Catholic Defenders: ’Blame the Gays’ for Widespread Abuse

As a fresh global crisis mounts for the Catholic church, with questions being raised about pedophile priests abusing victims in Germany and Wisconsin--where one cleric reportedly abused deaf children--and whether Pope Benedict XVI, a Cardinal at the time, responded appropriately, anti-gay religious organization the Catholic League has seemingly renewed attempts to scapegoat gays, say GLBT equality advocates.

In a March 24 article titled, "Vatican Declined to Defrock U.S. Priest Who Abused Boys," the New York Times reported that the pope--at the time known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, in charge of enforcing doctrine for the Vatican--did not respond to two letters from Milwaukee archbishop Rembert G. Weakland about the pattern of molestation allegedly demonstrated between 1950 and 1974 by Fr. Lawrence C. Murphy, who is suspected of having abused up to 200 boys who attended a Wisconsin school for the deaf. An investigation was begun internally at the behest of Ratzinger’s second-in-command, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

However, the article said, Ratzinger put a stop to the process after receiving a letter from Fr. Murphy, at that point near the end of his life. "I simply want to live out the time that I have left in the dignity of my priesthood," wrote Murphy. "I ask your kind assistance in this matter."

The Catholic League took out a full-page advertisement in the New York Times on March 30, lambasting the paper for its coverage of the crisis and declaring that, "

The Times continues to editorialize about the ’pedophilia crisis,’ when all along it’s been a homosexual crisis." The ad continues, "Eighty percent of the victims of priestly sexual abuse are male and most of them are post-pubescent. While homosexuality does not cause predatory behavior, and most gay priests are not molesters, most of the molesters have been gay."

The ad drew condemnation from GLBT advocacy group Truth Wins Out, which said in a March 30 posting at its web site that the Catholic League had "served as an enabler for sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and sought to deflect blame for the crisis by smearing the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community."

The offensive ad sought to exonerate the Pope and other priests of blame who are ensnared in a widening sexual abuse scandal that reaches across the globe," the posting continued. "Instead of offering an apology for sinful behavior, the Catholic League served as apologists and used the ad to try to deflect the crisis by attacking gay priests."

The posting quoted Truth Wins Out founder and executive director Wayne Besen as saying, "Clearly, the Catholic League is more interested in finding scapegoats than solutions." Added Besen, "We should remind Donohue that there is no child sexual abuse crisis in gay community centers, neighborhoods, churches or social organizations. This nightmare has to do with Catholic pedophile priests and those who served as their enablers. The Catholic League thinks it is mounting a defense, but it is only exacerbating the pain felt by the defenseless who were taken advantage of by authority figures in the church."