Beyond an internationally recognized theologian, Juan José Tamayo (Palencia, 1946) is a surgeon who in recent years has dissected the politics of the Spanish Church with precision. Tamayo’s last step through this theological-political operating room is reflected in his latest book, Pederasty; Sin without penance? (Erasmus), a compendium of his most relevant articles on what he calls the main cause of the “bleeding of believers” in current Christianity: sexual abuse of minors. “It is one of the biggest scandals of the Catholic Church of the 20th century, if not the biggest. It is a structural problem, institutionally legitimized by the highest hierarchies of the Church for decades, from the Vatican to the bishops of numerous dioceses around the world,” says the one who was also director of the Chair of Theology and Religious Sciences in Carlos III University of Madrid from 2002 to 2020, and columnist for EL PAÍS.
The articles that make up this new work form a chronology of the last decade, from 2014 to the present, in which you can see how the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) has managed the problem, from absolute denial to the recent turn of events. his speech, where he admits part of the blame for the problem. A change of course due to the media headlines that uncovered the scandal in the absence of an official investigation. “The objective of bringing together these texts is to denounce the cynicism in the violent behavior of the ecclesiastical institution, which presumes to be an example of respect for the dignity of all human beings when it systematically transgresses it,” the author argues.
This work, which Tamayo defines as an “act of historical memory,” begins by identifying ecclesial pedophilia as a “social and public health problem,” which “affects the entire ecclesiastical body: cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests, confessors, spiritual fathers, seminary and novitiate trainers, religious school teachers….” A scourge that, according to the author, has had the “complicity” of judges for decades, as if “the ecclesiastical hierarchy and civil justice had made a pact to cover up the numerous cases of pedophilia.”
Among the explanations that Tamayo gives about this is that no bishop or cardinal has sat on a bench to testify about it. The fear of the Church on the part of the administrations, affirms the theologian, continues to be a constant in Spain. Nor internally has the Church canonically judged a Spanish bishop for this. No one has been expelled from office or resigned for covering up these cases of abuse.
Tamayo identifies four causes that characterize clerical pedophilia. The first, the asymmetry of power between the victim and his executioner – encouraged by the “power over the souls”, “the minds”, “the consciences” and “the bodies, which they abused with impunity” –, developed within a patriarchal structure, “where women are excluded from direct access to the sacred and eliminated from the areas where decisions that affect the entire Christian community are made.” Second, “sacred masculinity” that considers clerics as “owners of all rights” and of their believers. “The feminist philosopher Mary Daly said: ‘If God is male, the male is God,’ adds Tamayo. The next two are mandatory celibacy and spiritual abuse, “which frequently lead to sexual abuse.”
A reading of the articles compiled by Tamayo shows that the attitude of the hierarchy towards pedophilia has remained anchored in denialism during the last decade. “You just have to remember the phrases from years ago by Luis Argüello when he was secretary of the EEC that ‘there are only a few cases’ and then the most recent one by Cardinal Juan José Omella as president of the bishops, when he said that the data from the The Ombudsman’s report was a lie,” the theologian argues. Many bishops and most of the senior officials of the orders, adds the writer, continue to practice cover-up and permissiveness in the face of crime, at the same time that they continue to downplay the scandal and accuse the media of discrediting the Church through journalistic investigations. about the topic. “They refused and continue to refuse, with some exceptions, to investigate the truth, contravening the message of Jesus of Nazareth: ‘If you remain faithful to my word, you will truly be my disciples; there you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.’ They were not good disciples of the Master,” says Tamayo, who also attacks the ecclesiastical hierarchy for its lack of “compassion” with his victims.
By way of conclusion, the theologian proposes that the bishops follow a decalogue, among which suggestions stand out such as depatriarchalizing the Catholic Church, de-hierarchizing it, abolishing mandatory celibacy, eliminating seminaries and promoting a I too of the victims of clerical sexual violence, with the accompaniment, support and solidarity of the Christian community and society in general.
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