Pennsylvania 300

Much is being made about the recent grand jury report out of Pennsylvania. The grand jury studied allegations made from 1947 to the present against priests concerning sexual abuse. The jury decided that roughly 300 priests over those 70 years were responsible for over 1000 victims of sexual abuse.

To put the numbers another way, in a diocese that currently has 776 priests (and had more than 5000 priests serve since 1947) an average of four priests per year abused 14-15 children a year for 70 years. Obviously, any case of abuse is unacceptable, as cases like those of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein and DNC assistant director Keith Ellison prove. But, given the numbers, the most shocking aspect of all of these cases is the length of time that the abuse was actively covered up.

For seven decades, from 1947 until the present, Pennsylvanian bishops covered for the handful of abusive priests in their diocese. For four decades, the powerful men and women of Hollywood covered for Harvey Weinstein. For at least the same decades, members of Congress have covered up the abuse of staff and interns by elected politicians, who papered over hidden payments made to those same victims with taxpayer money.  And there are more child abuse rings out there among the rich and powerful, as Corey Feldman has repeatedly testified and Clinton-friend Jeffrey Epstein has hinted.

As I pointed out seven years ago, the problem of adults abusing children is common. Wherever large numbers of children congregate in the presence of adults, whether it is on Hollywood sound stages, in Congressional back offices, in public school classrooms, at regional and national athletic competitions, in fast food joints, synagogues or church sacristies, there will be adults who take advantage of the situation. Equally common is the bureaucratic tendency to hide the abuser, hide the abuse, and quietly pay the victims off while moving the abuser to a new position of authority.

I don't mean to engage in "what-about-ism". There is a fine line between raising the red herring of saying "others do it too" versus asking the legitimate question "are Catholic priests abusing at a rate out of proportion to the population?" But that line DOES exist, and we do need to ask that second question.

After all, if Catholic priests ARE abusing out of proportion to the general population or out of proportion to other specific populations, then one of two things needs to happen. Either we:

1. abolish the priesthood OR 
2. take that fact into account in priestly training and make explicit efforts to weed out possible offenders.

But, in order to see whether or not Catholic priests really ARE abusing out of proportion, we have to compare the population of Catholic priests to the general population and/or compare to the other populations that deal with large numbers of children. No matter what the answer, we still have a final question: should the Catholic Church be held to a higher standard than we hold our politicians, coaches, public school teachers and Hollywood heroes? Absolutely, yes. I am all for holding Catholic priests to a higher standard than we do other populations.

The Pennsylvania priests who are guilty should be prosecuted, and so should be the Pennsylvania bishops who hid them. Harvey Weinstein's prosecutor should move on to prosecute all the men and women who knew of his activities but kept silent. Offenders in the House and Senate, the abusive men and women we elected to office, should be jailed, along with every elected, appointed or employed member or staffer who knew it was happening, but kept silent. Public school teachers, their principals and the local school boards should be perp-walked out to waiting squad cars.

As Bill Donahue points out, America apparently wants to convict priests and bishops on a lower standard of evidence than that used for lay people. Go ahead. I won't gripe. I just want a complete picture of what is actually going on. I want everyone to understand and agree that we are using a lower standard of evidence for priests than we use for everyone else.

Pick any organization that deals with a lot of children, advertise for and examine every victim claim made against that organization for the last seventy (70) years, and I absolutely guarantee you will find at least as many perpetrators, as many victims, and as much of a bureaucratic cover-up as you do in any Catholic diocese. Why? Well, at least because the organization wouldn't have lasted 70 years without a successful bureaucratic cover-up. And that level of abuse will be found even if you use different standards of evidence for allegations and/or conviction. But we already know this.

Bill Clinton has been credibly accused of rape, his wife had knowledge of it, but she hid his crimes so successfully that she actually ran for President. In fact, she nearly got elected to the highest office DESPITE the fact that voters knew she was very probably at least an accessory to rape after the fact. She got beaten by a man who was accused of rape by his own wife and who publicly celebrated being endorsed by a convicted rapist. We, the voters, knew all about all of this, but we were fine with it. We still are.

Here's the dirty little secret: ultimately, Americans DO hold different standards of evidence for Catholic priests than they do for Hollywood moguls, public school teachers or the politicians we happily vote into office. I am not griping. From the evidence of the news media and the various levels of outrage, we both know I am just stating the fact. Even non-Catholics recognize this.

We want priests and bishops to be holier than those other groups. That is a perfectly legitimate desire. But are the priests and bishops of the Catholic Church holier than any of those groups? That is, are they less likely to sin? Scripture and experience tells us they are not. This is what human beings are: broken. Even cancer surgeons die of cancer. Even bishops and priests are accursed with broken human sinfulness.  Prosecute every surgeon who acted with malfeasance. It doesn't change the fact that we still need cancer surgeons.