The Catholic flag covers many secrets. For now, let us focus on child
abuse and paedophilia, shall we ?
We shall begin by stating the obvious, which is the duality between doctrine
and reality.
We find it utterly poignant that the doctrine preaches a pure and unselfish
love,
while reality time and time again shows us betrayal and untamed lust.
A great number of people charged with conducting the doctrine
apparently feel the irresistible urge to abuse their role of protector
for the sake of their own sick fantasies.
In Europe, the matter was brought to
light on a large scale by the scandals in Ireland:
investigation by the authorities showed that sexual abuse on Catholic
schools in Ireland was of daily occurrence.
Of the 35,000 children that attended Catholic schools and boarding schools
between the years 1930 and 1990,
more than 2,000 say that they were abused physically and sexually.
After 9 years of investigation, the fact-finding committee states that
ecclesiastic leaders have encouraged the abuse.
The children were hit by priests, raped, maltreated and sometimes also
starved.
With girls, sexual abuse was much less frequent, but the nuns did maltreat
them.
The authorities made an agreement with the Catholic church not to prosecute
the perpetrators…
So, abuse under Catholic flag knows many
different forms.
Our story is that of a priest, residing in a small village. In this village,
a young girl is orphaned unexpectedly.
She comes from a so-called lower environment, and has never known proper
education.
The girl is bold, aggressive and at the same time she holds the naivete
of a child. She is entrusted to the care of the priest.
He takes it upon himself, as part of providing a correct education, to
convert her to “the only true faith”.
From the beginning however, this role gets severely hampered by the fact
that the girl exerts on him an irresistible and almost animal magnetism.
In his mind, he calls her “Jezebel”.
And with the passage of time, he increasingly finds himself being torn
between doctrine and lust,
posing the obvious question over and over again: can a sworn priest experience
earthly love ?
Of course he can. And, throughout the
centuries, many of them have.
Sometimes a pure and romantic love, sometimes love of a sleazy, dirty
kind.
In our story, the priest becomes obsessed by the same creature he tries
so hard to convert to his own belief.
So, in the end, he becomes the one that gets converted.
Within the context of this story, the name given to the girl by the priest
is especially interesting.
This can best be illustrated by the (partial) description of Jezebel
in religious theory:
“The name Jezebel came to be associated with false prophets, and
further associated by the early 20th century with fallen or abandoned
women.
In Christian tradition, a comparison to Jezebel suggested that a person
was a pagan or an apostate masquerading as a servant of God.
By manipulation and/or seduction, she misled the saints of God into sins
of idolatry and sexual immorality, sending them to hell".
The samples used in this track are taken
form the movie Priest by Antonia Bird (1994).
The last sequence of the song is our tribute to Radiohead’s -almost
angelic- passage in Paranoid android (OK Computer, 1997).
(first voice)
Way down, rising, this desire crawls
Way down, drowning, my convicted faults
Hands down, way down, let my world explode
Head down, way down, lets my world explode
Her legs, parting, is the sea that calls
Her mouth, soothing, is the veil that falls
(second voice)
Both fear and sin
let the devil in
Left to my own dismay,
all will has fled and His hand
feels so cold these days
and
Spellbound and torn by shame;
she is the one vow I cannot change
(first voice)
She sleeps in me,
she screams and wakes
my demons
She lures and waits,
won’t let me sleep,
pulls me down
(second voice)
Here comes our call,
here comes our silent judgement day
He weighs our souls,
He sees me trying until I fall