The Priestly Pedophilia Program PPP, Michael Shermer, True/Slant, March 29, 2010

The Priestly Pedophilia Program (ppp)

By Michael Shermer
True/Slant
March 29, 2010

http://trueslant.com/michaelshermer/2010/03/29/the-priestly-pedophilia-program-ppp/

By now everyone is painfully aware of the latest scandal to hit the Catholic Church over the matter of the Priestly Pedophilia Program (PPP). As the circle of justice slowly tightens around the Vatican and the Pope himself, who apparently not only knew about extensive priest-on-boy molestation but directly and actively helped bury the story and possibly even moved the offending priest to a perish that would grant him greater access to even more boys, the one-liner of the eminently quotable Christopher Hitchens comes to mind here about the PPP: No Child’s Behind Left.

If it were revealed that any other organization but the Catholic Church had not only engaged in but protected and sometimes even encouraged child molestation, rest assured that any government worthy of the name would swoop down upon them and shut them down cold, stopping all further activities until a full and legal investigation and proper prosecution of all offenders were undertaken. Imagine what would happen if it came out that the Boy Scouts had for a century been secretly practicing pedophilia, that hundreds or perhaps thousands of Boy Scout troop leaders had been sexually molesting young boys in their tents during camp outings, and that the national Boy Scout leadership had systematically covered it all up and in some cases even moved some Scout leaders to other troops where they would be given access to more boys. Imagine indeed. FBI agents and federal prosecutors would come crashing through the gates, confiscating computers, documents, files, records, and the like, padlocking doors of troop headquarters, making arrests, and shutting down all Scout operations until the matter was cleaned up. And if it turned out that the Boy Scouts had done anything even remotely as extensive as the PPP has already admitted has gone on by the Catholic Church, would federal prosecutors, courts, and state and local governments allow the Boy Scouts to continue? The question answers itself.

Naturally this is not the case with the Boy Scouts because it is run primarily by fathers who have sons, which they had by having sex with their wives. But image what might happen if the Boy Scouts were run by men who were not allowed to marry, who had to take a vow of celibacy, who were forbidden to express their normal sexual urges, and then were thrust into weekend retreats with young boys who are not their relations and given ample opportunity with no other adult supervision to do what they want with their young charges, knowing full well that if caught they would be protected and even rewarded with new opportunities? Could it be that there might be some pedophilia pariahs moving into the Boy Scouts? The question answers itself. And this is the problem with the Catholic Church on this matter. It is completely unnatural to force priests to take a vow of celibacy, as it does one of two things: it attracts pedophilia pariahs into positions of power and dominance, and it moves otherwise heterosexual men into homosexuality in order to meet their needs.

The obvious solution to the problem is to end the vow of celibacy and allow priests to marry. Will this happen? Not unless federal authorities here and foreign governments there wear the pants and have the balls to man up and kick some Catholic ass and not be afraid to use their teeth in enforcing laws that should not exempt anyone of a crime based on their religious preference. (Can I pack anymore metaphors into that previous sentence?) Of course, the Pope could always resign, shut down the Catholic Church, and convert the Vatican into the world’s greatest art museum. Fat chance.