Deformed Catholic power
Power is the aphrodisiac, the hidden cause of this tragedy; everything else is symptom. Pat Marrin In analyzing what’s wrong with the Catholic Church , Marrin names power and another crucial ingredient: Isolation and lack of human affection, the absence of real friendship with both men and women . . . can produce trouble in a person. Loneliness, thwarted desire and a structure of obedience that renders a man impotent before his superiors to his own responsibility to choose his life at every stage, all of these dynamics can and do converge on a priest to force the question: Who am I? Who loves me? Why am I so angry and frustrated on the one hand, and so compulsive in my personal needs on the other? Compulsive celibacy is imposed on men who are divided from women and other men by a wall that proclaims their privileged position but really imprisons them in a shell/cell segregated from ordinary human decisions and growing experiences. No man ever came to terms with his sexuality, his spi...