Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

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1. 

   As someone who produced dozens of nativity plays as a teacher and a Sunday School leader, that title ‘A Gay…

2. 

   The defence of a Christian view never seems to be settled by debate: exchange of facts, reference to historical events.…

3. 

   But …… Rwanda is a safe place: Parliament says so.https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2024/8/contentsSafety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024 S 2 Safety…

4. 

   Religion can survive only on the most unquestionable assumptions. The statements made on Sundays on the BBC as if they…

5. 

   Yes, if I’ve got anything remotely like a phobia, as an ex-fundy, its bibles, churches, tracts etc. I like to…

THE first in-depth study into clergy sexual abuse within African American communities—carrried out by an openly gay Catholic priest, Fr. Bryan Massingale, above—indicates that racism was a major factor in the Catholic Church’s handling of paedophile priests.

In an in-depth report, the National Catholic Reporter quoted Massingale, a theologian at Fordham University in New York, as saying that there are important differences in the experiences of African American, Indigenous, Asian and Latino survivors but they share a common reality—”all historically have been neglected in this conversation.” 

I have a real fear that one day the Catholic Church is going to celebrate turning the corner on sexual abuse and leave countless people of color behind. We cannot in the name of justice, in the name of Christ, do that.

Image via YouTube

Kathleen Holscher, above, an associate professor of religious studies and American studies at the University of New Mexico, told NPR last year:

Native missions were places where the Catholic Church dumped priests that they knew were trouble. Because they knew that if they put them on a Native mission, nobody would complain, or if people did complain, nobody would listen to them. 

Jack Downey, a professor at the University of Rochester in New York who has researched the abuse of Native Americans, said: 

That’s not a Catholicism-specific phenomenon, of course. But I also don’t think it’s breaking news that the church in the United States has often treated Black and brown Catholics as marginal members, even while claiming otherwise.

A database published last year with research by Downey and Holscher, called “Desolate Country: Mapping Catholic Sex Abuse in Native America,” shows over the past 70 years, 96 priests of the Jesuits West Province have been credibly accused of sexual abuse, and nearly half the priests spent time on tribal land. 

Downey claims that Native Americans were sexually abused by Catholic nuns and priests as they simultaneously were stripped of their heritage, families, lands, language, traditions and spirituality. 

Writing for the NCR, Katie Collins Scott opened her two-part report with details of the abuse suffered by a Black teenager, Kevin Johnson. In the late 1970s the 16-year old was assaulted by a Josephite-order priest who had befriended him years earlier while struggling under water in a church-run community pool.

The horror of that day remains vivid for Johnson, now 61. Yet stories like his—of clergy abuse survivors of color—are largely untold, even as racially and ethnically marginalized communities have been disproportionately harmed by abusive clergy.

Her report mentions the experienced of “Jay”, a member of the Gros Ventre Tribe, who attended the now-closed St. Paul Mission Grade School on the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana. 

In an interview with the NCR, the 70-year-old said a religious sister had sexually assaulted him in front of a statue of Jesus, as did a priest who would take him to a remote shed in the mountains. 

That’s why the priests came here, far out of the way—they thought they could get away with it. And they did.

“Jay” asked to be referred to by a nickname since he has not shared his abuse publicly.

The report also points out that those people of colour who accepted settlements for the the abuse they suffered at the hands of Catholic clergy received considerably less than their white counterparts.

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