Media Coverage and the Priest Abuse Scandal
The media
greatly influences how people perceive issues of the world today, and which
issues are given attention by the public. Although there are benefits to this,
there are also problems, including the media’s ability to target and
sensationalize certain issues. The Catholic Church is such a target. The
overwhelming and exclusive coverage of the priest abuse scandal is an example
of this bias, which in this case has the media focusing only on Catholic clergy
while ignoring or underreporting abuse in other groups.
While the
frequent abuse reports are not false, what is far less reported is the Catholic
clergy are not the only authority figures who are guilty of these behaviors;
they are not even the most common offenders. Even a small amount of research
shows that priests are not alone; rabbis, ministers and teachers all abuse our
youth. The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights said this well in
their special report:
It does not seek to exculpate anyone who had
anything to do with the priestly sexual misconduct, but it does seek to
challenge those who continue to treat this issue in isolation. […] to discuss
the incidence of sexual abuse committed by Roman Catholic Priests with out
reference[…] found among the clergy of other religions or to that of other
professionals , is grossly unfair( Catholic League preface, http://www.catholicleague.org).
First,
rabbis, who are held to the same standards as priests, also abuse children.
Victoria Polin, founder of The Awareness Center, an international organization
addressing sexual abuse in Jewish Communities, stated, “‘Pedophilia has no
religion. Some Jewish communities are 30 years behind the times in terms of
addressing sexual abuse. […]’”(Ragsdale par. 10, http://www.dmregister.com).However, abuse
cases in the Jewish community are not reported nearly as often as those of the Catholic
Church are, even though even the issue of cover-ups is similar. Rabbi Arthur
Gross Schaefer, a professor of Law and Ethics explains that the Jewish community’s
reaction is to keep the issue quiet: “Fear of lawsuits and bad publicity have
dictated an atmosphere of hushed voices and outrage against those who dare to
break ranks by speaking out.’” (Catholic League par 21) It is certainly
true that in order to protect children, priest shuffling must be publicized.
However, “30 percent of rabbis who changed positions in 2000 did so
involuntarily, sexual abuse was a factor in many instances,” Rabbi Joel Meyers,
executive vice president of the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly, explains (Catholic
League par 20). This is rarely if ever reported.
Ministers
are not innocent either. A study of Fuller Seminary taken in 1984 of 1200
ministers gathered that 20% of conservative pastors, 40% of moderate pastors,
and 50% of liberal pastor admitted to sexual activities outside of marriage.
Joe E. Trull, coauthor of Ministerial Ethics, found that “ ’30 to 35
percent of ministers of all denominations admit to have sexual
relationships—from inappropriate touching to sexual intercourse—outside of
marriage’” (Catholic League par 17). This helps to dispel the notion that
celibacy is the reason for abuse in the Catholic Church, and shows that much
abuse is happening in other religions by trusted officials. James Drummey, author of Catholic Replies 2 states, “Sexual abuse of children is more
often perpetrated by mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters,
grandparents, family friends, teachers and coaches…--none of whom have taken a
vow of celibacy” (Drummey 277). However, this is not reported while celibacy
is made to be a big issue in media coverage.
Also not
covered is the sexual abuses crisis in our schools. U.S. Department of
Education data shows that “10 percent of American students are targets of
unwanted sexual attention by public school employees –ranging from sexual
comments to rape—at some point during their school-age years” (Hendrie par.
4). 13.5 percent of students said they had sexual intercourse with their
teacher (Catholic League par 25), nine times more than the rate with
priests. Although little research has been performed on sexual abuse by
educators, the problem appears to far exceed the Priest abuse scandal (Hendrie
par. 3, "Sexual Abuse by Educators is Scrutinized."). For example, a
study done by U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops found that form 1950-2002
10,667 people accused priests of sexually abusing minors, while a survey from
the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation in 2000
estimated that roughly 290,000 students experienced some sort of sexual abuse
by a school employee form 1991 to 2000 (Hendrie par. 6 and 7). It is
acknowledged that the statistics may be imperfect due to the fact that some
sexual abuse cases by priests and/or teachers are not reported. In another
study, Shakeshaft and Cohan found that:
“All of the accused admitted sexual abuse of a
student, but none of the abusers was reported to the authorities, and only 1
percent lost their license to teach. Only 35 percent suffered negative
consequences of any kind, and 39 percent chose to leave their school district,
most with positive recommendations. Some were even given an early retirement
package” (Catholic League par 28).
Not only
are teachers failed to be punished for their actions, they are also being rewarded
by receiving an early retirement package. This source also states that after
being accused of abuse many teachers are moved to different positions within
the school. This is rarely covered by the media, despite the abundant coverage
of similar Catholic scandals.
In order to
understand this point more clearly, other statistical evidence is also
beneficial. In the last forty years, less than 1.5% of Catholic clergy have
been accused of sexually abusing children (Catholic League par. 6). This
is a very small percentage. However, the media distorts and fails to report
this fact. Not only this, but facts pertaining to the issue are distorted in
other sources as well. For instances, one survey says that 2/3 of U.S. Bishops have ignored sexual abuse (Catholic League par 10). However, “the
problem with the survey is it’s definition of abuse--it includes everything
from “ignoring warnings about suspicious behaviors” to “criminal convictions”
(Catholic League par. 10). This is only some evidence of the biased
reporting of this issue.
In this age,
searching for the word ‘clergy’ or the word ‘abuse’ in a database produces
massive amount of articles Priests abusing children. This has been the most
publicized religious event in years. Almost two decades ago, when searching
those words, stories came up about priests fighting sexual and drug abuse
(Jenkins, Pedophiles and Priests 54). Jenkins writes, “By the early
1990’s reports of sexual misbehaviors by priests had become so numerous as to
be almost common place of news coverage” (Jenkins, Pedophiles and Priests
54). The question must be asked whether the media truly cares about fair
reporting and protecting our children. In the light of the evidence, the answer
would seem to be no. When it comes to religion in general, it is fair to say
that media coverage has improved over the past several decades. However, when it
comes to the Catholic Church it seems to have ceased to be journalism at all
and has instead become prejudiced propaganda.
God Bless,
Dawn
Brunelli 2006
Sources
- Drummey, James J. Catholic Replies
2. Norwood, MA: C.R. Publications INC., 2003.1-476.
- Hendrie, Caroline. "Sexual Abuse
by Educators is Scrutinized."
- Education Week 23 (2004):
1-17. Academic Search Premier. 22 Mar. 2006.
- Jenkins, Phillip. Pedophiles and
Priests: Anatomy of a Contemporary Crisis. New York: Oxford UP, 1996.
- Jenkins, Philip. "The New
Anti-Catholicism: the Last Acceptable Prejudice." Publisher's
Weekly 04 Apr. 2003: 66.
- Ragsdale, Shirley. Desmoines
Register News. 14 Nov. 2003. Register
- Religious Editor.08 March. <http://www.dmregister.com/news/stories/c478893/22759493.html>
- Sexual Abuse in Social Context:
Catholic Clergy and Other Professionals.
- Catholic League for Religious and
Civil Rights. 2004. 08 Mar. 2006 <http://www.catholicleague.org/research/abuse_in_social_context.html>.
