ROCK OF AGES

4/26/10

A good friend sent along an e-mail that is in wide circulation entitled

“WHAT A BEAUTIFUL WRITE UP ON CATHOLICS -Jewish Sam Miller on Catholics”

You’ve probably seen it. In general, it is a terrific e-mail, in which Mr. Miller points out all the good works that the Church does, citing specifically its efforts in education and health care. Mr. Miller does not mention, though he easily could have, the Church’s ongoing efforts among the poor.

The e-mail does cite at least one questionable statistic, to wit:

“ Meanwhile, 1.7% of the Catholic clergy has been found guilty of pedophilia. 10% of the Protestant ministers have been found guilty of pedophilia. This is not a Catholic Problem.”

Hmm…

Mr. Miller cites no source, but, even if we assume that the above statistic was not cut out of whole cloth, there are problems with it. Note the operative term is “found guilty.” If there indeed is such a disparity in the incidence of convictions for pedophilia between Protestant and Catholic clergy, much of it may arise because of the continual and apparently strident efforts of the Catholic Church hierarchy to cover up pedophilia among Catholic clergy. Thus, Mr. Miller’s e-mail may have the unintended effect of reinforcing the charges of cover-up being made against the Church hierarchy.

Further, even if the above statistic is true, the act of pedophilia is one crime, and one that does not seem to have been committed, except in very rare instances (e.g., Bishop Roger Vangheluwe of Bruges, Belgium, who admitted sexually abusing a boy in the ‘90s), by the Church hierarchy (for these purposes, bishops and above). But it is another, related crime, the cover-up of pedophilia, and the enabling of pedophilia by keeping pervert priests in positions in which they have access to children, that is the sin of the hierarchy. And even if only 1.7% of the Catholic clergy has been found guilty of pedophilia (a statistic with which I have little problem; what makes Mr. Miller’s citation unbelievable is its “10% of Protestant clergy” claim and what makes it irrelevant, at best, is the clever use of the terminology “found guilty”), a much larger percentage of the hierarchy is guilty of covering up and enabling the ghastly crime of pedophilia.

All that having been written, Mr. Miller has made some great points that need to be made and he has this Catholic’s gratitude. My response to my friend who sent me the e-mail is worth sharing with my readers, and so I have reproduced its essence below:

No one does more good for more people than the Catholic Church, which, as a church, is far more than its hierarchy. That the Church does so much good is only one of the reasons that it is worth protecting from the people who run it. That it is a divinely inspired institution is the reason that it will survive the incompetence, obtuseness, and, in some cases, misogynistic and misanthropic tendencies and actions of some in the hierarchy.