It's Not About "The Gays": A Look at Abuse in the Catholic Church

First, I'm writing this post in August while the Catholic church is, once again, dominating the news with yet another sex scandal. Which is part of the problem, that we look at these as individual scandals when they are, in fact, not individual but part of a pathology within the Catholic church.

Second, I'm assuming that the current scandal will have dropped out of the news by the time this posts. I'm also assuming that nothing will have changed in the church, again, so this post is still highly relevant.

Third, it's not the Catholic church that is the root of this problem, but we'll get to that in the post.

* * *

In the United States, we tend to have this perception that homosexuality and pedophilia are linked. Like one begets the other. I'm just going to say that the root of this lies in the Catholic church. The root of the perception, that is, because that's what it is, a perception. It is not a true thing beyond the fact that men have this problem with seeking out young sexual partners, which actually has nothing to do with being Catholic or homosexual and usually stops short of pedophilia.

The truth is that most, the vast majority, of the priests who have committed these atrocious acts of sexual violence against children would not or do not consider themselves homosexuals. These are not "gay" acts of men against young boys. These are acts of aggression of men in power against the only outlet they have: boys.

Which is where and why it gets complicated and misunderstood. The public has only seen it as men abusing boys -- which may be the only way the public can see it -- and interprets that has homosexual pedophiles, which causes those two things to be linked in the collective consciousness.

Probably what is needed here is a history of the Catholic church and the practice of sending young men into the priesthood, basically, against their will. But let's sum all of that up by saying that sending men to be priests because it would be good for the family or sending away the troublemakers in hopes that it will straighten them out or sending men because they simply have no other prospects are all bad reasons for anyone to become a priest. None of these men are really signing up for the "required" celibacy, so it should be no surprise when they don't succeed at it.

The problem is that when they don't succeed at it, at keeping their sexual desires in check -- And when I say "desires," I don't mean the desire to have sex with other men or with boys; I mean the desire to have sex. Period. You men reading this should understand what it's like to be young and horny.* -- the only people they have around them with whom to express these desires, the only "safe" people they have around them with whom to express these desires, are young boys. I say "safe" because they can't express these desires with each other. Let's look at those reasons before I talk about why children are "safe" targets.

1. As I said, these men, on the whole, don't identify as homosexuals, so they're not actually attracted to their companions. Or to men.
2. The men around them are their equals, so their silence is not assured.
3. The attitude about sex in the Catholic church is that any sex not specifically meant for procreation inside a marriage relationship is sinful. Protected sex is sinful. Masturbation is sinful. Sex because you're horny is sinful. [I should point out, though, that it is perfectly fine for a man to rape his wife as long as he can say it was his intent to put a baby in her. The Catholic church is FUCKED UP. [I should also point out that many protestant churches, especially Evangelical churches, share these same views.]]
4. The Catholic church (and most protestant churches) view homosexuality as a sin. They, in fact, treat it as if it is somehow the worst of all mortal sins. So, though I said that these priests don't view themselves as homosexuals, they also know that having sex with their compadres would be a homosexual act.

It's pretty clear, I think, that the idea of approaching a brother priest with the idea of sex is more than just dangerous. Priests could get excommunicated for things like that or, at the very least, severely disciplined, and it would ruin any future prospects for anyone with any kind of ambition.

Which leaves only one outlet for their sexual frustrations, the young boys working in the church alongside them. Boys because that should remove all doubt of any shenanigans. Because, you know, homosexuality is so serious and surely no priest would ever engage in anything even suggestive of it. I'm going to guess and say that the issue of sexual abuse in the church would be even greater if they allowed, also, for altar girls.

See, the thing about kids is that they are easy to intimidate into silence. Then, even if they do talk, adults are so dismissive about what they have to say, especially if it's not something they want to hear, that it hardly matters that they tried to tell anyone. And, if someone believes one of the kids, say, a mother, then she has to break through the male power structure of the Catholic priesthood to have someone listen to and believe her.

Until recently, all of this has been insurmountable.

And it takes us back to the real problem: male power structures. Because this not just a problem in the Catholic church; it's a problem everywhere you have men in power. You don't have to look any farther than our own #fakepresident to know as he gleefully boasted about how he could grab women by the pussies and they would just let him do it. And Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby and and AND! So many ands.

It's clear that anywhere you have men in power that they will abuse that power, frequently in ways that damage other people, especially if they have other men around them to help them cover up those abuses. The Catholic church just happens to be the greatest bastion of male power on the planet, so it has become the bastion of the greatest abuses.

Oh, yeah, I hear you people out there saying that women aren't any better and that they would also abuse power if they had it. But here's the thing: You have no real empirical evidence for that. You can't, because women have so seldomly been in power. And, when they do abuse power, it's almost never against people. None of which matters, anyway, because it's just a deflection from the point.

The point being that male power structures, having been built up over centuries, have a rotten core and need to be replaced. I'm not advocating for any specific replacement, but, as far as I'm concerned, the entire priesthood of the Catholic church -- including the Pope, and I like him! -- probably ought to resign. If they had any amount of honor in them and empathy for people the church has been raping, literally and figuratively, for hundreds of years, they would all step down. Unless they believe that raping children is what God's work is all about.

Then we can move on to all of the other churches where men hold all the power. And all of the other institutions and government structures.

*I once had a friend tell me that when he was horny, he was almost willing to fuck anything with a hole in it. And I had another friend who kept a special Coke bottle in his room, the old glass kind that used to come in soda machines before they switched over to cans.

Clone Wars -- "Escape from Kadavo" (Ep. 4.13)

-- Great hope can come from small sacrifices.

[Remember, you can sign up to join the Clone Wars Project at any time by clicking this link.]

Things didn't end well for the Jedi in the last episode. Anakin has been taken by Queen Miraj to be her personal slave while Obi-Wan and Rex have been sent to the Kadavo slave camps. If it was just Obi-Wan, it wouldn't be a big deal, but the commander of the camps has threatened to kill people of the Togruta anytime Obi-Wan disobeys. He does just that to about half a dozen of them to prove the seriousness of the situation.

Basically, then, the whole episode is a prison break type story but they have to rescue an entire population. With the complication of Dooku trying to have them all killed.

It's a good arc, and this is an exciting and interesting episode to wrap it up.

But I want to focus on what was probably sort of a throwaway line in the show or, at least, not meant to carry the kind of weight I'm going to give it.

One of the Togruta is punished for something innocuous Obi-Wan has done. It was totally arbitrary on the part of the slaver and completely because he wanted to punish Obi-Wan and prove that he had more power. After the incident, the Togruta slave blames Obi-Wan saying, "Keep away from me. Jedi only make things worse." It seems to me this is the Separatist line that people in the galaxy are buying into during the war: Jedi only make things worse.

It reminds me a lot of our current political turmoil. The abusers spin out lies about who is at fault as they continue to heap on the abuse. It's rather like the abusive husband blaming the wife as he abuses the child. Or, you know, blaming the Mexicans for the loss of jobs while you have your own products produced in China.

Unexpected Applause: Eclipse

Disclaimer: This is not a case of exchanging book reviews. This is how it happened:
Back in December I won a copy of a book from Mr. Pagel and, then, promptly forgot I'd won. Well, see, the thing I was doing that won me the copy wasn't something I was doing because I was trying to win a book; I was just doing it. Therefore, the book being like a bonus, I forgot about it. Sometime later, when Briane mentioned giving books away again, I remembered, "Oh, hey, you still owe me a book!" So he sent me a copy of Eclipse (which was supposed to be signed!). It sat around for a couple or few weeks while I was reading other things (including the book that's supposed to be being reviewed (but I haven't finished that one, yet, because it's being a real struggle)), but, once I finished The Pigman, I needed a book a could carry back-and-forth to school, and I needed a book to review, since I knew I wasn't (am not) going to finish the other book anytime soon. So I grabbed Eclipse. After I started it, Briane mentioned that he was reading The House on the Corner. Of course, he didn't know I was reading Eclipse (and, I'm pretty sure, he still doesn't know, well, until this goes live). So, really, it's happenstance that we read each other's books at roughly the same time.

That being said, Eclipse by Briane Pagel is a book that is definitely worth a read. Maybe. Well, okay, not maybe. Some of you definitely should read it, and others probably shouldn't. Before I get into that, though, let's talk about the technicals.

My impression of Briane from things he's said on his blog about his writing is that he doesn't do a lot of editing. He writes for fun, and he seems to write very quickly, and it makes me think he doesn't really spend a lot of time going back over his work. Let me be clear, this is just my impression of his style. Maybe he's really into editing; I don't actually know. However, given my impression, I'd say that Eclipse is in really good shape overall. The biggest issue is that there are missing words every so often. I'm not gonna touch the punctuation, because the book has a very stream-of-consciousness feel to it. The punctuation fits the writing style, so it's fairly non-traditional. There may be mistakes, but there's no way to tell. At any rate, other than the various places where words got dropped out, there's nothing to really jar the reader out of the story. I'd give this part an A-.

The story itself is a bit tough. Not in the reading part (it's quite easy to read), but the story itself is difficult, and this is why I say it's probably not a book for everyone. For instance, I would never suggest this book to my wife. Why? It deals with child abuse, and that's just a difficult topic for many people to deal with. Mr. Pagel is not graphic or gratuitous with it, though, so it's not an issue from that standpoint. That doesn't change the subject matter, though, so it's probably better to know that going in. And it's not clear that the book deals with child abuse from the blurb on the cover, which makes me also think that I've approached the book from a different perspective than even the author. (When I get around to interviewing Mr. Pagel, I'll see if I can figure that out.)

On the surface, the story is about an astronaut drifting alone in space. However, as you read through the story, it becomes clear that this may or may not be true. And this is why the central story, to me, is about the abuse. In almost all cases of child abuse, there is some sort of break from reality. To the child, there is no abuse. At least, not if it's abuse that has been ever present. It's just a part of life, and the child, or the spouse, can't distinguish the difference between their life and the lives of everyone else. Often, children are suprised, even shocked, to find out that other people don't live the same way. It's why children don't come forward and say, "my parent hits me."

That, really, is all I can say about the story. At some point, Claudius has a break from reality. I know where I believe that break occurred. That is, I know which parts of the story I believe are "fact" and which parts are the fantasies conjured up by Claudius in his need to escape his father. I don't believe everyone will draw the same conclusions I have, and I think that's what Mr. Pagel intended. Heck, maybe he hasn't even decided which parts are "true" and which parts are not. Although, he probably actually does know and just enjoys everyone else guessing and trying to figure it out.

This is, however, another reason the book is probably not for everyone. Most people like their stories all wrapped up in a nice little bow at the end, and this is not a book that will do that for you. It's a story that will linger, and you will find yourself wondering about it at odd moments. In fact, I think it's the kind of story that, if you go back and read it again, you will probably come to completely different conclusions about it than you did the first time, and, I think, this is also something that would make Pagel smile.

Overall, this is a fascinating little story. There's only one scene that I think is forced, and I can't say why, because it might alter your perception of the story, and I think this is one book where the reader needs to go in as tabula rasa as possible. If you can deal with the child abuse, and you can deal with the author leaving you to figure out what's really going on, you should give it a read. My final grade is in the B to B+ range; although, it would have hit, at least, the A- range if not for that one scene. But for $0.99, you really can't lose. It's a quick read. It will suck you in as you try to figure out what's what, and, then, you'll be finished before you realize it and want to know more. Seriously, I just read the book two weeks ago, and I'm already considering going back and reading it again, and I rarely, rarely re-read. So that's saying something.


Note:
Since we're already talking about Briane, I thought I'd plug his Star Wars blogathon thing again. BUT WAIT! There's more! To make it more interesting, Briane has added writing contests! Go here to read all about it. The deadline for the first contest is March 25. You get 100 points just for entering, and the winner gets cool prizes. And remember, tell him I sent you so that you (we) can get 50 MORE points! Go now! Hopefully, if I can find some time to breathe, I'll have my entry up on Monday. I'm breaking the rules, though, because, well, I have something special I want to share, and it doesn't quite meet the guidelines. In true Briane Pagel style, he's both told me that I must follow the rule to the letter and that I should go right and break the rules as much as I want.
heh

Not quite a note:
Briane also tagged me in this new lucky 7 meme thing that's going around. He was honest about his motivation, though, which was nice: he just wants to see some bit of Brother's Keeper, since it's not available yet. However, I'm gonna cheat on this one, too. Meaning I'm not going to page 77 or whatever the rules for the thing are. I don't really believe in page numbers since there are so many factors that can change the number of pages in a book. So I'm just gonna go by word count. Sort of. At any rate, here's 7 lines or so from Keeper. Maybe this will be enough so that Briane will believe I'm, at least, working on it.

The screen door slammed shut followed by the impact of a body into the backdoor and the crash of the door into the refrigerator. Tom dashed through the kitchen behind Claire.

“Hey!” she shouted after him as he hit the stairs. The sounds of his feet paused, “If you break that window again opening the door like that, it's coming out of your allowance!”

“I know, Mom!”

His feet resumed pounding up the stairs. A few moments later, the sounds of toys crashing onto the floor pattered overhead.

In the midst of the hail storm happening on the floor of the boys' room, the front screen door thundered closed followed by more footsteps pounding through the home.