PRESS RELEASE
International Speaker Exposes Cause and Cure of Clergy Sexual Abuse
ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO. On Sunday, March 31, writer and researcher Hugh Owen, Catholic convert and son of Sir David Owen, the first Secretary General of International Planned Parenthood, will expose the roots of the current plague of clergy sexual abuse and explain how to eradicate this epidemic, drawing from research published by the Canadian Journal of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars in his article "Clergy Abuse: Cause and Cure."
One hundred years ago, Pope St. Pius X exposed "modernism" as "the synthesis of all heresies" and "evolution" as "the principal doctrine of the modernists" while condemning the proposition that "the progress of the sciences demands that the concept of Christian doctrine about . . . creation . . . be recast" (Lamentabili,
1907). In spite of his valiant efforts to defend the traditional doctrine of creation, however, by the middle of the twentieth century, most of the Catholic intellectuals of Europe and North America had embraced theistic evolution, with its hundreds of millions of years of death, disease, and deformity before the evolution of the first human body from sub-human primates. With the spread of this new way of thinking, young priests and seminarians were brought up to think that the "old theology" had given way to a "new theology" in which "science" replaced Scripture and Tradition as the primary revealer of the nature of God and the ultimate arbiter of questions about faith and morals.
No single action better exemplified the new evolutionary attitude than the publication by the Catholic Theological Society of America of Human Sexuality: New Directions in American Catholic Thought, by American seminary rector Rev. Anthony Kosnick, who wrote:
At this time the behavioral sciences have not identified any sexual expression that can be empirically demonstrated to be of itself, in a culture-free way, detrimental to a full human existence.
With this document the theological society of the most vigorous Catholic community in the western world cast aside the Word of God as it had been understood in the Church for nineteen hundred years pending scientific confirmation of God's Word through "empirical demonstration." It was the old lie of the serpent all over again, this time directed at the Bride of Christ. God's Word, as understood in the Church from the beginning, taught that the nature of man, human maleness and femaleness, were divine creations; that the union between man and woman in marriage was holy, a reflection of the mystery of the inner life of God and of the union between Christ and His Church; consequently, it taught that any abuse of sexuality within marriage, such as contraception, or any use of sexuality outside of marriage was not only a sin but a sacrilege. All of this was annulled by the new evolutionary theology. All forms of sexual expression had arisen through the evolutionary process, including the sexual expression of the "chimpanzee" in whose womb the first human beings had been conceived. In light of cultural prejudices, certain forms of sexual expression might be constrained, but none of them could be considered "detrimental to a full human existence."
Bishops and theologians who taught or tolerated these ideas could not be outraged when they were put into practice. And put into practice they were. As Leon Podles documents in Sacrilege, his exhaustive study of the clergy sex scandals, sexual abuse of children is not a new phenomenon in the Church. But what was new in the last three quarters of a century was the acceptance by many bishops and theologians of an evolutionary theology that could be used to rationalize sexual perversion. All of the moral posturing of bishops cannot obscure the plain fact that many of them seemed to feel no horror at the sexual abuse of children - only at the prospect of bad publicity and public disgrace should the abuse come to light. It now appears likely that tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Catholic men and women worldwide have been the victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy. It also appears that many of the current members of the Catholic hierarchy in the developed world have participated in the cover up of sexual abuse, through neglect or intimidation of victims, suppression of evidence of sexual abuse, or transfer of abusive clergy from one parish or diocese to another.
Every moral crisis stems from a theological crisis - and this one is no exception. The Good News is that wherever the whole Catholic Faith is believed and proclaimed, evil-inducing errors are simply incinerated in the light of the Truth.
If anyone reading this newsletter would like a copy of the article "Clergy Abuse: Cause and Cure," please send me an email and I will send you the article. I would also be happy to send you a copy of the flyer that we created for the event on March 31. If you can find a venue for a similar presentation in your area, please let me know.
Yours in Christ through the Immaculata,
Hugh Owen
