Quincy, Mass. Mayor Thomas Koch is in hot water for inflammatory comments he made on a radio talk show last week mischaracterizing the Catholic Church sex abuse scandals as “mostly homosexual, not pedophilia.”
Reports the Patriot Ledger:
The 25-minute interview on the WBZ News Radio program Nightside with Dan Rea aired Monday, Sept. 22.
It focused on the controversy around two statues of saints that Koch commissioned for the new public safety headquarters, which are the subject of a lawsuit claiming the artwork violates the constitutional separation of church and state.
The conversation turned to the church and child sexual abuse when Rea expressed his anger at church leadership for not defrocking pedophile priests, to which Koch responded:
“That was mostly homosexual issues, not pedophilia.”
Koch downplayed the extent of sexual abuse of children within the Catholic Church, claiming higher rates of child sexual abuse in other professions where adults have unsupervised contact with minors, such as teaching and coaching. He then portrayed the Catholic Church as the victim of biased media reports. …
Jim Petosa, who chairs the Quincy’s LGBTQ Commission, said his initial responses to Koch’s comments were “shock, outrage, anger ‒ the practiced and habitual response to what our community has had to endure for so long.”
Petosa is a former president of Quincy’s United First Parish Church, a founder of the local PFLAG chapter and organizer of the annual raising of the Pride Flag each June in the city center. He is also professor emeritus of theater at Boston University.
“What was on full display was not so much a homophobic maniac, but in fact an ignorant man in power,” Petosa said.
Koch’s comments hurt the Catholic Church most of all, Petosa argued, which he said has worked for decades to repair the harm and loss of trust engendered by child sexual abuse and its coverup.
“Cardinal Sean O’Malley would be horrified by what was said,” Petosa said.
Koch’s emphasizing homosexuality over pedophilia rehearses an old trope, which says priests are lured and entrapped by sexually aroused adolescents, Petosa said.
“It’s an old, pathetic, horrible story that he was alluding to,” he said. “None of that should be part of the conversation in attempts to defend the church.”
Koch’s pointing at teachers and coaches was “an attempt to diminish the horrors that were perpretrated by the Catholic Church for years, then systematically hidden by moving pepole around,” Petosa said.
Two days after the interview, Koch said in a phone interview with The Patriot Ledger that he was unprepared for the question and “inartful in his response.” …
Responses from online commentators echoed many of Petosa’s sentiments. A Reddit thread on the topic has garnered hundreds of upvotes and comments. The comments expressed anger and disgust, with some calling for Koch’s resignation.
Read the complete Patriot Ledger story here.
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