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by Rick
Cullen
THE
IMMACULATE PERCEPTION:
MYOPIA, CONFLATION, AND CONFUSION
'If
seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year,
Do you suppose,' the Walrus said,
'That they could get it clear?'
'I doubt it,' said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.
--
Lewis Caroll
 I
have assiduously followed the response of the GLBT Community
"leadership" and its "media moguls" to
the ongoing sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church,
in particular the Church's perceived attempt to blame homosexual
priests for the entire mess. I have also followed the general
political, legal and religious responses to this scandal.
I shed a bitter tear!
It
seemed to me that the recent meeting taking place at Community
House of Long Island (CHOLI), attended by approximately
30 people according to Newsday,
whose penchant for sympathetic coverage is well known, and
its apparent resolve to picket the Rockville Centre Diocese
in Mineola claiming that the GLBT Community was again being
victimized by a historically persecuting Church, was of the
knee-jerk variety. The "issues" were much too complex
and conflated to reach such a conclusion after one short meeting
filled, I am sure, with enthusiastic, well-meaning political
and otherwise uninformed opinions.
I
also read with interest the comments of LIGALY's
(Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth) David Kilmnick to
the effect that the Church, which traditionally ignored the
presence of gay priests in its ranks, gratefully acknowledged
their "pandemic" presence and blamed them exclusively
for the present plight of the Church.
Alternatively,
Tom Hroncich, Editor of Outlook
Long Island, in his April/May 2002 unlabeled editorial
(Vol. 3, Issue 5, p. 2), castigated D.A. Denis Dillon for
his allegation that it was likely the problem was homosexual
priests since clergy sexual abuse predominantly involved sex
by male priests with adolescent males. Hronchich concluded
that, "...the perception of gay men as pedophiles will
not only remain but grow..." and will have a negative
impact on all queer folk in professions dealing with youth.
 In
reality, Nassau D.A. Dennis Dillon, to his lasting political
regret, did attempt to distinguish pedophilia from ephebophilia.
Alternatively,
Suffolk D.A. Thomas Spota called for a special Grand Jury
to inquire into whether the Diocese of Rockville Centre had
covered up repeated cases of sexual abuse, reassigned accused
priests, and lied, thereby putting children at risk. This
appeared to me to be the most on-point response by any of
the political or legal pundits.
To clarify this psychological distinction, it should be noted
that the American Psychiatric Association, which the GLBT
Community regaled for its belated declassification of homosexuality
as a mental disorder, defines "pedophilia"
as "recurrent, intense, sexually arousing fantasies,
sexual desires or behavior involving sexual activity with
prepubescent children", which is classified as
a "disease."
In
fact, Dr. Fred Berlin of Johns Hopkins University characterizes
"pedophilia" as a "distinct sexual orientation
marked by persistent, sometimes exclusive, attraction to pre-pubescent children." Further,
Dr. Berlin holds that pedophilia is a chronic but treatable
disease akin to alcoholism, 68% of which is perpetrated
by parents (presumably heterosexual) and relatives and 33%
by non-relatives.
Alternatively,
according to the APA, ephebophilia, defined as an attraction
to post-pubescent teenagers, is not classified as a
"disease." It was ephebophilia rather than
pedophilia which Dillon sought to hold gay priests
responsible for, that is, homosexual relations with teenagers
rather than pedophiliac relations with prepubescent children.
It is difficult for me to imagine any but gay priests engaging
in homosexual relations with teenagers; it is further difficult
for me to imagine the entire GLBT Community being held responsible
for the hateful acts of these few gay priests, which Dillon
did not do.
 The
Church, on the other hand, focuses on the "celibacy problem,"
that is, the ban against marital relations for priests! Secondarily,
it focuses on the financial consequences of its management
fiasco. Thirdly, it focuses on the problem of homosexuals
in the priesthood, especially the seminaries, which are described
as queer seraglios! In no case has the Church substantially
focused on its criminal failure to properly supervise all
priests in all sexual matters. It should be noted, further,
that there are no factual statistics on the sexual activities
of priests in general or the number of gay priests in the
Church, an embarrassment considering that allegations of sexual
relations between priests and children have been rampant throughout
my life.
Almost
none of the responses by the major players, from the Cardinals
to the Pope to the lawyers to the media pundits, offered anything
but belated mechanical apologies to the victims of the abuse
scandal, almost as a secondary matter. To me this is the greatest
outrage of this entire scandal. It appears that all the major
players are attempting to shift the blame for this entire
mess. Each says, in one form or another, "It's not our
fault. Look over there at gays/celibacy/the seminaries /mistaken
managerial choices/financial repercussions/homophobia/the
degenerate Church." Does anyone care about the victims
or are they all too busy covering their own collective and
individual asses to be bothered?
First,
as to the "facts." The present Church scandal revolves
around what I now label "child sexual abuse" by
priests in its ranks including ephebo- and pedophilia. Most
of the abuse seems to center on priests having sex with teenage
and prepubescent boys, notwithstanding that there is some
evidence of occasional heterosexual non-celibacy, an entirely
different, adult matter. This is clear from the notorious
allegations against, inter alia, Fathers Geoghan and
Shanley in Boston and James Porter in Maine. I have never
heard any allegation that a nun has engaged in sexual relations
either with children or adults, homosexual or otherwise, though
I am sure there must be at least one such case in the wings
somewhere!
 The
number of priests so accused seems to increase almost daily.
Recently, one of the accused committed suicide and another
was shot by one of his victims. In short, it is pedophiliac
behavior by male priests with prepubescent boys or ephebophiliac
behavior by male priests with post-pubescent teen-aged boys
which is involved, all of which constitutes "homosexual
activity" in the popular mind, notwithstanding the subtle
but real psychological distinction between the two. Perhaps
it is the fact that all the sexual relations complainted of
to date are between males, notwithstanding the age of the
perpetrators or victims.
Further
clouding the issue are American social attitudes to any type
of adult sex with children, an unadulterated taboo (unlike
more tolerant European attitudes), and age of consent laws,
reflecting and conditioning those attitudes and defining who
is a child. No one in our Community is unaware of the long-standing
controversy concerning the embarrassing NAMBLA organization.
It's existence and genesis cannot be denied. In fact, our
Community was so embarrassed by its very existence that the
Executive Committee of the Stonewall 25 International Parade,
at its Atlanta Conference, was afraid to bar that organization's
participation due to "free speech" considerations
and, instead, passed a unanimous caveat which banned any organization
that promoted sex or other abuse of children, a definition
which fit NAMBLA alone. In short, most in our own GLBT Community
are afraid to tackle this topic forthrightly without flinching.
It has been alleged that Father Shanley was one of the greatest
promoters of NAMBLA in its early days.
The
issue then becomes, what is the proper manner in which to
respond to this unprecedented sex scandal in the Church, meaning,
of course, the Roman Catholic Church. The only true and consistent
term for the behavior at the core of this scandal is "child
sexual abuse," whether labeled pedophilia or ephebophilia.
The
only true and consistent crime of the Church is its failure
to properly supervise the sexual behavior of its priests and
to unflinchingly punish perpetrators of either pedophilia
or ephebophilia. But, as we have seen, it is not only the
Church or its minions that have to date failed and refused
to deal with these issues unflinchingly. We are all guilty
and we are all too busy pointing fingers at everyone and everything
else to consider our failure to do so, individually and socially.
First,
we should all condemn any form of child sexual abuse, no matter
how difficult or inconvenient this may be when considering
older teen hunks. Second, we should prohibit any and all sexual
activities by priests of any type with anyone unless and until
celibacy is renounced by the Church and in that case, all
non-marital sex by priests. Third, we should demand that the
Church properly supervise its priests and toss anyone out
who engages in prohibited sexual activity without exception.
Fourth, we, individually and as a society, should insure that
the response to this scandal and subsequent policing of priestly
sexual activity does not turn into a witch hunt against those
of any sexual orientation. Orientation is not the problem;
it is a form of behavior - that is, sex with children - which
is the problem.
Last,
but most emphatically not the least, we should care for the
current victims of any type of child sex abuse by priests.
Not by second thought, general apologies but by and with all
social, medical, and psychological tools at our command. We
should immediately enter into conscientious dialogue with
the victims, recognize fully the terrible assault on their
individuality, and assure them of our support and desire to
assist them to overcome the terrible trauma each of them has
suffered. Who among us would not be traumatized by being sexually
abused by an adult we were taught all our lives to listen
to and obey because he was God's chosen agent? Such betrayal
deserves more than secondhand thoughts and goes beyond merely
financial analysis. We must stop pointing fingers and start
mopping the beach so we can see and act more clearly to insure
that this tragedy never repeats itself and that we need not
"shed a bitter tear" in the future.
Other
Brief Shots Columns
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by John Tenniel
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