Reflections on the Report on the Holy See’s Institutional Knowledge and Decision-Making Related to Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Credits and Doubts

Abstract

“Woe! It is so shameful to even speak about it. The cancer of sodomite unchastity spreads throughout the clergy,” cries Peter Damiani at the beginning of his letter-treatise written circa 1051 A.D. The author of “Liber Gomorrhianus” points out that he knows the problem well as it concerns the milieus he is familiar with, or with which he corresponds. Without a doubt, Damiani observed such sinful behavior in his own monastery and hermitage. Therefore, he could define and characterize such pathologies among the clergy. He also rebuked Church authorities for considering the removal of a sinner from the priesthood only in the case of anal intercourse, while tolerating other sodomite behavior. Damiani enumerates types of conduct that breach the natural law as only man’s attraction to a woman is natural. He also criticizes certain provisions of the canon law as, according to him, they meant excusing the sins of sodomy.