“In a little-noticed, single paragraph released May 15 [2006] on its website, the USCCB reversed the policy adopted by numerous dioceses across America that had subjected Catholic schoolchildren to mandatory ‘sex-abuse education’ classes.
“New regulations issued May 15 by the U.S. bishops allow parents to remove their children from diocesan-sponsored training programs in child sex-abuse prevention,” said the announcement from the Catholic News Service (CNS).
Was it merely happenstance that this announcement appeared on the very day that Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Washington’s Theodore Cardinal McCarrick?
Cardinal McCarrick had been an outspoken supporter of those sex-ed programs. In fact, he had ordered all Catholic schools in his own archdiocese to expel any children whose parents removed them from the “Child Lures” program that had been mandatory before the May 15 announcement.
Parents nationwide were outraged that the USCCB insisted that secular “experts,” and not parents, should teach their children — down to the age of five — how to avoid sex abuse. But McCarrick’s control of the USCCB was apparently so pervasive that there was nothing parents could do.
We have known for years that McCarrick was the driving force behind the 2002 “charter.” Undoubtedly he supported the charter’s exemption of guilty bishops as well. He was also the driving force in requiring “safe environment” programs in every diocese.
Just where did these programs come from? Well, after the charter was adopted, chanceries turned to secular experts to run them, many with experience in secular organizations with anti-Catholic, pro-homosexual agendas. These experts quickly introduced programs like Virtus, “Child Lures,” and “Bad Touch” that ignored the homosexual crimes that had caused the scandals, instead blaming the laity for clerical sex abuse.
That approach, however unfortunate, resonated nicely with the anti-Catholic views of the “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transsexual, and Questioning” (GLBTQ) activists.
You’ve heard it a thousand times — the message is simple: “Homosexual rape is not the problem, homophobia is.”
In McCarrick’s Archdiocese of Washington, chancery officials quickly insisted that the clerical aspect of the scandals was a thing of the past. In early 2002, Washington Auxiliary Bishop Kevin Farrell flatly told members of the Order of Malta that the clerical abuse crisis was “over” (like most other bishops, he never mentioned the “cover-up” dimension of the scandals — and neither did the “safe environment” propaganda adopted under McCarrick’s guiding hand).
Parental complaints about the programs were so numerous that the Catholic News Service report couldn’t ignore them. “Parents in some dioceses have objected to such programs, saying the training constitutes sex education, which they feel is the primary responsibility of the parents,” it said.
The tone reflected the condescension of the bishops. It implied that the laity should “pray, pay, and obey,” and leave the rest to the bishops. But Catholic parents had not expressed their “feelings” about the mandatory programs. Rather, they were defending their right to educate their own children, a right guaranteed by countless magisterial documents.
Those parents were more correct than they knew. The Wanderer investigated Virtus and found that it had been developed by secular “experts.” At one time, we asked program officials in Oklahoma if actively homosexual men could take the course and qualify to work with young boys. They assured us that they could.
Dioceses nationwide require the Virtus program as a prerequisite to volunteering for any parish activity where children are present. The program is a pro-sodomy tool to remind parents of the McCarrick Mantra: “Homosexuals aren’t abusers, you are!”
Those days are over. Tell your pastor and your bishop that the pro-homosexual Virtus program has to go.
Read more at The Wanderer