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	Another Catholic Scandal By Reuel S. Amdur Echo Weekly October 8, 2009 http://www.echoweekly.com/viewstory.php?storyid=8069 Sex is a basic human need. It is less strong than the need for food and for sleep, for example, but it is an important need. Sigmund Freud showed the world that it is expressed in a variety of ways and that if repressed it shows up unexpectedly. It can be sublimated to expression in creativeness, for example, but its denial can boomerang. Closes the door on it and it comes in the window. Shut the window and it comes down the chimney. That brings us to the case of the Most Reverend Raymond L. Lahey, until very recently the Bishop of Antigonish, a man of great scholarship. He studied in St. Paul’s University in Ottawa, in the Gregorian University in Rome, and at the University of Cambridge. He was instrumental in settling compensation claims related to priestly sexual abuse in Nova Scotia. Now he finds himself in disgrace, having to resign from his position when caught at customs with child pornography on his laptop. In the United States, a report indicated that, between 1950 and 2002, well over 4,000 priests were claimed to have abused close to 11,000 children, roughly 4% of the priests in parishes. British Columbia Bishop Hubert O’Connor was convicted of rape and indecent assault on two native women, but the conviction was overturned. He claimed that the sex back in the 1960’s was consensual, but he apologized to the women in a native healing circle ceremony. Bishop Eamonn Casey of Galway fled Ireland when his long-term affair with a Protestant divorcee became public. They had a son together. Stories about priests having affairs are almost commonplace, and many priests resign their positions to marry. However, the biggest scandals in North America have been about pedophilia, mainly with teen boys. Mount Cashel was the pinnacle, involving Catholic brothers. Sexual misconduct is not confined to Catholic clergy. Non–Catholic clergy—Protestant, Jewish, and others—have also made the news from time to time, but Catholic priests hit the headlines most frequently, even if those involved in pedophilia are a small minority of all Catholic clergy. More follow the path of Bishop Casey, in relationships with women, relationships which are not illegal but still forbidden to them. The Catholic Church has a serious long-term hang-up about sex. It forbids birth control, except for “natural” methods, even in the face of an AIDS epidemic in Africa. But what can be more unnatural than celibacy? Yet, there is nothing in basic Catholic doctrine that requires celibacy. Some popes were married and had children. Others had children out of wedlock. While the First and Second Lateran Councils in the 12th Century made clerical marriages invalid, clergy and even popes continued to marry for centuries later. Even today, the Eastern Rite of the Catholic Church has married priests. Sex has long been a problem for the Catholic Church, as it has for the Western world generally. Of the many cultures in the world, ours is one of the most restrictive in terms of what is sexually acceptable. Part of the problem for the Catholic Church has been its attitude toward women as evil, beginning with Eve the temptress. St. Augustine’s famous plea, “Lord, make me pure—but not yet!” was a prelude to his charge that “Nothing is so powerful in drawing the spirit of a man downwards as the caresses of a woman.” The continuing insistence on celibacy in the Latin Rite has resulted in a severe shortage of priests, while Protestant denominations face no such problem. Of course, most Protestant denominations also allow women to be ministers. But there is yet another side of Catholic clergy abuse. The bulk of the pedophilia cases have involved sex with young teen boys. The Church has given up on sex being itself sinful, as Pope Gregory The Great had proclaimed, but it still holds that position on homosexuality. If the Church accepts healthy sexuality for its clergy, then we might see less unhealthy sexuality among its clergy—pedophilia, child pornography, and hidden relationships which harm the partners of priests and their children. There are stirrings in the Church calling for reform, but those involved have been stonewalled by the hierarchy, especially by this very traditional and conservative pope. As a result, we can expect the scandals to continue at an unchanged pace. But scandal is not the only problem the Church will face. It will not be able to recruit the clergy it needs as it shuts the door on young people who are not prepared to accept celibacy, young people who recognize that sex is “natural” and part of a fulfilling life. Of course the whole issue of women as priests is also one that the church will continue to ignore at its peril.
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