BishopAccountability.org
	My Take By Thomas Doyle Voice from the Desert January 15, 2010 http://reform-network.net/?p=2537 UNITED STATES -- I believe the best way to describe this short article is thus: it is a "puff piece" that contributes nothing substantial to an understanding of the clergy sex abuse issue. The author's conclusions from the statistics mean….what? It comes across as a spin, using the John Jay findings in an attempt to minimize the problem. The author may be an expert "in standards of care and the dynamics of abuse in educational and religious environments." She is clearly not an expert in the dynamics of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. The first paragraph is the tip-off. She states flat-out that the "crisis" occurred in 2002. Even casual observers with only a rudimentary knowledge of the phenomenon in the Catholic Church know two things that Dr. Applewhite apparently does not. First, this is far more than a "crisis." A crisis happens, is confronted and is either resolved or morphs into something worse than when it stated. The clergy sexual abuse reality is not a crisis but the horrific result of a deeply flawed institutional Church that is run by a clerical elite that is socially and morally distorted. This is really the revelation of a destructive trait that is deeply embedded in the institution. Second, Dr. Applewhite states that the "crisis" occurred in 2002. I was amazed at this statement which on its own is enough to evaporate any claim to credibility she may have had. The shock waves that started on January 6, 2002 in Boston were clearly not the beginning of the "crisis" to use her words. Awareness of sexual abuse of children, minors and adults had been happening in bits and pieces since the 1940's. The institutional Church, meaning the bishops, had managed to keep the lid on this virus within for decades but the cover was growing thinner each year and by 1984 the protective hierarchical shield ruptured. The "crisis" had always been there and is more accurately described as a toxic element within the Church. It surely was not and is not a momentary occurrence. What happened in 1984? Several elements converged: an arrogant diocesan administration; a highly prolific and highly destructive pedophile in the true sense; a set of parents who were so disgusted that their disgust overcame their Catholic brainwashing; a media liberated from mindless deference to the "church" and a courageous journalist who focused not on the sexually perverted perpetrator but on the worst element of the problem, namely the cover-up, deception and duplicity of the bishops. Far too much has been revealed since 1984 for even the most naïve person to believe that the clergy abuse nightmare begins and ends with the perpetrating clerics. That's why the Virtus-sponsored spin comes across as a superficial jumble of selected statistics that is apparently aimed at minimizing the problem and shining a favorable light on the bishops. The problem is that any light shown on the bishops is dim at best and favorable…..never! The most unrealistic statement is the final sentence: "It is up to the thinkers in the Church to determine just what to do with those finding." The thinkers in the Church, meaning I suppose the bishops and their allies, have done plenty of thinking and spent countless hours in discussion. The purpose has not been to find the truth but to work out more ways to avoid accountability to the Church and to secular society and above all and most disgusting, to find ways to minimize their obligations to the thousands and thousands of victims. The thinkers from within have had plenty of time to clear their heads and began the risky and challenging process of finding answers. Plain and simple…the bishops aren't interested in finding out why. In fact, they are deathly afraid of the results of honest and impartial research into the whole issue. Why so harsh a response on my part? Because I am tired of the non-stop efforts by the U.S. bishops to minimize the clergy abuse problem, which is still very much with us. Virtus is a creature of the Bishops. My harshness is grounded in a conflict I cannot resolve: Virtus says its motive is protecting children. If the Bishops are interested in protecting children then why do they fight so viciously to de-rail any attempts at passing civil legislation that would protect all children, and why do they continue to bludgeon adults who were once child victims through legal moves. To quote a wise saying that originated in the military: "Lead, follow or get out of the way. " Virtus and indeed the entire hierarchical establishment can't lead and it won't follow so the only course left….get out of the way!
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