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  This "Blame the Gays" Defense of the Vatican Basically Makes No Sense at All

By Jason Linkins
The Huffington Post
March 31, 2010

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/31/this-blame-the-gays-defen_n_520647.html



In case you missed it, the novel defense of the Catholic Church being mounted by Bill Donohue of the Catholic League over the whole matter of Vatican officials covering up the crimes of a Wisconsin priest who molested upwards of 200 deaf boys is to blame the gays. Wow: first the gays get blamed for the massacre at Srebrenica, now this!

Here's the relevant quote from Donohue, from a full-page ad taken out in the New York Times:

The Times continues to editorialize about the "pedophilia crisis," when all along it's been a homosexual crisis. Eighty percent of the victims of priestly sexual abuse are male and most of them are post-pubescent. While homosexuality does not cause predatory behavior, and most gay priests are not molesters, most of the molesters have been gay.

Uhm, the thing is, none of that makes a lick of sense. And I'm not just talking about the retrograde anti-science involved in the incorrect contention that a connection between homosexuality and pedophilia exists. I'm not even referring to the creepy way "post-pubesence" is introduced as a mitigating factor. If Donohue is willing to admit that "homosexuality does not cause predatory behavior," what does? The sacramental wine?

I sort of think these sorts of crimes come about in a culture that accommodates the whole "getting away with it" thing. Speaking of! There's also the little matter of the Vatican undertaking massive efforts to cover up these crimes:

The internal correspondence from bishops in Wisconsin directly to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope, shows that while church officials tussled over whether the priest should be dismissed, their highest priority was protecting the church from scandal.

The documents emerge as Pope Benedict is facing other accusations that he and direct subordinates often did not alert civilian authorities or discipline priests involved in sexual abuse when he served as an archbishop in Germany and as the Vatican's chief doctrinal enforcer.

Yeah, see, that's what we in the secular world call "misprision of felony". Is that something that only gays do, too?

 
 

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