March 10, 2002

Our nation is at war, but the media have been in a feeding frenzy over moral scandals in the Catholic Church. St. Paul had disasters to deal with in Corinth, and the condition of the Church in the 10th and 16th centuries would have made our seamiest tabloids blush, but out of those times came great saints.

No one is more offended by grave crimes against nature than the more than 40,000 priests who live by the Gospel in a nation which has allowed itself to be seduced by moral deconstructionists. The same popular media that thrive on scandals, have fostered our degenerate moral climate. By definition, Pharisaism is to pretend to be scandalized in order to promote one's own agenda. The same Pharisees who express shock at degenerate behavior have been saying for years that it is liberating, and that opposition to it is an irrational "phobia."

First, moral crimes against youth are horrific. Christ said that it would be better that such offenders be drowned in the depth of the sea. Authorities are accountable for how they have handled these cases. It is offensive to hear from church or civil leaders that they have finally become "enlightened." Had they not heard, for instance, of the Ten Commandments? Corruption must be excised immediately.

Second, scandalmongers must be reminded of the grave offense they do to Christ and his Church. The media have a professional responsibility to expose fraud, but they have a deeper responsibility as moral beings to examine their own motives.

Third, dissidents who manipulate such trials to promote their hopeless and contradictory projects of changing the Church's true teaching on morality, celibacy, and the male priesthood should be exposed as the demagogues they are.

A definitive study on morality in the priesthood by Philip Jenkins (Oxford University Press, 1996) shows that pedophilia is much more common among married men, and in all other professions, including the non-Catholic clergy. While one case alone would be vicious, it is nonetheless true that such incidents involve one third of one per cent of Catholic priests. What would the rate be among the critics?

Seven military chaplains have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in the history of this highest award, and all of them have been Roman Catholic priests. Perhaps that is because Catholic Church has the authority to absolve sins, and believes that this is important enough to require heroic action in the line of fire. That is the real priesthood, and for every Judas in it, there are all the other apostles who preach salvation even to the Church's no so cultured despisers.

Fr. George W. Rutler