Celibacy, sexual urges and the Vatican still in denial

The cardinal is wrong

I cannot believe that after calling a friend to order on the conflation of paedophilia and homosexuality a senior cardinal went ahead to reaffirm this rotten assertion [1].

Again, to protect the tenets and principles of this 1700 year old institution they would rather blame human frailty on some issue on which people would willingly take a moral stance without objectivity than one on which people might question seemingly inhuman religious diktat that restricts the full expression of our humanity.

In fact, I could contend that celibacy probably has more to do with clerical sexual abuse than homosexuality.

As I was chatting to a friend yesterday whose observance of these deplorable activities of the Vatican were leading her to question her beliefs she gave me an insight on this matter I never before considered.

Boys available for sexual necessities

Apparently, most of those abused by priests served in the church as altar boys or even maybe choir boys meaning an availability of boys as an outlet for the sexually frustrated and repressed.

It goes without saying that girls were also abused but in the circumstances any living thing might well have been an outlet for sexual urges of those who decided to exploit the circumstances and commit the crimes of child sexual abuse.

As she said in words I am forced to use to convey the severity of the matter, “They would have fucked anything.” That anything would have been anything available and that would have unfortunately been mainly boys who in their innocence, trust and service to God would have been groomed to serve the priests.

Sex does define not sexuality

The stricture of religious vows the priests existed under meant they would have been secretive as well as menacing to prevent their activities being exposed to a laity that would not have taken kindly to the abuse of privilege and authority.

There is a possibility that some of the clergy abusers might really have been homosexual but their abuse was one of opportunity and necessity.

As a parallel, there is no doubt that in single sex prisons the inmates would find sexual outlets amongst themselves; to then brand everyone who finds that sexual satisfaction as homosexual is just absurd – the situation is just one of necessity.

Being able to quote studies and statistics of linkages between homosexuality, paedophilia and even celibacy is convenient for the Vatican that fails to see that they do have a problem they are not ready to address.

The Vatican left behind

If the Vatican cannot begin to face up to the fact that they have been caught out by the evolutions of society in the 21^st Century and begin to address the matters with a sense of humanity, humility, moral integrity and contriteness, they are with their absurd pronouncements on the verge of irrelevance.

Eventually, the firm adherents of Catholicism would begin to doubt, question, criticise and vacate the authority of the church for other denominations that offer a better sense of adaptation to humanity expected of any institution in any societal setting.

In the end, the opprobrium homosexuals receive of the churches is atrocious as if the man Jesus Christ did not also die on the cross for homosexuals as much as all of mankind according to Christian teachings – you begin to wonder who is anyone in the church to stand as sentinel what Jesus Christ apparently came to do for everyone.

Sources

[1] BBC News - Vatican 'clarifies' cardinal's homosexuality abuse link

Brother, I am calling you out on this one

My writings and thoughts

I have a number of blogs that I read regularly for views, opinions and angles on all sorts of matters.

In general, I write about all matters I find concerning but I am most passionate about justice, fairness and rights. Usually, this would be pertaining to the under-privileged, the unfairly treated, the minority or just a case of plain commonsense being lost to some absurd situation.

In these areas, the abuse of children and women attract my most activist stance, then the intolerance of minorities which would be on races, sexuality, ability and any other seemingly wronged perspective.

Surely not you

Before I went to bed last night I read a piece on one of the blogs I frequent when updated and I was left askance in bewilderment at first then that turned to anger but I decided not to respond in the heat of that moment.

Some 20 hours on, I find myself no less indignant of the myopic, intolerant and ignorant views offered by this seeming intelligent person who I generally respect for his strong views but in this case, I would be remiss if I do not call him out for the reprehensible views cloaked under the concern for clerical child sex abuse.

Indeed, for an institution that has been around for 1700 years or more, the Catholic Church appears to be making a botched job of the matter of child sexual abuse, where they should have been more empathetic to victims and very intolerant of perpetrators their concern for the integrity of the great institution above all else leaves the Vatican on the verge of the serious embarrassment of losing moral authority.

Paedophilia is not homosexuality

That said, one has to appreciate the frailty of humanity where vows of celibacy are taken but the urges for sexual expression along with the pressures of calling lead certain of the clergy to abuse the vulnerable and trusting in the off chance they would not be found out – the resulting paedophilia is abhorrent at best.

The sexual abuse however was not just limited to boys, girls were also abused just as one can say about oneself that the abuse started with a female and then it moved on to males.

Child sexual abuse is definitely paedophilia but a paedophile does not necessarily have to be homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual – maybe there is a preponderance of homosexual behaviour in these abuses but to conflate paedophilia with homosexuality and present them as the same is stark ignorance.

Sex is an expression beyond procreation

Whilst again the act of sex between heterosexuals is in the majority, its primary purpose cannot just be for procreation even though it does result in children. To contend that sex has no other function between people apart from procreation is absurd and probably suggests people with kids have only had sex a finite number of times not too greater than the children they have produced or something to that effect.

Reading that even reads as very silly, but it was one of the expressed opinions, furthermore, there is the tendency to allow religious fundamentalism to blind one to the existence of minorities amongst us.

Surviving as a minority

Homosexuals are probably in a minority in many societies, but that does not mean they should not have a right to the pursuit of happiness in whatever way they might see fit within the law, privately, consensually and maybe liberally too.

The idea my blogger friend put forward was the equivalent of expecting everyone to be heterosexual or nothing – extrapolating that oblique line of thought, it would be like expecting the minority of the black race in Scandinavia to conform to the type and forms of that region which by inference would be that they should be white, probably blonde and maybe blue-eyed.

Crass is what comes to mind, a jumble of ill-thought through opinions of bigoted slant expounded under the cloak of indignation about clerical child sex abuse does not help justify the atrocious views expressed.

Shame on you

To say I am disappointed in the writings of this blogger does not begin to show my disdain especially in a world where minorities of different kinds need emancipated voices to speak out on their troubles and afflictions, seeking fairness, justice and the protection of rights.

It is saddening that having lived for so long in the West; the West has not found any expression of civility, tolerance, the appreciation of diversity or the protection of the rights of the minority in his opinions.

Worse still is to express those views it so brashly, ignobly and ignorantly – I am sorry to say – My brother, I am calling you out on this one – shame on you.

Beaten to the first

Perturbed

I missed an opportunity to capture the anxiety of people on this day but one thing that jumped at me without reading the story was just as imaginable as it was improbable.

The Vatican has become embroiled in morass of clerical child abuse cover-ups that at the weekend the Pope attempted bluster over amelioration by indicating that he would not be hounded over the claims that he did not deal decisively with priests under him who had been accused of the abuse of minors.

Diffident

Now, it would be unconscionable of myself to ever suggest that there was a bit of hubris in the somewhat unchristian of attitude of a church lead by the Vicar of Christ to recognise that the issue is hardly about errant priests but about justice for victims which should include succour for their pain exemplified by a touch stance against child abuse.

Fundamentally, it seems the church considers these sexual "sins" moral issues rather than societal criminal acts which need to be passed on to civil authorities rather than mollified with in the clergy.

Trying to reach the priesthood with that very fact of criminality along with the emotional and other consequential damages to the welfare of the victim has been hard and nigh on impossible but activism and outrage from outside the church.

Disturbed

So, who would not have thought it true when I read this morning that the gathering storm of discontent with the attitude of the church had lead to an unsustainable confidence in leadership that in the quest for all that is good natured and Christianly for the sake of grace and peace - the Pope, Benedictus XVI, the Vicar of Christ and the Bishop of Rome had resigned.

We can be thankful that the first 12 hours of April the first are given to us to ponder the imponderable, excite controversy and offer opinions too atrocious to contemplate - but sometimes, you do wish the news was really the news.

One reality remains for today, every occurrence of this day, many happy returns to she who was born this day.

Clerical child sex abuse was by human-beings not the devil

I am incensed

I got asked yesterday about the news that the Catholic Church in the Netherlands taking responsibility and acting proactively to deal with the issues of child sexual abuse in the church and institutions run by the church.

I responded saying I was incensed about the fact that the abuse happened at all recalling the many scandals and reports that highlighted how children were taken advantage of by so-called respected pillars of society.

A probe is being conducted headed by a Protestant to investigate claims, somehow, they expect the abused to come out and report the crimes against their persons like someone reporting the trivia of a penny falling through some grating on the street – some of us just want to get on with our lives not recount the dark times of our childhood. Thank you.

The West is hardly the whole

In the West, we might well have expended and exhausted ourselves with the news and happenings in the United States and Ireland; that it has come so close to the Vatican might well just show that this is really a problem.

I volunteered my conversant a few bits of information, that I was abused as a child by people in whose care I had been placed by my parents intimating him of the fact that whilst it might be “easier” to raise matters of abuse in the West, we cannot seem to countenance the fact that it happens in Nigeria and dare I say, even in Africa.

In fact, all the revelations we have heard of in the “enlightened” and “empowered” West might well be the tip of a humongous ice-berg of global child sexual abuse where societies are literally intimated by the awe of the church and its priesthood they are not to be able to challenge such heinous and sinful conduct.

The ones we so respect

Child sexual abuse is however not limited to faith-based organisations to which we entrust the care of our children, it happens in homes, amongst relations and with members of society to whom we pay respect and fear to dare when we see wrong.

This is not to castigate the many helplful and selfless organisations that have pitched tent in Africa, South America and Asia to help where our governments or welfare systems have failed, but to pretend the issue of child abuse has been fully exposed in the West and dealt with is to be naïve about the nature of humanity regardless of location.

The detail is not in the devil

I just read three news stories that I micro-blogged as tweets, then I realised there might well be a sinister ploy towards absolution that we cannot allow to stand.

Chief exorcist says Devil is in Vatican http://is.gd/adQHF New battle lines drawn or an atrocious distraction from Catholic sins?

Cardinal says celibacy partly to blame for clerical sex abuse http://is.gd/adSvT Sex is part of life, morality is the detail.

Catholic sex abuse scandals are 'evidence the Devil is in the Vatican http://is.gd/adZ9X Confused - celibacy & devil to blame now?

Having read in one place that the devil was in the Vatican and then another that partly blamed celibacy for clerical sex abuse the deduction that linked the sexual abuse to the devil was just too much for me.

People not phantoms at work

It is adults in positions of authority, responsibility and power that take advantage of innocent children to fulfil their perverted sexual lusts, to try and mask that very obvious earthly activity behind some supernatural or paranormal manifestation that excites religious passion and possible acquiescence is deplorable and contemptible at best.

I know the people who abuse me and I know the ones who abused others I knew, they had names, they had influence, they were respected and to everyone around us, they were beyond reproach – they were neither gods, nor were they devils, they were flesh and blood like you and me.

We must never lose sight of that clear fact and everything must to done to bring those nasty people to justice, no matter what façade they have been able to put up to mask their devilish acts.

A devilish act does not a devil make and I will not allow the Catholic Church to pass off those acts as if the people are not liable for their activities because they are under the influence of some devil – I will not buy that view and by God, we must all condemn that view before it gains any traction. Today!

Does Ichabod now live at the Vatican?

Holy See saw naught and did zilch

The irony should not be lost on you my readers, no, not at all.

What is this thing about the Pope caught in a security scare?

The Pope was having his usual Wednesday "walkabout", albeit in his Popemobile when a young man vaults over an embankment to approach the Pope, he clung to the vehicle for seconds before he was subdued by the security personnel - whatever was on his mind never saw fruition - maybe.

The more serious issue here is the realisation that whilst the Pope might be the head of an established church, his office does not seem to have the fantasy of the miraculous, maybe even hazard the occupation of palliative comfort.

In other words, we have a spiritual head who really is a political power commanding a quality of authority, a president, head of state or monarch would just as well require an entourage and the same retinue of personnel.

I would presume in Jesus' day, He would have sensed the incident, just as the woman with the issue of blood caught His attention because he felt virtue (miraculous power) had been tapped from His being and not so much for she having tugged at his garments - it would appear from the video footing, the Pope was completely oblivious of the event, or maybe even practically unperturbed.

The risk of faith

The young man however might have taken the risk of faith hoping to touch and latch himself to the Popemobile with the desire that he might be whole - that however might have been thwarted by the overzealous courtiers who deny people of Papal blessings in the guise of security and protection.

The man has also been handed over to the mental health authorities where the Master might have used the opportunity to minister grace and healing.

The mental health authorities are most likely going to put the poor chap in a strait jacket where he might have thought he would get the one touch of the healing hands of the Pope - Security again gets in the way of the Vicar of Christ on earth.

For the young man, at the Vatican, maybe miracles are impossible but a referral happens in an instant.

All that security and all makes you wonder where that amazing power of the Church now resides, not the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail nor does the authority of compassionate healing appears to be in the vision of the Holy See today - Alas! Ichabod now lives in Rome.

Pope in danger - All panic.

Sitting here in limbo

After death, then what?

I am no expert in paedo-theology, the religiosity of the unborn or the spirituality of the foetus, but a document released by the Vatican International Theological Commission brings this topic into new focus.

Obviously, there are dogmatic differences between Christian denominations on the matter of infant baptism and the issues of salvation before or after death, the posthumous expectations do matter a lot to those still living.

In contemporary terms, we view limbo as a place of undecided and unresolved situations, Catholic Theology has viewed it as a place not in heaven and definitely not in hell, but an almost there place in view of salvation but not entering into the presence of the Almighty.

The doctrine of the dead child

The Catholics have also agonised about the spiritual status of the aborted unborn child or children who die before they are baptised - this has varied from outright damnation to an almost heaven place.

The study now aims to redefine limbo in terms of the more comfortable green room but never getting to meet the host, though there is hope.

Suffer the children

Whilst I would not deign to challenge the authority of the Pope, I would recall that his boss Jesus Christ made such an issue of asking children to His company and blessing them whilst admonishing the learned adults that flocked Him that except they, the adults became like children they would not enter the Kingdom of God.

Other preachers listeners to repent and be baptised - whilst this is no exegesis of religious dogma, a few points are clear from these issues - children exhibit innocence and dependencies of trust that are necessary to establish a strong relationship with God and baptism accompanies repentance, indicating the person who is baptised be accountable, that person cannot be an infant.

Jesus was never ambiguous about children belonging in the presence of God and this is at variance with extant Catholic teaching.

Hope of salvation

However, in what is looking like trying to bolster the social views against abortion and committing a child to a religious association they do not understand; parents in those unfortunate circumstances of worrying about the loss or the possible loss of a child now have serious indulgence-like obligations to distress the child with a baptism service lest they have to regret leaving the child in a state of near damnation but with one eye of God on the child.

What I would hate to happen is a new doctrine that emerges on the conclusions of this one suggesting that the child can be prayed out of limbo into the arms of God through the much reviled indulgences of old, thus, playing on the hopes of the vulnerable parents.

Let me say we have the makings of a new Protestant reformation brewing whilst I am sitting here in limbo.