But it’s not Polanski’s childhood tragedies that are best known. In 1969 his pregnant wife Sharon Tate was murdered by the followers of cult leader Charles Manson. Then eight years later, in a self-inflicted blow, Polanski agreed to plead guilty to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. After plying a 13-year-old girl with champagne and pills he raped her. It was reminiscent of a scene from Rosemary’s Baby, his 1969 Satanic thriller, where a man drugs his wife so Satan can have sex with her. The young girl was a model he was shooting for Vogue magazine, a minor under his charge and involved with him in his work. He fled the country hours before he was due to be sentenced. As the Academy Awards ceremony approached many wondered if its members would consider his pedophilia in casting their ballots or simply judge his work strictly on its merits. When Harrison Ford announced Polanski the Oscar winner the decision was in. The Academy values his art to such a degree it is willing to look past his crimes. After all, the minor he raped, now a mother of three living in Hawaii, wrote a published editorial last month that she has no hard feelings towards the director for what she still insists was non-consensual sex. Therefore, who are we to suggest that Polanski hasn’t been redeemed by his work and transformed by his art? Yes, his ‘relationship’ years later with 15 year old Nastassja Kinski, the star of his critically acclaimed Tess, was widely reported. Following the same pattern, he seduced Ms. Kinski on a photo shoot for Vogue magazine. But who are we to judge him for repeatedly having sex with minors associated with his work in light of his cultural contribution? Just ask Cardinal Law. None of us have forgotten the media frenzy surrounding revelations of sexual abuse by priests in the Catholic Church. Cardinal Bernard Law, the archbishop of the Boston Diocese, was justifiably criticized for his lack of leadership in dealing with these crimes. He was never accused of sex with minors himself. His unforgivable sin was his abuse of power. Instead of confronting pedophilia within his ranks, he relocated offenders into other congregations. In the end, he was forced to surrender his post under pressure from priests, laity, the media, and wider public opinion. Hasn’t the Academy become the secular equivalent of Cardinal Law? In his desire to preserve the contributions even pedophile priests make he was willing to look past their crimes. The Academy has made the same moral decision by considering only Polanski’s work, not his crime. By giving Polanski, the criminal, a pass because Polanski, the artist, is gifted not only dismisses the worth of laws that protect our children from violent adult predators, but relegates innocent children to play things to be abused by the well-connected. The Academy and Cardinal Law are communicating the same dangerous message; do good work and we’ll look the other way even on terrible crimes. By giving Polanski the Oscar for best director the Academy has turned it’s back on victims of sex-abuse. The message is clear. Art trumps crime even if the crime is consistently committed in the course of the artists work. Such a position is morally myopic. It values making good films more than protecting society’s most innocent members. The Academy, like the church, has a shaping influence on the moral discourse of our culture. It often dismisses with ease the contributions of our ecclesiastical institutions and in many ways openly competes with them. Tothesource applauded those in the church that insisted on a lack of tolerance for pedophiles and other violent criminals in their professional ranks. Last week the Academy, in front of 33 million viewers, had an opportunity to send a similar message. Instead, they gave their most famous pedophile their highest award. Last August, just as the Catholic sex-abuse scandal was erupting across the nation, two of the most over-the-top radio personalities on air, Opie and Anthony, lost their jobs at Viacom’s WNEW. The Catholic League was the driving force behind their removal. What did these two shock-jocks do that was so….shocking? Two of their listeners engaged in sexual intercourse in a vestibule of St. Patrick’s Cathedral during a service. The act was recorded by a station correspondent for their “Sex for Sam” contest and broadcast to listeners in several major cities. The Catholic League insisted on their removal to send a clear message that the defamation of places of worship would not go unpunished. The business community was equally clear. Advertisers pulled ads. Wall Street shaved 4% off of Viacoms stock price in one day. Opie and Anthony got the boot at the insistence of Viacom top executive, Mr. Sumner Redstone. The Church, unfortunately, failed to act so decisively when it was their priests that did the desecration. Cardinal Law, along with other church leaders, took years to muster equal moral clarity. What is even more troubling (if that's possible) is that the sex that took place was not an act between consenting adults and openly admitted but instead pedophilia that was covered up and denied for years. Fortunately for the Catholic Church, and our culture at large, Catholic laity across the nation insisted that their church leadership examine these problems honestly and openly and to take appropriate action. |