The article “Homosexuality to blame for abuse crisis: top cardinal,” was published in the National Post on April 14^th, 2010. The article was written by Charles Lewis; with files from Agence France-Presse.

It seems the how’s and why’s are being ignored by the Vatican, and they’re starting to point the finger. In the news article published by the National Post, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state made harsh comments on who are abusing these children.

“But many others have demonstrated, have told me recently, that there is a link between homosexuality and pedophilia. This is true, this is the problem,” said Bertone.

The article goes on to talk about the relation between the two also incorporating a full-page ad that was in The New York Times, the U.S Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.

“While homosexuality does not cause predatory behaviour, and most gay priests are not molesters, most of the molesters have been gay,” read the ad.

Many feel this is an attempt to draw people’s attention away from the scandal and focus on this ridiculous notion. It doesn’t help this argument (if one must call it that), is a blatant viewpoint for the Roman Catholic Religion, as they see homosexuality as immoral. So, it’s rather obvious to put the blame on homosexuals.

Thomas Plante, a professor of psychology at Santa Clara University in California also talks in the article about this new issue. Plante also helps the Church screen candidates for priesthood.

“Before 2005 I would ask candidates their orientation to make sure they had a healthy psycho-sexual development, to see if they were mature enough. Now we don’t as because some seminaries will reject them for being gay.”

Now, there is no scientific proof to this claim, but it sure doesn’t stop the Church from spouting this unbelievable nonsense.

Sister Miriam Ukeritis, chief executive of the Southdown Institute spoke about the statements,

“There is an assumption that the sexual object for abusers is consistent with their sexual orientation—the assumption that a heterosexual would necessarily be attracted to young girls and a homosexual would be necessarily attracted to young boys. That’s not true,” Ukeritis said.

“There is no scientific correlation.”

On the flip side the Church is still making comments stating there is statistical evidence to this claim.

“The Catholic Church, under Pope Benedict XVI, has made it more difficult for practicing homosexuals to enter the priesthood. That is as it should be. Indeed, it is has been harder for gays to get into priesthood for some time, the result being that the incidence of abuse has declined,” said Bill Donohue, Catholic League president.

Pointing the Finger

Has the Church ever heard the saying you shouldn’t point a finger at someone because you have three other fingers pointing at yourself?

This is what it’s looking like, a blame game to switch the public’s attention from the horrible acts from priests, to coming up with a silly notion to cover everyone’s eyes.

The sad thing is no one is actually addressing the problem. The problem is the Church has priests abusing children. When it comes to light instead of addressing it the Church hides it. Why would the Roman Catholic Church want negative light shone down on them, when in the religion the Pope is the second to God?

The Three Fingers:

One, there is no scientific proof to what they’re claiming. It’s like an Ann Coulter statement, “Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslim.” Without directly saying what they want to say they are pointing the finger at homosexuals, when the problem has NOTHING to do with homosexuals at all. Then again, the Church has directly come out and said it’s a homosexual problem. It just means the people who choose these priests aren’t very good on judging character, because the people who do these despicable things, have something wrong with them, they are sick. It doesn’t matter how much praying or counselling occurs, this isn’t something that just floats away. It doesn`t matter how much blame the Church places on homosexuals it still looks like an attempt to shift everyone’s attention.

Two, why would sexual orientation matter anyways? If a man wants to become a priest, he knows full-well that he will have to be celibate. So, why is sexual orientation for priests even up for debate? It’s one giant vicious circle that is very confusing. In the National Post article Thomas Plante, screened candidates and now doesn’t ask about sexual orientation due to the fact the Church denies many homosexuals. It doesn’t matter if someone is straight or gay they want to become a priest, let them become a priest. And if they are denying homosexuals into the Church, why do they still have priests molesting children? This has nothing to with “homosexual tendencies” or celibacy; it means that these priests aren’t right upstairs.

Three, underneath all the blame and the pointing of fingers, lay one main issue. The unbalance of power, the Roman Catholic Church has a lot of influence over those who practice that religion. Not only that, but power in general. If the Church has the power to cover an issue that needs to be solved, there is something wrong. There is no excuse for taking an abusive priest away and then placing him somewhere else because no one wants to deal with it. That is just as bad as the act itself, its enabling. The power the Church has is astounding, and rightfully so it’s been around for ages and ages. Millions of people believe in that religion. But the Church can get away with a lot because of how much power they have, and that isn’t right. Many of those young children wouldn’t have been abused if the Church had done something earlier and just taken the priest out instead of placing him in different areas.

Instead of pointing the finger at a ridiculous non-existent issue someone should be looking at the real issues at hand.