Sins of omission

The state Legislature missed at least two opportunities to pass important common-sense laws. Proposals to legalize medical marijuana and to empower victims of pedophiles to sue their abusers never made it to either the Senate or Assembly floors. Clearly election-year cowardice among Democratic leaders played a role in both sins of omission.

There is more than enough evidence showing that marijuana helps chronically ill patients, including those with HIV/AIDS and those struggling with the debilitating effects of chemotherapy. Denying them access to life-enhancing therapy is the worst sort of government intrusion into both health care and the private lives of citizens.

Yet the very right-wing activists who screech the mantra “keep government out of health care” opposed this law. Instead of taking on the hypocrisy of Tea Party activists such as state Rep. Leah Vukmir, Democrats let the bill go up in smoke.

It is outrageous that lawmakers in the state with the highest rate of drunkenness in the nation and the least punitive laws against drunk driving continue to deny patients access to medically prescribed marijuana. Even Michigan, the state with the second highest number of right-wing militias in the nation, has legalized medical pot.

The Child Victims Act withered on the same vine of election-year politics as the medical marijuana law. The act would have removed the statute of limitations for civil action against the sexual abusers of children, and it would have created a three-year window allowing victims to sue if the previous statute had barred their cases.

Backers of this bill said similar legislation brought to light 300 previously unknown pedophiles in California and 70 in Delaware. Since the average perpetrator preys on 80 to 100 victims over the course of a lifetime, the “window” legislation in those states likely prevented the abuse of thousands of children.

A law targeting child abusers should be a no-brainer. But not when lobbyists from the state’s powerful Roman Catholic Church are fighting against it for reasons that are as painfully obvious as they are morally reprehensible.

Rather than fight the church in an election year, Democrats gave pedophiles another free pass, even as abuses in Wisconsin are in the international headlines. The inaction on this bill takes political pandering to new lows.

The blame game

The Vatican’s spin machine has shifted into high gear, trying to deflect responsibility for its worldwide clerical-abuse scandal by blaming homosexuality and attempting to paint its critics as opponents of “family values.”

There is, however, ample evidence that the culture of the Church itself is to blame.

Obscured under current headlines are the widespread abuses of women and girls within the church. In early April, for example, the archdioceses of Newark and Orlando settled a suit by a woman who was sexually assaulted in her home by a priest in 2004. Despite her complaint and others, the Church transferred the priest to Florida, where he broke into a woman’s home and ripped her clothes off.

The priest pleaded guilty in 2007 to assault and aggravated stalking, but he has yet to be dismissed from the clergy.

Catholic priests in Africa have been increasingly forcing themselves on nuns in order to avoid getting HIV from local prostitutes. In some cases, nuns who become pregnant are pressured to have abortions. When one nun died while having an abortion, her abuser led the funeral mass.

When women and girls report sexual abuse, they are condemned as temptresses and whores. They are asked what they were wearing at the time and whether they enjoyed it.

Settlements involving female victims tend to be smaller than those for male victims of pedophiles, because it’s presumed they’re less harmed. Due to the way they’re treated, women are less likely to report abuse.

Last year, researchers at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice issued a preliminary report commissioned by U.S. Catholic bishops on clerical abuse. It found no evidence that gay priests are more likely to molest children than heterosexual clergy.

A life of celibacy must seem an attractive alternative to men who can’t deal with their sexual feelings, whether they’re gay, straight or pedophiles. Men with healthy and well-integrated sexual identities would be less-inclined to seek out a celibate life.

Add to that recipe for disaster the Church’s practice of enabling offenders by covering up their crimes and protecting them from prosecution, and you have the perfect storm for sexual abuse.

Homosexuality is not the problem. Celibacy, institutionalized secrecy and cover-ups are to blame.