Hi, I’m Wayne Jones, and welcome to re:Christian, a critical and satirical reconsideration of Christianity, the Bible, and God. This is episode 26: “Paying for Sex.”
One of the iconic architectural landmarks in the city of St. John’s, Canada, where I now live, is the St. John the Baptist Cathedral Basilica Parish, which everyone in town calls simply the Basilica. You can see an image of it in the show notes. It’s less than 2 km from where I live and it sits atop one of the many hills in the city, looking down over the harbour. Lovely.
Except of course it’s a Catholic Church and many of the local congregations in Canada and around the world have had to sell off or otherwise dispose of their assets in order to pay for the many civil lawsuits which have cost millions of dollars in damage to the church, all for the sexual abuse of boys which priests and other employees of the church have been convicted of. I’ve mentioned before that I hate the genericness of phrases like sexual abuse of boys and invitation to touching and the rest of it. Let’s be clear. These priests raped the boys anally. Or forced oral sex on them and ejaculated in their mouths. Or sucked on the boys’ penises. Or made the boys masturbate and otherwise touch them. It’s all fucking disgusting, and to say the least not in line with the teachings of Jesus which the Catholic Church flaunts when it’s convenient for them. The Vatican, which has billions of dollars, has generally not paid the compensation, and so it’s left to the local churches to somehow come up with the money.
As the local news source, VOCM, puts it: “The Basilica complex was one of numerous properties sold off by the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. John’s to compensate victims of sex abuse at the hands of Christian Brothers.” That scandal by the way was revealed in the late 1980s and early 1990s and centred on an orphanage called Mount Cashel that was run by these Christian Brothers. Yes, that’s right, these were not only abused boys, but abused orphan boys. No parents, and they were relying on the care they would receive at this church orphanage. One of the stories I remember hearing at the time is that one of the boys who was admitted to the orphanage was sexually abused on the same night as he was admitted. That’s a level of evil that’s difficult to comprehend, a level of selfishness, a level of satisfaction of one’s primal needs against the wishes and the lack of power of the most pitiable and vulnerable. I wish there were a hell where these fuckheads could burn in for eternity.
The frustrating part for me, and hence all the swearing, is that though all this has happened repeatedly and it’s now decades since the decades of abuse, yet the Catholic Church and the Vatican and, yes, the parishioners of the Church—the regular people who attend Mass on Saturday or Sunday—just toodle along as if all is fine. It’s frankly the parishioners that I can’t understand. Are they living under the pleasant delusion that these were the only abuses and all is now resolved? Do they really not think that there are thousands of others for whom there has been no justice and no compensation? I know at least anecdotally that some of those parishioners don’t actually believe that the Christian Brothers or the priests committed the acts they were accused of. I remember a friend of mine (well, a former friend) trying to make me believe that the suicide of a priest who was awaiting trial for sexual abuse was not because he knew he would be found guilty, but because he knew he wouldn’t get a fair trial. Jesus. How committed to the cause do you have to be to twist reality so that you don’t have to believe something that you don’t want to believe?
One of the irritating and maddening things about the sale of the Basilica is that though “the idea is to make the space more accessible to various arts, culture and community groups, as well as tourists” and “it will also be available to rent for performances, conferences and other events,” there are still going to be church services held there. What? Does the Basilica Heritage Foundation, which smarmily calls this “a new beginning” for the building—does it have no sense at all of what that means? Have they forgotten why the Catholic Church had to sell the building in the first place? And again this goes back to the responsibility that the parishioners have not to legitimize and normalize what is happening here. Are they really going to dress up and go to Mass and do all that kneeling and eating of unleavened bread, and not feel any shame about what the building stands for? Can’t people, even those lobotomized by religion, not take a principled stand now and then? Something along the lines of: I refuse to attend services at this particular church because it had to be sold in order to pay for the sexual crimes of former employees of Catholic Church, Inc. But of course that won’t happen. The very fact that someone gobbles down the bromides of Christianity in the first place, and believes in the supernatural against all lack of evidence and common sense—all that, in fact, ensures that their hypocritical asses will be as comfortable as can be in that house of God.
And that’s all for this episode. Thanks for listening. Check the show notes for a transcript, sources, and contact information. And please join me again on Thursday.