I’d like to respond to Dr. Hal Sobel’s May 3, 2013 opinion captioned, “Smears, bad info don’t help Catholic Church” in which he criticized my opinion in the April 19, 2013 edition of the NHP Herald Courier, which was captioned (by the newspaper) as “Sexual Abuse Not a Catholic Problem”.
First and foremost, I will state that even one victim of pedophilia is one too many. That fact cannot be overstated, and I would never minimize that.
That being said, I’d like to respond to Dr. Sobel’s following points: In my letter, I pointed out the good works of the Catholic Church both towards Catholics and non-Catholics alike, and Dr. Sobel said that does not ‘speak to the point’.
Why would I do this, you might ask? If you had twelve honorable children and one child who was a criminal, once the criminal situation was addressed, would you want your entire family to continue to perennially be painted with the broad-brush of “that’s the family with the criminal son” I think not. You’d feel compelled to state that you have eleven other children who are honorable. That was my point of bringing up the good works of the Catholic Church here – so it indeed speaks to my point which is: don’t broad-brush the Catholic Church.
Dr. Sobel went on to state that one can’t compare “sexual intercourse,” “inappropriate sexual contact” and “sexual harassment” with “pedophilia.” My response to that is those other topics are quite general, and could very well include pedophilia among them. So what would be your point? Are you still trying to hold the Catholic clergy to a different standard?
You pointed out that the Catholic Church, is a monolithic and hierarchal institution. I would certainly agree with you, that the cover-up was terribly wrong. I could go on to state about how the Church has apologized for this grave wrong-dong, but in your letter, you’ve already done that for me, Dr. Sobel, and I thank you for that.
However, you speak as if nothing has been done to rectify the problem. Here is a case where “ignorance is not blissful.” I hope the following will be a learning experience for you and any others out there who continue to broad-brush the Catholic Church unjustly. So, here goes:
Several years ago now, in approximately 1996, a program was adopted by the Catholic Church called VIRTUS, which identifies best practices programs designed to help prevent wrongdoing and promote “rightdoing” within religious organizations.
The VIRTUS programs empower organizations and people to better control risk and improve the lives of all those who interact with the Church. The word “virtus” derives from Latin, and means valor, moral strength, excellence, and worth. In ancient times, virtus denoted a way of life and manner of behavior that always aspired to the highest, most positive attributes of people and aspects of human interaction.
Best practice is a standard. For risk control, it is a standard of effective protocols, procedures and methods for preventing and responding to risk. The standard requires an organization to demand and enforce “no tolerance” for wrongdoing and open communication channels with employees, volunteers, and others who interact with the organization.
When risk is identified, the best practice standard requires the organization to move quickly to eliminate or diminish the risk—fairly, effectively, and professionally. The VIRTUS programs follow this standard.
I hope the above will shed an overdue light on this issue and place it in its proper place. Dr. Sobel, your opinion states: “Like many others, I believed that pedophilia was, almost exclusively, a problem of the Catholic Church. She opened my eyes to the fact that the problem exists equally for Protestants and Jews.” That was precisely my point, Dr. Sobel. You also stated, “If the Catholic Church has received undue scrutiny and other religions have received a pass, more light needs to be shed on the issue.” Again, I totally agree with you, Dr. Sobel.
Therefore, I respectfully ask: give the Catholic Church credit where credit is due and don’t turn a blind eye and throw out the baby with the bath water and not acknowledge their very positive actions to remedy this. There are so many, many good Catholic clergy out there who certainly should not be thought of synonymously to fit in the same category of a negative few.
Rosanne Spinner
New Hyde Park
