Buckley on the Catholic Church

The Catholic Church’s impotence to credibly address its sexual scandals ought not surprise anyone as well-informed as Buckley. The church’s knee-jerk conservativism on every issue to come out of the bedroom has prompted more than a few of us to look elsewhere for--or despair of--the guidance it promises but fails to deliver.

Don’t “leave Freud out of it.” A classic Oedipus complex beats at the heart of all Christianity. Catholic priests follow the lead of Christ himself, whose apparent lack of a sex life and sacrifice to his father reflect a primal myth Freud tried to define in theories so disturbing to Christian thought. The great hope of its afterlife comes at much psychic expense. The embarrassing recent hypocrisies believe an entire ethic of repression and denial.

TONY BIRD

Panorama City