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I have remarked before that to be a Catholic in the UK is to know for certain that there are a surprising number of people in this Country with an underlying and incipient hostility to the Catholic Church under any and all circumstances.

It breaks out quite regularly over abortion, adoption agencies and most recently, over Priestly sexual abuse of children in their care. If somehow the current Pope can be blamed in anyway, so much the better for these sad people.

Curious Relationships

The Times seems to have a rather strange affection for Ken Macdonald QC who I believe along with Cherie Blair set up Matrix Chambers, he was previously the Director of Public Prosecutions from 2003 to 2008. He seems to have written quite a number of articles for the Times and frankly for a supposedly “learned man” not many of any quality. Remind me, just when did the ‘Blessed Tone’ step down ?

As a presumably lapsed Catholic, by the following, he had to weigh in as a guest writer under the headline: Call the police: what the Pope should have said” The full article can be read here: http://www.ti mesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7073217.ece

Unfortunately one of the common outcomes of people holding any kind of “high office” connected to the worlds of Law and Politics is that pomposity sets in at a very early stages or perhaps as with politicians, they have to be pompous by nature and like water find their own level and niche, this man does seem a natural in this sense. However, judge for yourself and a Google search will yield copious more Times articles this man has written for them, I am not too sure which is the most desperate !

For the Catholic Church

These whole scandals covering the US, Ireland, Germany and so on, are incredibly damaging in a fundamental way which only people of “faith” can probably comprehend. For the many atheists ‘leading this charge’ no doubt such sweet music to flatter their prejudices, puff and preen themselves as being so much more this and that…

The Church will emerge from this with a more effective way of dealing with these things. Although for people outside of the Church, it may genuinely be difficult to comprehend, for the vast majority of Catholic, Priests, Bishops and Clergy, the very concept of these events must be incomprehensible to them as individuals and therefore I suggest the reason for the “Church’s” clumsy and slow reaction to these events.

Most people will be aware of the words of Christ when he told his Disciples to “Suffer the little children to come unto me…” Later he went further and stated that anyone who harmed a child would do as well as to tie a Mill Stone around their neck…

It is likely on the road ahead that even Priestly Celibacy will be on the table and yet, is that the real answer ? How many ‘married men’ are found to have child porn on their hard drives ?

There are important ‘issues’ here which will ‘play’ way beyond the Catholic Church in due course and the majority of ‘comments’ I have seen recently are in this regard “Neanderthal” where they are not just plain “anti-Catholic or anti-religion” period. Allow me to demonstrate this…

A Question of Trust and Betrayal of that Trust

If we take away the glee of the “anti religious brigade” what are we looking at here ? Might I suggest as this heading states, a betrayal of trust. A situation where we and our family would expect us to be ‘safe’ and free from ‘potential harm’, that most certainly should be true of a Priest and a Doctor ? Consider the following story: Doctor jailed for sexually assaulting female patients: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/doctor-jailed-for-sexually-assaulting-female-patients-1926604.html

Sadly, whilst I understand, all the fuss about “paedophiles”, the Bradys and Hinleys, the two little girls of Soham, but these are very rare ‘cases’ (thankfully), and whilst web predators and stupid teenagers have opened up “another front” pretty much all the subsequent “knee jerk” legislation is pointless crap and as in this ‘story’ indicates, perhaps the real point is being totally missed.

Over the years I have often seen the following statement made although how one come come to that conclusion, rather bemuses me, over 80% of child sexual abuse takes place within the circle of “family and friends” and in this context a devout adherent of any faith would trust a cleric and this, will likely fit in along with any other “Uncle” figure in the family context.

The Blame Game

Let us return to ‘His Most High Pomposity’ Ken Macdonald QC and his own words:

“The rituals of cleansing were no more worthy. In the past, when a priest raped a young Catholic, the child could expect to be offered absolution for the sin. If this seems a little shocking, we shouldn’t be too surprised. It’s a common enough trick of authoritarian religions to blame the victims of sexual violence for participating in their own abuse, particularly if the violator occupies the pulpit rather than a pew.”

Well I guess as a former ‘Puppet’ of Tony Blair that makes sense, doesn’t it now ?

Hmm.. so as is now common practice, in the case of Rape whether of a child or adult, the Police and Society, go out of their way to reassure them of their ‘innocence’ in the matter. Do we tell the victim of an assault and robbery that “You are to blame for being in the wrong place at the wrong time…”

This is not specifically a ‘Catholic Problem’ it is society’s in a broader sense and likely related to failures in personal relationships combined with unrealistic expectations of them. Is a young man who expects becoming ‘Ordained’ as a Priest will make his sexual urges disappear any different from a man who marries and remains ‘unsatisfied’ sexually and becomes attracted to images of young children ‘subservient’ to his demands ?

We are talking about human nature and “Societies” inability to deal with it so, can we now address the real issue or, is trying to find a Judas Goat, so important that we can all continue to “pass on the other side” whilst children continue to be abused ?