Scandal is not my business, but right now the business is too good to pass on. Before I drop the proverbial A-bomb through your eye sockets and into your brainpans, I'd like to make a disclaimer of sorts. What you are about to read is something that will come as a surprise to the majority of those that read it, maybe even to you. Despite being a major news story and a scandal involving abuses on personal freedom, dignity and privacy and what may amount to a conspiracy involving very powerful men, allegedly great men, pleasuring themselves on the rape of the public and private trust, not one major news or media outlet is covering it with any sort of dedication. I bet that most of you will have no idea what I am talking about. In fact, I'd even go so far as to wager that even of those of you that do understand and are aware of the situation, nearly half will read this column and simply pass it as effortlessly as a bowl of bran flakes.

    Over the past few months nearly 250 or so Governors and Congressmen have been investigated, indicted or convicted on charges of rape, sexual misconduct and child abuse. An army of claimants has risen to the task of filing charges against these despicable men who have made sexual trespasses against them and those that have helped conceal these nefarious deeds and keep the victims quiet. In one of the more severe cases, over 200 victims have come forward with several accusations of sexual misconduct against just one government official.

    But these are great men, these are the leaders of our world. These are the men that we have chosen to represent us and to stand as examples of goodness and honor. Sickening, is it not? Arguably, there is no worse crime than robbing someone of his or her very innocence and dignity, especially when that someone is a child. And I find those who would help conceal such acts in the same contempt as I do the perpetrators themselves.

    Those who hold a seat in public office are supposed to be of high moral fiber. They're supposed to be people that we can trust, people that we can look up to. But this scandal shows that they are not those people...great men do bad things.

Those who have more power are liable to sin more; no theorem in geometry is more certain than this.

    In response to this situation, the government has proposed a new policy to help combat things of this nature. Unfortunately it's about as hollow as the space between the prom queen's legs. They propose to remove any offender from any position in public office where they would be able to secure access to children. They can still hold other positions in office and they can still be employed through the government...so long as they're not within easy access of children. That is unless they are convicted of such a crime in a court of law. This certainly falls far short of the type of "zero tolerance" policy that this situation demands.

    And while the new policy stipulates that these offenders are to be reported to the proper authorities, so far there is no word on the penalty for not reporting such an offense (which is just as large a part of this scandal as the actual crime is). There has already been plenty of evidence presented that implicates many high-ranking officials within the government that have helped to conceal these crimes or at least grossly negligent in their responsibilities when facing such situations. Raping a kid and concealing the act are both crimes and I find them to be equally punishable by law. Of course, it's easy to ignore that part when you're the one making the rules.

    Instead, they've recommended the dismissal of a (government official) "who has become notorious and is guilty of the serial, predatory, sexual abuse of minors."

    My question is, why was this not ALWAYS the standing policy? Why aren't the people who failed to report these crimes and those that even went as far as to help conceal or carry them out facing a jury right this minute? I'd have them face the noose if I had any say in it.

    It's funny, we live in a country where we jail the drug addict without a second thought, but when numerous individuals in positions of high political power get caught with their knuckles up Junior's colon the government somehow finds reason for pause and then comes forth with some shallow promise that people within our government who commit a crime will be reported to the authorities. Well isn't that a novel and refreshing idea?

    Did you happen to notice that it says that they have to be "notorious" and "guilty of the serial, predatory, sexual abuse of minors"? So as long as you only fuck one kid against his will or consent or you just conceal evidence or knowledge of the act itself, you're pretty much okay with us. Just don't get caught. Of course, we're supposed to report you if we know of these things...but then again, we were required to do so by law all along and well, we didn't quite live up to that end of the bargain so...

    Should we not be outraged? Should we not be calling out unanimously for the dismissal and convictions of these vile men? Should we not be holding picket lines and protests outside of city halls or even The White House?

    I mean, millions reportedly protested the attack on Afghanistan because they felt that the rights of the Afghanis were not being preserved. People stand outside of abortion clinics and harass young, unwed mothers who want to rid themselves of potential bastard children because doing so is thought by some to be murdering an unborn child. We boycott companies that test their goods on animals before offering them up for human consumption because the animals need to have their rights protected the same as humans do. We hold "Million Man Marches" and patrol the streets and neighborhoods with petitions to stop whatever our outcry of the month is, but why have we not all stood up and condemned the government for this? Don't children and rape victims have rights too? How can we justify targeting and ostracizing known sex offenders not affiliated with the government when they're just regular people with sick fetishes and then not forward the same turn to those that are supposed to be the leaders of our society and the models of high public standing? I smell a hypocrisy.

    But do you know what's even more disturbing? Most likely, two-thirds of you reading this have suddenly found themselves with visions of lynch-mob-justice and an appetite for blood. You're ready to tell everyone about this and exclaim your disgust for our wretched government. There will be talk of pseudo-revolutions and rebellion against our government, a government which is corrupt from the core on out.

    Well, I got news folks, I fabricated the entire story. Actually, it is the Catholic Church that has found itself at the shitty end of the yard stick in this particular scenario. More than 250 priests (out of approximately 46,000 in the nation) have resigned or have been suspended in regards to claims of sexual misconduct. Numerous Bishops and Cardinals face claims of concealment or negligence in the handling of these cases. It has been shown that all too often, when a priest is accused of a crime of rape or molestation he is simply reassigned to another parish. Even when it becomes 2 or 3 or even 4 different reassignments the Cardinals or Bishops involved often fail to sufficiently reprimand the priest or report them to the proper authorities. They've essentially made a safe haven for child molesters with the Catholic Church. This is the church, the supposed beacon of moral light in our universe...the body that sees fit to lay claim to the word of God and to delegate, rule upon and administer the policies of the religious faith that professes to be epitome of righteousness and all things good and wholesome. Are you still thirsting for blood? Will you now say the same things of the Catholic Church as you would have of the government? Or will you turn your swords into plowshares because even though the sinner has the same face, he now has a new name?

And now for the real back story...
    The news broke first in early January with a Massachusetts priest named John Geoghan and some 86 victims making claims against him for sexual misconduct and abuse (the number is now closer to 200 alleged victims). Geoghan has been convicted in one of three criminal trials thus far and still faces a class action law suit against him. Cardinal Bernard Law handled the allegations of sexual abuse against Geoghan while he was a member of the church. In a court deposition, Law said he relied on opinions and counsel from medical and psychiatric experts to aid him in making his decisions on how to handle sexually abusive priests. He did not report any of the alleged molesters to the authorities. To make matters appear even worse, Cardinal Law was seen as stonewalling the investigation and court case against Geoghan with vague answers and even showing outrage towards the process during the depositions. Many of the victims report that Law had displayed a "selective amnesia" and some went as far as to outright call him a liar.

"It is from the influence of this vice, hypocrisy, that we see so many church-and-meeting-going professors and pretenders to religion so full of trick and deceit in their dealings, and so loose in the performance of their engagements that they are not to be trusted further than the laws of the country will bind them. Morality has no hold on their minds, no restraint on their actions."

    In another case, this one dealing with the Reverend Paul Shanley (also under Cardinal Law while serving in Massachusetts), things get even fouler. Shanley's diary was apparently discovered during an investigation into claims of sexual abuse against him. An excerpt from his diary reads, "Much of my life these last few years has been choosing not twixt good and evil, but the less of the two evils ... my God, I've even taught kids to shoot up properly". In another section he writes, "One of the first things I do in a new city is to sign up at the local clinic for help with my VD."
VD? A priest with Venereal Disease is fucking children and helping them shoot up and no one saw a problem here? Give me a break. And do you want to know what the kicker is? Shanley specialized in working with troubled youths while he was a priest in Boston. Troubled youths? Who lets a priest with VD and a history of sexual abuse claims against him anywhere near kids with problems?
Even worse? You got it. The documents also point out that church leaders were concerned over allegations that Shanley spoke at the opening session of NAMBLA (the North American Man-Boy Love Association). Did I miss something here or is it just me?

Even the skeptical mind must be prepared to accept the unacceptable when there is no alternative. If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family Anatidae on our hands.

    And even beyond the above, do you know what really gets me? No one cares. An American president lying about getting a blow job was front page news for a little over a year and billions of dollars were needlessly allocated to the investigation of the incident, but a few hundred kids getting abused by priests and high ranking officials in the Catholic Church covering it up is worth what? A few front page blurbs only to be replaced by the insipid and daily coverage of the Midwest brushfire.

    The Catholic Church should be held to the same standards as any individual or organization, public or private. We should hold them to the same standard. The government should hold them to the same standard. They should hold themselves to the same, if not a higher standard. But they're not and it's wrong...no matter how you slice and dice it...no matter how many ÔHail Marys' hang in the balance...no matter how many times they say they're sorry. They can be held accountable by God, that's between them and him, but only after they're held accountable here...they're accountable to the victims and they're accountable to us.
If this were the government, the country and the news media would be calling for impeachment and convictions. If this were the government, the Catholic Church would take the opportunity to condemn the actions and let everyone know that God will punish the offenders. If this were the government, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Franklin Graham (the son of the famed Billy Graham) would be telling us that homosexuals and the Great Satan (our government) are bringing the world to an end and that only those who are within the kingdom of Christ are safe while in the same breath offering you salvation at $495.00 a plate. But where are they all now when it is not our government that is the Great Satan, but instead, the Catholic Church itself?

People everywhere enjoy believing things that they know are not true. It spares them the ordeal of thinking for themselves and taking responsibility for what they know.

    The separation of church and state does not imply separate rules and we should judge accordingly. We can't just turn a blind eye when things don't fit our own perfect cartoon perceptions of reality and the way things should be. When men commit the unthinkable, it is up to us to make sure that those crimes go no less punished than those that we expect or find as commonplace. We cannot commit the peasant and refuse to jail the priest, to do so would be to further abuse the victim and to patronize the false saints at the expense of our society.

You can't have it both ways...wrong is wrong, even when committed by the hands of great men.



There's No Mystery Here...