The Audacity of Bishop Gene Robinson

News Analysis

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
May 3, 2010

Gene Robinson, the Bishop of New Hampshire has written an "open letter" to the Pope telling him in no uncertain terms that the sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church is about pedophilia and that he has it all wrong about homosexuals. He accuses the Pope of being "misguided and [says it is]wrong for gay men to be scapegoated in this scandal."

Robinson wrote his letter as a part of his program as a part-time senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

He wrote, "As a gay man, I know the pain and the verbal and physical violence that can come from the thoroughly debunked myth connecting homosexuality and the abuse of children. In the media, representatives of and advocates for the Roman Catholic Church have laid blame for sexual abuse at the feet of gay priests. These people know, or should know, that every reputable scientific study shows that homosexuals are no more or less likely to be child abusers than heterosexuals. Psychologically healthy homosexual men are no more drawn to little boys than psychologically healthy heterosexual men are drawn to little girls.

"Sexual activity with children or teenagers is child abuse, pure and simple. Meaningful consent is impossible, by definition, for the underaged. You will not rid your church of sexual abuse by throwing homosexuals out of your seminaries or out of the priesthood. Homosexual priests have faithfully and responsibly served God throughout Catholic history. To scapegoat them and deprive them of their pulpits is a tragedy for the people they serve and for the church. Yours is a problem of abuse, not sexual orientation."

Robinson has it all wrong.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes homosexuality as "objectively disordered" http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a6.htm The writers of the catechism say this under the banner: Chastity and homosexuality

"Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

"The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.

"Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.

"Explicit treatment of the problem was given in this Congregation's "Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics" of December 29, 1975. That document stressed the duty of trying to understand the homosexual condition and noted that culpability for homosexual acts should only be judged with prudence.

"At the same time the Congregation took note of the distinction commonly drawn between the homosexual condition or tendency and individual homosexual actions. These were described as deprived of their essential and indispensable finality, as being "intrinsically disordered", and able in no case to be approved of.

"As in every moral disorder, homosexual activity prevents one's own fulfillment and happiness by acting contrary to the creative wisdom of God. The Church, in rejecting erroneous opinions regarding homosexuality, does not limit but rather defends personal freedom and dignity realistically and authentically understood." http://tinyurl.com/4rsyc

As a result of Robinson's consecration, the Roman Catholic Church broke off ecumenical discussions with The Episcopal Church, as did the Russian Orthodox Church.

Truth be told, Robinson's consecration has cost TEC dearly with tens of thousands of people leaving The Episcopal Church including whole dioceses. A new Anglican Church has been formed in North America, which the Roman Catholic Church may yet recognize.

What sort of credibility does Robinson think he has with the pope? Bear in mind that he was once married to a woman, had two children, then announced after several years of marriage that he was a homosexual, divorced his wife, then met a man on a Caribbean Island, moved in with him and then "married" him according to the secular laws of the state of New Hampshire.

The truth is those group of priests who molest mostly young men ARE homosexuals or more accurately ephebophiliacs, adult men who have a sexual preference for mid-to-late adolescents, generally ages 15 to 19.

The term "ephebophilia" was originally used in the late 19th to mid 20th century. It is one of a number of sexual preferences across age groups subsumed under the neologism of "chronophilia". Ephebophilia strictly denotes the preference for mid-to-late adolescent sexual partners, defined as a sexual preference for girls generally 14–16 years old, and boys generally 14–19 years old.

Some authors define ephebophilia as a sexual preference for pubescent and adolescent boys. These Roman Catholic priests fall exactly into that category. They are not pedophiles as they did not go after small children...their sexual interests lay in seducing young adolescent boys whose sexuality had not been fully formed and who were open to manipulation by older men, including a number of priests in the Roman Catholic Church.

As Catholic League president Bill Donohue observed on the statistics of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, "As reported in 2004, between 1950 and 2002, 81 percent of the victims were male; in 2005, it stayed the same; in 2006, it dropped to 80 percent; in 2007, it climbed to 82 percent; in 2008, it jumped to 84 percent; and in 2009, it stayed at 84 percent. In other words, even though priests have less access to males, homosexual priests are molesting them at a higher rate [than females]. It's time to end the gay cover-up once and for all."

Not to put a too fine point on it, a gay Episcopal activist, Frank Lombard, a Duke University official was arrested in Raleigh, NC on pedophile charges he molested his own children. He claimed that he was a "fan of New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson."

Or what about the case of the convicted pedophile Episcopal Priest Lynn C. Baumann who was allowed to host a spiritual retreats with Presiding Bishop's blessing!

In an exchange of correspondence with David Clohessy, National Director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), Mrs. Jefferts Schori, through her Pastoral Development Officer Bishop F. Clayton Matthews, said Baumann that could function as a spiritual retreat master on the understanding that "Mr. Baumann's contact (is) to adults only".

One should point out to Robinson that despite all the fine talk about how high the standards are now for sexual abuse being spotted and dealt with in TEC, as recently as February of this year, an 82-year old Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Central New York was charged with multiple counts each of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, and corruption of a minor. He got away with it for years.

Stories VOL wrote at that time suggested a possible cover-up of the priest's sexual activities by Episcopal Bishop Gladstone (Skip) Adams. Why did we hear nothing from Robinson about these cases when they erupted in the press?

I wrote at the time, "The truth is the bishop (Adams) should be investigated by the national church. He should face the same charges brought against the now inhibited and deposed former Bishop of Pennsylvania, Charles E. Bennison who was forced to step down following a trial and conviction on charges that he covered up his brother's sexual abuse of a female minor. The story began in 2006..."

The truth is Robinson's advice to the Pope is ill advised and his misinformation staggering. He should get his sexualities (LGBTQ) -- he says there are more -- better lined up before he proceeds to tell the leader of one billion Catholics worldwide what it is he would like us to believe about sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman.

Roman Catholic leaders did a very poor job in getting rid of homosexuals. Many of the leaders were fooled. Homosexuals over ran their seminaries. In many cases, they took over parishes and fooled bishops and those higher up in the church. They became deeply entrenched as the "pink mafia". The Vatican finally sent a team of high-level persons to clean the homosexual infestations out of the seminaries.

The Roman Catholic Church has now said there will be no more cover-ups, no more peddling of sexually abusive priests around to different parishes. Every case will be turned over to the authorities immediately. We shall see. Institutional loyalty still reigns.

The difference of course between the Roman Catholic Church and the Episcopal Church is that TEC has rolled over to the culture and not stood up against it. TEC has caved while the RCC has not.

Robinson thinks that by giving vent to his sexual preferences and endorsing sodomy in the name of "justice" that this will resolve the problem and people will come flocking back to TEC in the name of inclusivity and diversity. He is dead wrong. It is not happening. TEC is slowly dying. The Roman Catholic Church grew in America last year, admittedly through immigration, despite the awful things a handful of their priests did.

The Roman Catholic Church has put in place higher standards for those applying to the priesthood. Homosexuals will be hard pressed to get past the battery of psychological tests they must now undergo.

It is not without its significance that leading British homosexual Peter Tatchell has advocated for the legal age of sexual consent to be lowered to 14 http://tinyurl.com/36hp463 and Stonewall, the chief gay campaigners in the United Kingdom, publicly advocates 16 as the legal age of consent for sexual activity with children http://tinyurl.com/337slhh Why would they do that if they didn't want fresh young vulnerable boys to seduce?

Most of those who abuse children (and 14 is a child, to my mind) are unmarried men who abuse boys rather than girls. The conclusion seems glaringly obvious to anyone. It is also becoming clearer, based on the best psychological evidence, that male predators are drawn and attracted to their victims because it seemingly fulfills a bottomless yearning for father-son bonding and nurturing that was denied the predator for whatever reason.

Perhaps, Mr. Robinson should take a long hard look in the mirror.

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