Sometimes reading the letters to the editor in the Great Neck News is like experiencing life in a parallel universe. One enters a world in which the melting of icebergs is unrelated to global warming, and the earth must be flat because that’s how it looks to me when I stare at the horizon.
On April 19, 2013, the News published a letter from Rosanne Spinner captioned “Sexual Abuse Not A Catholic Problem.” The writer points proudly to the fact that the Church educates 2.6 million young students, 700,000 in Catholic colleges and universities, and operates 637 non-profit hospitals. While all of us, Catholics and non-Catholics, are grateful to the Church for these good works, they do not speak to the point. In other words, they beg the questions – Are Catholic priests guilty of pedophilia? In what numbers? And has there been a cover-up?
Another example of specious thinking is Ms. Spinner’s contention that many Protestant ministers have engaged in sexual intercourse with their parishioners.
Please Ms. Spinner! Are you comparing an immoral act between two consenting adults with the criminal act we call pedophilia? The latter, as we all know, consists of an adult in a position of power abusing an innocent child often causing irreparable psychological damage. We must be aware that there are organizations consisting of victims of this heinous act whose goal is to seek justice by punishing the perpetrators.
It is interesting that Ms. Spinner conveniently overlooks the greatest sin of all – the cover-up.
Is it not true that bishops and even some cardinals having learned of the activities of pedophile priests simply reassigned them to different parishes? This question was addressed by the U.S. Bishops in their 2002 Meeting. In a document entitled the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” the Preamble states:
The sexual abuse of children…by some priests and bishops, and the ways in which we bishops addressed these crimes and sins, have caused enormous pain, anger and confusion….In the past, secrecy has created an atmosphere that has inhibited the healing process and, in some cases, enabled sexually abusive behavior to be repeated.
These are not the rantings of some anti-Catholic zealot, but an apology from leaders of the Church itself.
Now we come to the heart of the argument and for this I must thank Ms. Spinner. 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.
Sadly, she, to some extent, gets the facts wrong. She states that 1.7 percent of Catholic clergy were guilty of pedophilia while the comparable figure for Protestant ministers is 10 percent. It only took a little research to discover that 10 percent of Protestant ministers were guilty of “sexual misconduct” and sexual misconduct includes fornication. When we factor out intercourse, we discover that only 2-3 percent of the ministers engaged in pedophilia. The bottom line, then, is Catholic pedophilia 1.7 percent; Protestant pedophilia 2-3 percent.
One other factor merits consideration. The Catholic Church is a monolithic and hierarchical institution whose priests are easily vetted and monitored. The Protestant faith is comprised of hundreds of denominations with little central control. Comparing the Catholic Church to Protestantism is apples and oranges. One needs to ascertain figures for Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and the myriad other denominations which fall under the rubric of Protestantism. Then compare stats for each denomination against the Catholic figures.
The problem of pedophilia as it relates to religion is very complex. If the Catholic Church has received undue scrutiny and other religions have received a pass, more light needs to be shed on the issue. However, defending one’s church by smearing another is not a solution. Persons of good will should form a united front ferreting out the criminals who perpetrate these heinous acts and seeing to it that they are placed behind bars.
Dr. Hal Sobel
Great Neck
