Child Porn Is a Window into the Soul of the Church

By Joelle Casteix
The Worthy Adversary
October 30, 2013

http://theworthyadversary.com/2336-child-porn-is-a-window-into-the-soul-of-the-church

Why would a vowed celibate man have pictures of naked or semi-naked children on his computer? Why, when given the evidence of these photos, would this man’s supervisors do little or nothing, even when the crime is federal and one of the easiest to report? Since, in this case, the supervisor is a Catholic bishop and the man with the pornography is a priest, the inaction of the bishop is a window into the fetid, rotten soul of hierarchy of the church. This situation above reflects scandals that have rocked two midwest dioceses: St. Paul/Minneapolis and Kansas City/St. Joseph. In both instances, priests were in possession of evidence or photographs of naked or semi-naked children. The bishops, when finding out about the images, didn’t report. Instead they hid (or allegedly hid) evidence in order to protect the church. The soul of the hierarchy of the church cannot get any more rotten than that. In the real world, child pornography is a federal crime. It’s also one of the easiest crimes to report. The evidence is apparent and obvious. In the case of priests, the line is even more distinct: there is no reason whatsoever that an ordained and celibate cleric should have anything even remotely resembling child pornography is his possession. And if there is any question, a supervisor should report the photographs to law enforcement anyway. There is no moral ambiguity. There is no “he said-she said,” no need for an internal investigation, no need for a “task force” to review policies. If the bishops had come in possession of evidence cooked books, they would have reported immediately. But when given photographic evidence of child sexual abuse, they sat on their thumbs. If that is not moral rot, then I don’t know what is. The only thing that Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn and St. Paul Archbishop John Nienstedt needed was moral courage. They fell flat. We have had 11 years of the church’s “smoke-and-mirrors dog-and-pony-reform-show.” It is a massive failure. I, for one, am done with it.