My Firefox homepage is a personalised iGoogle page with useful bits and pieces. Among them are the Daily Telegraph and Google News feeds - and a feed from Reuters "oddly enough" section. This has items like "Man forgets car at gas station", "Cow plunges off cliff onto moving minivan", you know the sort of thing. Yesterday's selection had "Bishop backs brothel regulation" with the story that Bishop Hollis of Portsmouth has supported the local branch of the Women's Institute in calling for the licensing and regulation of brothels.It was perhaps unfair of Reuters to list it with randomly falling cows and absent-minded drivers since Bishop Hollis was offering a serious and well-intentioned argument. However, it is one with which I respectfully but strongly disagree. The legalisation of an evil seldom has the hoped-for consequences and inevitably leads to a greater social acceptance of the particular evil that is legalised.
Bishop Hollis is quoted as saying:
"If you are going to take a pragmatic view and say prostitution happens, I think there is a need to make sure it's as well regulated as possible for the health of people involved and for the safety of the ladies themselves,"This is one of many arguments for the legalisation of brothels. Women who oppose legalised prostitution point out that it is the women who are tested for STIs, not their customers, and that the law is therefore only of use to protect the men, not the women. They also point to the experience of prostitutes who continue to suffer routine violence in legalised brothels.
Other suggestions are, for example, that licensed brothels will cut down on organised crime and street prostitution. However, the international consensus seems to be moving sharply against the idea of legalised prostitution both for practical reasons (it doesn't help) and for reasons of principle (it assists the exploitation of women). Recently, the International Herald Tribune, in the article Bulgaria moves away from legalizing prostitution made the point:
Bulgaria is only the latest European country to shift its approach to prostitution. Finland changed its law last year and Norway is on the verge of following suit. Even in Amsterdam, the city government has proposed shutting down more than a quarter of the famed storefront brothels in the city's red-light district. And in the Czech Republic and the three Baltic republics, pushes for legalization similar to the Bulgarian one have also been turned back.The article also observes pertinently that the fight against legalising prostitution has been led by "an unusual coalition of allies, including the Bush administration, feminist groups and the Swedish government."
Janice Raymond of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women International wrote an article some years ago giving 10 Reasons for Not Legalizing Prostitution. The article gives arguments under the following headings:
Another article arguing along similar lines is one by Sheila Jeffreys: The Legalisation of Prostitution : A failed social experiment. The Coalition Against Violence Against Women has a range of further recent articles opposing legalisation.
- Legalization/decriminalization of prostitution is a gift to pimps, traffickers and the sex industry.
- Legalization/decriminalization of prostitution and the sex industry promotes sex trafficking.
- Legalization/decriminalization of prostitution does not control the sex industry.It expands it.
- Legalization/decriminalization of prostitution increases clandestine, hidden, illegal and street prostitution.
- Legalization of prostitution and decriminalization of the sex Industry increases child prostitution.
- Legalization/decriminalization of prostitution does not protect the women in prostitution.
- Legalization/decriminalization of prostitution increases the demand for prostitution. It boosts the motivation of men to buy women for sex in a much wider and more permissible range of socially acceptable settings.
- Legalization/decriminalization of prostitution does not promote women's health.
- Legalization/decriminalization of prostitution does not enhance women's choice.
- Women in systems of Prostitution do not want the sex industry legalized or decriminalized.
26 comments:
Video about the modernist shame in Fátima, Portugal: http://gazetadarestauracao.blogspot.com/2007/11/heresia-moderdista-em-ftima.html
Fr. Tim,
I just can't agree with Bishop Hollis on this one.
"Make it legal, make it safe" was the trick played by David Steel and Roy Jenkins back in 1967 to push the Abortion Act through.
It's false logic and, try as apologists might, you can't apply it to moral evils, whether prostitution, abortion, drugs or the widespread possession of firearms. Legalization of these things simply makes matters worse, and I am disappointed that the Bishop has taken the position he has.
"If you are going to take a pragmatic view and say prostitution happens, I think there is a need to make sure it's as well regulated as possible for the health of people involved and for the safety of the ladies themselves,"
Lets see now:
"If you are going to take a pragmatic view and say ABORTION happens, I think there is a need to make sure it's as well regulated as possible for the health of people involved and for the safety of the ladies themselves,"
"If you are going to take a pragmatic view and say DRUG TAKING happens, I think there is a need to make sure it's as well regulated as possible for the health of people involved and for the safety of the ladies themselves,"
Need I go on.
Bishop Hollis's judgement is very wrong here. How could he make such a stupid mistake? The assumption that prostitution simply "happens" is quite ridiculous. No Bishop you have to go and get business. You have to charge for selling your body. It doesn't JUST HAPPEN.
Fr. Is his satement not a scandal to the faithful?
I will be attending a Rally on Thursday to protest aginst the proposed legislation here in Western Australia to allow legal brothels.
Only last week one local Authority shut down a brothel which had bee blatantly set up in an area which that Council is trying to clean up. This proposed legislation will prevent local Councils from doing that in the future. The State Government will be the arbiter of such brothels.
All your arguments against legalised prostitution are valid points. The State Attorney General who is bent on setting up this legislation comes from a Catholic family but he left that behind him years ago. He is also pushing for "Living Wills" which will have the effect of increasing euthanasia. Anything anti-Catholic and he's for it!
His parents must be turning in their graves.
JARay
It is obvious to anyone but a fool that 99% of prostitutes in the UK are drug addicts or women, mainly from eastern Europe and the Third world, who are being trafficked (ie forced) into it under the most brutal conditions. In the latter case its not prostitution it's rape and legalised brothels would institutionalise that rape.
I would take a two pronged approach.
1) Abolish the present drugs laws which focus on possession/selling not use of drugs. If adults want to buy & posess white powder that is their problem. This would allow the drugs to be sold at chemists and taxed putting the dealers out of business. To deal with those taking drugs two new offences would be created. (1) Being under the influence of drugs in a public place (2) Causing a nuisance to others while under the influence of drugs (eg allowing cannabis smoke to drift into your next door neighbours garden). Both offences would carry a mandatory 6 month visit to a secure hospital where rehabilitation would take place (paid for by said taxes on drugs and an increase in tax on smoking and alcohol). The police would have powers to stop and compel people to take drugs tests randomly and where a complaint is made.
This would mean that those who chose to take drugs did not have to pay dealers and ensure anyone taking such drugs ended up with a compulsory visit to a secure rehabilitation centre before very long. This would stop young women (and men) prostituting themselves to buy drugs and mean the state helped them not just shoved them in prisons where drugs are easily available.
I would also change the law so that anyone er, visiting, a prostitute who has been forced into the trade is guilty of rape and anyone trafficking prostitutes is guilty of a new offence of facilitating rape which would carry a mandatory life sentence.
That would sort it.
Sad news. :(
You're right Father. All legalising them does is to make them "acceptable" and "legitimate". It makes the orgniased crime attached to them also "legitimate" and creates a legal mafia culture. In my book that's very bad.
Is he compltely off his head? i mean i have a mental illness but i've never been that psychotic! They'd best not legalise it for my 8 daughters..you expect your Bishop to take care of souls not assist them in their degredation...i am really,really fuming here!
May I point out that , although your views are quite licit in the Church (and I agree with them), it is also quite alright for Catholics to believe that prostitution should be legalised - St Thomas specifically states that he believes that prostitution should be legal but controlled.
What is his lordship on??? Why do we have a Catholic heirarchy in the UK that is intent on scattering it's sheep to the winds instead of leading us however difficult the road, to the Kingdom of Heaven. And this comes on top of a raging battle with Rome over the Latin Mass!!! Papa Benedict save us from these protestants. Legalise prostitution? - NEVER! Can you imagine the consequences had Our Blessed Lord taken 'a pragmatic view' when He came to our world. Just beggars belief.
christian:
You should also realise that St Thomas chased a protitute sent by his brothers, out of his room with a hot poker.
I am speechless. To quote the Catechism, No. 2355: "Prostitution is a social scourge." It must be fought.
And to actually think legalising makes the situation for the women better!
In 2002, the leftist German government of Chancellor Schröder legalised prostitution by passing the "Prostitution Act" (yes, that's actually how it's called). Just this week, the most famous German feminist, Alice Schwarzer, declared in an interview in leftist German weekly "Der Spiegel" (http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/ 0,1518,513846,00.html) that the law is an utter failure. An example: in a new "mega brothel" (shudder), which have only become possible after the legalisation, there was a razzia by the police. They took 30 women with them to question them, and the prosecutor then brought charges (term?) against the "operator" of the brothel, because the women had to be there 13 hours daily (from 2 pm until 3 am), had to be naked the whole time, were not permitted to make phonecalls etc. etc. The "operator" was discharged, because the judge argued that according to the "prostitution act", prostitution is a "normal trade" and therefore the "operator" has the "right of direction and control".
Also, the government prided itself that now the women can get social security. Not a single one has registered with social security in the almost six years since.
That a bishop should fall for this would be laughable, if it weren't so tragic.
There is no point in my pretending to be shocked at this news about the bishop supporting the idea of licensed brothels.
It really doesn't surprise me that Bishop Hollis has said this.
But what's all this about the W.I. of all people calling for licensed brothels.
Have they gone mad ?
I have linked to the "gazeta da restauracao". Sorry I can't put in the accents. The link does not, unfortunately, actually fit in with this topic. It concerns the Hundus being allowed to use the chapel at Fatima and to put flowers at the feet of Our Lady in that chapel. There is nothing wrong with the link except to say that the topic is not this one. It is years since I used my Portugese. I have forgotten most of it but this brought it back. I confess to being an ex Seminarian of the English College, Lisbon. This College is now defunct (sadly)
JARay
Thomas Aquinas wasn`t right on everything. He also said that Human laws should imitate Divine laws. The point he was making about prostitution is the fostering of a greater good, or a lesser evil. I do not see how arguing for the legalization of brothels in the UK in 2007 (with associations now to drugs and slave-trade) does either. St Thomas also had some dodgy views on the Immaculate Conception. None of us is perfect.
Anon - I will certainly remember in my prayers the intention that your requested.
The more you see dumb thinking, as exhibited by the bishop, makes you MORE certain than ever that the Catholic church is a divinely protected institution. Now purely human organization with such people in charge would last for long.
Actually he St Thomas chased the prostitute with a flaming torch (I have a print of the event in discussion next to my computer). The fact of the matter is there is NOTHING heterodox about supporting regulated prostitution. The Florentines did it to discourage homosexuality. Once again I say - I agree that prostitution should be banned but that is only my opinion. The bishop (awful as he is) has said nothing heterodox. The immaculate conception thing was undefined when St Thomas was writing but no decrees have come out about prostitution and civil law contradicting him.
I find the Bishop's arguments both absurd on their face and similar to arguments used in favor of contraception and abortion.
The idea is we should tolerate a great evil, namely the enslavement of women to the filth of our society, under the grounds of we can care for them better.
One also might say, couples engaging in illicit sexual relations might as well wear a condom because at least they will be protected. Or, though abortion isn't good we should nevertheless make sure it is "safe".
Now to do a reductio ad absurdam: Even though car theft is bad, we should make car doors so that they do not hurt the car thief when he breaks into them. After all, we don't want people to get hurt. Or, rape is evil but women should carry condoms in their purses just in case, that way the rapist doesn't transmit a disease and everyone is "safe". Better yet, drugs are immoral, but since they will be used anyway, government should make sure that they are of good quality so no one gets hurt.
It doesn't matter what you do to make them "better", they are evil in and of themselves. Any support that you give to these things is complicity in the act, even if it is under the guise of "making people safe". What was this Bishop doing during moral theology? Why not advocate more widespread property access and employment or programs to help poor women get into jobs that pay well so that they don't need to turn to these things? What the Bishop is suggesting is to help enslave women further, just make it more comfortable for them. Perhaps he should advocate true aid for these women, or look for religious communities that help prostitutes reform and work in the world into his diocese? The whole approach is inexplicably modern.
Dear Father Finigan,
I agree with you totally on this issue however Professor Jeffrey, correct as she is on this issue, has her own political agenda, which can be summed up as 'separate lesbian feminism'. As an instance she did once, according to a woman friend of mine who attended a confernece in Melbourne, claim that 'marriage was rape'.
John ~ it's possible to get the accents to work by pressing down the ALT key and using the ASCII code for example: é (130).
I know most of the French ones legacy of université.
Off subject, I know, but I am intrigued to learn more about the English College Lisbon. How sad it was to shut down these foreign colleges. I think studying abroad is more romantic and interesting for candidates. People might scoff at suchg a statement, but the life of a priest is grim enough and I would regard studying in Portugal a better boost to the morale than Ushaw for example.
Sorry but sinner that I am, I am just not in the mood to discuss brothels this afternoon.
I agree with the Bishop on this - provided that the legalisation is not a "hard stop" - i.e., it is a only the first step to bringing these women out of prostitution altogether. Put them in a place with hygiene, away from the control/abuse of pimps, with hours regulated - and where they are given the opportunity to be ministered to spiritually and emotionally, show them non-judgementally that there is a way out, there are better options. Is that really helping sinners? No, they're doing it anyway, but now we are showing compassionate, if we save one soul this way it would be the right thing to do. Controversial, perhaps, but how else would the majority of us really, practically help these women? I don't for a second accept any validity in the argument that this is like legalizing abortion etc. Let's help create an environment whether these women can make proper choices and be given the support to escape prostitution, because no woman truly chooses this path. What would Mother Theresa do, or Our Lord? Let's remember his conversation with the woman at the well? Wouldn't we feel safer going into a regulated place to minister to these women than a place where bouncers and pimps hang out? This kind of Q really tests or Christian resolve.
He only does it to annoy
I accept that the views of some of the anti-legalisation campaigners are strongly feminist - but that doesn't mean that they are wrong on this issue. They are also very much opposed to pornography.
Catholic Lawyer - I agree with you, of course that practical steps should be taken to help prostitutes. But legal brothels is not, in my view a good idea. There is no way that the organised criminals would be kept out - their profits would be made easier. Better to provide services outside of the "industry". The Missionaries of Charity do this in Rome with very good effect by providing a refuge. And of course you can provide all the cleanliness you like for the women but if they are having sex with diseased men, they are likely to catch those diseases.
The interesting experiment is that in Sweden where prostitution was decriminalised for the women but not for the men. The incidence of prostitution has been reduced. However, there have been problems there too and it is not the whole answer
'Wouldn't we feel safer going into a regulated place......'
I know what you are driving at Catholiclawyer, but I would question the motives of even being NEAR such a place let alone entering one, regulated or not!
Regulation merely gives the government another dubious role - that of Pimp. HMP - Her Majesty's Pimps! They would be loathe to let go such a role, or indeed help these poor ladies out of their plight. Why? Because the sex business would bring yet more tax revenue £zillions into the government coffers.
Quite frankly it is appalling, the Amsterdam model the Hampshire WI are promoting has been discredited by the city's own authorities.
City authorities announced in December 2006 the initial closure of almost one third of the windows from which prostituted women ply their trade in the city's famous red-light district
While prostitution is legal in the Netherlands, the authorities have found the sector is a magnet for female trafficking and money laundering.
It is puzzling to see a Bishop supporting an 'Amsterdam' experiment for Britain which is being rejected by the Mayor of Amsterdam as a mistake.
Bishop Hollis is giving me additional work that I do not have the funds to deal with. I am very angry with the Catholics of Hampshire for tolerating this peculiar behavior.
Gregory Carlin
Irish Anti-Trafficking Coalition
As a result of this bishop's inane remarks every Catholic church in the land is displaying a so called Catholic newspaper with 'brothels' and 'prostitution' emblazoned in headlines.Well done Bishop Hollis! The devil will delight in the innocent children exposed to this in their Church.
Who will rid us of these turbulent bishops and pseudo-Catholic rags of newspapers?
Post a Comment