MEXICO CITY—Under assault for its inability to adequately address the years-long scandals stemming from an incalculable number of sex abuse cases around the world, the Catholic Church hit PR bottom last week when a Mexican bishop blamed an "invasion of eroticism" on the failure of so many priests to “stay pure and chaste.”
The comments by Bishop Felipe Arizmendi were made Thursday during an annual meeting of Mexican bishops.
“With so much invasion of eroticism, sometimes it's not easy to stay celibate or to respect children," said the bishop, adding semantic insult to actual injury. "If on television and on the Internet and in so many media outlets there is pornography, it is very difficult to stay pure and chaste.”
In making the outrageous comments, the bishop has not only undermined one of the main duties of priests, which is to deny the call of the flesh in the service of their parishioners and others under their care, but he also seems to be saying that pornography is a more powerful influence than the possibilty of actual sex, a daily temptation that priests have always had to face. His comments also conveniently bypass the fact that so many of these cases occurred years ago, long before the advent of the internet or the sexualization of public television.
"Obviously when there is generalized sexual freedom it's more likely there could be cases of pedophilia," he said.
Thus the Church continues to deny responsibility for crimes committed by it upon countless innocent victims, and in doing so cynically tries to reassert its dominion over human sexuality. One can easily imagine similar arguments being made centuries ago as pagans were being burned to death for the sin of “generalized sexual freedom."
Surely, it is only a matter of time before some bishop or other proclaims that “porn addiction” is at the root of the problem, and the Church institutes a program of 'sexual healing’ for its victimized priests accused of horrific crimes against minors and others.
