Priest Abuse - Absolute Power

Newsweek has a sizable article (http://www.newsweek.com/id/93626) on the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal in Alaska that adds details to a post I did some time back. I welcome such articles in national publications like Newsweek in the hope that sooner or later lay people in the Church and the larger society will wake up and demand a complete house cleaning within the Church. Naturally, I am not holding my breath awaiting that day's arrival, but the more coverage there is of the Church's dirty, disgusting history, the better in my view. Such disclosures should be thrown in the face of Pope Benedict XVI and the other senior clerical frauds who live like potentates and pretend to be pious and religious yet close their eyes to what has gone on for decades, if not centuries, and do nothing. Here are some highlights:

Like most other children, he also spent many days inside the weather-beaten little Catholic church, helping the Jesuit missionaries who held such powerful sway over Eskimo life. That meant doing what you were told—even if it was wrong—and staying silent about it. For Cheemuk, now 53, the past was buried for decades, through a lifetime of struggling with shame, anger and alcoholism. "I remember Mom asked me why there was blood on my underclothes," he said one recent frigid night in his cramped house in the Eskimo village. His sat alongside his wife, sometimes breaking into tears. "I was afraid to tell her what happened. I thought I might go to jail."

More than 110 children in Eskimo villages claim they were molested between 1959 and 1986, raped or assaulted by 12 priests and three church volunteers. Families and victims believe that another 22 people were sexually abused by clergy members but have since killed themselves.

Chris Cooke, a partner in an Anchorage law firm that has represented Eskimo victims, voices outrage over the staggering level of abuse by priests and church volunteers. "They had absolute power over the people and the culture," says Cooke. "They had language power. They had political power. They had racial power. They had the power to send you to hell. There was nowhere for victims to turn." Chase Hensel, a retired anthropologist and expert on Yupik Eskimo culture, says the lasting damage cannot be overstated. "You see the alcoholism, the severe mental problems, people in and out of jail," he says, "and you wonder, how do you put Humpty Dumpty back on the wall?"

Patrick Wall, a former Benedictine monk and Catholic priest who has served as a consultant to Roosa and other lawyers in the Alaska suits, said the Jesuits knew these missionaries were predators. These priests "had abused elsewhere," he said, "and then were unleashed in the most uncontrolled environment."

Broken and ruined lives, and no one in high authority within the Church has ever been punished. Benedict XVI and his predecessors are nothing but fraudulent hypocrites. Why anyone still gives them any deference whatsoever is dumbfounding.