Debate: For Catholic Church Critics, Nothing Will Ever Be Enough

(April 20) -- The sexual molestation of minors has existed throughout history and in every part of the globe. Whenever there are situations where there is extended interaction between adult males and minors (of either sex), there exists the likelihood that some instances of sexual abuse will take place. The reference to adult males, and not adults, is intentional: Sexual abuse is rarely committed by women.

The Catholic Church, like every other religious and secular institution, has had its fair share of abuse cases. But judging from recent news stories, one might reasonably think that the church has a monopoly on this problem.

That's because too many in the media harbor an animus against the Catholic Church's teachings on sexuality, and some of them cannot resist the temptation to trot out old cases of abuse -- it matters not a whit how long ago they occurred -- just to get even.

To put it differently, there is no real interest in exposing sex abuse committed by the ministers in the mainline Protestant denominations. Why? Because most of them no longer stand against the dominant culture's libertine conception of freedom.

All of which is to say that suggestions that the Catholic Church do more to admit guilt, and that it adopt new canonical procedures -- including the establishment of an ecumenical council to examine the priesthood -- are rubbish.

Quite frankly, there is no organization in the world that has admitted its mistakes, issued more apologies, written more compensatory checks and met with more victims to the degree that the hierarchy of the Catholic Church has. To say that this is not enough is to reveal an agenda. For some, it will never be enough. It's time the church stopped trying to cater to such persons.

Moreover, no institution has done more to institute background checks of its workers and volunteers than the Catholic Church. Indeed, it even compels its employees to undergo training seminars that address this problem.

For these reasons, and others, there was a grand total of six allegations made between 2008 and 2009 against more than 40,000 priests. There is no organization in the world that can approximate this achievement.

It is nothing but grandstanding to say that new canonical procedures are necessary. As someone who has had experience with notifying the authorities about sex abuse -- on more than one occasion -- I know what it takes to get the job done: common sense and courage.

Unfortunately, the degree of common sense exercised by many in leadership positions is troublesome. But even when they know they should act, many prefer to duck and not get involved. The net result of stupidity and cowardice is sclerosis -- nothing gets done. And no amount of rule changes will ever address this condition.

The idea of an ecumenical council to look into the priesthood is grandstanding on steroids. Why not go all the way and call for a Marshall Plan on Sexual Abuse, or a War on Abuse?

Quite frankly, steps have already been taken to screen more thoroughly for candidates to the priesthood. For example, it is now more difficult for sexually immature men, and practicing homosexuals, to enter the priesthood. And since they are the problem population (only a minority of the abuse cases involve pedophilia), it is not surprising that the incidence of abuse has already begun to check itself.

Most of the abuse took place in the Catholic Church from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s -- the time of the sex revolution -- but the bill for lowering standards did not take place until 2002, when The Boston Globe broke the story.

This time around it's different. We are not talking about new cases -- the stories extend back a half-century. We are talking about media chatter in 2010 that makes it look as though the scandal is widening.

Just the opposite is true. Which is why setting off the alarms now is pure hysteria.

Bill Donohue is president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.

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