“In
the 1930’s we put eleven hundred men into the priesthood in
order to destroy the Church from within …. right now they
are in the highest places in the Church …. you will not
recognise the Catholic Church." The decade following Dodd’s
testimony witnessed the arrival of the “New Springtime of
Vatican II.”
On June 3, 2002, CatholicCulture.org reported this
unfortunate news:
AIDS has quietly caused the deaths of hundreds of Roman
Catholic priests in the United States although other causes
may be listed on some of their death certificates, the
Kansas City Star reported today. The newspaper said its
examination of death certificates and interviews with
experts indicates several hundred priests have died of
AIDS-related illnesses since the mid-1980s. The death rate
of priests from AIDS is at least four times that of the
general population, the newspaper said.
Michael Rose documented the existence of a “gay subculture”
within the Catholic priesthood in his book, Goodbye, Good
Men. The homosexualization of the Catholic priesthood
has been nurtured and supported by a compromised seminary
screening process that drives good candidates away by the
score. Also, orthodox seminarians have been persecuted by
this “lavender mafia” (a phrase coined by Fr. Andrew
Greeley, hardly a proponent of traditional Catholicism).
Rose has documented seminary life where sexual harassment
and promiscuity are common occurrences. Ten years ago,
Father
Donald Cozzens (author of “The Changing Face of the
Priesthood”), declared, "At issue at the beginning of the 21st
century is the growing perception that the priesthood is, or
is becoming, a gay profession.”
R.W.
Johnson self-righteously and foolishly states that the
priestly vow of celibacy has “caused
untold suffering” and that “it has to go.” However, the
percentage of priests involved in sexual misdeeds with youth
is approximately 0.02% (a figure comparable to the
percentage of married men involved in such
activities). If celibacy were truly this maleficent virus,
destroying almost everything it touches, would that number
not be much higher, say 50% … or 70% … or 90%?
Mr. Johnson, blaming the vow of celibacy for the homosexual
predator scandals is like saying the Titanic sank because it
was painted the wrong color! The Catholic priesthood has
been attacked from within, its enemies eating away at its
ramparts like so many ravenous termites. The solution is the
rooting out and legal accountability of malefactors, and
a complete overhaul and repair of the seminary system
itself.
The
vow of celibacy is a gift from Christ Himself:
“For there are eunuchs who were born so from their
mother's womb and there are eunuchs who were made so by men,
and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for
the kingdom of heaven. He that can take, let him take
it.” (Mt. 19:12)
No man
is forced to enter the Catholic priesthood. No man is
forced to embrace a life of celibacy. In fact,
a proper and healthy seminary experience involves a period
of discernment, during which time the seminarian will learn
whether or not the priestly life and its sacrifices
are for him.
Get
it, Mr. Johnson? The priestly life entails sacrifice.
It is disingenuous to behave as though celibacy is a
“surprise,” sprung on the unsuspecting priest after his
ordination. The Church’s (and the world’s) holiest and most
learned men, from St. Jerome to St. Pio of Pietrelcina,
embraced celibacy as a gift from Christ. That is what it
was, and that is what it
always will be.
One more thing. In 2005, FBI agent Robert Hamer infiltrated
NAMBLA
(the
“North American Man/Boy Love Association”).
Over the course of three years’ undercover work, he became
active in the group, eventually helping to arrange a boat
trip to Mexico for men wishing to have sex with young boys.
Earlier, in April of 2002, the Boston Herald announced that
records had been found at the Archdiocese of Boston
revealing that notorious predator-priest Rev. Paul R.
Shanley had been involved with NAMBLA, that he even “spoke
in favor of sex between men and boys at a December 1978
Boston convention that led to the founding of the
intergenerational sex advocacy organization” (Church
Uncovers File on Shanley NAMBLA Activity – April 25,
2002).
Pundits like R.W. (“Holy Mother the Church has been plain
wrong about celibacy for the past 2000 years”) Johnson and
author/blogger Andrew (“Celibacy is part of the problem, but
deeper still is the authoritarianism”) Sullivan have
expressed their righteous indignation over priestly abuse of
young boys – which is a serious problem that affects only
0.02% of Catholic priests. Would you not expect that such
outraged folk would be waging a nonstop journalistic
campaign against a group like the non-celibate NAMBLA, whose
sole reason for existing is the legalization of sexual
relations between adult males and young boys? Well, they
haven’t. Apparently, their agendas are better served by
flagrant attempts to hijack the “priest scandal” for the
pathetic purpose of knocking Catholic practice.
But
celibacy is not only a Catholic practice. During a November
2008 visit to Lagos, Nigeria, the Dalai Lama praised the
celibate life. He told reporters that married life had too
many “ups and downs,” that sexual desire “is short-period
satisfaction and, often, that leads to more complication,"
and that a life of celibacy brings “consolation … more
independence, more freedom.”
"Naturally as a human being ... some kind of desire for sex
comes,” explained the Tibetan Buddhist leader, “but then you
use human intelligence to make comprehension that those
relationships are always full of trouble."
By the
standards of Johnson and Sullivan, this should make the
Dalai Lama an accessory to the crime of advocating celibacy,
a criminal out to destroy the world’s innocents. But, no,
while many pundits are calling for Benedict’s head, the
Agence France-Press news agency reported (Apr. 23, 2010)
that the Dalai Lama came in at second place (with 75% of the
votes) in a Harris Interactive poll of the world’s most
popular leaders.
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