Rhode Island is the latest state to demonstrate its selective interest in combating the sexual abuse of minors. It is only interested in probing the Catholic clergy, having zero interest in probing the clergy in every other religion. Furthermore, it has no interest in investigating the on-going crisis in the public schools.
When blacks are subjected to disproportionate stops by the police, it is called racial profiling. What Rhode Island is doing to priests is religious profiling. Yet the media are silent about this egregious injustice. They wouldn’t be silent if the Attorney General, Peter Neronha, investigated sexual harassment on the job, selecting only reporters to probe.
Neronha’s report, released on March 4, covers cases of alleged abuse dating back to 1950. It found that 75 accused members of the clergy (66 of whom were priests) were responsible for victimizing 300 minors.
Guess what else Neronha found? What every other investigation has found: 83 percent of the victims were male, and 74 percent of them were postpubescent. This means that homosexuals did most of the damage. Get it straight: When adult males have sex with postpubescent males, it’s called homosexuality, not pedophilia. But don’t expect Neronha or the media to report on this fact. The cover-up continues.
When did this happen? As always, it was during the sexual revolution. It was in the 1960s and 1970s when the lion’s share of the offenses took place.
The last time there was a known instance of the sexual abuse of minors by the Catholic clergy in Rhode Island was 15-years ago in 2011. When was the last time a minor was violated in their public schools? Last year, when a school bus monitor allegedly sexually abused three special needs students. One was in kindergarten.
Is Neronha going to tackle the public schools? He should. Major studies on Rhode Island’s public schools reveal that it is consistently ranked among the worst in the nation in dealing with the sexual abuse of minors.
The AG’s report reads as though the sexual abuse scandal is ongoing in the Catholic Church and that Neronha’s office did yeoman work in uncovering it. Wrong on both counts. We are talking about old cases where the bad guys are either dead or have been kicked out of ministry. Not one of the 75 members of the clergy mentioned in the report is in active ministry. Moreover, it was the Diocese of Providence that did most of the data gathering, without which Neronha could not have issued his report.
We blanketed the Rhode Island media and lawmakers about this injustice. We also contacted approximately 140 parishes in the state.
