Think: Windswept House, or the other hyper verbose non fiction by Malachi Martin, or worse: I read another writer who actually believed the awful revelations of Maria Monk and didn't realize they were made up by a prostitute who never had been near a convent.
So when I found RandyEngels book the Rite of Sodomy on Internet archives, I didn't expect much, but when I checked it out, I found it was basic reporting with little purple prose.
If she changed her name and the title of the book, it would be easier to take her seriously given all the footnotes in the book
The reporting is very dreary repetitious dry stories of abuse: all 1700 page of it.
But what I found especially interesting is the footnotes, which give a lot of background and gossip on what was going on in the church.
But again, one has to remember the cases are a small percentage and ignores the many more clergy who are faithful.
The problem is the cover up: often out of misplaced compassion:and a lot of the cover up was done at the advice of psychiatrists and lawyers, which by the way Engles does mention this problem. And like all witch hunts, it ignores false accusations: Think McMartin preschool and the satanic ritual abuse hysteria.
and in the background: a traditional anti Catholicism found in America made a lot of folks question the claims for a long time.
For example, John Paul II saw so many similar false claims by the communists to destroy the church, which is why he found a lot of the accusations hard to believe.
And in Italy,, hitting on boys by the rich was not a big thing. Which is why Alister Crawley and others went there to enjoy themselves.
The difference, of course, is that in America, it is the dregs of society, i.e. those who were victims or knew victims, who immigrated and are a little less blase about such things. (Ditto for Africans, who see in the call for legalizing homosexuality just another way for letting the rich and powerful, both local and tourists, prey on their youth).
the old anti Catholicism was by fundamentalists, but the new inquisition is more likely to come from gay rights groups and feminists. So there is a lot of folks out there who will cherry pick the bad and try to destroy the church.
Philip Jenkins book on Anti Catholicism is a good place to start to learn about this story. (Also at Internet Archive).
The Pope, after his "who am I to judge" about a repenting pedophile, has been quiet on the problem: He is now saying, hey, I'm worried about homosexuals in the priesthood, and well maybe we shouldn't let gays into our seminaries.
well, DUH.
I'll believe him after he fires a couple of notorious bishops who he has running his "synods".
the problem is not a person with same sex attraction who is faithful: (which half of them are, if one believes Andrew Greeley's statistics, not "opinions" by those untrained in statistical surveys.)
I remember one gay religious brother who worked with us in Africa: We asked the priests how he got in, and was told: He was watched carefully during his training, and he was so holy that they decided to make an exception.
Sounds about right.
but if those in charge wink at such things, or worse, encourage it, such men are in terrible danger. It's the promiscuity that is the problem.
Sigh. Don't ask me. I'm just a doctor and we just try to pick up the pieces.
As for abuse: I mainly saw abused girls, and about half the cases were fake, and most of the rest were minor or ambiguous (e.g. sex while drunk or she changed her mind and he didn't stop, which were terrible for the girl of course, but would never hold up in court). But a couple cases were terrible and we helped send them to jail, where the good honest criminals would undoubtedly punish them for their sins.
Sigh.
finally, let me remind you: What is going on in the church is being purged.
The other shoe hasn't yet dropped on what is going on in the public schools, where the problem is worse.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office said the nation’s K-12 schools lack a systemic approach to preventing and reporting educator sexual abuse of students, despite a problem that the report said affects an estimated 9.6 percent of students – nearly one in 10 – who are subjected to sexual misconduct by teachers, coaches, principals, bus drivers and other personnel during their K-12 career.
That figure is from a 2004 report made to the U.S. Department of Education and is the most recent estimate available, according to the Government Accountability Office report released last week.
Sigh.
Danny Hastert, call your office. Guess who wants more money.
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