Bishop defends gay Web site
By CARMEL RICKARD
Special to the National Catholic Reporter Cape Town, South
Africa
The South African bishop, alleged by a conservative Catholic
organization to be part of a Web porn site, says the claims are
gay bashing nonsense.
Bishop Reginald Cawcutt, auxiliary bishop of Cape Town, is one of
several priests and religious named as part of a porn site by the
group Roman Catholic Faithful, a right-wing organization based in the United
States. Cawcutt told NCR that the site in question was a private news
group that he had been invited to join some years ago as part of his ministry
to the gay community.
I have been involved for some time in ministering to the gay
and lesbian community and to people with HIV/AIDS. Someone in Australia invited
me to join this Internet news group, which offered support to gay priests and
religious.
I had no problem in doing so. It serves an important
purpose, helping a group which is marginalized and in pain, and I am still part
of it.
Cawcutt said that membership in the private news group was limited
to people introduced by a member. There was also a related home page, set up by
someone who was part of the news group, who suggested that members should send
in their photographs to be added to the site, which Cawcutt had done. This had
allowed him to be identified by the right-wing group.
Discussions were not only about sexuality, but also about
the normal things of a priests life. Someone had a new parish; someone
else was going on holiday; someone else talked about ordinary parish work.
There was a lot of discussion about the young gay man who had been beaten to
death in the United States, about how to counsel gay people who asked for
advice, about reaction to Vatican pronouncements on gay issues - many of the
things that you would hear priests anywhere discussing.
Sometime last year, according to Cawcutt, some idiot
put a picture now notoriously referred to as a pulsating penis on
the site. This was the only thing remotely close to being
porn and other members of the group complained straight away and
told him to take it off. It was gone almost immediately, but unknown to us a
hacker had already gained access to the site and kept a record of this
picture.
There were never more than about 20 people prepared to have
their photographs on the site. Most were very secretive about their identity
and used pseudonyms. They mostly were from the U.S.A., Canada, the U.K., South
Africa and other parts of Africa. There were also a couple from Rome.
The news group still exists, and I have no doubt of the
value it serves. To say, as RCF has alleged, that people on it bragged of their
sexual activity is not true. Much like Alcoholics Anonymous when you fall, you
go back to the group. In such a case, people would confess and try again in
their battle for celibacy. It was a kind of open confession situation very
often.
For everyone who was part of the group, the discovery of a hacker
in their midst was disastrous, says Cawcutt.
The hacker did a cut-and-paste job with material culled from
the sites over a long period, taken out of context and put together in a way
that amounts to a lie.
Soon after the group became aware of the hacker last November,
Cawcutt said he began to receive very nasty, threatening e-mails
from someone using a womans name who tried to get him to give an
interview, saying that if he refused the group would bash him.
Although he ignored these messages, word spread quickly, and in
January the papal nuncio had a discussion with Cawcutt about the situation.
Some weeks later someone again contacted him, this time to say they were
sending information about Cawcutt to e-mail addresses around the world
because I would not play ball with them.
He immediately met with the archbishop of Cape Town, Lawrence
Henry, and offered to resign if the allegations were going to create a problem
for the church.
Archbishop Henry refused even to consider it. He said that
if you reach out to people and it gets you into trouble, then so be
it.
Cawcutt said he had been heartened by the extent of the support he
had received from inside and outside the church. No one has attacked me.
All the priests and nuns in Cape Town have been supportive. ... I was very
touched by this. I have really been surprised at the numbers of sisters who
came to express their solidarity. Everyone who has spoken to me has been very
encouraging.
Reflecting on why he chose to remain part of the news group,
Cawcutt said the church had a duty to reach out to people, to women and
anyone else who is oppressed.
A lot of priests benefited from this group. They were able
to cry and express their pain, and to receive support and encouragement. We
heard about the agonizing, the rejection, pretending, hiding, fear,
frustration, loneliness and gay bashing that many priests have to endure.
No one can criticize what I said. I was forever pushing
celibacy. It would be outrageous to suggest otherwise.
Cawcutt has harsh words for the group that hacked into the site,
saying their actions have worsened the situation for many priests.
The RCF pretend to be better Catholics than anyone else, but
they have done something despicable. They broke into what amounts to a private
group, in which priests shared an open confession with one another - priests
who already feel bashed around - and then told lies about it.
Their sin is worse than any of which they accuse the
members.
Cawcutt said while he has remained part of the group, many others
had pulled out, forced to do so by the publicity generated by the hackers or
for fear of being identified.
National Catholic Reporter, April 7,
2000
|