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In either hetero or homosexual relationships where there is intimacy or the expectation of it, there is a commitment. A homosexual couple raising a child would be just as outraged at having their son or daughter defiled by a priest as would a heterosexual couple. Why, because they have what priests lack, a commitment, intimacy and love. By their very nature, human intimacy and a priest's commitment to his vows are mutually exclusive. Therefore attempts to seek intimacy through sexual gratification always fall short leaving the sex unfulfilled and the priest unfulfilled.
This failure, on a grand scale, to adhere to celibacy mandated that a rationale be concocted to excuse breaking the vow. Celibacy itself became one of the chief rationales; the excuse used for allowing exceptions. "Oh, you a good priest and it is so hard to keep your vows; say your confession and try not to do it again." The biggest coup in history for the hierarchy was the laity swallowing it hook, line and sinker. How many Catholics have said, "A priest is entitled to break a vow once in a while, after all they are only human." Cardinal George gave us the best known public example of this type of exemption in this quote:
Cardinal George said, ''There is a difference between a moral monster like Geoghan,'' who preys in serial fashion, and an individual who, ''perhaps under the influence of alcohol,'' engages in inappropriate behavior with ''a 16- or 17-year-old young woman who returns his affections."12
Even this rationale couldn't soothe the conscience of the clerics. And so a grand philosophy had to be constructed; one that would forever blind or bind the conscience of priests and bishops. Enter the scion of the marriage between the God Complex and Hubris: the Dehumanizing Effect. This stated that all who received Holy Orders were called directly by God. The act of being selected directly by God made priests better than the rest. The myth of celibacy was the linchpin that proved priests were the betters of man. Ipso facto, the rude and scoffing multitude could be used and abused without penalty. (If anyone really thought God was calling these perverts to serve in the priesthood, they would all be running for the exit doors.) The irony is that this myth of being better than the rest is precisely why the hierarchy has been rendered soulless.
For centuries the hierarchy has had an ingrained attitude that there is nothing wrong with habitual dalliances by members of their priesthood with men, women and children. This thought process became a clerical tradition and the tradition became church policy. It readily explains the process by which the hierarchy lost any semblance of humanity when dealing with children being raped, sodomized or molested by their priests. It took a proclamation by the pope in the sixteenth century to declare that Native Americans had a soul. Hitler referred to his idea of sub-humans as mud people. American slave owners declared slaves property. Religious orders call them, "the rude and scoffing multitude." Whoever the abuser, they all see their victims as: "less than," which makes any crime against them palatable.
Do priests really consider themselves to be divinely selected? Proof of the god complex theory comes to us from the surveys done to gather information for Louise Haggett's Bingo Report.13 According to the survey, a full third of priests surveyed said they either agreed or strongly agreed with this statement: "I believe in priestly divinity" an additional 10% said they neither agreed nor disagreed with the statement.
A Different Hypothesis:
The late, great, erudite New York Senator and Catholic, Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote an essay titled: Defining Deviance Down.14 His premise was that society keeps lowering the bar by which they define deviant behavior. If he were alive, he would certainly understand how his work applies to the RCC especially this paragraph.
"In this pattern, a growth in deviancy makes possible a transfer of resources, including prestige, to those who control the deviant population. This control would be jeopardized if any serious effort were made to reduce the deviancy in question. This leads to assorted strategies for re-defining the behavior in question as not all that deviant, really."15
Moynihan's observations lead to a completely new perspective on the permissiveness of the Roman Catholic Church. The permissiveness pervasive in the church now has a purpose behind it: The bishop's control would be seriously jeopardized if any attempt were made to eliminate sexual deviants from the ranks of the priesthood. The greater the deviance allowed in the priesthood, (a virtual feudal system) the greater control and power the hierarchy exerts over its priests. This would certainly explain the unprecedented inhumanity exhibited by bishops towards children. Sexual abuse was redefined from a crime to a sin. Ephebophilia was split off from pedophilia to make sex crimes with post-pubescent boys a few degrees more palatable since a teenager is not a prepubescent boy or girl. (Defining deviance down as if there were a distinction in abuse) That distinction with post-pubescent boys was made to place the blame squarely on homosexual community within the priesthood totally ignoring the sexual abuse of teenaged girls by priests. The bishop's had a very clear choice, their power or children's lives. The bishops opted to keep their power by tightening their power over this group.
The hierarchy has an incredibly strong hold on its priests. Marketing 101 has the 4P's: Product, Price, Packaging and Promotion. The hierarchy of the RCC has its four P's for absolute power: Placement, Promotion, Penance and Pension. All four are controlled exclusively by either the bishop or the order's superior. The 4P's are strong enough strings to make most priests dance. It is the difference between being stationed in the inner city or a country club parish. The four P's are real power and very real control. Anyone of these strings when pulled by a superior can affect behavior. When all four are controlled by the same person, it is a recipe for total control. The four P's of hierarchical power explain a great deal of the global priestly silence, but they can't explain it all away. Enter Moynihan's theory of defining deviance down in order to maintain control.
Combine the 4P's of power with the concept of deviant control and you seal lips forever. Take an abusing priest of either homo or heterosexual nature. How much stronger is that priest's allegiance when the priest knows his bishop or cardinal will protect him? Defend him by every means available? Will keep him out of jail, out of site and then ship him to a new parish, a.k.a. hunting grounds, where he can once again ply his immoral trade?
The Code of Silence Testifies to These Truths
Edmond Burke said," All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
This could be the motto of the Roman Catholic Church. One of the most astonishing and disturbing facts of the Clergy Abuse Scandal is the singular solidarity of both priests and bishops in refusing to speak out against their brothers who have abused children. This silence is a condemnation of the entire church and its leadership. Out of forty thousand priests in the United States, only a handful have ever publicly spoken out against clergy abuse. Only a handful have ever aided victims in their quest for justice. The only internationally known priest advocate for survivors is Fr. Tom Doyle. The silence of the priesthood is not only about the abuse, it also applies to the outrageous crimes committed by the hierarchy in their handling of clergy abuse cases. The bishops have brought down great scandal upon themselves, their priests and the church yet the majority of "good" priests remain silent.
The question begs itself, why this deafening silence from men of God? Crimes as heinous as the rape, sodomization and molestation of children should inspire outrage, yet there was and is only silence. The cover-ups by the hierarchy should have resulted in calls for removal, yet there was and is only silence. The monumental scandal and shame brought down upon the church should have brought screams of anguish from every pulpit, yet there was and is only silence. Has every priest, like their bishops, lost every spark of humanity, been so dehumanized as to be indifferent? Are we to believe that in the thousands of rectories across the United States not one good priest is upset about this? What compels men of God to maintain their wholesale silence?
