Suffering in Silence
What happens behind the doors of the Catholic Church
In today’s society, where superiors use their standings to justify their wrongdoings, the exercise of power has ultimately been taken advantage of. The power dynamic established between a superior and his subordinates or underlings is a setting in which the superior oversees all and handles matters in a way that he believes is the most efficient or reasonable. However, the issue with this particular structure of ruling is that it is highly subjective, especially in confined spaces where people can’t voice their opinions. What a superior might consider as morally wrong or right may not necessarily abide by the law. Because they hold such high titles, they are granted authority over others. Consequently, they are not held accountable for their unlawfulness because no one exists above them to check them. This however is not the case for subordinates whose actions are surveilled and regulated.
In American crime-drama television series “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” a specially trained squad of detectives in the New York Police Department investigate sexually related crimes. Through the series, we get an idea of how superiors use their power unlawfully. In season 17 episode 18 of the series, an underage sex trafficking case arises involving vice cops, high-ranking government and church officials, and a member of NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau. Ed Tucker from Internal Affairs, was implicated for the cover-up of the sex trafficking ring. Tucker had been accused by dirty detectives who claimed he agreed not to take disciplinary actions against them if he was given a cut from the ring. With none of the stories adding up, SVU detectives blackmailed a dirty judge with incriminating photography of a 16 year-old girl on his lap at a sex party. They were then able to get the records of the priests’ financials from the judge. The detectives discovered that Father Eugene had a loft that he clearly couldn’t afford with a priest’s salary. They then became suspicious of him.
After further investigation, they came to the conclusion that the loft was paid for with legitimate funds. However, they discovered that the loft was being used as a sex dungeon where he performed B.D.S.M. with his “personal trainer.” After having been caught initiating in the act at the loft, the trainer, Father Eugene, and the Monsignor were brought to the police department for questioning. The Monsignor knew about Eugene’s sexual fetishes, including the alter bondage play that he had performed in the church with the trainer. As punishment, Eugene was sent on sabbatical to deal with “sickness,” and he was still permitted to teach upon his return. However, the Monsignor still used the alter bondage play against Eugene, and made it clear to him that his life in the Church would end unless Eugene found vulnerable girls for him. Ultimately, that’s how he got Eugene to use his title to procure girls for the Monsignor to traffic, while continuing to frame Tucker for his crimes. After extensive questioning, the Monsignor told the detective that the rings’ hooks run deep, as he was aware that not only were church officials involved, but so were judges, legislators, and D.A.s. Eventually the Bishop stepped in and asked that the case be handed over to the federal government, claiming that the city’s judicial system was corrupt. He then added that the church would fully cooperate with complete transparency.
The detectives eventually found evidence implicating the church officials. Tubs containing compromising photos and receipts from the sex parties they held had been buried in the church’s front yard. The women testified, admitting that the Monsignor blackmailed them into silence. He threatened to tell their parents and say they were filthy whores had they spoken up about the incidents. The grand jury ended up indicting 3 assemblymen, a councilman, and 2 judges. On the other hand, the Bishop was sent to a treatment center.
This episode of Law and Order: SVU accurately depicts how corrupt people in power can be, and how the system does not always succeed to serve justice. The Bishop and Father Eugene did not receive legitimate punishment for their wrongdoings. Had they been taken into custody as church officials, they would have asserted an image of themselves that is opposite of what they’re expected to be. As people of a higher ranking, their wrongdoings are simply brushed under the rug. This relates directly to Foucault who stated, “Napoleon did not discover this world; but we know that he set out to organize it,” which compares to the Monsignor of the church. The Monsignor was the one who determined how the church was ran, it’s structure, and how matters were handled. Foucault continued by saying, “he wished to arrange around him a mechanism of power that would enable him to see the smallest event that occurred in the state he governed; he intended, by means of the rigorous discipline that he imposed, ‘to embrace the whole of this vast machine without the slightest detail escaping his attention’.” In the sex trafficking case, the mechanism of power used to watch over the church and its members were the Monsignor and the nuns. As women, they were subservient to him. They were the eyes of the church. They reported to him and followed his orders all while keeping quiet about the misconduct going on in the house of God. The place was closely surveilled. Although they were under his control, they weren’t victims of the sex trafficking. However, it was clear that if they refused to cooperate, they’d be raped, killed, or both. As a place of worship, members expect some degree of privacy because it is a spiritual, confined space. Outsiders aren’t aware of what takes place behind its doors. The Monsignor used his power against others to silence and blackmail them. He went against the beliefs of the church. However, since that was the state he governed, no one else had a say in what happened. Because the public wasn’t aware of what went on, outside authorities couldn’t have stepped in any sooner to handle the matter in an alternative way.
