It seems a little odd that a day after the quickly failing Toronto Star featured an article by Thomas Cardinal Collins on doctor assisted suicide or legalised physician murder, it should feature a column by Michael Coren attacking the Catholic Church. Well, maybe it is not so odd at all, the Star hates the Church.
In a column today in the Toronto Star, Coren states the following:
While most priests would never harm a child, and many are fine men, the culture of enforced celibacy and, forgive me, sexual immaturity, is profoundly damaging. Many experts estimate that perhaps half of all clergy break their vows of celibacy and while their partners may be adults, it creates the need for dishonesty and hiding. The abuser uses this dark insularity to his advantage.
When we mingle this with clericalism, a reverence towards the ordained that prevents criticism, a vehemently all-male and anti-democratic authority structure and a powerful self-defence mechanism it leads to all kinds of problems. Remember, abuse is not only sexual.
I will agree with Coren on one thing,"abuse is not only sexual."
On "clericalism," I detest it and anyone who reads this blog knows that. The worst clericalists are amongst the current crop of media priests and they don't need to be named here, we all know who they are. Coren and I would share the disdain for it and them. It was a false clericalism that allowed the predators that Coren describes and the bishops who covered it up to do the damage which they did and on this, we would also agree. A few blog posts below is the latest from a Grand Jury investigation in Altoona.
On the remainder, Coren; perhaps due to his new found funds and to stay in the good graces of TVO, The Toronto Star, CFRB and the CBC takes up the old canard to bash the Church, yet fails to mention the actual elephant in the room.
The crimes to which Coren refers were committed by homosexual men. It is not a matter of celibacy, it is a matter of sexual perversion. This is not to say that every man with same-sex attraction is a rapist or an abuser, but every man who has done these evil and dastardly deeds has same-sex attraction.
These were men who had no business in the priesthood. They came into the priesthood because it put them in close proximity to those whom they could bugger. They engaged in disgusting and vile acts upon Innocent boys mainly between 12 and 17. They were not interested in girls or little pre-pubescent children. They wanted perverted sex with boys and they were HOMOSEXUALS. They were protected for a variety of reasons, all of them wrong. Sometimes, they were protected by bishop who were themselves, sodomites.
Homosexual men should never and must never be admitted to the Catholic priesthood.
That is what Mr.Coren cannot bring himself to publicly state, but believe me, he knows it and I know that he knows it.
The John Jay report shows the following facts for the United States; the results would be similar in Canada:
The John Jay Report stated that 4% of Catholic Priests
were accused of child abuse.
(Although only only 5.7% of these were convicted, as
an undisclosed number of other cases may have been settled out of court I
shall keep to the higher figure of 4%)
Abuse of boys - Of the 4% of Catholic priests who abused children, 81%
abused boys. So 3.24% ( ie 4% x 81%) of Catholic
priests abused boys. But 16% of US Catholic priests were
homosexual. So it appears that 20% of homosexual Catholic
priests abused boys.
Abuse of girls - Of the 4% of Catholic priests who abused children, 19%
abused girls. So 0.76% (ie 4% x 19%) of Catholic
priests abused girls. But 84% of US Catholic priests were
heterosexual.
Some abuse was against girls, the overwhelming majority was committed by men against boys. All of it was evil.
Coren was my friend and brother Knight. I had coffee in his living room and we shared many a phone conversation. He knows full well what the problem was and is.
Nice gesture bro.