• Hedonism
Hedonism
America has always been a difficult fit for the Roman Catholic church. here is a country founded by Protestant sectarians who thought the Anglican church was a little too Roman, a country where religious pluralism is the law and individual rights are celebrated. Then there’s the Church of Rome, the hierarchical “one true faith” where priests stand between God and man.
Now comes Raymond L. Burke, archbishop of St. Louis, to suggest that America’s “hedonistic culture” — the individual pursuit of pleasure — is the most significant cause of the church’s priest sexual abuse crisis. Bombarded by permissiveness, some priests not only ignore their vows of celibacy, but the laws governing the sexual abuse of children.
A reach? Shaquille O’Neal should have such a reach.
Archbishop Burke made his remarks Friday in reaction to the release of 52 years worth of statistics about priest sex abuse. The study, commissioned by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, suggested that at least 4 percent of American priests in the past five decades were involved in child sex abuse. For priests ordained in the early 1970s, the percentage runs as high as 10 percent.
Conservative Catholics point out that the “sexual revolution” that began in the U.S. in the 1960s coincided with the first years of church reforms instituted by the Second Vatican Council. Thus did the seminarians of the 1960s hear two messages — “The times, they are a changin,” and “If it feels good do it.” So when they were ordained, the weakest among them were so conflicted they fell prey to temptation.
Archbishop Burke has argued that the sex abuse crisis — and indeed, most of the church’s problems — can be solved with return to traditional teachings. Conservatives, Archbishop Burke among them, were more comfortable when there was no such thing as “primacy of conscience” for Catholics. You went to Mass on Sunday, made your Easter obligation, ate fish on Friday, sent your kids (of which you had a lot, because the Rhythm Method didn’t work) to the nuns for education and — this above all — obeyed the priest.
The National Review Board, appointed by the bishops conference to examine the causes and context of the abuse statistics, placed a great deal of blame for the crisis on the bishops themselves. Too many ignored the problem, tried to cover it up or wish it away, the board members said.
Blaming things on “the culture” won’t help. Accepting responsibility might.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
