Pope Emeritus Benedict Is Right: The Sexual Revolution Is Part of the Problem
COMMENTARY | MAY. 24, 2019
Pope Emeritus Benedict Is Right: The Sexual Revolution Is Part of the Problem
COMMENTARY: So let’s be part of the solution.
Jennifer Roback Morse
Pope Emeritus Benedict wrote an extended essay on the clergy sex-abuse and cover-up scandal, where he cited the sexual revolution coming of age in Europe in 1968 as a contributing factor.
Some critical commentators thought Benedict’s attention to the sexual revolution was misplaced. Some, such as seasoned reporter and Vatican watcher Christopher Altieri, observed that the problem preceded the sexual revolution. Some say the problem is bigger than sexual morality. And to be perfectly honest, some want to say that the problem is anything but the sexual revolution and/or anything but homosexuality.
I’m willing to concede that clergy sexual abuse didn’t start in 1968 and that the clergy sexual-abuse crisis has many other important facets.
In spite of this, however, I maintain that the sexual revolution really is a significant factor. I will go further. We will not get a full grip on this problem until we confront the toxic ideology of the sexual revolution and the damage it has done.
And yet I fully sympathize with the desire to set it aside. Let me explain.
In my decades of studying the family as a social institution, I have developed a profound respect for traditional Christian sexual morality. The major premise that animates all my work is that children need their parents and are ordinarily entitled to a relationship with them.
Traditional Christian sexual morality protects children’s legitimate interests in a relationship with both parents, in the stability of their parents’ union and, indeed, even in knowing the identity of their parents. I am a passionate opponent of the sexual revolution, which tears down this structure.
In 2013, I thought to myself, the sexual revolution is demonstrably wrong. This ideology must be harming people and racking up victims. Why not address this fact head-on?
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