Bill Donohue Spews, Tries Misdirection
Recently, the Catholic League took out a full page ad in the New York Times the following screed by Bill Donohue: cached link.
When the Boston Globe exposed massive wrongdoing in the Boston Archdiocese in 2002, Catholics were understandably angry. And when more horror stories surfaced elsewhere, we were furious. But now our anger is turning on those who are distorting the truth about priestly sexual abuse. That some are exploiting this issue for ideological and financial profit seems plain.
“But now our anger is turning on those who are distorting the truth about priestly sexual abuse.” As opposed to directing your anger at those brave enough to come forward with their horror stories about being molested and abused, as you have in the past? I suppose that’s a step in the right direction./
The refrain that child rape is a reality in the Church is twice wrong: let’s get it straight—they weren’t children and they weren’t raped. We know from the John Jay study that most of the victims have been adolescents, and that the most common abuse has been inappropriate touching (inexcusable though this is, it is not rape). The Boston Globe correctly said of the John Jay report that “more than three-quarters of the victims were post pubescent, meaning the abuse did not meet the clinical definition of pedophilia.” In other words, the issue is homosexuality, not pedophilia.
So, they weren’t children raped by pedophiles, they were filthy homos being touched by other filthy homos? WTF, Bill? This kind of blinkered rationalization deserves scorn and derision, not a full page ad in a newspaper.
Why are priests being singled out when the sexual abuse of minors among other segments of the population is on-going today?
Singled out you say? Why, just last month we heard a story about “the first prosecutor in the country to charge a church official for abusing of children they were supposed to protect”.
Let’s read that again, with emphasis. The FIRST prosecutor in the country to charge a church official for abusing of children.
That doesn’t sound like “singling out” to me. Sounds much more like an organization that has been given undo and undeserved preference and cover for their crimes.
According to Virginia Commonwealth University professor Charol Shakeshaft, the nation’s leading education expert on this issue, “the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests.” We know from the work of Jenkins, and others, that there is no reason to believe that the rate of abuse is higher among Catholic priests than among the clergy of other religions. Moreover, there has been a slew of stories over the past few years detailing the extent of this problem in the Orthodox Jewish community; some rabbis still insist that sexual abuse cases should be handled internally.
In other words, “They do it too, and they’re probably doing it way more than us. Why don’t you focus on them instead”.
There’s much more at the cached link, but I can only read so much twisted rationalizing from this sick, evil asshole before I get the urge to put a brick through my monitor.