Today I want to talk about THIS.

Let me say, my knowledge of the Catholic Church is what I’ve seen on TV and movies, occasional visits with extended family in my youth and links I visit since I’ve been on the interwebz, so correct me if I’m wrong… or actually only if I’m REALLY wrong. Let’s not nitpick, okay?

Let’s say you’re a young man and you get your “calling” and decide you want to be a priest. You’re involved with your Church (cuz I’ll bet not too many Catholic priests come from other denominations, right?) and you’re convinced God wants you to do this. Or your Mom if you’re heavily Irish or Italian. Whatever, decision is made. So you go to what, seminary? Priest school? You don’t just get OJT, you get schooling in the rules and expectations. Like a doctor, you get years of training before you’re let loose on your people. I would imagine during those years you discuss your vows more than once. Vows of obedience and celibacy are the major ones. Obedience to your church and teachings and celibacy is self-explanatory – although in the Catholic faith isn’t even masturbation frowned upon?

Then you’re all vow up – knowing the rules and the consequences – and go out and priestify.

Now, if *I* know this, chances are every friggin’ Catholic knows this and expects those men to be held to a higher standard. The highest, in fact. Catholics should be able to trust these men implicitly with no reservations. And usually they do. Tell them their innermost secrets, confess their darkest faults, accept counseling, judgement and punishment from them, welcome them into their families and homes without care, I’m guessing because they’ve been (supposedly) vetted and trained in all the holy rules and stuff. There’s more power over a Catholic family by their priest than any other person in their lives. If you’re Catholic or have ever been one, is there any other person in your life (outside of your parent or spouse) who has more power over you than your priest?

Am I right?

Now, if that man, who made the choice to get this training, who at some point believed everything his Church teaches him (including homosexuality) is wrong, who pretty much rules over his little flock – uses that power to coerce a child or young adult to perform sexual acts – shouldn’t that be considered even more heinous than if the average neighbor or teacher or uncle does it?

You can’t have it both ways, Catholics. You can’t believe priests are little hands of God in your neighborhood and turn around and say they’re just men. So they should be held to a higher standard and when they screw up, they should be punished at a higher standard too.

Their crimes should not be covered up or excused or the responsibility shifted to the victim. Maybe it’s different if Bob or Mary Youngster meets Joe DaFather outside of the Church atmosphere and find out he’s a priest before/during/after their sexy time. But if the Catholic Church says homosexuality, fornication and adultery are wrong, then those who commit it – especially priests – should be dealt with accordingly. And those are the adult “sins”. If a priest actually molests or rapes a child there should be NO FORGIVENESS. Higher standards means zero tolerance. There’s no second chances, no supposed counseling. No excuses.

And that’s all we’ve gotten from the Catholic Church since this started in the press. Excuses. Lies. Cover-ups. They don’t even admit they should be held to a higher standard, so why do Catholics continue to give them that power? It matters little whether some of these reports are from young adults who went along, or if all of them were children being victimized – it’s all WRONG because it involves someone who, either way, abused their power.

That’s why the Catholic Church has been getting such crap from the rest of us. Because of centuries of being beaten over the head about how special and holy and perfect and hand-picked by God they are, and then when they’re found to be human with horrible failings after all… we’re just supposed to be forgiving and forget. Sorry guys, you should have hung those pedophiles out in public instead of hiding them under your robes.

I wanted to do a paragraph by paragraph rebuttal of that ad – yes, that was a paid ad in the Boston Globe – but I think I’ve covered most of it.