Vatican City, Jan 24, 2020 / 09:40 am (CNA).- After an hour long meeting with Pope Francis Jan. 24, Vice President Mike Pence sat down with EWTN News to discuss their conversation. Here is CNA’s transcript of that interview:
EWTN News: Mr. Vice President, you spent about an hour with the Holy Father, Pope Francis, today and what did you discuss?
Pence: Well, it was a great privilege for me to spend time with Pope Francis and to be able to do so on a day that literally hundreds of thousands of Americans, including many Catholic Americans, are gathered on our National Mall in Washington D.C. standing up for the right to life, was a particular joy for me. And to hear his passion for the sanctity of life, and to hear the American Bishops were coming to him this month and speaking about their determination to see the Church in the United States continue as it has always done to stand without apology for the sanctity of human life. It was a great privilege.
EWTN News: How can the U.S. government work together with the Holy See in the entire world to promote the sanctity of life and work against abortion and also euthanasia?
Pence: Well, I believe that the Church in the U.S. has been a bulwark in the right to life movement since Roe v Wade was first adopted by our Supreme Court in 1973. In fact, on the National Mall today, among those hundreds of thousands of young people, will be an enormous number of Catholic youth.
They will be waving their banners of their parishes, they’ll be waving the banners of their Catholic schools, and I think continuing to educate young people about the unalienable right to life, and the fact that every child is a gift from God has been the contribution that the Church has made to this cause, and the truth is in the U.S. we see more young people everyday embracing the right to life. The numbers are growing.
I know the Church is playing a critical role in that and I know will continue to until we reach that day that we restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law and will carry that message throughout the world.
EWTN News: You’ve personally been involved with many Marches for Life now, Mr. Vice President. Why have you taken this on as your sort of personal campaign as well?
Pence: Well, for my wife and me to stand for life in the public square is a calling. It’s a calling of our convictions, it’s a calling of our faith. We think it is the most pressing moral issue of our time.
And throughout our years in congress, and as Governor, and now as Vice President, I’ve sought to stand for the right to life and to stand with all of those who cherish the unborn.
But I have to tell you, I couldn’t be more proud to be Vice President to the most Pro-Life president in American history. As we gather here in Rome today, President Trump will go to the National Mall and be the first American president to ever address the March for Life in person. And that’s no real surprise when you see President Trump’s record for life, whether it be ending the Mexico City Policy, ending the providing funding for organizations that promote or support abortion around the world, defunding the largest abortion provider in America, or appointing principled conservatives to our courts.
One step after another, President Donald Trump has stood consistently for the right to life, and I expect the warm reception that he’ll get today from those hundreds of thousands of people gathered on our National Mall will reflect the fact that people all across America know in President Donald Trump they have a champion for life.
EWTN News: Going back to your meeting with Pope Francis today, did you speak about the tensions between the United States and Iran? He has spoken about this and has invited both parties to dialogue.
Pence: Today in my discussions with Pope Francis, we spoke about a number of issues, including the Pope’s great concern for Christian and religious minorities in Iraq and across the Nineveh Plain. I told the Pope that we are very proud to work with many Catholic charities as we work to rebuild Christian communities that were so set upon through ISIS and terrorist action in the region in recent years.
We’ve really partnered with the Knights of Columbus and other organizations across the region to make it possible for those Christian communities to come back and to have vibrant communities, not only Christian, but Yazidi communities, and the Pope shared with me his great passion for [the issue of] religious persecution and for religious minorities across the Middle East. We also then talked about Venezuela.
Pope Francis is a son of South America, and I wanted to better understand his insight about how we can together work as a global community to help restore democracy for the people of Venezuela. As I stand here today, the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro has impoverished their country, nearly 5 million people have fled Venezuela to neighboring countries, the poverty and deprivation there in what was once one of the wealthiest countries in our hemisphere is tragedy.
I sought Pope Francis’ counsel about how we can work more closely with him and with the Church in Venezuela and across South and Central America to really continue to bring the kind of pressure to bear from the ground up that will make it possible for the people of Venezuela to have a new birth of freedom. The reality is that the National Assembly has named Juan Guaidó now more than a year ago as the interim president, and democracy is waiting in the wings in Venezuela, but it will take all of us and I trust the consistent and courageous voice of the Church in Venezuela to see liberty restored.
EWTN News: You said yesterday in Israel that you invited states to stand together against this rise of anti-Semitism worldwide. Pope Francis has often spoken out against anti-Semitism…
Pence: He has.
EWTN News:… as well. How do you see that the US and Europe and the world can take concrete steps forward against anti-Semitism?
Pence: Well, first it’s so important that we remember the past, so as not to relive it in the future. And yesterday in Jerusalem, it was my great privilege to be there as we mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and to see nearly 60 world leaders come together to mark what was not only the darkest chapter in human history but to really…to mark a triumph of freedom 75 years ago was deeply moving. But what was equally impressive was the universal call by all those present to condemn anti-Semitism in all of its forms.
And the truth is that we are seeing vile anti-Semitism rear its head in both rhetoric and violence across the world.
We’ve seen synagogues attacked in the United States of America, Jewish communities attacked around the world, and we believe as we said yesterday that it’s imperative that leaders around the world and in the faith community and in the public sphere condemn anti-Semitism without reservation every time it emerges. And also in the midst of that that we stand together against the leading state purveyor of anti-Semitism on the planet: the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Iran actually today, as a state position denies the Holocaust ever happened or routinely says that its aim is to wipe Israel off the map. It’s important, particularly in the light of our action against Iran and a military leader just a month ago that the world continue to isolate Iran economically and diplomatically, and President Trump is going to continue to lead that charge.
We cannot allow the leading state sponsor of terrorism with so much enmity toward Israel to ever have a nuclear weapon, and we will continue to stand strong, and we will continue to work to bring the world community together, but stopping anti-Semitism wherever it emerges must be a priority of every nation in the world, and we need only to look to that dark chapter 75 years ago to know how dangerous anti-Semitism is and how it is a moral imperative in this century to see to it that it is condemned and rejected wherever it’s expressed.
EWTN News: Thank you so much, Mr. Vice President.
Pence: Thank you.
This interview will air on EWTN News Nightly, Jan. 24, 2020.
[…]
“celibacy is not the cause”
No, Cardinal, but homosexuality IS the cause. Say it loud and proud.
Quote: “O’Malley stated that he has “never seen any serious studies that have indicated that celibacy and sexual abuse is related.”
This is truly sad. It appears that those people responsible for doing something re: abuse have never even GOOGLED the subject. The first google “studies of connection between celibacy and sexual abuse” gives:
2023 – ‘In Defense of Married Priesthood: A Sociotheological Investigation of Catholic Clerical Celibacy’, Chapter 6 Celibacy, Sexual Abuse, and Married Priesthood: Exploring the Sociological Connections (by Vivencio O. Ballano, Associate Professor V of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology).
And more, more and more, of papers and books. Of course, since Cardinal O’Malley does not define what “a serious study” entails he can claim that those works are not serious.
Sexual abuse in the Church is not just an abuse of children; it is also an abuse of nuns, lay women and even men (especially young) – an abuse of those who is an easy target – so I propose to treat it as “sexual abuse within the Church”. From what I have studied a pattern emerges, among those who become priests:
– Those with a vocation of both priesthood and celibacy (their (either) sexual orientation is sublimated)
– Those with a vocation of priesthood but without a true vocation of celibacy
– Those who become priest to cover their emotional deficiency and/or sexual orientation
The first group, obviously, is the happiest in their vocation. They are extremely unlikely to abuse.
The second will suffer and most will “slip off” having affairs, harming themselves and their lovers. They desperately want an emotional connection and intimacy. Some of those priests would leave priesthood and marry.
The third group is the most troublesome. Being undeveloped emotionally, they treat others as mere tools for their satisfaction. They crave power and sex and not intimacy; they are immature so they cannot understand that love is not only about sex so they practice sex without an attachment. This is why abusing children is OK for some of that group. This is also why:
Quote: “I don’t see any relationship, [between celibacy and criminal sexual abuse]” she said. “Sexual relationships with children is a crime and the ones who commit this have a problem, which is related to their psychological state of mind.”
is very strange, to put it mildly.
Yes, it is a crime; yes, a person who does it has a problem related to their psyche BUT their psyche is attracted to priesthood because it perfectly matches the needs of their psyche. A compulsory celibacy will cover their psychological immaturity and (in some cases) even perversions; furthermore, it will give them an air of a superiority, angelic-like state; it will give them a power over everyone and so on. All that is perfect for their psychological needs.
From my experience, the third group tends to constitute about a half of priests. Hence, while I would never say “celibacy breeds abusers”, I must say that compulsory celibacy of priests coupled with position of superiority breeds an air charged with suppressed (not sublimated) libido in which something bad will inevitably happen.
Finally, the most mature and balances priests I have met came to priesthood late in life, after thirty-five-forty. They had professions which demanded close dealing with various people so they knew how to connect.
NB: I do not claim to know the correct proportion of three groups. I am from a diocese with a very rich history of abuse so it is probably why I have seen stunningly many priests along a narcissistic spectrum. Neither I am saying that all priests in the second group would engage in affairs. Finally, the majority of the third group tend to act out their sexual urges in a covert/cerebral way which, in my opinion, is spiritually very damaging, very much along the line of Cardinal Fernandez treaties (forgot the name of the book, a perversion of Catholic mysticism).
If celibacy is not a relevant variable in the study of clergy sexual abuse, then why is there so much disparity between the incidence of abuse by deacons vs those of the presbytery? And, again, if celibacy is not an issue, why is there such a disparity between the incidence of abuse between clergy of the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches and those of the Roman Catholic Church?
Celibacy is not the cause of the heinous sexual abuse crisis , the failure to Love, to respect, protect, and defend the inherent Dignity of every beloved son and daughter is.
It is not The Faithful who are responsible for the heinous abuse crisis, The Faithful hold fast to The Deposit Of Faith and thus to Christ’s teaching on sexual morality.
It’s unrealistic to base an assessment of priests’ celibacy from the perspective of a diocesan onlooker or two experiences. A wider scope of experience, living with priests here and abroad would provide a fuller data based resource to compare with our own experience as priest.
Celibacy was never intended to be easy, or necessarily a form of sublimation of sexual desire buried somewhere in the subconscious [not all are John of the Cross]. It’s pure and simply said a sacrifice. One in which our real, existential desires of Man for women. It’s a life of temptation, prayer, negation, and emotional physical suffering. The way of the cross.
Best measure of this is Paul the Apostle who suffered a thorn in the flesh sent by Satan. Paul suffered physically throughout his priesthood and bore it with great courage. A thorn in the flesh indicates sensual suffering. Likely sexual desire and human weakness. Physical pain would strengthen his faith, sexual weakness discourages. Aquinas thought the same regarding the great Apostle. As do I. Christ’s grace suffices. His power more manifest in our weakness.
JimmyM identified the root of sexual abuse in our Church. One which Cdl O’Malley I’m confident is aware must realistically come to grips with. The significant presence of homosexuals in the priesthood.
And then, in the United States, there’s the Report John Jay College of Criminal Justice which found that 85 percent of the sexual abuse cases victimized older boys and were homosexual in origin—not pedophiliac.
LOOKING BACK, as we approach the 50th anniversary of the “Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics” (December 19, 1975), we might recall moments in another Dark Age. Consider the peasant wife whose dirt-farmer husband has finally despaired and committed suicide. Before the insights of abnormal psychology involving impaired free will, the suffering wife was told by the local padre that “God has sent him straight to hell for all eternity.”
FAST FORWARD to today’s Dark Age. Instead of “listening” to the findings of relevant gnome research, and the role of early sexual abuse, of abusive or absentee fathers, and of the slippery slope of even pre-teen sexual experimentation within a porn culture, and altered brain chemistry…instead of such considerations, another cleric misinforms the homosexual that “God who made you that way.”
It’s almost as if some successor of the Apostles should write something or other to counsel respect and compassion, but to not omit something like this, “Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective evil.”
Wait, what? Building on the 1975 Declaration, Ratzinger already said exactly this in his 1986 “Letter to Bishops of the Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons” (n. 3). At least the Synod expunged the term “LGBTQ” from its Final Report.
SUMMARY: as a corrective to pastoral and institutional amnesia and worse, maybe court-jester Jiminy Cricket James Martin can be sent forth to find himself a hobby other than as photo-op/activist consultor to the Vatican Secretariat on Communications. Yes?