The Old Boys Network Revisited

The continuing news in recent months about the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, and the rape of female and male soldiers by personnel in the military exposes, once again, 'systems' that are managed by 'old boys networks' that look out for one another, rather than for those whom they should be protecting.

First, there was the demand and finally, due to a court order, release of hundreds of documents in the Los Angeles diocese that documented many decades of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, and the avoidance of responsibility to correct this problem by the management of that institution. The Catholic Church once again (this has happened so often it is becoming a cliche) displayed that it cared far more about their employees than about the parishioners for whom they are supposedly responsible. Apparently they were concerned, to a far greater extent, about 'their image' and 'covering their tracks' than they were about the care of vulnerable children. Of course the paradox is, now that the documents are being released and they display this avoidance of responsibility, the 'image' of the Catholic Church is once again becoming tarnished.

For an institution that exists supposedly to save souls, they are doing a pretty poor job of protecting souls on this plane of existence. Of course, they are not alone with that problem; many other religious organizations and denominations, along with their faith leaders, have been tarnished in recent years with such revelations about abuse of children under their care. But the Catholic Church, in particular, just doesn't appear to be 'getting the message', and this is portrayed by one case after another coming to light where the upper echelon of the organization has continued, in the face of expensive lawsuits, to not heal itself or its followers.

But as the revelations of the last couple of years about rape in the U.S. military ranks have proven, the Old Boys Network is alive and well in many institutions. The military, which is also supposed to protect and serve, has been hit with several years of reports exposing a pattern of sexual abuse, primarily by male personnel, of both women and men, and the senior commanders covering up that abuse or overruling their own tribunals that hand down prosecutions. And the result of that system failing to protect its recruits is that the number of rapes has increased since the report of last year, rather than decreasing due to more vigorous oversight. The most 'telling' aspect of the report was that both women and men are being raped in more or less equal numbers in the military ranks. And the U.S. military continues, largely, to 'look the other way', or to the extent that the problem is being confronted, fail to adequately address it in a manner that will take control of this sorry situation.

In most societies worldwide, the military and religious bodies are paramount organizations that have enormous physical, financial and 'devotional' control over their nations, so what they do and how they behave effects all their citizens. Hence, how they handle problems that arise in their organizational systems is of enormous importance to everyone. That both of those systems, at least in the United States (and, for the Catholic Church, in many other countries as well), continue to betray the confidence the citizenry places in their hands is a travesty of monumental proportions.

In non-democratic countries, abuses by the military are not unusual and sadly common. But one expects that a military that serves to protect the liberties of democratic societies would equally work to protect the rights of individuals who serve in that organization, but so far, at least, the U.S. military is receiving a major demerit on that account. Even the officer who was supposed to enforce the code of conduct around sexual protection of female soldiers was recently arrested for being drunk and fondling a woman in a parking lot. We should expect -- and receive -- better behavior from individuals who are sworn to protect the rest of us. Clearly, though, it is not only female soldiers who are being subjected to sexual abuse within the ranks; as the recent report noted, male soldiers are being widely raped in the ranks as well. Not surprisingly, in a culture that refuses to admit that males are routinely sexually abused, that portion of the report has been largely ignored by the media.

Until the society begins to face the need for and addressing of men's emotional wellness, and the deleterious effects of a patriarchal system that fosters much of this poor behavior, such abuse will continue to be rampant and unregulated. We are only as healthy as a culture when we can adequately protect the most vulnerable members of that culture. And heretofore we've done a poor job of it.