Child molestation is rape and child molestation is murder. It should be seen as a criminal classification equal to rape and murder under penalty of law. All pedophiles deserve to be sentenced to equal jail terms and forced to serve the full length of the terms.
A man’s devotion to God does not make him above such laws. The Roman Catholic Church’s approach — their priests are sinners in need of deliverance instead of felons deserving sentences — is reprehensible. The priests accused of taking advantage of young children in their parishes, and the bishops, cardinals and the pope, who have worked to hide their disgusting behavior, should be held responsible. As moral and ethical pillars of communities all around the world, the behavior of these men is not only repulsive, it is illegal.
For far too long our society has tiptoed around the issue of child sexual abuse. Rights to privacy — especially for minors — have always made it difficult to attack the criminals. Thanks to the Catholic Church’s inability to cover its actions, however, the giant societal taboo of child molestation (in and out of the church) has been cracked open, and finally the devastation pedophiles have caused their victims can be addressed.
Father John Goeghan, one of the priests accused of child molestation in Boston and one of the few who has actually been convicted, was only sentenced to nine years after molesting a boy in a swimming pool. Nine years. He has spent the last 32 years taking advantage of more than 130 young children.
A child molester despoils his young and helpless victims of their sexual purity. They rob children of the opportunity to decide with whom (and when) they will share their first sexual experiences. Child molesters are predators who ravage the innocent minds and bodies of the most powerless group in our society. Despoiling, robbing, ravaging, these are all just replacements for rape found in a thesaurus.
When a child is sexually abused, a part of that child’s innocence is slaughtered. For some, a day will not go by when an event they see, a conversation they overhear or an article they read will trigger a sickening memory of their neighbor, babysitter or priest lurking over them and touching them in an inappropriate manner. These memories leave the child nauseous, breathless and feeling guilty.
The act of molestation has not only killed the child’s ability to remember without horror, it has also slain all hopes that in adulthood this same child will be able to hug his son without remembering a time in his childhood and questioning the affection he is showing to his own little boy. Slaughtered, killed, slain, the results of the perverse acts of a child molester sound an awful lot like murder.
The effects that sexual abuse can have on children is exhausting: sexually explicit play, promiscuity, running away, prostitution, depression/suicide attempts, drug and alcohol abuse, phobias, aggressiveness and hostility just begin the list. Maladaptive effects of child molestation are not exclusive to childhood. The long-term effects of sexual abuse into adulthood create a mind-numbing list as well. Adult women who suffered child sexual abuse are more likely to be alcoholics and more likely to be suicidal.
Other consequences include sexual dysfunction, revictimization, an inability to connect with other people and feeling high levels of betrayal. Feelings of betrayal seem to be a major factor contributing to depression, dependency and problems with relationships.
Clearly, victims of child molestation are sentenced to a life sentence of dealing with their victimizations. The sex offender, however, gets off with a much lighter sentence.
Child molesters are murderers and rapists. They deserve to be sentenced and held in jail just as long as their murdering and raping cohorts, the whole lot of them should be put away for life.
Child molesters have forced their victims to suffer a life of fear, guilt and painful memory. Priest or family friend, rehabilitation or not, sick individuals who prey on innocent children deserve to suffer, too.
If for some reason none of the men involved in the current horrendous male-holier-than-thou display get what they deserve by rotting in jail, I hope they rot in hell.