Sexual orientation has nothing to do with abuse of children

IN his letter (‘Anti-Catholic bigots jump at the bandwagon,’ June 8), Eric Conway mistakenly associates homosexuality with paedophilia.

Would he be happy if members of his beloved Catholic Church were referred to as “predatory Catholic paedophiles”?

I do not think so, yet he has libelled entirely innocent homosexuals through his description of paedophiles as “predatory homosexuals”.

And The Irish Examiner has apparently found nothing defamatory in his accusation since it published his manipulative spin.

Let me be clear – the wrongful abuse of a prepubescent child or a pubescent adolescent is divided between paedophilia and pederasty, respectively, and has nothing to do with heterosexual or homosexual orientation, both of which are consensual, legal and ethical. Nobody under the legal age of consent is capable, either legally or psychologically, of consenting to sexual acts.

There is a broadly accepted estimate that 10% of the population have a homosexual orientation, therefore hundreds of thousands of homosexuals in Ireland are now the victims of Mr Conway’s stupid association of paedophilia and pederasty with homosexuality.

Why did the Irish Examiner see fit to publish this defamation? Let me define homosexuality for the benefit of Mr Conway, the Irish Examiner and its readership.

It is sexual attraction for and love between persons of the same sex. If one homosexual physically forced another homosexual to perform sexual acts, it would be rape.

Similarly, if an adult forced or groomed a child to perform sexual acts, it would also be rape, the common factors being rape and domineering sexuality.

I, for one, will not meekly stay silent in the face of Mr Conway’s diatribe. Letters like his give rise to the impression among hatemongers that people they perceive – often mistakenly – as homosexual are also associated, wrongly, with paedophilia and therefore get a more severe “punishment beating”.

I had enough of being treated as a freak in school, bullied because of the perception of being gay, despite not even fully understanding what the word “gay” meant even after two years of name-calling and ostracisation by students.

If Mr Conway and the Irish Examiner now think that defamatory bully tactics can continue without challenge, both parties are mistaken. Unlike Catholics, I do not turn the other cheek when defamed. I defend my honour and I do not suffer abuse silently, either name-calling or physical.

And by the way, it is remarkable that Mr Conway describes the hysteria in relation to the Ryan report as ridiculous. He trivialises the problems of his seriously dysfunctional, anti-Christian institution where known predatory Catholic paedophiles were systematically removed from one diocese by Catholic bishops only to resume their abuse again, anonymously, in another diocese.

As a final note, the only Catholic leader to come out of this scandal with his bona fides intact is Dr Diarmuid Martin. I admire his contrition for the sins of his office and the sins of his church.

Dr Martin is truly deserving of the red hat and even the papal ring as it is leaders like he who will apply the Catholic values that CS Lewis bitterly complained no one ever practised.

Andrew Lally

Rue Baudouin 70

Hollerich

Luxembourg, L1218