R-Rated Sacrilege, by Julia Duin, The Washington Times, January 17, 2008

R-Rated Sacrilege

By Julia Duin
The Washington Times
January 17, 2008

http://video1.washingtontimes.com/beliefblog/2008/01/rrated_sacrilege_1.html

At first it seemed like just another press conference on sexual abuse by Catholic priests. The invitation was about a new book: "Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church" by Leon Podles, a scholar whom I'd last interviewed almost 10 years ago about his prior book "Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity."

So I showed up at the National Press Club Tuesday morning. What I discovered is probably the first R-rated account of what was really done to all those thousands of mostly teenage boys by abuser priests overseen by compliant bishops. It takes a strong stomach to work through the first few chapters that give the gory details about this ecclesiastical horror show.

Previous books on abuse, Podles told us, had been sanitized by not going into detail what sorts of rape, torture and sadism were perpetrated on innocent children. Not his. He had to form his own publishing company to get the book out after the publisher that commissioned the book backed out and no other publisher would take it because of the sexual content.

"Only a tiny fraction of the truth has come out," he told about 10 of us at his press conference. "Now people will understand why abuse victims cannot 'get over' it, why they have problems keeping a job and staying married."

When they tell church authorities, "They're regarded as whiners and moneygrubbers," he said. When sympathetic state legislators have tried extending the statute of limitations for abuse victims, "the Catholic Church has fought this tooth and nail.

"Bishops fear that if the truth were known, many, like Cardinal [Bernard] Law, would lose their jobs."

Podles had a personal encounter with this evil attending a private Catholic boys school years ago while considering the priesthood. He detected a strong current of homosexuality about the place; then his roommate committed a sexual act on him while he slept. When Podles reported the incident to the rector at dawn, the priest did not believe him. The roommate went on to become a Dominican who was then booted out of the order for his gay activities. He eventually died of AIDS. Podles, who left the school the following day, remains a Roman Catholic but mourns the evil afflicting his church. Every pope since Paul VI, he says, has known how bad the situation is.

"John Paul II did nothing about abuse except mourn it," he told us. "Benedict has still not disciplined bishops who permitted abuse."

Tom Doyle, a Catholic priest and expert in canon law, was also at the press conference. Many priests, he said, "are seriously disturbed and sexually dysfunctional. In seminary, their sexual development is frozen at adolescence. Emotionally, they are 12 or 13."

No wonder, he added, that the typical victim is also 12 or 13 years old.

I'd expected a boring book launch, but I was intrigued enough to hang around for lunch afterwards. (The crab cakes and wine were a hook, I must admit). Today, Doyle was telling us, abuse stats are lower because there are fewer priests and kids have wised up as to what sex abuse looks like.

As for the unfortunates who were preyed upon up until this century, "The only place these people can get decent treatment is in the civil courts," he said. "They still get beaten to the ground by the bishops and their lawyers."