Excommunication is an awfully harsh punishment to impose on an errant Catholic, particularly an anguished Catholic whose son was sexually abused by a Catholic priest. What did Mr. Peyton do to deserve Bishop Deshotel’s wrath?
It appears Peyton angered the bishop by writing a letter that expressed his disillusionment over his son’s molestation and the way in which the Catholic Church dealt with it.
After “deep reflection,” Peyton wrote that he had determined to “go away the Catholic Church and the diaconate.” He additionally wrote that he was distressed by years of stories about sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.
“The magnitude of those revelations,” Peyton wrote, “has deeply shaken my religion and belief within the establishment to which I’ve devoted a good portion of my life.”
Peyton burdened that his resolution to resign from the diaconate and go away the Church was not a rejection of his Christian religion. “As a substitute, it displays a conscientious objection to the way in which the Church has dealt with instances of sexual abuse and a want to distance myself from an establishment that, at present, falls in need of the values it professes.”
I feel Bishop Deshotel miscalculated. If each Catholic whose religion was shaken by the Church’s sexual abuse scandals deserves excommunication, then tens of millions of persons are going to be kicked out of the Catholic Church.
I confess that my Catholic religion has been deeply shaken by a whole lot of stories of kid rape—rape that was lined up by dozens of bishops on the recommendation of their attorneys. So, Bishop Deshotel, I invite you to excommunicate me too.
Scott and Letitia Peyton
Picture credit score: The Advocate
