PALM SPRINGS (CA)
The Desert Sun
January 22, 2019
By Lou A. Bordisso
Many Catholics and other people of good will are disgusted with the sexual scandal cover-ups, smokescreens and veil of secrecy postulated by bishops and their apologists. The shameless rationalization repetitively advanced by church authorities for being deceptive, deceitful and dishonest is plausible deniability is unacceptable.
My late Irish-Catholic mother often reminded me to “Tell the truth and shame the devil” as I was growing up. Given the enormity of clergy sexual scandals, there is no better time than the present to tell the truth or ever be labeled as a complicit collaborator and/or guilty of the “sin of omission.”
Increasingly, it seems as though not a day goes by without a media story about sexual allegations, charges and convictions against Roman Catholic priests and some bishops. The stories of illicit sexual activity range from the sexual abuse of children by priests to bishops keeping female mistresses or male lovers.
Celibacy research studies among Catholic clergy suggest that gay, straight, and bisexual priests are significantly sexually active, and many priests outright reject mandatory celibate chastity. The largest empirical research to date by Richard Sipe studied 1,500 Catholic priests over the period of 25 years and concluded that fewer than 50 percent of Roman Catholic priests in the United States even attempt celibacy, while only 2 percent achieve total celibate chastity.
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