Coren Doesn't Get It ...

As if it should come as any surprise, but Michael Coren is trying to defend the Catholic Church in light of a former Archbishop facing child porn accusations.

It says a great deal about the man who is accused but, and this is important, it says little if anything about the organization to which he belongs.

If, for example, a leading Tory, Liberal or New Democrat were caught with child pornography, would we then assume the Tory, Liberal or New Democrat parties were somehow culpable? Of course not.

No, Michael - once again you have got it wrong - very wrong. The issue of the Catholic Church and its ranks of pedophiles in the priesthood is not just about a small percentage of the clergy engaging in sexual predation from a position of trust in the community.

It's about the Catholic Church having in place a hush-hush plan to cover up the misdeeds of their clergy starting in the 1960s - a tacit approval of their behaviour from the Vatican. The church didn't want them to face justice, and took steps to ensure that they did NOT face justice.

It's also about an organization which spends its time condemning everybody it can for having an active sex life; for using contraception, for being GLBT and so on. In a context where they have actively protected and nurtured the worst kind of sexual predators out there - pedophiles.

The church has, at no time, either taken responsibility for its role in these situations, nor has it ever done what it constantly demands of others - repented for its misdeeds. The Pope issued a flaccid apology of sorts recently, but then turned around and has tried blame it all on "homosexual priests" - ignoring the Vatican's own complicity in the situation. Further, the Vatican has gone out of its way to leave the affected parishes twisting in the breeze, while the coffers of the Vatican continue to house an astonishing amount of wealth.

Until the Catholic Church takes responsibility for what happened, and its role in the whole sordid mess, every time another clergyman shows up with his hands dirty, you can expect it to reflect not just upon the individual cleric, but upon the church itself as well. Taking responsibility for what happened is the first step; repentance is the next.

When the Catholic Church starts dealing with its own sexual issues in a realistic and meaningful way, then, and only then, will they be in a position to talk about sexuality with the rest of us. Dealing with things realistically will help - and coming up with bogus tests to determine if a seminary candidate has "homosexual tendencies" isn't realistic! Until then, the church hierarchy continues to look like a bunch of hypocrites.