In my last post I discussed aspects of Borderline Personality Disorder and how often the same kinds of defensive strategies used by adult borderlines are used by members of the Institutional Church. God is good, because today on clerical whispers I found another perfect example of denial, inventifacting, and bullying by an institutional figure.
0Tuesday, May 26, 2009
There was fresh controversy today over child sex abuse and the Catholic church when an archbishop's aide claimed the majority of paedophilia was being perpetrated by gay men.
Father John Owen, the communications officer for the archdiocese of Cardiff and a Catholic chaplain at Cardiff University, was a guest on BBC1's The Big Questions.
Father John Owen, the communications officer for the archdiocese of Cardiff and a Catholic chaplain at Cardiff University, was a guest on BBC1's The Big Questions.
His remarks concerned last Wednesday's publication of the Ryan Inquiry, a 2,565-page report detailing the abuse and rape of children in Ireland's Catholic institutions, and came days after the newly-appointed archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, angered charities by saying it took courage for religious orders and clergy to confront the past.
Asked by the show's presenter, Nicky Campbell, whether the church cared more about its own reputation than the welfare of children, Owen replied: "These matters are so ghastly that people don't want to look at them, they can't believe these things are taking place within the orbit of a Christian church, perversion of Christianity. (Notice the triggering question-)
"Let me tell you of course before you go too far, most of the offences are being committed by homosexuals." (Then the answer, which comes after he makes an attempt to control the questioner, places the blame squarely on gay men, and ignores any institutional responsibility.)
Despite condemnation from the other panellists, two of whom were sexually abused, the churchman insisted he was stating the facts and told them to "be silent". (No one elses view of reality ever computes, the final strategy is always to silence the disputing voice.)
He said the "vast majority" of abuse cases in the UK affected teenage boys. "Now what does that tell you? Now that is a fact," he added. (It tells us the Church has problems with an all male clerical structure (kind of like prisons) and that most abusers found themselves frequently in the company of altar boys. Pedophiles in mixed school settings were equal opportunity predators. Oh well, what are facts, we're already supposed to know what this tells us. Fr. says so.)
A statement from the archdiocese distanced itself from Owen, saying "his comments seeming to link abuse and homosexuality" did not reflect the "consistent views" of the archdiocese of Cardiff. (Fr Owens comments seem to reflect Pope Benedict's views and the official church attitude. Why else the new seminary policy banning gays?)
Colm O'Gorman, author of Beyond Belief, a book about his own experience of clerical sexual abuse, and who was on the programme, described Owen's comments as "ill-informed, ignorant, corrupt and dishonest". (I'd say they were typically borderline.)
He said: "The church has created a link between homosexual sex and priests who rape and sodomise children. It scapegoats someone else and creates a side issue. It removes the criminal aspect and the rape becomes some sort of consensual adult behaviour." (It also attempts to leave the institution completely blameless and guilt free, the object of almost all borderline behavior.)
O'Gorman also expressed concern about the church's understanding of the significance of the issue, saying: "A child protection policy is only as good as the people implementing it." (Great point here, this is sort of expecting the Church to police itself, which is not likely to happen given the response of Fr. Owen.)
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I hope everyone is having a great Memorial day weekend, and takes the time to remember those who gave their lives so that our freedoms can flourish. I especially want to remember those now serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and sincerely pray they all make it back home safely.
Back to borderline stuff. I once attended a lecture given by a pharmaceutical rep who gave an intriguing metaphor for BPD. He was asked if there was anything in the pipeline to specifically deal with BPD. He said it was sort of an impossible task. They were able to target a medication for schizophrenia because they could target a specific chemical structure which effected a specific part of the brain. BPD wasn't specific. It was more like marbling in a piece of meat. The brain centers effected were everywhere and no where specific.
This same kind of energy signal is in the Institutional church as well. It's everywhere and no where specific, which means there is no 'magic bullet' that will fix this system. It needs to be reprogrammed, not rebooted. Or maybe, the Church needs to be re rooted. It needs to go back to what Jesus actually taught about love and service to the servants.
There are plenty of good seeds from which to start over and plenty of good men and women who have left us great insight into what this Jesus path is all about. It's time we planted and nurtured those seeds in new ground-- minus all the weeds which have choked off the basic message of Jesus. We could start by removing the weed known as 'creeping infallibility' and the one known as 'Jansenist's physicality'. Just those two alone would go along ways to removing a lot of the BPD marbling. The Church would then be leaner, at least in a marbling sense, and far less meaner. It's the healthy thing to do.
