Two Day Magazine

Dear Pope Benedict,

You have a lot of drama in your life right now. Your church is under severe attack from the people over sex abuse allegations that involve children. Thousands of children. And you’re pissed about it. But, not for the right reasons. In fact, you are pissed off that people are bringing to light a new case where one priest was able to abuse 200 deaf children and nothing happened to him. Not only was he left unpunished for these heinous crimes against the most vulnerable in our society, but he was protected by the same church that preaches about abstinence before marriage and damns sinners to hell.

Where is this sentiment for those who have committed crimes of sexual abuse? Shouldn’t they be exposed immediately and punished in the court of law for abusing their power and harming innocent children? This behavior only further aggravates the fact that people already link the Catholic church to pedophiliac behavior. If I was a mother, I wouldn’t want my kids near this place, out of fear that they may prey upon them, too.

A lot of people think you should resign for not taking a stronger stance against those in the clergy performing these disgusting acts and getting away with it. To make matters worse, instead of clearing the air and admitting that your church has a lot of work to do in bettering itself as an institution, you blame-shift your issue over to the gay community! This really put me over the edge, hence why you are receiving this letter.

Instead of looking at the fact that your dogma created a situation by preventing grown men from experiencing the most natural act in the world, sex, and instead push them into a perverse situation where they are unable to have an outlet for their sexual nature and instead are told just to pray. Pray and squeeze your legs together, I’m guessing. And, to say that homosexuality is to blame for preying on children isn’t only wrong, it is a dangerous thing to say. We are working so hard in this country to instill in our people the idea of equality and not to be afraid of things we aren’t familiar with...and there you go shooting your mouth off, linking what those perverted pigs did to children as being the same as homosexuality? Based on what proof? Just because someone is gay doesn’t mean they are interested in children! We have a word for those people They are called priests...whoops...I mean pedophiles.

Look at this example to show you how right I am: In Chile, one pedophile priest had sex with several young girls, impregnating at LEAST one young teen. One of his victims said that when she told priests about the abuse during a confession, “they told me just to pray and that was it.”

Well, guess what? That’s NOT IT. That’s not a solution. First, this was not a homosexual relationship, so immediately your explanation for sexual abuse in the church is negated. Secondly, pedophilia is defined as someone who has recurrent, intense sexual urges towards children, whether they be directed at the same sex or opposite sex or both. What drives pedophiles? The ability to dominate, and since children are such easy targets, and since priests are already in a place of power, this only feeds their need for domination. What also negates your argument concerning a link between homosexuality and pedophilia is that in the United States, over 50% of men arrested for pedophilia are married. http://www.minddisorders.com/Ob-Ps/Pedophilia.html

I am disheartened, disgusted and angry about your attitude towards dealing with this issue in your church. You have every reason to get tough and get serious about changing things within the church to protect the children, and yet all you want to do is protect those who aim to hurt the children, which in my eyes, makes you just as guilty as if you molested a child yourself. If there is a God, I would be interested in hearing you explain to Her why you believed it was best to protect the most evil people on the planet--those who harm the most vulnerable. Good luck with that!