Editor’s Note: This article, which I didn’t write, was published in The Stamford Advocate on the same day I finished writing an editorial that said essentially the same thing. Of course, that made it unlikely that the Advocate would ever print my piece. Pinkerton is a well-known columnist (sort of the token conservative at New York Newsday), who regularly appears on television talk shows, and, realistically, his piece on this subject is better than mine. So I sent mine to the Fairfield County Weekly, which ran it the week of April 25, 2002, and did something The Stamford Advocate never did — sent me a check, which I spent on a nice dinner for two at Frascati’s, my favorite Italian restaurant in Stamford. (I had the chicken scarpiello, which was delicious.)
— By James Pinkerton
Part of the problem with priestly pedophilia, says the Vatican spokesman, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, is the current “environment of pansexuality.”
Now there’s a word to look up. According to Merriam-Webster, it means “exhibiting or implying many forms of sexual expression.” That’s a pretty good description of today’s culture. Of course, “society made me do it” is not an excuse for having sex with children.
But if even the Roman Catholic Church — which normally prides itself on fidelity to time-honored values — is searching for new explanations for its sexual problems, then maybe it’s time to look to an old solution.
Pansexuality is not new. In ancient Babylon, it was the religion. Herodotus, the first historian, wrote that in the fifth-century Before the Common Era Mesopotamia, "Every woman born in the country must once in her life go and sit down in the (temple of love), and there consort with a stranger." According to ritual rules, the woman “goes with the first man who throws her money, and rejects no one. When she has gone with him, and so satisfied the goddess, she returns home.”
Such customs, no doubt, have their appeal to some, but it’s hard to imagine a stable society being built around institutionalized debauchery. Indeed, Christianity represented a backlash against pagan pansexuality.
Jesus lived a celibate life, and he was born of a virgin mother. As he preaches in Luke 20:35, there is no marriage in heaven. And since the early Christians, notably St. Paul, believed that the Second Coming of Christ was nigh, celibacy was much praised all through the New Testament. In the Book of Revelation, Mesopotamian rites were remembered in “The Whore of Babylon,” the ultimate symbol of worldly wickedness.
Yet, as Christianity matured, an older Biblical injunction — “be fruitful and multiply” — reasserted itself. One of the problems the medieval church faced was that the fruit of priestly loins was multiplying too much. Clerical children were secularizing church lands through inheritance. That helped push the 11th-century church back toward celibacy. At about that time, the Eastern Orthodox church broke off, developing a two-tier system, allowing priests to marry, while reserving celibacy for bishops.
Indeed, the notion that higher orders of people would be celibate is a consistent theme through most philosophies around the world. As Aristotle said, we most admire that which is hard to do. But of course, to be admirable, celibacy must be sustainable. Yet if pansexuality is so rampant that even Catholic priests are led into temptation, then something has to change.
So here’s a modest proposal. Bring back the one tried-and-true guarantee of celibacy: castration. Today, modern medicine offers castration through chemistry, and that condition, unlike through surgery, is reversible. And while the modern mind might find even voluntary, temporary castration to be repulsive, surely pedophilia is more repulsive.
Castration was once common — not just for harem-keepers and choirboys — because it helped men focus on their mission, whatever that might be. Narses, the 6th century general who conquered Italy for the Byzantines, was a eunuch. So was the 15th-century Chinese admiral Zheng He, who boldly sailed blue oceans when European sailors feared losing sight of land.
Even Jesus talked about the godliness of eunuchs in Matthew 19:12. Some eunuch were made by nature, he said, and others were made that way by men. “And there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake.” Inspired to be his ascetic best, the 3rd-century theologian Origen castrated himself. The church didn’t suppress the practice until the 4th century.
If, as Cardinal Castrillon said, we live in a pansexual world in which the erotic is expressed in everything, then perhaps those wondering how to safeguard children might look to the wisdom of the ages for an answer.
One thing is for sure: given the immensity of this scandal, mere assurances that the old “honor system” of celibacy can be made to work again will not be acceptable. So, if the church wishes to regain its position of trust, it might wish to consider what it is willing to give up.
Click here to return to A Modest Proposal to Prevent Priestly Pedophilia.
Click here to return to the Mark Drought home page.