Plato’s Republic and the Christian Church face the same problem in integrating the thumos, the firry spirit, of young men into the community. The political community cannot ignore it. The explosion of the Arab world in 2011 was set off because one young man felt that his masculinity had been dishonored. He immolated himself, and large parts of the Arab world literally burst into flames. The Church in Spain in 1936-7 experienced the same male rage. Mostly, however, at least for the present, the male reaction is not destruction but indifference to or abandonment of the church.
The sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church also illustrated the conflict between the clergy and young males. The clergy has long sought to control the boisterousness and sexuality of young males, and it needs to be controlled. However, a significant portion of the clergy used this socially-authorized control to exercise control over the bodies of young males through sexual abuse and psychological manipulation. The victims had long been propagandized that priests were superior beings and that the laity were unimportant; what a priest wanted was what mattered. The victims were profoundly dishonored by the abuse. They were further dishonored by the reaction of the hierarchy to the abuse: the victims counted for nothing, the perpetrators for everything. Victims were ignored, brushed off, insulted. Their rage did not burst forth in murder, but in a decades-long legal campaign to force the Catholic hierarchy to apologize and pay for the abuse that they had tolerated; to acknowledge that the victims were indeed important, that their suffering was important, that the priests and bishops were not superior beings but in many cases of far lesser moral stature than the laity.
“The clergy has long sought to control the boisterousness and sexuality of young males, and it needs to be controlled.”
Not just YOUNG males Leon, it appears all men have a problem on this count.
http://catholicexchange.com/2011/05/01/151999/print/
The other main problem has to do with money and religion. If it makes money it must be holy.
The Beatification made money through the tourist trade and Maciel knew how to get the donations from the wealthiest people in the world so he lingered on buying off prelates in the Vatican. The victims were not holy because they got money back. There it is, the root of all evil mixed with the uncontrolled desire for sex and perversion. Hmmm, now I have to wonder if the problem isn’t just men in general with or without thumos?
When the local Hispanic males found out about Archbishop Roberto Sanchez and the 27 ex-virgins whom he is accused of abusing in New Mexico, there typical reaction was THAT THEY DESERVED IT! The “spanish” men said that they tempted him and THEY knew what they were getting into. One even said that all the Archbishop really did was check their oil and feel their tires.
Leon, you should visit the National Catholic Register’s website. The comment threads are filled with drivel about praying for Osama’s soul (despite the fact that the dead can’t repent) and not rejoicing over his death. One blogger even posted the idea that God loves (or, at least, loved) Osama. This is the kind of narcissistic, mollycoddling excrement that passes for Catholic (as well as mainline Protestant) “thought” these days.
Nobody expressed any compassion for or “solidarity” with bin Laden’s victims, who represent various nationalities and religions.
You once asked why Catholics didn’t express the appropriate moral outrage over sexual predators in the clergy. I think it’s because Catholic leaders have been so infatuated with moral equivalence (especially equating the perpetrators with the victims of evil) that any moral compass they might have was long ago crushed into microscopic pieces.
More Catholics seem to be expressing “outrage” over celebrations of Osama’s death than outrage over his atrocities against the innocent. Yet another reason why Catholicism is effectively apostate.
“What a priest wanted was what mattered.”
That is incredibly sad, but it seems to be accurate.
Perhaps what the RCC needs more than anything is a generation of young men who put shrug off the silly RCC rjetoric that the voice of Christ comes through the church.
“the silly RCC rjetoric that the voice of Christ comes through the church.”
silly?
What’s wrong with U?
It’s silly rhetoric because even if there is some theological argument that it is true in some (very isolated and carefully defined) cases, it’s more likely to be misunderstood and misapplied than understood well or correctly applied.
I do not want to risk excommunication, but I must ask: Are all -male societies cuckoo? The Borgias has been airing on Showtime, and the corruption then seems less than now. Women did not have it easy in the Borgia era, but occasionally a woman could soften the heart of her cardinal husband. Today’s male clerics have to just look to each other or to their male bosses, and well, we know where that has taken us. Pedophile clergy have been protected and promoted. Isn’t it way past time for men and women to do this together?
Just wondering.
AW
Mr. Podles,
I suspect you think/believe that only/mostly male children were abused by priests. More that half of the survivors I’ve talked to are females. This is not a gay issue!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The John Jay report was info that was VOLUNTEERED. Note lack of reports of females being abused.
Let the Millstone of the Bible be hung around the necks of all who have been sexually abused by the clergy. Let them all be buried as was bin laden. No Muslim funeral but a satanic ritual
Maybe their both the same!