Sunday, Aug. 26, 2018 | 2 a.m.
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Bret Stephens: I know there are a lot of juicy subjects for us to get to before we have our security clearances revoked by President Donald Trump. But I’d like to hear your take on something a step removed from politics. That’s the grand jury report in Pennsylvania on the sexual abuse of children by hundreds of priests and the Catholic Church’s subsequent cover-up.
I’m not Catholic, so I’m a bit reluctant to opine on a religion not my own. But I just don’t understand why the church has been so slow to deal with this. I’ve been reading these sorts of stories for nearly 20 years and we never seem to reach the bottom. What’s the reason?
Gail Collins: I come to the subject with some bias, since I went to a Catholic girls high school back in the day. We got lectures about sex constantly. They called an emergency schoolwide meeting in the auditorium when one of the nuns saw a girl kissing her boyfriend. Priests would give us sermons about how, when Christ was dying on the cross, his greatest anguish was seeing a future in which teenage girls like us necked in the back seat of a car.
Bret: Your agnostic Jewish correspondent suppresses a rueful smile.
Gail: Well, as I said, that was back in the day. And I’ve known a bunch of amazing priests. But the institution as it stands now is just wrecked. All these terrible problems stem from the fact that it’s run entirely by men who’ve taken vows of celibacy.
I know other religions with married clergy members have sex scandals, too. But the cure is never going to be maintaining a men-only power structure. Until the church allows women and married men into the priesthood, it’s just not going to work. Period. I don’t care how many times the pope apologizes. And I cannot imagine the guys who are in charge ever making that kind of change.
Bret: I grew up in Mexico City and was always moved by the way in which the church brought comfort and meaning to poor and often bleak lives. As a journalist, I’ve had the chance to see the amazing work the church does around the world, from Sri Lanka to Hunts Point in the Bronx.
But you’re right: The celibacy vows just seem to me so unnatural and perverse and yet so fundamental to the traditions of the church. And maybe — I’m going out on a limb here — that’s a reason perverse people find their way into the ranks of the church. I say that knowing a majority of priests are not pedophiles and knowing also that sexual abuse happens in other religions and institutions. But what other explanation is there for the extent of the crisis?
In the meantime, I hope the bishops and cardinals who looked the other way and covered up the abuse are prosecuted for behavior that would make the Mafia blush.
Gail: Let’s move on to a totally different topic. We heard reports last week that our president was considering a plan to privatize the military fighting in Afghanistan.
Bret: Please bring me up to speed. I’ve had a hard time concentrating on Afghanistan what with all the Omarosa buzz.
Gail: It’s an idea that’s been promoted by Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater — the private security force that became infamous for killing civilians in Iraq. And Prince just happens to be the brother of Betsy DeVos, our secretary of education, who’s a fan of privatizing schools.
One of the big divisions between conservatives and liberals is whether government can do things better than the for-profit private sector. Obviously it’s a matter of where one draws the line. Where would yours go?
Bret: So, I’m not altogether opposed to privatizing the war or privatizing more schools. It depends on how it’s done.
The United States could really use something like the French Foreign Legion to fight twilight struggles like the one in Afghanistan. The alternative is indefinite American commitment, which is costly and probably politically unsustainable; or abandoning Afghans to the untender mercies of the Taliban. A private company in the mold of Blackwater is obviously different from the Legion, which is a branch of the French military, but the idea of subsidizing a mercenary force of some description may be the least unattractive alternative.
I know our readers will be able to name 50 reasons how this could go badly wrong, including incompetence and lack of accountability. It’s what gives me pause, too. I would just note the other alternatives also have their moral and political costs.
Gail: Paying a mercenary army to fight our wars gives me the creeps. I don’t want a new generation of Blackwater thugs killing civilians in our name.
Bret: Well, there is that!
But are we really going to go through this whole conversation with no mention of Omarosa, nondisclosure agreements or security clearances?
Gail: The idea of the president revoking the security clearances of his critics is slimy to the core. And if he ever does it to a current government employee who’s involved in an investigation of the White House — that would be where you do have to start talking impeachment.
But so far the only person to be affected is the former CIA director John Brennan. Trump is doing it to punish Brennan for speaking out so forcefully against his presidency. That’s juvenile, stupid and unnerving. But if he doesn’t go further, it isn’t exactly earthshaking. To be honest, I don’t see why so many former government officials need security clearances to begin with.
Bret: I have to agree with Bob Corker, the departing Republican senator. He called the revocation of Brennan’s security clearance a “banana republic kind of thing,” though that’s probably unfair to banana republics.
Any serving CIA director will have reasons to bring his predecessors into some confidence, whether because they need advice or because some issue was handled by that particular predecessor. I haven’t always agreed with Brennan, but I still think he’s an outstanding public servant.
Trump is just so — small. Still not sure what we did to deserve him.
Bret Stephens and Gail Collins are columnists for The New York Times.
