The tragedy of sexual abuse is unrolling in Germany like a Greek drama, and Nemesis is in the wings awaiting her cue.
The Austrian dramatist Felix Mitterer wrote a two-man drama “Die Beichte” (“The Confession’) which recently opened in Regensburg, although it was scheduled over twelve months ago. The timing is eerie. NBC reports:
The play tells the story of an orphaned choir boy who was abused by his priest, and later, as an adult, abuses his own child. In order to protect his son from the same destiny, the main character is determined to kill himself and his boy. But first, he confronts the priest, his former guardian and tormentor, in a confession that culminates in a disturbing dispute between the two men.
The choir of the cathedral of Regensburg is the Domspatzen, and Pope Benedict’s brother was director of the choir beginning in 1964. He claims to have known nothing of cases of sexual abuse of choir boys, cases that occured in the late 1950s and resulted in convictions.
The audience in Regensburg has been stunned by the play:
Both actors said the audience’s reaction to the play is quite different from any other productions they have performed in before: On most nights, there is very little or no applause at the final curtain, which leaves them facing an auditorium full of dismayed viewers.
The actor who plays the priest is the 60-year-old Mika Greza, who revealed
“I know what we are performing here and what we are talking about in this play. I have experienced it myself,”
He declined to elaborate to NBC, but a German paper, Die Mittelbayerische Zeitung, has more information: he was abused when he was a choir boy (1958-1965) in the Regensburg Domspatzen.
I hear the footsteps of Nemesis.
Part of me hopes the pope is not implicated, and part of me wonders if this might be the tipping point that will cause some genuine reform.
More and more I’ve beginning to believe something you said in a comment on my blog.
“My darkest suspicion is that pederasty has been entrenched in the clergy as an inheritance from classical antiquity, and that only occasionally does it come to light.”
There is something deeply wrong with the RCC when it comes to masculinity, and it troubles me that so few people are willing to admit it.
As for the suspicion, Randy Engel agrees (see Rite of Sodomy).