Richard Dawkins and the Catholic Church

Richard Dawkins, the author of “The God Delusion,” wrote a recent blog post in the Washington Post’s OnFaith section about the Vatican’s decision to make it easier for disaffected Anglicans to be received into the Catholic Church. In his post, Dawkins makes a number of serious and incorrect accusations against the Catholic church, including some regarding the alleged homosexual bias in the Church and pedophelia among priests. Dawkins also made some other serious charges against the Church in the post, but since the focus of my blog is homosexuality, I’m going to address the claims that were made about the Church’s promotion of “prejudice against homosexuals” and child sexual abuse by members of the clergy.

As I noted, Dawkins wrote that the Church is prejudiced against homosexuals, but cited no specific reasons for why he thought this. I can only assume that he was referring to the Church’s teaching on the immorality of homosexual acts and its teaching that marriage is a relationship between one man and woman. The notion that the Church is somehow prejudiced against homosexuals because it teaches that homosexual acts are immoral is preposterous. As someone who experiences same-sex attractions and who has engaged in homosexual behavior many times, I can tell you that each time I had sex with a man I felt like I had just thrown away my dignity. There’s a good reason why I felt that way: sodomy and oral sex are not compatible with our diginity as human persons made in the image and likness of God. Homosexuals deserve better than sodomy and other demeaning forms of sex, and that is one of the reasons why the Church teaches that such acts are immoral. As I have mentioned in a previous post, this teaching is borne out of love, not hate. The Church has also made it very clear in the Catechism that those who experience same-sex attractions “must (emphasis mine) be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.” (again, emphasis mine) Sounds like a really hateful institution, doesn’t it?

Dawkins also claims in this blog post that “buggering the altar boys pervades (emphasis mine) the culture” in the Catholic Church. It is true that there have been many unfortunate cases of child sexual abuse at the hands of clergy in the Church. But how can an atheist say that something is pervasive in a Church that he does not belong to? I think these cases of sexual abuse are being committed by a small percentage of priests. I know many priests, and all of them are faithful and holy men who have sacrificed marriage and families of their own to bring the sacraments to the faithful. Again, this is done out of love: love for God and love for His people.

Finally, I just want to say that I am saddened that the Washington Post allows this kind of trash in its OnFaith section. People have a right to their opinions, but I’m not sure Mr. Dawkins could have gotten away with his using the language he used in this blog post if he had been talking about any other institution besides the Catholic Church.