On Roman Polanski and Catholic priests

Father Orthoduck wishes to quote from an article called Father Polanski would go to jail by Thomas J. Reese, S.J.

Imagine if the Knight of Columbus decided to give an award to a pedophile priest who had fled the country to avoid prison. The outcry would be universal. Victim groups would demand the award be withdrawn and that the organization apologize. Religion reporters would be on the case with the encouragement of their editors. Editorial writers and columnist would denounce the Knights as another example of the insensitivity of the Catholic Church to sexual abuse.

And they would all be correct. And I would join them.

But why is there not similar outrage directed at the film industry for giving an award to Roman Polanski, who not only confessed to statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl but fled the country prior to sentencing? Why have film critics and the rest of the media ignored this case for 31 years? He even received an Academy award in 2003. Are the high priests of the entertainment industry immune to criticism?

What is even worse is that the governmental leaders in France have been part of the calls to release him. Father Orthoduck knows that there are many of us from all sides of the political spectrum who would thoroughly agree with what is said in the whole article. Part of the reason he knows is that now the statements are coming out from those who are horrified at the thought that Roman Polanski could get away with fleeing justice.

From Terry O’Neill from the National Organization of Women:

“I think that it’s deplorable that some celebrities, and I emphasis the word ‘some,’ are supporting rape, supporting the destruction of the life of a 13-year-old girl,” O’Neill said. “You look at what happened to the victim in this case and how she was re-victimized over and over again. First by [Polanski] himself when he claimed it was consensual, then by his pals all powerful, wealthy celebrities who supported him, then by the media who characterized her as the little Lolita, the 13-year-old temptress.”

And there are known liberal Hollywood celebrities who are also outraged, such as Kirstie Alley, Michael Seitzman, Jillian Michael’s, etc. In fact, Jillian Michael, a trainer on The Biggest Loser, positively sounded bloodthirsty when she said, “If somebody drugged and raped my 13-year-old I’d shoot them.”

Now you may ask why Father Orthoduck does not quote conservatives. Frankly, because that is not news on this subject. The old saying is that dog bites man is not news; man bites dog is news. In this case, many many liberals have exploded all over the Hollywood liberals. In fact, in yesterday’s news, the government of France has rephrased its support for Polanski to something so mild that it is obvious that they are trying to rid themselves of this story.

But, is there a Godly point to be made here? Yes, there is. In fact there are several, but Father Orthoduck promises to not list all of them. But here are a few:

• The Old Testament insists that judges must be fair and impartial. Whenever we look at a case of this type, we must always be sure not to run on our emotions, but to run on a fair and impartial look at the facts of the situation.
• The New Testament focuses on the possibility of forgiveness. It is true that most often a person must bear the consequences of their actions, to include serving a jail term, but:
  • We are called to actively bring people to repentance, even when we send them to jail.
  • We are called to actively forgive those who repent, even when we carry out the sentence handed out to them.
  • We are called to not judge that repentance unless the actions following that repentance do not tally with the repentance. There are too many times that a prosecutor or a policeman makes a statement about a “jailhouse conversion.” Of course there are jailhouse conversions. But, until such a time as they prove us wrong, we need to not judge their repentance. It is better to take a hope-filled “wait and see” attitude. A good example of a conversion that stuck is Chuck Colson. Yet, he was accused of a jailhouse conversion at the time by too many Christians–for shame.
• We are called to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. This means that for those who have committed a felonious crime, we may need to set limits on their actions. For instance, Father Orthoduck would not put an embezzler in charge of parish funds nor a pedophile in charge of the Sunday School. But, on the other hand, we are called to a certain innocence in our approach to those who have been convicted of a crime and served their time. We are called to a forgiveness that welcomes and pulls into our congregations those who have truly served their time, even if they have committed heinous sin. Sometimes, this is going to be very uncomfortable for our congregation, but we have no other choice. Saint Ananias was very uncomfortable when God said to go and baptize Saint Paul. He even argued with God about it. But, he went and baptized the man who wrote the most New Testament letters, the former criminal, Saint Paul.
• Finally, and this is a very hard point for many in this culture and for victims, we are called to make sure that our sentences are fair, equitable, and proportionate. When the news have victim statements as part of their reports on a trial, Father Orthoduck is always negatively impressed by how every victim says that they will be damaged for life and how the judge must sentence the criminal to life, if possible. The reason the Old Testament had the law on the Cities of Refuge was that it was understood that relatives of the victim of an illegal death would always want to kill the perpetrator. That is, they would have no sense of proportion. Thus, even when the crime was NOT a premeditated murder, the families would still want to take a life for a life. But the Old Testament strictly stated that a death that was not the result of premeditation could not be punished by a death sentence. [Note: the Old Testament definition of premeditation was broader than ours and included some crimes we would call second degree murder.] This is very hard for a victim’s family to understand. Particularly, the modern laws pertaining to non-alcohol, non-drug, careless-driving-caused death never satisfy a victim’s family because inevitably the family wants a very long term for what even the Old Testament would not have punished to that degree of seriousness. [Note: this would be the teenager driving a car with no alcohol or drugs involved but who looks aside a moment and looks back up in time to see that s/he has drifted across into oncoming traffic. Particularly if the victim is only injured and there is no prior record, there is often no jail time whatsoever.]

Yes, Father Orthoduck believes that Mr. Polanski needs to be brought back to this country. His crimes are serious enough that they do merit jail time. Being a fugitive from statutory rape is not defensible. But, let us not forget that as Christians we have the responsibilities that are placed upon us by the Old and New Testaments: fairness, impartiality, proportionality, even-handedness, calling to repentance and reception of Christ as Savior, forgiveness, catechism, baptism, and wisdom.