Continuing
with our examination – and repudiation, largely – of John Wojnowski's vicious,
slanted, calumniated, anti-Catholic handout, where he shields himself behind
the victims of priestly sexual abuse – including, most likely, his own wounds:
I
do not want to denigrate his terrible experience (again, assuming it's true,
and this does seem to be the case – but I wasn't there); I must point out,
though, that his suffering fifty years ago, and the scars he's carried since,
and especially any less-than-compassionate, -considerate response from Church
officials… none of these excuse or merit for the Church the malicious things he
says, nor any prima-facie credence given them. This is why I separate the two –
and you should as well.
Here's
what we've looked at thus far:
Mr.
Wojnowski's wretched screed continues:
Easy
proof and evidence: in 2002 then cardinal Ratzinger, in one elaborate and
authoritative sounding whopper, a criminally ignorant or criminally mendacious
statement, one brazen big lie that would have made Joseph
Goebbels proud, claimed that less than one percent of Catholic
priests sexually molest children!
Whoever
cares enough to investigate can easily find out the tragic truth. Despite the
secrecy, the stonewalling and the nature of the crime that prevents the great
majority of the victims from coming forward and telling, the figure of eleven
percent is closer to the number of priests who were caught. That is ONLY
THE PRIESTS WHO WERE EXPOSED!
Prior
to 2002 the Vatican was actually complaining that prison was too harsh a
penalty for pedophiles!
My
first-tier response to these words sounds weak, but I've said it before here,
and I'm sticking with it: Prove it, John. Give us the full date in 2002
that Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI) made this
statement, and in what form: address? homily? bull? edict? Where? To whom? The
burden on proof lies on the person making the charge. Your words on their
own are neither "proof" nor "evidence".
Unless
Wojnowski has access to documents the rest of us can't see, his vague citation
of a date, and description of what supposedly was said, cannot be verified to
back up his claim, let alone for the Church to defend herself… and just for me
to be able to share with you what I've found quite readily through a
little digging around.
And,
John, if you do have some ironclad documentation, then do the victims of these
perversions (including yourself) a gigantic favor and publicize them, bigtime.
Shoot; I'll even do it for you, right here and beyond, if it's something that
can be backed up. You hear me, Mr. Wojnowski? Hello?
I'm
not afraid to look truth in the eye, John – but it would sure be nice if you
had something concrete we could examine and shout from the rooftops about,
either with you or at you. As I've been saying, you've got to give us something
more than hate-filled words framing vague references.
Otherwise
you're just shouting and screaming, red in the face, and a nuisance (your own
sufferings notwithstanding), your only convinced allies being those knee-jerk
people disinclined (i.e., too lazy or incompetent) to look behind the vicious
words, and ready to believe every lie and exaggeration, based solely on the
semantic weight of your wording, and the sheer decibel level (on paper, that
would be boldface, underline, italic, and combinations of these)... and
personal agenda.
Until
then, sir, the only "mendacious
statement"
and "brazen big lie" evident is the one you're spewing, I'm really sorry to say.
Well,
let me continue with the research for now. One of us has to do it, and thus far
it certainly hasn't been you. Sir.
One
thing I am finding vis-à-vis anything about pedophilia in 2002 in the
Church is a meeting called by the Vatican in April of that year: called home to
Rome were the American Bishops and Cardinals of the Church. You can find
documents on it here: http://www.ewtn.com/library/ISSUES/USCANDL.HTM.
As this
meeting is described at the very beginning of the Final Communiqué:
"On
April 23-24, 2002, an extraordinary meeting was held in the Vatican between the
Cardinals of the United States and the leadership of the United States Catholic
Conference of Bishops and the heads of several offices of the Holy See on the
subject of the sexual abuse of minors."
Looking
over the documents posted there, I see no statement made by then-Cardinal
Ratzinger, or indeed any indication that he was even present (though my guess
is that was). Nor is there any statement at all on numbers, percentages, and so
on. Here are some statements that are given, though:
From
the Vatican's ~ Secretary of State Angelo Cardinal Sodano's opening
address:
"…[T]he
Holy Father has asked me to convey greetings to you, the Cardinals and Bishops
from the United States. He has urged me to assure you of the importance he
attaches to this meeting, in which we will study the many issues involved and
share our pastoral experience.
"…We have come together
today, conscious of the great responsibility which Christ has laid upon us for
the good of God's People. Let us not be disheartened by the difficulties
involved; let us seek the way forward in fidelity to the great tradition of the
Church, Mother and Teacher, instrument of justice, mercy, and redemption.
"Our
task is to reflect on the problems of the present moment with great openness of
spirit, knowing that the Church should be transparent. The Church loves the
truth, and must always put it into practice in charity, following what St Paul
taught nearly two thousand years ago: veritatem facientes in caritatem." (i.e., "living the
truth in love"; Ephesians 4:15)
So
they went in with eyes open, committed to not holding back. Got that, John?
On
that same first day of the conference/meeting, the Pope himself – John Paul II
– addressed the gathering; this is from the record of his words with them:
"…Like
you, I too have been deeply grieved by the fact that priests and religious,
whose vocation it is to help people live holy lives in the sight of God, have
themselves caused such suffering and scandal to the young. Because of the great
harm done by some priests and religious, the Church herself is viewed with
distrust, and many are offended at the way in which the Church's leaders are
perceived to have acted in this matter. The abuse which has caused this crisis
is by every standard wrong and rightly considered a crime by society; it is
also an appalling sin in the eyes of God. To the victims and their families,
wherever they may be, I express my profound sense of solidarity and concern.
"It
is true that a generalized lack of knowledge of the nature of the problem and
also at times the advice of clinical experts led Bishops to make decisions
which subsequent events showed to be wrong. You are now working to establish
more reliable criteria to ensure that such mistakes are not repeated.
"…Neither
should we forget the immense spiritual, human and social good that the vast
majority of priests and religious in the United States have done and are still
doing. The Catholic Church in your country has always promoted human and
Christian values with great vigor and generosity, in a way that has helped to
consolidate all that is noble in the American people."
(This
"vast majority" the Pope cites are the people that Mr. Wojnowski slams
collectively as "know-it-all original bigots", "inventors
of anti-Semitism",
"arrogant and childishly delusional", and so on. Right, John.)
The
Pope's address continues:
"The
abuse of the young is a grave symptom of a crisis affecting not only the Church
but society as a whole. It is a deep-seated crisis of sexual morality, even of
human relationships, and its prime victims are the family and the young. In
addressing the problem of abuse with clarity and determination, the Church will
help society to understand and deal with the crisis in its midst.
"It
must be absolutely clear to the Catholic faithful, and to the wider community,
that Bishops and superiors are concerned, above all else, with the spiritual
good of souls. People need to know that there is no place in the priesthood and
religious life for those who would harm the young. They must know that Bishops
and priests are totally committed to the fullness of Catholic truth on matters
of sexual morality, a truth as essential to the renewal of the priesthood and
the episcopate as it is to the renewal of marriage and family life.
"…So
much pain, so much sorrow must lead to a holier priesthood, a holier
episcopate, and a holier Church. …[W]e must… meet this challenge with uncompromising courage and
harmony of purpose. Like the Good Shepherd…, Pastors must go among their priests
and people as men who inspire deep trust and lead them to restful waters.
"I
beg the Lord to give the Bishops of the United States the strength to build
their response to the present crisis upon the solid foundations of faith and
upon genuine pastoral charity for the victims, as well as for the priests and
the entire Catholic community."
So
far nothing Wojnowski asserts can be proved.
Returning
to the Final Communiqué, we read:
"The
participants first of all wish to express their unanimous gratitude to the Holy
Father for his clear indications of direction and commitment for the future. In
communion with the Pope they reaffirm certain basic principles:
"1)
The sexual abuse of minors is rightly considered a crime by society and is an
appalling sin in the eyes of God, above all when it is perpetrated by priests
and religious whose vocation is to help persons to lead holy lives before God and
men.
"2)
There is a need to convey to the victims and their families a profound sense of
solidarity and to provide appropriate assistance in recovering faith and
receiving pastoral care.
"3)
Even if the cases of true pedophilia on the part of priests and religious are
few, all the participants recognized the gravity of the problem. In the
meeting, the quantitative terms of the problem were discussed, since the
statistics are not very clear in this regard. Attention was drawn to the fact
that almost all the cases involved adolescents and therefore were not cases of
true pedophilia.
"4)
Together with the fact that a link between celibacy and pedophilia cannot be
scientifically maintained, the meeting reaffirmed the value of priestly
celibacy as a gift of God to the Church."
The
nearest we're going to get to Ratzinger's supposed "one
percent:"
figure here is the honest and realistic statement in Item Three, that "the
statistics are not very clear". I do, though, see Mr. Wojnowski reading some real weaseling
into the wording given above in participants' trying to define the bounds of
the problem: "that almost all the cases involved adolescents and therefore
were not cases of true pedophilia". I think it would have been very charitable for the
Cardinals and Bishops to have followed that sentence with something solidly
along the lines of Item One directly above – i.e., "the sexual abuse of minors
is rightly considered a crime…"
The
above is followed by half a dozen proposed steps to further address and rectify
the crisis, including these two:
"2)
We will propose that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops recommend
a special process for the dismissal from the clerical state of a priest who has
become notorious and is guilty of the serial, predatory, sexual abuse of
minors.
"3)
While recognizing that the Code of Canon law already contains a judicial
process for the dismissal of priests guilty of sexually abusing minors, we will
also propose a special process for cases which are not notorious but where the Diocesan
Bishop considers the priest a threat for the protection of children and young
people, in order to avoid grave scandal in the future and to safeguard the
common good of the Church."
John,
I'm still not seeing a blind eye here, whitewashing, or mendacity.
After
the two-day meeting, the Cardinals issued a message to all American priests, including
these words:
"[W]e
know the heavy burden of sorrow and shame that you are bearing because some
have betrayed the grace of Ordination by abusing those entrusted to their care.
"We
regret that episcopal oversight [i.e.,
required supervision executed by the Bishops] has not been able to
preserve the Church from this scandal. The entire Church, the Bride of Christ,
is afflicted by this wound – the victims and their families first of all, but
also you who have dedicated your lives to 'the
priestly service of the Gospel of God'."
I
don't know about you, Mr. Wojnowski, but I'm seeing some sincere, genuine shame
and contrition here – and rightly so.
Tomorrow,
I'll rummage through the Vatican archives and see if I can find any more
confirmation or refutation of John Wojnowski's bold statement that in 2002 the
then-Cardinal Ratzinger claimed less than one percent of the priesthood as
being predators/perpetrators. And I'll see if there's any reliable
backup for John's counterclaim of eleven percent – I suspect the real figure
lies between these two extremes… and that the Cardinal never gave that low
number.
If
my own sense is more on target than yours, John, let me ask you: where did you
get your numbers? And your quotes? Out of the air? Hearsay? Surely you
didn't make them up. Right?
But
so far the only "authoritative[-]sounding whopper" are your own words on the sheet
you or one of your minions thrust on my teen niece.
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