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	Power, Sex and Money By Carl Matthes UK Progressive May 24, 2011 http://www.ukprogressive.co.uk/power-sex-and-money/article12189.html What do former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, newly resigned International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops have in common? They’re all powerful, older men, who have access to money and who can’t keep their pants zipped. They each have hidden acts of abuse for years and have used their wealth and power for protection from their victims and the law. And they are fighting to continue to wield power. Catholic bishops, ‘Protectors of the Church’. Strauss-Kahn, ‘Great Seducer’. Schwarzenegger, ‘Muscled sexual-swaggerer and liar’. The Catholic bishops, despite their ungodly efforts at hiding and running from sexual abuse victims for over three decades, have probably lost nearly a billion dollars. The total eventual cost? To turn a phrase, ‘priceless’. And, according to the May 19 Los Angeles Times article entitled “Society is to blame for priest sex abuse,” they’re still working to camouflage history. The article, concluding that society is to blame, was “commissioned by Catholic Bishops” and was prepared by John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. And, while it can be faulted for blaming society for the Church’s woes, it did make two other points: First, is that celibacy, in and of itself, did not “cause” priests to molest children. Second, is that homosexuality, in and of itself, likewise, did not “cause” priests to molest children. But commendation must end there. For when it came to the lynchpin of how the abuse and pedophilia continued and how the tactics of hate, torment and scorn of victims became part of the church’s defense, it shockingly let the Catholic bishops off-the-hook! God chose these guys as His protectors? According to the Times article: “church leaders did not try to shape the research, and… the report did not let anyone off the hook.” Yeah, sure. Just like Strauss-Kahn who may claim he had only consensual sex with the maid and Arnold who, for 13 years, just forgot to tell his wife that their maid’s kid was his. Reaction to the bishops’ report has just begun. David Finkelhor of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, said: “…unfortunately they are going to get lambasted (for)… the lack of emphasis on the terrible mishandling of this whole phenomenon by the bishops and the church hierarchy.” William Donohoe, the outspoken president of the conservative Catholic League, was one of the first to take issue with the fact that homosexuality was not a root cause of the abuse. How can that be, he wondered on his website. Donohoe’s line of reasoning equates rape as being a mere sex act between a man and a woman. You put it in, you take it out. With his logic, an armed robber who kills his victim, is not a criminal, he’s just a marksman who’s practicing. Mr Donohoe, rape is an abuse of power. It is not a sexual act. The woman did not ask for it, deserve it or attract it. The rapist is a criminal sexual predator with male genitals. Likewise, young boys are not sexual. They do not ask for it. They were innocent and unknowingly able to defend themselves. Even the 78% of abused boys you set aside as being “beyond puberty” (not young enough, under your definition, to qualify as enticing bait for predatory priests) were not consenting. The law makes this clear. The Catholic priest is a criminal sexual predator with male genitals. So, whose to blame? According to the bishops’ report, it’s society. Oh, great! Imagine, the finest and best that God could call from His earthly flock to serve in His Holy Church did nothing wrong because when they were molesting young children, they were just “responding to social turmoil.” Have you called the Pope with that news? With thinking like that, dear bishops, The Church is no longer like the Rock of Gibraltar of religions, it is on a foundation of drugs, sex and rock and roll! I nominate Stephen Tyler as the next Pope!
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