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Convocation dodges pederasty problem, pushes sex education

The Archdiocese of Baltimore's convocation on child sex abuse on August 29 ignored the predominance of cases of abuse of adolescent boys by homosexuals in the Church, while calling for sex education as a means to prevent child abuse, according to a priest who attended the meeting.

"They are still cultivating the illusion that there is no homosexual problem in the clergy and the schools," the priest, who asked that his name not be used, told Defend Life.

"They are sacrificing the truth for political correctness." At the convocation at Martin's West in Baltimore, attended by over 1,000 parish and school leaders, at least two speakers called for sex education at all archdiocesan schools, ostensibly to teach children "the facts of life" so they will not be fooled by a predator.

"They are using [the problem of sexual abuse] as leverage to make sex education universal in the archdiocese," the priest-attendee charged.

He viewed the convocation as "primarily a media event, so the archdiocese would be seen as doing something about the issue.

"It was a public relations stunt of the first magnitude. They didn't tell us much that we didn't already know." A "Statement of Policy and Procedures in Cases of Child Abuse," announced at the convocation, requires criminal background checks for current and future archdiocese employees.

"The criminal background checks came as no surprise," the priest observed. The new requirements merely broadened the scope of a previous policy requiring background checks.

Also, he said, "Once or twice a year we will have to certify that all employees and volunteers are complying with all policies.

'We will have to run training sessions with a video and discussion" on ethics in the ministry, particularly on protecting children from abuse.

"The principals have to run it for their teachers, the CCD directors have to run it for their volunteers.

"They are going to centralize reporting and employee clearances through the human resources division of the 'Power Tower' [the archdiocesan office]. A whole layer of bureaucracy is growing up around this." The priest felt that the additional bureaucratic record-keeping and reporting and required ethics training will put ail additional burden on parishes.

"They want people to be involved in things, but it's going to be harder to do." A woman and an ex-priest who were abused by priests as children told their stories at the convocation.

The ex-priest gave his story at some length, said the priest.

"He was told by the priest that was messing with him that he was called to be a priest himself, so he should stay away from girls, and that the things he was doing to him would help him stay away from girls."

The ex-priest, who said he was 12 years old at the time, told his listeners that he didn't really understand what was being done to him until many years later.

"I find that incredible," said the priest.

"He said the Church can't attain credibility until it accepts sexuality as a gift. The Church has to accept women's rightful role in the Church. And, above all, we must not scapegoat homosexuals!

"He was ignoring the fact that 90 to 95 percent of these cases [of sexual abuse by priests] were pederasty-homosexuals preying on adolescent boys." The priest concluded that the ex -priest was used as a "propaganda ploy."

"The only time 1 heard the word 'homosexual' mentioned in the talks was by the ex-priest, when he said we shouldn't scapegoat them.

The words 'pederasty' and 'chastity' were never mentioned.

"It was the usual party line."

Mark Pacione, director of the archdiocesan office of youth and young adult ministry, who spoke to the attendees about how they needed to act as "gatekeepers," protecting the children from abuse, said that the schools needed good sex education programs to protect the children.

A later speaker "was really hard-core" on the subject of requiring sex education in all the archdiocesan schools, the priest recalled.

"She said that there are some schools not yet in compliance, but they will be by 2003." The speaker praised the "Fully Alive" sex education series.

In contrast, the priest noted, "My own pastor blew up about it; he said, 'This is horrible!' "There's a variety of sex ed programs out there; none of them are any good," he said, with the possible exception of a program put out by Benziger publishers, used by the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., after Benziger agreed to modifications.

"My question is, on the one hand they want us to be very careful about the boundaries: don't step over them, be a pal but keep the relationship at arm's length.

"But at the same time they want us to violate those boundaries by telling children the most intimate facts about sexuality-invading their innocence-through sex education.

"Aren't we in fact sexualizing them out of their normal development time so that they will be more curious about sex and thus be more vulnerable to approaches by predators?" The priest said that his own "common sense theory" is that when boys, especially, learn about sex early, they are eager to try out this knowledge.

He added that "If you give them sex ed in mixed classrooms, you break down their natural modesty; you're setting them up to be victims.

"You're dealing with a topic that ought to be dealt with by the parents." The priest thinks that concerned parents should question the Archdiocese about whether sex education should be taught in the Catholic schools.

"Granted, some parents don't do the job. But maybe they have decided that it's not good or necessary for their children to know. After all, people lived chastely for centuries without sex education." The Vatican has made it clear, in the document, "The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality," by the Pontifical Council for the Family, that sex education should take place within the family, the priest pointed out.

The schools and parishes should only be offering assistance, such as providing educational materials, to the parents.

Catholic schools skirt this Church mandate by allowing parents to ask that their child be excluded from the sex education, he said.

But the pressure to conform works against such parents.

A couple of years ago in his parish, only one couple signed their son out of the course. The boy was then humiliated by being stuck in back of the first grade classroom while the course was being taught.

The priest's assessment of the convocation was not entirely bleak, however.

"The most heartening thing was that there were a lot more priests than there usually are at these shindigs-and a lot of them were young, and they are conservative, they're not dissenting.

"They are a good crop of rosary-praying priests who, if they remain faithful, will restore the priesthood."