Cardinal: Feminists to blame for abuser priests

The Association of Catholic Priests has said that an American cardinal who blamed “radical feminism” for paedophile priests and the fall in the number of men joining the priesthood has “little to offer” in the debate on women’s place within the Church.

Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke said the feminism “which has assaulted the Church and society since the 1960s has left men very marginalised”.

However Fr Sean McDonagh of the Association of Catholic Priests described Cardinal Burke as a “very extreme conservative” voice and said that women needed to be afforded a greater role within the Church.

Cardinal Burke had told newemangelization.com, an evangelical website that focuses on the role of men in the Church, that “the radical feminist movement strongly influenced the Church, leading the Church to constantly address women’s issues at the expense of addressing critical issues important to men”.

“I recall, in the mid-1970s, young men telling me that they were, in a certain way, frightened by marriage because of the radicalising and self-focused attitudes of women that were emerging at that time,” said Cardinal Burke. “These young men were concerned that entering a marriage would simply not work because of a constant and insistent demanding of rights for women. These divisions between women and men have gotten worse since then.

“We can also see that our seminaries are beginning to attract many strong young men who desire to serve God as priests. The new crop of young men are manly and confident about their identity. This is a welcome development, for there was a period of time when men who were feminised and confused about their own sexual identity had entered the priesthood; sadly some of these disordered men sexually abused minors; a terrible tragedy for which the Church mourns.”

Cardinal Burke also argued that the introduction of girl altar servers had had a direct impact on the number of men becoming priests.

“The introduction of girl servers also led many boys to abandon altar service,” he said. “Young boys don’t want to do things with girls... So many boys drifted away over time. I want to emphasize that the practice of having exclusively boys as altar servers has nothing to do with inequality of women in the Church.

“I think that this has contributed to a loss of priestly vocations. It requires a certain manly discipline to serve as an altar boy in service at the side of priest, and most priests have their first deep experiences of the liturgy as altar boys. If we are not training young men as altar boys, giving them an experience of serving God in the liturgy, we should not be surprised that vocations have fallen dramatically.”

However, Fr McDonagh said he disagreed with Cardinal Burke’s assessment of gender roles in the Church.

“One of the major issues facing the Catholic Church is the position of women in the Church and their position in leadership roles,” said Fr McDonagh. “Women make up 50% of the population of the Church’s community and I would say are involved in 75% of passing on the faith, but have no real position of decision-making, unlike every other facet of modern democratic life.

“At local and at global level, this needs to be addressed or the Catholic Church will lose committed women in its following, and frankly Cardinal Burke has little to offer in that debate.”