Catholics harshly judged

Apr 01, 2010

Iam prompted to write about the issue of priestly sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church because it has become a media topic all over the world that has drawn a lot of excitement.

By Fr.Ambrose Bwangatto
Iam prompted to write about the issue of priestly sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church because it has become a media topic all over the world that has drawn a lot of excitement.
Even in Uganda, respectable New Vision contributors like Opio Oloya have joined the excitement that the topic provokes and made comments.

Whereas I appreciate commentaries that Oloya makes, I do not appreciate the article about the Catholic Church, the Catholic priesthood and the Pope. His article in the New Vision of Wednesday March 31, is a mere re-cycling of what has been aired daily in the Western media.

There is nothing new he is presenting apart from critiquing the Church and assuming unwarranted authority to solicit for the resignation of the Pope and sternly demanding the Catholic Church to revise her doctrines and disciplines like Clerical celibacy claiming that it is the cause of all problems.

Oloya repeats the case of Father Peter Hullermann, 62, a priest under then Archbishop Ratzinger who was accused of sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy in 1980; also the case of 200 deaf boys of Wisconsin, US, who were sexually molested by a Catholic priest between 1950 and 1974, a case of Fr. Murphy and others as have been reported in the media. I do not know whether Oloya and his western media friends checked their facts well. Oloya cannot claim that: “The problem with the Catholic Church seems to be the inability to acknowledge that there are bad apples in the priesthood who commit very serious crimes and who need to be dealt with firmly. Instead of confronting the problem, however, the Church chooses the path of least resistance, which is to bury the whole thing and pretend it never happened.”

With such attitude Oloya is treading the path of some sections of media mediocrity, the path of uncritical approach to the issue of sexual abuses.

The facts are that the church has now and again acknowledged the problem and has taken steps to address it. Benedict XVI, when he became Pope changed the law so that sexual offences committed with anyone under the age of 18 would be a crime in Church law.

When he visited the US he met with the victims and prayed with them and assured them of his support and prayers. Only recently, in a Papal letter that was read at weekend masses across Ireland, the Pontiff admitted some bishops had made grave errors of judgment in dealing with paedophile priests.

In the US alone, the Los Angeles Archdiocese in July 15 2007, made the largest church settlement of sexual abuse lawsuits to date, agreeing to pay more than 500 alleged victims a total of $660m. In Ireland again, Father Brendan Smyth died in prison while serving 12 years for 74 sexual assaults on children. In Germany, the Church is launching a telephone hotline for victims of sexual abuse.

In the Netherlands, the Dutch Catholic bishops have ordered an independent inquiry into alleged sexual abuse of children by priests.

I am afraid that the media are constructing a Catholicophobia and the campaign seems to be systematic and well orchestrated. That is why Pope Benedict XVI on Palm Sunday in St. Peter’s Square said he will not allow to be intimidated by the petty gossip of dominant opinion in the media.
With all these reports, it is a pity that priests have been portrayed as child abusers and are an unfaithful batch of disgruntled men who are there just to keep their robes as symbols of abuses.

The priesthood has been taken to the lowest most vulgar level, by the media, a swamp of sin and dishonesty. The whole issue is so polarised that there is nothing positive to show about the Catholic Church. This is how some sections of the Media Court of Justice is operating against the Catholic Church.

The writer is a theology and philosophy lecturer at Ggaba Seminary but currently in the Netherlands

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