S-E-X is a Bad Word

Last week the Archdiocese of Los Angeles settled a suit involving 508 claimants who were the victims of predator priests. The amount to be paid out by the archdiocese is over 650 millions dollars. It is estimated that each claimant will receive almost 2 million dollars. It is well documented that the Catholic Church has paid out over 2 Billion dollars, yes $2,000,000,000 over the last 40 years because of these priest who cannot keep their hands off young people, the very people who easily trust adult authority figures in long robes. These priests not only betrayed the teachings of Jesus and the church, they forever scared these children, who may feel vindicated momentarily due to the paycheck they will receive, but whose lives are irreversibly changed.

I am well aware that Jesus spoke at length about forgiveness. But isn’t there a limit when priests exploit and abuse young children, at least on this plain of existence. I guess the teachings of Jesus do not sit well with me in regard to this situation. I want to re-instate the Old Testament mentality of eye for an eye. With that in mind, I suggest that every priest who was involved and/or who has an urge to engage in such monstrous, and by the way SINFUL, behavior should practice self-mortification like the Opus Dei clergy used to do (as seen in the film The Da Vinci Code). Beating oneself seems like a just consequence for their past and/or considered transgressions.

How Latino’s fit into this dynamic is that statistically Latino’s account for 70% of the Catholics in the Los Angeles Archdiocese and is 39% of Catholics nationwide. Thus one can assert that many of the victims were Latino, yet due to the sexual and taboo nature of this topic the loyal Latino congregation will not fully discuss this issue or the consequences. It is much easier to sweep it under the rug then to openly talk about it. Unfortunately, one of the rare occasions that it is discussed is when the people are intoxicated and no one is around to hear them. Now, I am not suggesting that Latino’s are drunks; I am simply asserting the conditions under which families will discuss this issue. I guess people have not learned from the past. The more people bury or repress pain the stronger it becomes.

In many ways, the silence over predator priests and their victims is a result of the teachings of the Catholic Church and the re-enforcement on the home front. Due to Sexuality being such a taboo subject, many Catholic families do not openly discuss things relating to the sexual nature of the human body. Therefore, children keep their victimization to themselves and suffer in silence. This silence also has two other consequences, it teaches people to lie and it draws young adults to engage in sexual activity because it is rendered so taboo. It’s analogous to telling a child not to touch the fire but he/she does it anyway. And then we wonder why there are 4 pregnant girls graduating at a Catholic High School near you.

Please do not misinterpret this as me bashing the Catholic Church. I am simply criticizing some of its practices and the dire consequences as related to its silence over sexuality. Thus if you desire to refute or challenge my assertions please do. Dialogue is democratic!