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How could men, who purport to believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ, permit such heinous crimes to be committed against defenseless children? Once finding out about these crimes how can men purporting to believe in the teachings of Christ allow these crimes to continue unabated? How could these same followers of Christ viciously attack the abused, their parents and anyone else who chose to make public the crimes of rape, sodomization and molestation of children? How could this go on for centuries with no repercussions and lastly, how does the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church keep nuns, priests, bishops and cardinals from speaking out on the subject?
What follows is a unified theory that attempts to provide an overall umbrella for understanding the clergy abuse scandal. The facts speak for themselves, the historical references are cited and the truth is laid bare.
Dehumanization
Starving, gassing, burning, hacking, bombing and mutilating on a large scale are all well documented crimes against humanity. In each case humanity reflects on how inhuman man can be to his fellow man, decries and tries to destroy the offending dictators or regimes and puts up a memorial in the hope it doesn't happen again. The travesties generally last no longer than the time span of the despot's rule: I.e. Hitler, Pol Pot Idi Amin etc. There is however, one very notable exception. That exception is the rape, sodomization and molestation of children by the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church. There is ample documentation showing this carnage has been carried out unabated for centuries!
The focal point of this essay is not the pedophile priest, for we know what he is. He is a sick twisted deviant who relishes despoiling innocence. He is the predator. An animal who exists for his next meal: despoiling an innocent child. Like the jackal, he preys on the weak and vulnerable in order to feed his sick insatiable appetite. This examination will focus on the following: How the pederast became an integral part of the clergy, why their handlers, the bishops, allow these jackals free reign to prey on children, and the causes for the utter silence of the priesthood at large on the subject of the sexual abuse of children by priests.
What do you call a man who knowingly allows a malevolent individual to prey on children? What term can be coined for a man who upon finding out that a perverted priest has violated a child, moves said priest to new hunting grounds? How do you address someone who knowingly sends a serial child molester into a parish with an elementary school? What term can accurately describe a man who sends a child raping priest out of his country to prey upon the children of poor indigent people; whose only hope in life is an afterlife in heaven? Sadly, there is one answer to all of these questions, you call him bishop!
Any man worthy of the name man, with merely a meager amount of humanity, would run and hide in deep shame at the thought of allowing innocent children to be sexually abused, but not a bishop. Any father, who understands what it means to have, hold, raise and love a child, would cringe at the thought of putting any child in the path of a sexual predator, but not a bishop. If a man's son or daughter runs afoul of a sexual predator, he cries and berates himself for years burdened with the guilt of thinking he has failed his child, but not a bishop. If the child commits suicide as a direct effect of the abuse, that man takes his burden to the grave, but not a bishop! A bishop will defend his logic for allowing children to be raped by a priest from a pulpit, in front of cameras and even under oath in written depositions. Normal human beings just don't do that!
Normal people are simply not capable of casually allowing children as young as four years old to be raped, sodomized or molested. This is not a character trait found in the general public! Why, then, does it exist in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church? Societies as well as cultures around the world have stringent laws against sexually abusing children. Interpol has the prevention of sexual abuse of children as one of its main goals. The U.N. through its UNICEF organization has put together "The Convention on the Rights of the Child," which states a child has the right to grow up unmolested. It has been signed by most of the civilized countries of the world with one major exception, the Vatican.
There is no love in and even less humanity in any person who moves sexually abusing priests among parishes as easily as he would move a chess piece across a board. Men such as this can't possibly stake a claim to humanity or to the teachings of Jesus. Therefore, the imperative question is, "What caused these men: priests, bishops and cardinals, to shed their humanity and act in ways that defy human dignity?"
Cultural Inbreeding
The answer, for all who care to look, lies in the history of Catholic Church. Much has been written about the term culture. Culture is something that defines an individual or groups of individuals. It includes things like, beliefs, foods, language, dances, music, etc. Cultures also have traditions some of which can date back hundreds or even thousands of years. Rites of passage into manhood have long been a cultural tradition. Circumcision is a good example. It goes back millennia. So it is safe to assume that if the same thing continuously occurs within the same group over hundreds or even thousands of years, it is deeply embedded in that culture. So let it be known that history tells us that the sexual abuse of children is a longstanding part of the culture of the clergy in the Roman Catholic Church.
The following are historical examples of this malevolent cultural practice recorded over a sixteen-hundred year period.
The Fourth Century
From the Council of Elvira 306: There were a host of Canons, internal church laws, which came out of this Ecumenical Council. Here are just two of many that speak to the subject of sexual abuse.1
18. Bishops, presbyters, and deacons, once they have taken their place in the ministry, shall not be given communion even at the time of death if they are guilty of sexual immorality. Such scandal is a serious offense.
