26.09.1996

Chronicle of corruption

According to one tabloid newspaper, the Catholic Church has been “plunged into deep crisis” by revelations of Roderick Wright’s sexual misdemeanours.

The former Bishop of Scotland rubbed salt in the wound of the church establishment by selling his story to the News of the World for a figure thought to be around £15,000. He gave details of a previous affair which resulted in his fathering a son, now aged 15, and disclosed how he planned to marry his latest fling, Kathleen MacPhee.

Archbishop Keith O’Brien likened the wayward bishop to a Judas and urged him to present himself for ‘counselling’. Concerned for Wright’s errant soul, the archbishop warned that if he married a divorced woman, then - horror of horrors - he would be denied the right to take communion.

In fact, far from representing a crisis, the present scandal is nothing compared to the corruption and sexual peccadillos of leading figures in the church’s 2,000-year history. It was not considered unusual for popes to install their mistresses in the Vatican, while homosexuality, incest, sodomy, bestiality and rape are just some of the well chronicled activities of past holy fathers.

The Catholic Church still solemnly declares that the function of sexual intercourse is solely for human reproduction - the basis for its ban on any form of contraception. Priests who supposedly devote their lives to the church should have no time for the distractions of a wife and family, and are therefore expected to suppress all sexual desires. It is hardly surprising that such unnatural self-restraint is beyond the capabilities of most humans.

The church’s obsession with limiting the basic human freedom to express one’s sexuality stems from its desire to dominate and control all human behaviour, subordinating it to the needs of social stability. Imposed in the name of god, this repression is actually delivered in the interests of the existing order, much to the smug satisfaction of the bourgeoisie.

It is little wonder that so few men of the cloth can live up to the requirements of their calling.

Alan Fox