You know the meme amongst the MSM, progressive Catholycs and nearly everyone else in the world regarding the child sex abuse scandal, right? How it's a big cover-up by the hierarchical patriarchal men's club headquartered in the Vatican City. That it goes as high as Pope Benedict. That it's all because of celibacy. That if only there were womynpreests, so much of what had happened could have been prevented. Remember Peggy Noonan's op-ed sometime back, where she said saving the Church would require a woman's touch?
Well.
It's all just a feint. And it's all rather disturbing.
LCWR's Long Standing Cover-up of Sexual Abuse of Children by Nuns
The Dissenter’s Breviary, NCR, and the "magisterium of nuns", LCWR, are abusing the abuse crisis for their own ends.Read the whole thing.
Have a look at the recent NCR piece, "Compromised hierarchy needs relational wisdom of women" by Charlene Spretnak.
Spretnak draws an opposition between the "patriarchal value system" of the "men’s club" and the "relational wisdom of women", which she says is exemplified, in part, by the "[harassed] communities of nuns" and by other women in the Catholic Church.
NCR’s Spretnak turned a blind eye to the voluminous new emerging data concerning the sexual abuse of children by women, and, in particular, by Catholic nuns, as reported here and here and especially here.
In the latter article, "Nuns On the Run From the Truth" (Salon - 17 August 2009), self-described "feminist and progressive Catholic" Frances Kissling, moans,
"we were surprised when the LCWR leadership refused to allow survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic sisters to address the past few annual meetings. The survivors want to share their stories of abuse as well as suggest processes to prevent such abuse in the future, including recommending that the sisters adopt the bishops’ anti-sex-abuse guidelines. To date, the nuns have just said no."Zowie!
Just imagine! Frances Kissling is surprised that the LCWR, that besieged bastion of religious integrity, of female "relational wisdom" (to quote Spretnak), would ape the bishops and major superiors!
But wait, there’s more!
Even as they wag fingers at male bishops and priests, the LCWR, fully supported by the liberal press, has covered up sexual abuse of children by women religious.
Just focus for a moment on how the LCWR has for years been fighting off SNAP.
SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) has been trying to get the LCWR to deal with them since at least 2004.
SNAP tried to engaged the LCWR about women religious who have abused children but the LCWR has stonewalled them. In their "relational wisdom", LCWR responded to SNAP, thanking them for "raising their consciousness" about this problem. Then they did nothing to work with SNAP. In 2009 LCWR was still "raising their consciousness" and still stonewalling.
What would Spretnak say about the superiority of women’s "relational wisdom" over the men’s club’s "patriarchal socialization" if she had bothered to do this simple Google search – "Catholic nuns child sexual abuse" – before she emailed her corrosive article to NCR’s HQ?
The dirty little secret is that both Catholic priests and nuns – yes women! – have engaged in sick, immoral acts against children and minors. This is not an exclusively male problem. This is not a celibacy problem. See my article here on Protestant ministers – married ministers – and sexual abuse of children.
This is a sin problem. It's an epidemic that crosses cultural, racial, sexual, religious and secular lines. But it's the Church that's in the target because of Her stance against the world, and it's the priesthood in particular that stands in the bullseye. Minimize the Church's influence in the world, as well as attempt to eliminate the priesthood. It's a brutal front on the front lines of the spiritual battle.
The point isn't to deflect blame away from guilty priests and bishops. Nor downplay the evil that has been done to innocent children. It's not a game of "gotcha!" Abuse of any child - in any circumstance - is never acceptable.
No - the point is to show the hypocrisy on the part of feminist forces within the LCWR, who have been screeching without ceasing, that it's the exclusive all-male club that has fomented an atmosphere conducive to the abuse of children. The point is to show the lack of transparency of the media and progressive Catholyc publications who have turned a blind eye to this issue. The National Catholic Distorter is equally complicit - they unswervingly and uncompromisingly support the LCWR - in caring more to tear down the Church and the priesthood than protect innocent children.
It makes me wonder if there is more to the Apostolic Visitation than meets the eye.
