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Punishing the Guilty Is Justice, Not a Witch Hunt

In the fallout from the revelations of former-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s serial sexual predation, some have worried about an “anti-gay witch hunt.”

Recently, a headline in America magazine all but shouted, “Homosexuality is not a risk factor for sexual abuse of children.” Yet, the Pennsylvania grand jury report that came out in August found about 80% of the teenage victims of clerical sexual abuse were male, just as the John Jay Report found more than 10 years ago. This fact cries out for explanation. But many in the media and in the Church seem reluctant to focus on this obvious connection. We must come up with an explanation that is true to the known facts, without harming any innocent person.

Before we tackle this explosive topic, let us clarify some important issues. Let’s think first about individual cases of sexual predation, by one specified person against another specified person. Continue reading “Punishing the Guilty Is Justice, Not a Witch Hunt”

Ruth Institute Releases Study on the Role of “Sexual Orientation” in the Catholic Clerical Sex Abuse Scandal

This is the news release, the Ruth Institute posted on Friday, November 02, 2018

For more information, contact Beth Johnson: media@ruthinstitute.org

The Ruth Institute released a study by Fr. Paul Sullins, Ph.D., that sheds new light on the sexual abuse scandal which has rocked the Catholic Church for years.

The study analyzes national data Continue reading “Ruth Institute Releases Study on the Role of “Sexual Orientation” in the Catholic Clerical Sex Abuse Scandal”

Trying to catch up…

I have not been keeping up with this blog very well. Between Rosary Around the Lake, and now our new report on homosexuality and the Catholic priesthood, I have been running around like crazy.

I’m going to take some time to add in the articles I have written, along with the articles that have been written about the Ruth Institute’s new report. The backlog is pretty intense….

Enlisting the Army of the Dead: Plenary Indulgences

I realize I may lose some of my non-Catholic readers, but here goes.

Catholics have consistently held that praying for the dead is a good and noble thing. Our prayers and works can help remit some of the punishment due to sin, for those detained in purgatory. Here is a vivid artistic rendering of this point:

J.R.R. Tolkien was a devout Catholic, with a deeply Catholic imagination. Continue reading “Enlisting the Army of the Dead: Plenary Indulgences”

Keep your grubby ideological mitts off the Catechism!!

This post is not what you think it is…

UPDATED FOR CLARITY

A friend sent me a concern about someone doing some internet hanky-panky with the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Here is the gist of her note:

There is a revised version of the Vatican’s Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 2358 on homosexuality floating around. If you search Catechism of the Catholic Church Homosexuality on Google, you find the top two links are to Vatican pages which look nearly identical. The only difference is paragraph 2358.

The second link is the revision. A web-savvy friend found it does belong to the Vatican and was created in 2015. It is indexed which means “they” want it to come up in searches. It comes up as number two: a problematic acceptance of pop theory on homosexuality and the removal of the words intrinsically disordered. The correct version of CCC 2358 is first on google searches. Verbal engineering is afoot!!! Continue reading “Keep your grubby ideological mitts off the Catechism!!”

CA “You Must Stay Gay” bill withdrawn

The Christian Post reports that California State Assemblyman Evan Low has withdrawn his controversial gay “conversion therapy ban” bill, citing fears that it would not pass constitutional muster.

Curtis Schube, legal counsel with the Pennsylvania Family Institute:

“We are grateful that the California legislature has tabled this bill. Not only would a ban on counseling violate the constitutional rights of Californians, it would have been bad policy to limit individuals from obtaining services that they would find beneficial to their own lives,” Schube said in a statement to The Christian Post on Friday.

Continue reading “CA “You Must Stay Gay” bill withdrawn”

Memo to Bill Donohue: Now is not the moment.

Bill Donahue, of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, has a post called “PENNSYLVANIA GRAND JURY REPORT DEBUNKED.” I will eventually read it and possibly comment on it. But I must say this before I do.

Even if I turn out to agree completely with his analysis, he is completely wrong to be talking about this at this moment. Here is why:

This is the Catholic moment to face facts, take our lumps, and make amends. We can talk about other people’s mistakes and problems after that.

Nearly 40 years of marriage has convinced me of this. If my husband tells me I did something that hurt him, that is exactly NOT the Continue reading “Memo to Bill Donohue: Now is not the moment.”

Dr. J’s Morning Offering

I’ve been stumbling over the words of the Morning Offering prayer I have said for years. “I offer them for all the intentions of our bishops.” Whoa! Wait! All the intentions? All our bishops? I’ve had to mentally rewrite this, morning after morning.

All the intentions of bishops who are complicit in sex abuse cover-ups? Bishops who are not teaching the fullness of the faith? Bishops whose “intention” is to hang on to their offices at all costs? Ok, Lord, how about this? “I offer all my prayers, works, joys and sufferings for all the worthy intentions of Cardinal Farrell? Or maybe, for the ultimate good of Cardinal Baldiserri? Or for the complete conversion* of Cardinal Mahoney?

Maybe I just need a new prayer. So I came up with this:

Dr. J’s Morning Offering:

Dear Lord, I give you thanks and praise for another day in which to serve you.

Shower your blessings on every person who crosses my path or my mind this day.

Please keep me from doing anything mean or stupid.

Amen. Continue reading “Dr. J’s Morning Offering”

No Cardinal Cupich, the John Jay Report doesn’t make me feel any better.

Once again, members of the Catholic heirarchy are trying to convince us that priests living a homosexually active sex life are not particularly a problem in the current crisis. I’m here to say that the lay faithful are not going to be diverted by attempts to change the subject. Clergy living active homosexual lives are causing a lot of problems in the Church.

Cardinal Blaise Cupich stated in an interview with America magazine:

Continue reading “No Cardinal Cupich, the John Jay Report doesn’t make me feel any better.”

In light of Perverted Priest Problem: Cardinal Baldiserri’s ‘LGBT’ Language is Terrible Timing

My latest from The Stream: July 31, 2018

We might as well call it the Perverted Priest Problem. Some men of homosexual inclinations are using their place within the Catholic Church to gratify themselves sexually. More disgusting than Cardinal McCarrick’s behavior is the widespread network of prelates who must have been covering for him. But even these men aren’t the whole story.

The very day the news about Cardinal McCarrick broke, the Vatican released the working document for the upcoming Synod on Youth.It used the “LGBT” acronym, the first such use in a Vatican document. This shows that high-ranking prelates are running interference for people like McCarrick. Continue reading “In light of Perverted Priest Problem: Cardinal Baldiserri’s ‘LGBT’ Language is Terrible Timing”