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The topic of sexual misconduct among clergymen brings up issues that stretch into both the realms of religious faith and justice and accountability.
I will try to aviod the former, but the latter pertains to the topics of freedom and the market system that this column typically focuses on.
Fraud is defined as the intentional perversion of truth in order to induce another to part with something of value. Claiming a quality standard or measurement that turns out to be false is fraud. Enron committed fraud.
The current payment for one semester of tuition at Loyola University is $8,839.00.
Loyola is an institution of higher learning embedded in a setting of Jesuit ideals.
Our walkways are adorned with tiles listing these ideals, and we learn alongside clergy who claim to emulate them.
This semester, a new marketing scheme was applied to our slogans, Web site, logos and color scheme, so as to capitalize on these strengths and attract more potential students, accomplished faculty and alumni donations.
All of these groups interact with Loyola for its reputation of education rooted in Catholic morals and Jesuit ideals.
This close relationship has developed an image of our university that is being bruised even while you read this.
Guilt or innocence at this point is irrelevant. Thank goodness for that costly and effective marketing program to give our thousands of extra Web site visitors a more aesthetic format to view Knoth's letter of resignation and the statements from the Society of Jesus surrounding the sex scandal.
I've heard a number of students and faculty mention that their prayers go out to Father Knoth in addition to the victims of sexual misconduct everywhere, in that order.
It's ironic how so many activists on campus can raise their voices about social justice issues regarding sweatshops, working conditions, or the war in Iraq.
How easily they seem to blame management, big business, corporate leaders, and political policies for acting outside the realm of moral appropriateness.
Liberal advocates have no problem recognizing problems in the market setting and pointing the fingers straight to the top.
When such injustice rears its head in the realm of the Catholic Church, they tend to chalk it up to individual problems or psychological disorders. They hide behind claims that the whole church cannot be judged by the actions of a few exceptions.
If guilty, priests accused of sexual misconduct are committing far more crimes than just the kinky sordidness that no one likes to talk about at the dinner table.
Sexually offending priests misrepresent themselves and their institutions.
They accept money, living facilities, consumer goods, and positions of authority under the impression that they are the sanctified people they claim to be.
The faithful's insistent rallying of support behind the central Catholic Church can be accused of perpetuating such scandals existence.
Current policies, focusing on post allegation action, have shown to be ineffective at deterring such accusations of sexual misconduct from arising. It is questionable whether these "after the fact policies," could ever be effective at deterring scandal.
Most sexual scandals surrounding the church refer to occurrences that happened long ago, and rightly so, when referring to child abuse.
It would be a tremendous burden on the shoulders of an innocent child to make accusations against someone with such a high level of respect and authority.
These priests have committed fraud, and the institutions they represent, such as the Catholic Church, the Jesuit order and Loyola University are suffering the consequences.
The victims of such crimes go beyond the sexually abused youths. A business that persisted in hiring fraudulent employees would be forced to amend its hiring process or go out of business.
The Catholic Church must learn to address these issues aggressively or fall out of useful existence.
Under current conditions, I see priests becoming completely futile in the procedural faith of Catholicism, or instances of such sexual misconduct continuing to occur - the latter being an unacceptable possibility.
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