Catholic Replies
Editor’s Note: Bill Donohue of the Catholic League has done a great job of providing perspective on the clergy sex abuse scandal in his book The Truth about Clergy Sexual Abuse: Clarifying the Facts and the Causes. In an update dated July 23, he said that the scandal in the Catholic Church “has long been over and now it is practically nonexistent. To be sure, there continues to be a tiny fraction of the clergy who are offenders, but it has long since been of the magnitude of a scandal. But don’t look to the media to tell you this.”
Referring to the 2022 Annual Report on the Implementation of the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” Donohue said that between July 1, 2021 and June 10, 2022, it “found that there were 16 allegations made by minors [most of them females] during that time, seven of which were substantiated. That means that of the 52,387 members of the clergy (34,344 priests and 18,043 deacons), .013 percent of them had a substantiated allegation made against him.”
The Catholic League president said that “in short, contemporary news reports about priestly sexual abuse are almost always about alleged offenses that took place decades ago (the 1970s was the worst decade). Quite frankly, as we have known, and as this report makes plain, almost all the abusers are either dead or have been thrown out of the ministry…. There is no organization in the nation, where adults regularly interact with minors, which has a better record than this. This includes religious as well as secular institutions.”
According to Donohue, “the audit fielded allegations extending back to the 1930s. Almost all of the victims were male…. Moreover, the majority of the victims were postpubescent (10 years of age and over). . . . The conclusion should be obvious to those not living in a state of denial: Most of the molestation was done by homosexuals, not pedophiles. When adult males have sex with postpubescent males, that is called homosexuality. The offending priest may consider himself not to be a homosexual, but that subjective opinion does not change the truth. He may consider himself to be a woman, but that has no bearing on reality.”
The heyday of the scandal, said Donohue, was between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s “when the Church dropped its guard and allowed homosexuals to thrive in some seminaries and in the priesthood. Credit must be given to Pope Benedict XVI, who instituted a public policy that discouraged men with ‘deep-seated homosexual tendencies’ from applying to the priesthood. Fortunately, Pope Francis has continued this commonsensical policy. Together with the reforms established by the bishops in the United States, this explains why cases of molestation have crashed.”
Q. In Matt. 18:17, Jesus explicitly teaches that we are to treat the unrepentant sinner who will not even listen to the Church “as the heathen and publican.” In our day we have such defiantly unrepentant sinners as those homosexuals who refuse to stop committing sodomy and other sexual sins, as well as those who adamantly promote abortion even though both call themselves Catholic, know the teaching of the Church on these matters, but still refuse to listen and repent. Are we to treat them in today’s culture “as the heathen and publican,” like Jesus Himself taught us to do? – G.Y., via e-mail.
A. As you know from the Gospel passage, Jesus suggests four steps in dealing with a sinner: speak to him on your own, get another one or two people to speak to him, refer him to the Church, and, if all these steps fail, “treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.” What does this fourth step mean? Jesus had told the apostles to bring His message first to the people of Israel and, only when they had rejected it, should they go to the Gentiles, that is, to those who were not Jews. But He also told them that if a household should be hostile to His message, they were to “shake the dust from your feet” and move on (Matt. 10:14).
As for tax collectors, or publicans, they were hated first, because they were collecting money from their own people and turning it over to the hated Roman occupiers of Palestine. And second, they often cheated their fellow Jews, charging them more than was required and pocketing the difference. Comparing a sinner with this group was to put them beyond the pale, as persons not worthy of any effort to get them to repent.
So, is Jesus saying that we should disregard unrepentant sinners completely? No, but Jesus is telling us not to waste our time trying to convert them. They are out of our reach, but not of God’s reach. What chance do we have to convert a person filled with rage and hate against anyone who is opposed to abortion, sodomy, or the sexual mutilation of children? You have seen these people screaming the “F” word over and over again against someone they perceive to be an enemy. Where is the chance for reasonable dialogue with those who are apparently under the control of the “father of lies”?
What we must do is pray for these lost souls, that God’s all-powerful mercy will somehow penetrate their stubborn hearts. And we must reach out to those who have not gone over the edge and might be persuaded to repent of their sins.
Q. Have the umbilical cord which connected Jesus to His mother and the foreskin from His circumcision performed by Simeon in the Temple been preserved somewhere? — A.G., via e-mail.
A. Not that we know of. Joan Carroll Cruz, in her book Relics, lists a number of things associated with Our Lord that have been preserved — the manger, swaddling cloth, seamless garment, crown of thorns, nails, Cross, lance, shroud, and Veronica’s veil — but nothing about the umbilical cord or foreskin. And by the way, Jesus was circumcised in Bethlehem on the eighth day after His birth, not by Simeon on the fortieth day. In the words of St. Luke, “When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb” (Luke 2:21).
Q. On one of her visits to the children of Fatima, Our Lady instructed them to say after each decade of the rosary the “O my Jesus” prayer. Has that changed? A friend of mine says that Pope John Paul II changed it to come before the first decade. Is that true? — W.B., Oregon.
A. No, it is not true. At her appearance on July 13, 1917, Our Lady showed the children a vision of Hell and said to them, “You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.” She then told them, “When you pray the rosary, say after each mystery: ‘O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fire of Hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of your mercy’.”
Q. Regarding the verses in Isaiah 49:1-6, who was Isaiah talking about — Israel or Jesus or both? — D.H., Iowa.
A. This is one of four “Servant of the Lord” passages in Isaiah. Some think that the reference is to Israel since verse three says, “You are my servant, he said to me, / Israel, through whom I show my glory.” But the Catechism (n. 713) says that “the Messiah’s characteristics are revealed above all in the ‘Servant Songs.’ These songs proclaim the meaning of Jesus’ Passion and show how He will pour out the Holy Spirit to give life to the many: not as an outsider, but by embracing our ‘form as slave’” [Phil. 2:7].
