Male Arrogance and the Cover-up of Pedophile Priests
- © Michele Toomey, PhD • March 26, 2002

It is no surprise to me how Bishops have dealt with priests who were reported to have molested boys under their care. Like most men in power, priests and Bishops feel they are are entitled and their sense of entitlement does not foster accountability to the laity.

Bishops were given the power to preside over the faithful and the faithful were to be obedient sheep. After all, a Bishop is known as a shepherd. Priests are a Bishop's team leading the followers of Christ. There is no accountability built into this system, only a hierarchy of authority. The Pope rules on a world wide level, and the Bishops rule on the regional level, and priests rule on a local level. They are the elite of the Church, joining the ranks of the disciples. They have an impunity all their own. The Pope is even given the mantle of infallibility when speaking "Ex Cathedra." How much more impunity is there than infallibility. This lineage is so saturated in elitism and entitlement it is no surprise to me that they, priests, Bishops and the Pope have closed ranks around deviant priests. It is theirs to deal with and theirs to keep inside their ranks.

Unfortunately, their arrogance blinded them to the seriousness of the deviance and to the suffering of the victims. Much like the executives of ENRON, the arrogance of men in power, secular or religious, blinds them from the cost of their actions on others. They are only looking at themselves and protecting their own self interest. Just tell the errant priests to stop and go back to God and all will be well.

No one should accuse the priests and Bishops of sanctioning pedophilia, but everyone should strip the veil of silence and secrecy away from them, and view the damage that has resulted from their arrogance. They themselves are only now looking at what has been covered up for years. They are only now actually being confronted with the cost of their lack of outrage at the behavior of some of their fellow priests. Without outrage they were not in a position to report and punish and get significant intervention for their sexually deviant brethren. We must find abuse intolerable. We must be angered and mete out appropriate consequences when it occurs once. However, if it re-occurs, we must be outraged. Only outrage will compel us to take dramatic action to stop it. Only outrage would prompt a Bishop to report a fellow priest to the authorities for committing a crime.

Our question to the Bishops and priests needs to be, "Where was your outrage at pedophilia among your ranks?" "Why were you so complacent with your ineffective treatment of this heinous act?" "Why did you separate yourself from this destructive behavior and pretend it was a minor issue that required only modest intervention?" "Why were you not outraged?" We really need to know, and I dare say, so do you.