an issue that hasn't been faced
By Diogenes (articles ) | November 08, 2010 2:12 PM
Bishop Willie Walsh has trouble with orthodoxy. Not just with preaching it; even with recognizing it.
Still, give him credit: Bishop Willie has trouble with secular orthodoxy as well. He evidently hasn't been reading the weekly memos about how the sex-abuse crisis has nothing repeat nothing repeat nothing to do with homosexuality in the priesthood. So when questioned about the scandal he replies with a candor not often seen among Catholic prelates:
I’m very nervous about saying this – it’s an issue that hasn’t been faced – but practically all the abuse that I’ve come across has been abuse of boys, and boys of 14, 15-years-old. Now, that raises some serious questions, and if you really went into them you would be accused of mixing up homosexuality and paedophilia. If a priest abuses a 16- or 17-year old, is that homosexual? It’s certainly not paedophilia. Where does the division come? It is a very hazardous area – and there’s no question in my mind that I’m not equating homosexuality with sexual abuse by priests. No, I’m not. But I’m saying that at a certain point the distinction is not that clear.
Now Bishop Willie has spoken, and other Irish bishops may be asked to comment. What do you think is more likely: that the other bishops will distance themselves from his comments on the possibility of ordaining women? Or from his comments on the possibility that homosexuality may just possibly be a factor in the sex-abuse scandal?
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Posted by: filioque -
Nov. 09, 2010 1:10 PM ET USA
Back in 2002, when Bishop Wilton Gregory, then president of the USCCB, returned from Rome, he said that protecting the priesthood from homosexuals was a continuing problem. He said it once, but never again. He was then promoted to a nice see in Atlanta. I haven't noticed him demonstrating any national leadership on this point or any other. I guess someone explained the matter to him.
