I Write Letters

[Trigger warning for sexual violence and rape apologia.]

Mr. Bill Donohue
Chief Harassment Officer
One-Man Operation Known as the Catholic League
1234 Bully Boulevard
Eighth Circle, Hell 66666

Dear Bill:

I may be "vulgar" and "trash-talking," but at least I'm not a fucking rape apologist. Let me just quote the passage from your October 1 press release that I find objectionable:

NOT ALL SEXUAL ABUSE IS EQUAL

October 1, 2010

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on a news story about a former priest who molested a male listed as John Doe:

On September 28, the Chicago Tribune reported that "former Chicago priest and convicted sex offender Daniel McCormick sexually abused him [Doe] while he was a grammar school student." We then learn that the student was really a middle-school student, in the eighth grade, when the abuse began. The abuse reportedly continued for five years. According to the lawsuit, "McCormack inappropriately sexually touched, hugged, rubbed and/or abused Doe."

It's time to ask some tough questions. Why did this young man not object earlier? Why did he allow the "abuse" to continue until he was 18? The use of the quotes is deliberate: the charge against the former priest is not rape, but rubbing. While still objectionable, there is a glacial difference between being rubbed and raped.

Here's what we know. We know that this case, like most of them, was the work of a homosexual, not a pedophile. And like most of the cases of priestly sexual misconduct, there was no rape involved. Inappropriate touching is morally wrong, and the offenders should be punished, but the time has come to object to all those pundits who like to say that the scandal is all about child rape. Most of the cases did not involve children—they were post-pubescent males—and most weren't raped.

Why does this matter? Because those looking to sue the Catholic Church for being inappropriately rubbed decades ago are not exactly the poster boys for the victims of child rape. And because those who hate the Church continue to use the term child rape as a way of discrediting the Church. They lie about this being a pedophilia problem and they lie about the nature of the misconduct. That's reason enough to call them on it.

Whoops that's the whole thing.

I would say I'm shocked by your vicious and mendacious rape apologia, except for the fact that I'm totally not. If there was any asshole willing to pick up right where the Holy See left off in their gay-scapegoating and media-blaming defensive, and crank it up to 11, that asshole was you.

You are a monstrous specimen, sir.

Contemptuously,
Liss

Cc. Shaker Jo T.