12/6/02  The Boston Globe: A World Without Girls

One of the most disturbing aspects of the flood of revelations of crimes committed by priests and Church officials is that Catholic leaders and conservative journalists have frequently suggested that raping a boy is somehow worse than raping a girl,  an offensive view that correlates with the Vatican's unsuccessful effort to link homosexuality with child abuse.  For example, to show that some types of sex with minors are more acceptable than others, Cardinal Francis George remarked, "there is a difference between a moral monster like [Boston priest John J.] Geoghan, who was accused of abusing nearly 200 boys over 30 years, and a priest who has sexual contact with a 16- or 17-year-old young woman who returns his affections."

When reminded that the conduct he was minimizing could land a priest in prison, George responded that he was "horrified" and vowed "never to use that example again."  However, the Cardinal's comments reflect a general tendency among misogynist and anti-gay forces to downplay the damage done to female victims of predatory clergy.  In fact, thanks to the males-only focus that many journalists have adopted, most people have no idea that Geoghan preyed on girls as well as boys.  Similarly, women who were molested by Fr. Paul Shanley have cited shaming media coverage as a central factor in their reluctance to go public.  And, of course, since the Spotlight Team has always refused to profile women who were victimized as children, crowds of Catholics from throughout New England imagine that the shortest route out of the present crisis is to keep boys out of the clutches of homosexual priests.

In light of the ideological baggage attached to gender in the scandal, it's not surprising that survivors, psychologists, advocates, and responsible journalists have consistently called attention to the significant number of women who have come forward, while also emphasizing that female victims are less likely to contact lawyers and more likely to fear having their sexual histories exposed to public scrutiny.  Thus, when Roderick MacLeish, Jr. a lawyer with the firm Greenberg Traurig, presented newly-released documents first to survivors and then to the public in early December, he stressed that many of the new files pertained to priests who had molested or physically abused girls and women, and he also pointed out that, like Church officials, the media seem to care more about injuries inflicted on boys than about crimes against female victims.  In the Globe, Macleish's comments, which referred to cases involving both women and girls, underwent a transformation: "At a news conference yesterday, attorney Roderick MacLeish Jr. said the records in Foley's case and others also demonstrate a double standard in the church's treatment of priests who sexually abused boys and those who took advantage of women."

If it seems insignificant that girls were, once again, illogically excluded from this report, keep in mind that the Spotlight Team is being pressured from all sides to stop ignoring the stories of women who were victimized as children.  Globe editor, Martin Baron, projects editor, Mark Morrow, and Spotlight editor, Walter Robinson, have heard numerous complaints; many reporters at the Globe and elsewhere are aware of this web site; and various journalists have been collecting information on the Spotlight Team's astonishing indifference to female victims.  Nevertheless, even when reporting a well-known lawyer's pointed comments on cases involving female minors, writers Michael Rezendes and Stephen Kurkjian just can't seem to keep girls in the picture.