(OKLAHOMA CITY) A revelatory story, both in the religious hagiography and the civil law sense of the word, as been published bythe New York Times, uncovering another dirty cassock in the Catholic laundry hamper of sex crimes,accompanying those found in Massachusetts and other American states, as well as Ireland, Germany and, it would seem, Italy. http://tinyurl.com/ylfl4p4
This time it's a Father Murphy who's accused of doing the dirty to over 200 deaf boys in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. If this "father" Murphy had been a normal person at the time of the alleged crimes, instead of having been the recipient of the laying on of hands representing the "unbroken" continuity of the priesthood clear back to the "rock" of Peter, he'd be wearing a striped suit right now ina prison instead of a solid black cassock in a rectory. However, "father" Murphy is beyond the summons of earthly law having died in 1998.
Please no one tell me how this chain of over 200 rapes of deaf boys wasn't Murphy's fault because the Roman Catholic rule on celibacy prevented him from finding an acceptable "release" for his sexual needs. Or that the rule on celibacy needs to be relaxed so these kinds of things won't happen. That's no excuse. Priests take vows of celibacy.
Don't tell me Murphy was a closeted gay man. That's no excuse. Most rapes of children are committed by straight men known to the victims. (http://www.pcar.org/about_sa/stats.html
Young boys and girls are powerless to give or withhold consent under the law for sexual activity, even with others their own age, so don't give me the excuse the kids were "asking for it." They are not substitutes for adults of either gender when adults acting under the smokescreen of sanctified garments have to act out their anti-social dysfunction. There is no excuse on earth or anywhere else, if you believe that heaven thing,for the rape of children.
And rape is the word to use, not this mincing, diffused, indirect way of publicly talking about these atrocities by using the phrase "sexual abuse."
Masturbation past the level of pleasure could be termed "sexual abuse" but at least you've made the private choice with no one else involved. When someone forces or entices another person to be the recipient of unwanted sexual acts and/or aggression that's rape in my lexicon.
Why should the "holy" Chief Operating Officer of the Vatican get absolution on his own documented actions that are clearly acts of dereliction of earthly law and certainly of the human decency espoused by Ratzinger's holy model.
The New York Times story ( http://tinyurl.com/yetsdlh )reports that in 1996, the current pope, then Cardinal Ratzinger, failed to answer two letters from the Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland in regard to the accusations directed toward Father Murphy.
It was during this time that Ratzinger was in charge of the Vatican's doctrinal enforcement office, acquiring the nickname "god's rottweiler", a chilling phrase that seems to have been appropriately bestowed. The Catholic process for a trial was suspended by the order of Ratzinger's second-in-command, another cardinal named Bertone.[Note: The NY Times article includes links to a sampling of the documentation.]
According to the NY Times story: "In 1996, Cardinal Ratzinger failed to respond to two letters about the case from Rembert G. Weakland, Milwaukee's archbishop at the time. After eight months, the second in command at the doctrinal office, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, now the Vatican's secretary of state, instructed the Wisconsin bishops to begin a secret canonical trial that could lead to Father Murphy's dismissal. "But Cardinal Bertone halted the process after Father Murphy personally wrote to Cardinal Ratzinger..." How valuable it would have been to be a crucifix on the wall when that discussion took place. It rivals Richard Nixon's 18 1/2 minute tape gap during the Watergate scandal.
But there is still extant documentation and living witnesses to this inexcusable violation of the trust of children, both orphansand those with living parents.
Oh, but I forget the pope is the bridge between heaven and earth. When he's elected by his fellow pope-wanna-be cardinals he becomesthe "lord's vicar" on earth and his dove-delivered infallibility on faith and morals becomes an institute not to be questioned.
I think he needs to deliver another one of those formal papal pronouncements called a Bull because what could be more relevant to faith and morals than how priests conduct themselves with the children placed in their charge?
