Why would a vowed celibate man have pictures of naked or semi-naked children on his computer? Why, when given the evidence of these photos, would this man’s supervisors do little or nothing, even when the crime is federal and one of the easiest to report?
Since, in this case, the supervisor is a Catholic bishop and the man with the pornography is a priest, the inaction of the bishop is a window into the fetid, rotten soul of hierarchy of the church.
This situation above reflects scandals that have rocked two midwest dioceses: St. Paul/Minneapolis and Kansas City/St. Joseph. In both instances, priests were in possession of evidence or photographs of naked or semi-naked children. The bishops, when finding out about the images, didn’t report. Instead they hid (or allegedly hid) evidence in order to protect the church.
The soul of the hierarchy of the church cannot get any more rotten than that.
In the real world, child pornography is a federal crime. It’s also one of the easiest crimes to report. The evidence is apparent and obvious. In the case of priests, the line is even more distinct: there is no reason whatsoever that an ordained and celibate cleric should have anything even remotely resembling child pornography is his possession. And if there is any question, a supervisor should report the photographs to law enforcement anyway.
There is no moral ambiguity. There is no “he said-she said,” no need for an internal investigation, no need for a “task force” to review policies. If the bishops had come in possession of evidence cooked books, they would have reported immediately. But when given photographic evidence of child sexual abuse, they sat on their thumbs.
If that is not moral rot, then I don’t know what is. The only thing that Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn and St. Paul Archbishop John Nienstedt needed was moral courage. They fell flat.
We have had 11 years of the church’s “smoke-and-mirrors dog-and-pony-reform-show.” It is a massive failure.
I, for one, am done with it.
Young men entering the seminary, and seminarians entering the priesthood, have a bishop-created expectation that clerical sexual misbehaviour is tolerated so long as the seminarian or priest does not get caught. And they have another bishop-created expectation that the bishop and his staff will cover and cover up the misbehaviour. Note that I’m simply describing what’s obviously been going on in our church for many, many years.
The success or the failure of Pope Francis’ pontificate will depend largely on how thoroughly he and his advisors understand the problem, and how thoroughly they are able to effect change in the clerical culture. And of course whether the Spirit in on their side this time around.
Not that I disagree with some of the premise of your accusations, however I do strongly disagree with painting the entire hierarchy of the Catholic Church with the same brush. What you are describing is the failure of a small percentage of priests nationally. There are many more priests in Catholic Churches across our country that have served Christ unconditionally and have been amazing leaders for many of the faithful and many of the poor in our communities. Additionally, there are many more priests (many more than the priest that committed sexual crimes and covered up) who have helped troubled youth through difficult times when no one else was there to do so. Why not write some blogs about them? I suppose that it what really upsets me about the “sex” scandal of the Catholic Church. The congregations and devoted leaders of the Church are being made to pay for the sins of a few. Why not just accuse/convict the individual priests alone? Why drag the entire Church through a scandal that most did not have anything to do with?
Perhaps I didn’t explain myself correctly. I don’t believe it’s a sex scandal. I believe it’s the cover-up of the sexual abuse that has given the church a black eye and loss of credibility. I know there are good priests (and I don’t include them in who I consider to be the “hierarchy”). But my experience and the experience of my colleagues have shown us that this kind of cover-up is endemic in dioceses across the United States (LA and OC included).
Barbara Amy, I do not necessarily agree with you that it is a failure of a “small percentage of priests” nationally. — Where are all of these good priests who you are talking about? Why aren’t they working to help expose the truth and therefore protect kids?
Yes, there are a handful of good priests, and yes we do commend them for their courage for standing up against child sex abuse and the covering up of these crimes. But way too many clergy are being silent. What is your explanation for that? They know what each other does. Those who work within the church hierarchy know what is going on and who is covering for whom. And they are still being silent.
A perfect example of a brave canon lawyer who worked with the St Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese is Jennifer Haselberger and for sure, she is not even a priest. She happens to care so much for the protection of children, that she could not allow herself to be silent.
She had to quit her job with the Archdiocese because the high ranking church officials would not listen to her pleas to do the right thing to protect children instead of protecting the child predators.
How many is a “small percentage” ? You might check out this web site..Bishop Accountablility.org.. http://bishopaccountability.org/
They have listed almost 4,000 credibly accused clerics. Oh and btw, these are only the ones who have been made public and only the ones who are in the USA, this is not nearly all of them.
We who work hard to help victims, expose the truth, and work tirelessly to protect children today, get a bit unset when we read over and over again… “it is the failure of a small percentage of priests nationally” and ” there are so many good priests and good bishops”…
Please tell us who these good priests and bishops are, and why are they not helping to clean us this mess within the Catholic church hierarchy? And may I ask, what are you, as a loyal Catholic, doing to help protect these children from the child predators within this institution?
Silence is not an options anymore, it only hurts, and by speaking up there is a chance for healing, exposing the truth, and therefore protecting others.
Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, USA, 636-433-2511. snapjudy@gmail.com,
“SNAP (The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests)