Pedophilia - not a word generally associated with the Catholic Church.
But since a number of Catholic Church officials have been accused of either committing pedophilia or knowingly protecting priests guilty of the act, the Catholic Church and its priests have had to contend with the issue.
"We're all being painted with the same brush," said Rev. Charles Rieppe of the Interfaith Center. "People wonder if all priests are like that."
The sexual scandals that have pummeled the Catholic Church began with a series of lawsuits against convicted pedophile priest John J. Geoghan of Boston. It was discovered that Cardinal Bernard F. Law transferred Geoghan from parish to parish while aware of the allegations against him.
Moreover, Cardinal Law also allowed Rev. Paul R. Shanley to serve as parish priest although he has been accused of raping at least 26 children. Further information indicates that while Shanley's history was not shared with the public, the Vatican was informed as early as 1979.
Despite the sudden allegations against priests within the Catholic Church, most of the Johns Hopkins Catholic population appears to support the church.
"If people use poor judgment, it doesn't reflect on the religion, it reflects on them," said Maura McTague, sophomore and chair of community service for the Catholic Community at Johns Hopkins.
Freshman Catholic Carlo Cabanilla maintained that the scandals have in no way undermined his faith for similiar reasons to those proposed by McTague.
"The scandals haven't decreased my trust or faith at all," said Cabanilla. "I think people consider priests on a higher level from other people, but they're human too."
Chris Celano, junior and vice president of the Catholic Community, agreed, "They only reflect a very small minority of the active priesthood. They haven't changed my view of the priesthood."
Moreover, Rev. Rieppe maintained that the highly publicized scandals are a minor, common organizational problem exaggerated by the media in the pursuit of an appealing story.
"The accounts of pedophilia among Catholic priests is really not greater than pedophilia among other groups," he said. "But when a Catholic priest goes wrong, it's big news."
With pedophilia such a remote problem, most committed Catholics will not slacken their faith, said McTague, although people outside the church may demonstrate another attitude.
"The majority of the people committed to the church are not going to leave because of it," she said.
In view of the immense media exposure of the scandals, Rev. Rieppe believed the problem will actually decrease and possibly move toward abolishment. "I think that now that the whole thing is out in the open, bishops all over the country are putting out policies," he said. "Bishops are going to be more careful."
The public often castigates the Catholic Church for its required vow of celibacy for the priesthood, holding this tradition responsible for the recent scandals. But the Catholics interviewed did not believe that celibacy of priests in any way contributed the problem.
"A lot of people not well-informed think the pedophilia is because priests can't marry," said Rev. Rieppe.
"People don't understand the purpose of celibacy," said Celano. "Any Catholic who isn't married is supposed to be celibate, and celibacy is not an issue in my life."
Furthermore, McTague felt that the call for the elimination of celibacy is incongruent with the views of the Catholic Church.
"Our religion is based on the revelation of God, and we don't make these decisions. God does," said McTague. "Celibacy is not something for us to decide. It comes from our belief."
Celano also approved of the Vatican's management of the situation and its overall aloofness, since he said the pedophilia scandals are primarily limited to the United States.
Not surprisingly, none of the Catholics interviewed condoned the cover-ups practiced by the archdiocese of Boston.
"The cover-ups are really, really upsetting," said McTague. "But there are a lot of questions raised about what was covered up and from whom." McTague pointed out that each person attaches a different concept to the word "cover-up," the word referring to the concealment of information from either the public or the authorities. The church has the right to withhold information from the public, said McTague, but never from the authorities.
Freshman Catholic Denise Terry, however, expressed little surprise at the cover-ups.
"I always knew this sort of thing would happen eventually," said Terry. "I'm sure the Vatican has covered it up, because the Vatican has a CIA-like organization, the oldest intelligence gathering body in the world."
Nevertheless, the general consensus refused to condemn the Catholic Church for isolated incidents of scandal.
"Most people who adhere to the church's teachings are more concerned with the religious content of those teachings than the behavior of the clerics," said junior Nicolas Faas. "The church is bigger than the sum of its parts.
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