Patrick Wall, or Brother Wall as he used to be known, is feeling a little jetlagged. He has just arrived in London on the red-eye from Los Angeles and has two hours before he has to catch a train to Cardiff – in pursuit of a special sort of criminal.
Wall is a former Benedictine monk turned international clerical sleuth, and this is his 200th case since joining the LA law firm of Manly, McGuire & Stewart. His job is to hunt down Roman Catholic priests retired by the Vatican in the wake of the sexual abuse scandals that erupted in Boston and other north-American dioceses in 2002. Many of those priests have effectively gone to ground.
In 1992 when, within weeks of taking his vows for the priesthood, Wall was invited to join the church’s “sexual abuse response team”. “My job was to firefight cases of sexual abuse – basically, take the place of the perp and calm the waters,” he says. “Our definition of success was that no one ever found out about it.”
Over the next five years, Wall found himself being shuttled from parish to parish to replace other, similarly failing priests – including one who had abused more than 30 altar boys. “Everywhere I turned, I was running into perpetrators,” he says. “In one month alone, we had seven cases against monks go public.” By 1998, Wall had had enough and resigned from the priesthood. Later, he went on to give expert testimony in other sexual-abuse cases.
Now Wall, along with two other former priests turned whistleblowers, has written a book called Sex, Priests and Secret Codes: the Catholic church’s 2,000-year paper trail of sexual abuse. The book, he says, contains previously unpublished documents detailing the Vatican’s longstanding awareness of the problem of sexual abuse. Its conclusion is that the recent scandals in the US, Ireland and Britain are nothing new, but simply the latest chapter in a story that stretches right back to the founding of the church. And the authors say they have found evidence of deliberate cover-up by the church.
Long, detailed article. For many — the stories aren’t new. Some of the documentation is apparently newly revealed — backing Wall’s assertion that a leading role in the coverups by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith — was led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.
I guess I was lucky. I was an alter boy while attending a Catholic grade school. Our priest was just a drunk, not a pedophile.
I’m so glad I was raised in a church where we let priests get laid.
Some of the staunchest religious fanatics I’ve known were atheist. Agnostics are always easier to get along with. As much as it galls many of intellectual, there is a basic need in the human animal to embrace a religion. Sentience will always reach for immortality.
“I’m so glad I was raised in a church where we let priests get laid.”
I can’t believe that the SANCTITIY of the church has been tossed into such ill-repute by an obvious herisy. No one in the church has SEX! My god, to think that men and woman would want to satisfy their natural desires, to actually be ATTRACTED to a fellow human being, to want to smear their body in coconut lotion and lick….. well, ahem, *cough*. Anyway, the point is, people do NOT have sex in the church or any other sort of business like that OK?!?
Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go and write a controversial book about this, it will surely be a number one seller what with the davinci code film coming out and will make me… ERM, no the church millions of dollars.
Even agnostics can be pedophiles and access to adult sex does not preclude pedophilia either. I think it is ludicrous that the church is screaming and crying about children raised by gay families and other groups looking down their noses at gays as if gay = pedophile. Is it so hypocritical.
dD_uk: You have to bear in mind that I’m not a member of a real church… I’m an Anglican!
We are such a threat that organizations outside our church are trying to infiltrate us:
“The foundations have provided millions of dollars to the IRD 2 which, in a fundraising appeal in 2000, said it sought to “restructure the permanent governing structure” of “theologically flawed” Protestant denominations and to “discredit and diminish the Religious Left’s influence.” 3″
http://www.edow.org/follow/
I gave up Catholicism for Lent years ago. One of the reasons is that a priest I knew when I was a kid (but not _that_ way) fell in love with a woman, He kept his vows until he was released from them by the Church, then married her. The Church lost a terrific guy/priest that way.
Mandatory priestly celibacy (and for that matter, mandatory celibacy for nuns and brothers) is stupid, as it goes against everything that biology demands.
Pedophiles make a point of getting work where they can have access to children. Every church that has children’s workers has to be aware of that. Every gym that coaches young boys and girls, every scout troop, every youth sports team is vulnerable. I have seen them pop up in every type of organization that has adults supervising children, yet no one says that coaching causes pedophilia. Most of the comments on this board defaming the priesthood say more about the posters’ hatred of the Catholic Church than anything meaningful about the issue. It’s just hate looking for a place to land. BTW, I ain’t a priest and I ain’t Catholic.
I can’t help but think …. I wonder what the Nuns are up to??
Nice try Don. What kids’ sports organization etc. doesn’t allow the coaches to get laid?
I have no idea why people think typing a few words on the web proves something independent of proof, such as “BTW, I ain’t a priest and I ain’t Catholic.”. Indeed the rather defensive tone probably means you’re both. I know on many chat boards the gullible will fall for it but DU attracts a higher caliber of poster… and I aint John.
Nice try Don. What kids’ sports organization etc. doesn’t allow the coaches to get laid?
So, nimrod, why DO those coaches do it? Are they getting inferior tail at home? Yes, this is a very logical, high-brow board…
You know already Father Don. But just to make it clear. People molest kids because they have mental problems. Many people won’t or can’t do anything about it so they seek an environment that will justify them suppressing it. No better than the Roman Catholic priesthood or other RCC orders. Humans being what they are they can only keep up the repression for so long. When the AIDS epidemic first hit RCC priests were dropping like flies, while away on mission of course. Their parish might notice them suddenly losing half their weight. Yet another RCC coverup.
Don,
I agree with your basic point that pedaphiles will seek out the oppertunities to furfill their “needs”. They will look for the path of least resistance. The problem I have with the Catholic Church (or any other organization that does this) is that THEY COVERED UP THE MORALLY REPREHENSIBLE BEHAVIOR. If they had taken a stance from the begining to prevent it, to root it out and take appropriate action to stop a minority of priests from doing it then it would be a non issue. It is the continual cover up and hypocracy of their behavior. Their behavior isn’t what they would preach others to do, but it is the behavior that they are doing.
They need to come clean, to make it clear how they are going to combat it in the future and what they are going to do to help with the people they victumized. They take a tough stand on abortion, but they don’t express moral outrage when their own RAPES CHILDREN. THEY
Men become Catholic priests because they seek power that they could not attain in the real world. They are rejects. They also couldn’t get laid in the real world so to protect their egos they become priests to elevate their no-sex, reject lives to a virtue of celibacy which, for suckers, is a ‘powerful’ ability of self-control. Truth be told, priests masturbate all the time. I know because a priest told me. Their urges are deeply suppressed which makes them dangerous. Of course, when the opportunity arises where a defenseless, innocent young boy goes to their rectory, the priest uses his power to rectify Catholic dictum with the young believer. Sure, there are some decent priests. I knew some. But, I also knew faggot ones too– I just made sure I never dropped the bar of soap when we were in the communal showers. Faggots masquerading as men of god. I said it before, kill the priests. The world would be a better place.
The problem I have with the Catholic Church (or any other organization that does this) is that THEY COVERED UP THE MORALLY REPREHENSIBLE BEHAVIOR.
You are absolutely right. I have no quarrel with you at all in that regard. I am just sick of the crap that alleges that there is something inherently perverted about a man choosing a celibate lifestyle for religious reasons. I couldn’t do it. But I admire those who do.
“I am just sick of the crap that alleges that there is something inherently perverted about a man choosing a celibate lifestyle for religious reasons.”
Get used to it.