Opinion

Defending the faith

Another look

By Kyle Webster

Posted on Feb. 26, 2004, at 12:00 a.m.

My home Diocese of Arlington, Va., has now joined the trend. Nine priests from there have been accused of the sexual assault of minors. It’s about time, I was starting to feel left out.

In all honesty, I don’t know what to think about this. I know some of these men. I encountered them at youth retreats, work camps and other youth conferences around the Diocese. And now it comes to light that they are pedophiles. These incidents seem to have affected my mother worse than anyone else around me. She’s a devout Catholic and I think the shock of priests we know touching little boys is making her question how things got so screwed up in the church that she holds so close to her heart. I, on the other hand, am not surprised. It was only a matter of time before someone was exposed. We are not exempt.

I still feel the need to point out three huge truths that are being trampled on by the media, the public and even the Catholic church in light of all of these events.

Of these nine men, two are dead, one has been exonerated, one is retired and the rest have been removed from ministry. There are 891 priests that have served in my diocese over the past 30 years. These nine men make up one percent of that number. What this tells us is that not all priests are pedophiles. Believe it or not, there are good, decent men of God out there who actually work for the betterment of the Catholic Church and society as a whole. All priests cannot be put down or generalized based on the poor choices and sickness of one percent.

Many people have blamed these situations on homosexuals joining the ministry in order to hide their sexual identity. While this may or may not be true, the fact remains that homosexuals and pedophiles are not the same thing. Pedophilia is a sickness that in no way relates to homosexuality any more than it relates to heterosexuality. The priests who have molested these children, who were in some cases female, are not necessarily gay or straight. First and foremost, they are sick.

This secular mess among the Catholic Church is not the end of religion as we know it. Some people claim that this problem is the proof of what has been known for years. The Catholic Church is arguably the oldest of the Christian religions. It has survived past scandals, wars and splits within the faith. Millions of people worldwide follow this church’s teachings and truly believe in what it stands for. This religion will not die due to the actions of a few sick people.

Religion, as a whole, is a touchy subject in this country and people seem to get extremely excited when they have the chance to attack one. But all religions, whether Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or other are based on faith, teachings and higher truths. For that reason, we must look past the men and women who represent these faiths and realize that they are merely human. These faiths are not still around because of some priest or monk, they are around because there are groups of people who truly believe that these religions do hold higher truths. These people are the true representatives of faith, even if they don’t wear a robe or a collar.

Kyle Webster is a junior journalism major.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2004, 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.