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"Look
at the sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church. How
can anyone believe what it says about homosexuality?"
This
sentiment has been expressed in letters to the editor
and newspaper columns, and found graphic expression in
an editorial cartoon in the Vancouver Province that portrayed
a priest denouncing same sex ‘marriage’ while
patting an altar boy’s bum.
Yet
the Catholic Church has always condemned deliberate sexual
offences against chastity as morally repugnant sins that,
if unrepented, may leave one liable to eternal damnation.
Most Catholics know this full well (whatever they actually
believe) and we expect our leaders to know it too. That
is precisely why we excoriate priests and religious for
sexual abuse, applaud when the perpetrators are jailed,
demand the resignation of bishops who recklessly fail
to protect their flocks, and sue when that appears to
be the only means of securing justice and administrative
reforms.
So
the editorial cartoon, which implies Catholic acceptance
of homosexual relations between priests and altar boys,
falsifies Catholic teaching and the attitudes of most
Catholics, and libels the majority of priests and religious
who have had nothing to do with such misconduct. Some
have dismissed the cartoon as a ‘cheap shot’.
But no one appears to have noticed its bias.
The
notion that a man should be able to satisfy his sexual
desires by patting a boy’s bum - or worse - is abhorrent
to Catholics, but not to some prominent homosexual activists.
Gerald Hannon, for example, in Men Loving Boys Loving
Men, sang the praises of men like ‘Simon’, a
thirty-three year old primary school teacher who had had
sexual relations with boys in four schools and in every
service organization of which he was a member, including
Big Brothers. Then there was ‘Peter’, the forty-eight
year old businessman whose special interest was "the
unwanted or unloved boys, the boys from homes where the
father is dead or has deserted;" his youngest conquest
was seven. Hannon called them "community workers
who deserve our praise, our admiration and our support."1
Hannon
is a director of Pink Triangle Press, which publishes
Toronto's Xtra!, Ottawa's Capital Xtra and Vancouver's
Xtra West. He considers Canada’s prohibition of child
pornography a "foul", "stupid" and
"absurd" law, and takes pleasure in being associated
with John Robin Sharpe, who, at the time of Hannon’s
glowing reference to him as "that unsung hero of
Canadian resistance",2 had been convicted for possession
of child pornography and charged for sexual assault of
a young boy.3
But
don’t expect The Province to publish a caricature
of someone from Pink Triangle Press patting a boy’s
bum any time soon. The artist and publisher would surely
be dragged before some sort of tribunal for ‘spreading
hatred’. Libelling religious believers on this issue,
however - especially the Catholic Church and innocent
Catholic priests - is considered ‘fair comment’.
Notes
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1.
Gerald Hannon,
"Men Loving Boys Loving Men", The Body
Politic, Issue 39, December 1977/January 1978.( Accessed
9 July, 2003.)
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2.
Gerald Hannon, "Courts
just love Men Loving Boys". Xtra! May 29,
2003. (Accessed 9 July, 2003.)
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3.
Pornographer
Sharpe charged with sex assault. CBC website,
26 Aug 2002. (Accessed 9 July, 2003.)
Catholic
Civil Rights League
7120 Tofino St.,, Powell River,
British Columbia, Canada V8A 1G3
E-mail: buncrana@prcn.org
Tel: 604-485-9765
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