A scandal has erupted among Catholic parishioners that has become a national disgrace. The Boston Globe reported Jan. 6 that the archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law, had sheltered a pedophiliac priest rather than reporting him to the authorities. When Cardinal Law discovered that this priest had raped several boys, he simply sent him on sabbatical to Rome, the Globe reported. Further investigations ensued, which uncovered instances of priest pedophilia across the country, from Boston to Los Angeles.
In response, The Vatican suggested that gay men should not be ordained as priests. Pope John Paul II’s spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, told the New York Times that “people with these inclinations just cannot be ordained … that does not imply a final judgment on people with homosexuality … but you cannot be in this field.”
The Vatican seems to believe that homosexuality and pedophilia are related. This is an outrageous claim and completely writes off the majority of homosexual priests who serve their parishes with dignity. The Church needs a real response that gets to the problem of pedophilia. In the future, the Church must conduct thorough background checks on prospective seminarians. Plus, clear and strict policies must in place that direct Church employees to report allegations of sexual abuse to civil authorities. Priests under suspicion should be immediately removed, not just from the parish, but from the ministry until the investigation is complete.
According to The Globe, only nine states currently have laws that specifically require clergy members to report suspicions of parishoner abuse. This is far too few. Clergy members nationwide should be just as accountable as members of any other profession.
Fortunately, the District is doing its part. In accordance with a new law in the District, said Susan Gibbs, a spokesperson for Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, the D.C. archdiocese began to require Church employees to immediately report any allegation of sexual abuse of minors to the authorities, in addition to the office of the Vicar-General—the diocese’s top enforcement official in matters of Church policy.
Cardinal McCarrick should also fight any attempt to close the priesthood to gay people. He said during a Georgetown Mass this semester that he welcomes the participation of gay members. We hope he meant that statement to apply to those gay members who feel called to take up a life of service that he surely believes is a gift from God. We hope the Church takes a similar stance and focuses on rooting out pedophilia rather than rooting out groups of upstanding citizens.
