Catholic League president William Donohue issued the following cautionary note today regarding the bishops’ meeting in Dallas:
“Even before the meeting begins, some activists have branded it a failure. Consider Call to Action. Its spokeswoman, Linda Pieczynski, is quoted as saying, ‘We don’t really trust the bishops to do the right thing and come up with the solutions.’ For those unacquainted with this group, what this means is that because the bishops are not prepared to overturn virtually every Catholic teaching on sexuality—something Call to Action desperately wants—the fruits of the bishops’ efforts are therefore dead on arrival. Given this organization’s determination to prejudge the outcome of the bishops’ meeting, it makes no sense to even give lip service to their demands. They should simply be dismissed.
“Dignity USA is another ‘progressive’ Catholic organization that has made up its mind in advance. For this group, the mere mention of the fact that the cases of priestly sexual molestation that have been in the news are mostly of a homosexual nature is, ipso facto, evidence of homophobia. It needs to be said that while most gay priests are not molesters it remains true that most of the molesters are gay. This is a fact that cannot be ignored any longer. Indeed, the best social science evidence on this subject shows that a man who is drawn to sexual encounters with adolescent boys will have seven to eight times as many victims as other, nonhomosexual abusers.
“Here’s another problem. On Friday in Dallas, one of the women who will speak on the subject of ‘The Abuse of Women by Catholic Clergy’ (a meeting organized by SNAP), comes to the event with her own baggage. She says she had an on-going affair with a priest beginning in 1984 when she was 18 and he was in his late 30s. In the fall of 1999, she declared victim status and triggered an investigation against the priest. This was a few months after she admitted having another sexual affair with the same priest. To top it off, this ‘victim’ was married in 1997.
“In short, the bishops should beware of all the agendas that are in the air.”
