Pope Francis Could Save the Church. Will He?

I gave up on Catholicism back around 2000, even before I ultimately came out of the closet.  I was sickened by the homophobia of the institutional Catholic Church and its desperate clinging to 12th century knowledge.  So I became an Episcopalian.  Ultimately, through a fluke, I ended up switching to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ("ELCA"), the liberal version of Lutheranism.   When the sex abuse scandal exploded in Boston in 2002, I felt my decision to leave Catholicism was the correct move given the moral bankruptcy of the Church leadership all the way up to John Paul II.  For a time, some family members remained in the Church, but now, most have left as well, some moving to the ELCA, many of the younger ones simply walking away from religion as has been the case with so many Millennials.   With the damning revelations of the Pennsylvania grand jury report - I suspect a similar investigation in other states would reveal similar findings - many Catholics are likely pondering whether it isn't finally time for them to walk away in a realization that reform of the Church from within is most unlikely.  Only one man could change that equation if he wanted to do so.  As a column in the New York Times ponders, will Pope Francis defy the fossilized and utterly corrupt curia and hierarchy and make radical changes to save the institution.  Here are column highlights:

The Roman Catholic Church’s clergy sex abuse crisis has come roaring back to life as if it were the worst days of 2002, when the scandal tsunami out of Boston seemed to inundate the entire church.

The shock waves this time came from substantiated allegations that a well-known cardinal, Theodore McCarrick, a retired archbishop of Washington, had molested boys; he was forced to resign last month from the College of Cardinals. Then came the grand jury report out of Pennsylvania detailing 70 years of horrific abuse by some 300 priests, too much of it facilitated by bishops.

It has all landed on the desk of the current pope, and the scandals have the potential to undermine the Francis pontificate.

It shouldn’t. Indeed, if Pope Francis lives up to his own words and actions, this could be a chance for him to advance his vision of church reform and turn a long-running crisis into an opportunity for long-term renewal.

This eruption was inevitable. At a historic meeting in Dallas in June 2002, American bishops agreed to a comprehensive set of policies designed to protect children and punish offending priests. . . . as the bishops effectively exempted themselves from genuine oversight or discipline for failing in their jobs, the sin that truly scandalized the faithful.

Only Rome could investigate bishops, they said, and only the pope could punish them. That wasn’t likely. The Vatican under John Paul II was not very keen on the United States hierarchy’s new policy against priests, and the pontiff certainly didn’t want to throw his own bishops under the bus.

Now the scandal has even some of John Paul’s staunchest fans questioning the wisdom of his canonization in 2014, and it bedeviled Pope Benedict up to his stunning 2013 resignation.

[I]n March 2013, Pope Francis — then Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires — gave a brief, powerful address in which he said the church needed to open up or risk becoming “self-referential” and “sick” with “theological narcissism” that leads to the worst evil, the “spiritual worldliness” of an institution that is “living in itself, of itself, for itself.”

As pope, he has saved his harshest rhetoric for his fellow clerics, especially the cardinals and bishops, criticizing them as “careerists” and “airport bishops” who spend more time flying around the world than tending their flock.

“Clericalism is a perversion of the church,” Pope Francis told 70,000 young Italian Catholics at a rally this month. “The church without testimony is only smoke.”

Pope Francis’ vision of the church is clearly more radical than the defensive posture of John Paul or the nostalgic traditionalism of Benedict. But is he willing and able to implement it?

The pope has had spotty record on disciplining bishops and on the sex abuse issues as a whole, but a promising trajectory. For example, in 2015 he investigated and dismissed two American prelates, Bishop Robert Finn and Archbishop John Nienstedt, who had been accused of covering up for abusive priests. (Both men were favorites of conservative Catholics and found sanctuary elsewhere.) In 2014, Francis removed a conservative Paraguayan bishop who had sheltered an Argentine priest who had left the diocese of Scranton — yes, a diocese cited in last week’s grand jury report — under suspicion of sexual abuse.

Yet earlier this year, Pope Francis faced what had been the greatest crisis of his papacy when he firmly defended a Chilean bishop accused of covering for a notorious and influential priest who led a scandalous double life. Then in April, faced with evidence that the bishop, Juan Barros, and many other in that country’s hierarchy had in fact been complicit in the scandal, the pope suddenly reversed course, . . .

When Archbishop McCarrick was found to have molested minors as well as young men, the pope not only ordered the retired 88-year-old churchman confined to virtual house arrest but also accepted his resignation as a cardinal.

These are encouraging steps, but much more is needed: not only the kind of spiritual renewal that Pope Francis demands but also the kind of systematic change that can safeguard children and vulnerable adults, restore some credibility to the institutional church and begin to dismantle the culture of clericalism — the spiritual elitism of holier-than-thou cliques who cover for one another as they try to run the church.

Pope Francis has frequently been excoriated by church conservatives . . . . But on the issue of abuse, the Catholic right is often proving to be the pope’s unlikely ally, with many calling for a top-to-bottom overhaul.

It’s not like the church has to rewrite the creed. Instead, Catholicism can start by creating a human resources department to ensure that any person who is sexually harassed or assaulted — especially by a bishop or cardinal — can report it in confidentiality and safety.

It’s a simple first step, but even that would have been unthinkable under the ecclesiology of previous pontificates. Now such changes are both unavoidable and integral to the kind of humble, open church that Pope Francis desires. They also work. . . . and they will work for addressing the church’s two outstanding problems: protecting adults as well as minors, and holding accountable bishops who cover up for abuse as well as those who commit abuse.

“Test everything; retain what is good,” Saint Paul wrote to the Thessalonians nearly 2,000 years ago. It was good advice for the church back then, and it is even more relevant today.

I am not optimistic and continue to believe than only plunging membership figures and plunging revenues - America remains one of the largest financiers of the Vatican - will ultimately force change.   If you want the Church to change, the first step is to walk away.

  

National Catholic Reporter: Church Must Stop Divisive Anti-Gay Foot Stomping

With the massive defeat it experienced in Ireland and now with the same sex marriage ruling by the Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges, one would think that the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy would see the hand writing on the wall: either stop the anti-gay hysteria that the sky is falling and angry foot stomping or else become even more irrelevant in the world, especially in the educated western world. Many of the high clergy - many of whom I suspect are self-loathing closet cases who don't want to admit that they have squandered their lives following 13th century understandings of sexuality - are not getting this message.  A main editorial in the National Catholic Reporter (which is not under the control of the hierarchy) makes the case why a changed approach to gays and gay marriage (among other issues) is needed.  It's a message lost on Francis Xavier DiLorenzo,the bishop of the Diocese of Richmond who still bars divorced teachers from working at Catholic schools even if they are the best qualified. Here are some excerpts:

The Catholic church, which has used some of the most severe language of major denominations in its condemnation of homosexuality, labeling those with a homosexual orientation "intrinsically disordered," is especially challenged by the ruling.

At least its leaders are, for it has become clear in recent years that when it comes to believers, Catholics are among the most accepting of homosexuality. In terms of same-sex marriage, according to recent Pew Research polling, "Among Catholics and white mainline Protestants, roughly six-in-ten now express support for same-sex marriage."

Churches certainly don't run on polling data, but the bishops should at least be informed of what the flock is thinking. And the majority of the flock is not in agreement with assertions such as those voiced by Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., who called the decision "a tragic error."

Kurtz, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, compared Obergefell v. Hodges to Roe v. Wade . . .

The comparison with Roe is simply way off base. Obergefell is not a matter of life and death. The case thus stated by Kurtz also places the conference in the posture of combatant -- with everyone: gays and lesbians, their families, government structures, not to mention the church itself in the expression of the many Catholics who disagree.

Further, if the church's experience with Roe is any indication, taking the combative approach will mean endless years of litigation and lobbying, convincing few and alienating many while further depleting whatever political capital the church might have left. 

These complex matters will demand more of the bishops than a foot-stomping "no." . . . a combative stance is not the only option. First, the church's treatment of divorced and remarried people is an apt comparison to gay couples. Divorce and remarriage is legal in all states, but the church is not required to perform such weddings. Ministers remain free to denounce divorce. At the same time, it is rare that Catholic institutions fire people who divorce and remarry; moreover, they and their new spouses often receive benefits. Such consideration is not viewed as an endorsement of a lifestyle.

Further, Reese points out, "In Catholic morality, there is nothing to prohibit a Catholic judge or clerk from performing a same-sex marriage. Nor is there any moral obligation for a Catholic businessperson to refuse to provide flowers, food, space and other services to a same-sex wedding." Bishops, even those intent on railing against the decision, need to make that point clear to their people.

[B]ishops and others should not underestimate the power of human experience nor the depth of insights gleaned in the short period during which parents stopped being embarrassed by their children, and gay children stopped hiding themselves and their sexual orientation.

Cupich's "take a deep breath" approach seems a far more productive way to sort out the tangle of issues that certainly will unravel in the wake of this decision. The bishops -- many of whom like to compare themselves to fathers of a family -- might, before they commit to a protracted fight, sit down with gay and lesbian Catholics and their families and respectfully listen to their stories.

Meanwhile, we need to call a halt to actions that will further divide and damage the body of Christ. 

What we must avoid at all costs is a spate of firings of Catholic high school track coaches and math teachers. We can respect a narrow definition of the ministerial exemption out of respect for religious belief, but the broadening of the definition of "minister" to include schoolteachers, food pantry workers, diocesan accountants and parish musicians is wrong and must be resisted.

The editorial authors clearly understand the concept of "change or die."

Evangelicals, Catholics, Mormons and Methodists File Briefs Opposing Marriage Equality

Proving yet again that conservative, ignorance embracing religious dogma is one of the main enemies to the rights of LGBT Americans - indeed, LGBT individuals world wide - the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Evangelical, Mormon, Baptist, [Missouri Synod] Lutheran, Methodist and other religious organizations have filed briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court supporting bans on same sex marriage.  Among the bullshit arguments put forth are claims that CIVIL law same sex marriage "threatens" religious freedom."  What this really translates to is that these denominations - and the bitter old men in dresses in bishopric across the country a number of whom deserve to be criminally prosecuted for covering up sex abuse of minors - are livid that they are losing the ability to force their Bronze Age beliefs onto all of society.   (The good news is that far more businesses and other groups have filed briefs asking the Court to strike down all such bans.)  Christian Today looks at the continued evil done in the name of religion.  Here are excerpts:

More than 60 groups have filed briefs against same-sex marriage to the US Supreme Court, with most of the opposition coming from religious organizations . . . 

By comparison, more than 370 businesses and groups including employers such as Google have filed "friend-of-the-court" briefs in support of gay marriage. Many prominent Republicans have also filed briefs in support.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops along with evangelical, Mormon, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist and other religious organizations have warned that legalising same-sex marriage will lead to serious future conflicts between Church and State.

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is among those organizations that have warned of threats to freedom of speech among traditional believers, and that people of faith face being marginalized if they continue to hold to their view that marriage is between a man and a woman.

Religion News Service listed 16 states led by Republican governors as among those calling for bans to be upheld . . .

The self-prostitution of Republican governors to the "godly folk" is utterly stomach wrenching.  What happened to the GOP I grew up in?

Catholic Dioceses to Collide with Virginia GOP Over Immigration Reform

In all candor, today's Republican Party of Virginia is largely comprised of far Christofascists, Tea Party extremists, white supremacists and a few old time Republicans who refuse to face the reality that the GOP has morphed into something ugly.  Not surprisingly, immigration reform is not favored by the Virginia GOP and its anti-immigrant and anti-minority base.  Now, the Virginia GOP is about to collide with the Roman Catholic dioceses in Virginia which are putting on a push for passage of the Senate backed immigration reform bill that would provide a pathway to citizenship.  While the Virginia GOP and the Catholic bishops have been allies in the war on women's' health and gay rights, immigration provides a sharp break in the allied effort.  The Virginian Pilot looks at the Catholic push for immigration reform.  Here are excerpts:

More than a half-million Roman Catholics in Virginia will be asked at Sunday Mass on Sept. 8 to lobby their congressmen to pass immigration changes that give a path to citizenship for people living illegally in the United States.

The campaign is part of a national effort by American Catholic church leaders who say it's time to change U.S. immigration laws to make it easier for low-skilled workers to immigrate here, and to preserve family unity.

"We think there is unprecedented opportunity today to fix a broken immigration system," said Jeff Caruso, executive director of the Virginia Catholic Conference, which handles legislative affairs for Virginia's two bishops. "We look at it through the lens of family. A lot of times deportation polices have the consequences of separating children from their parents."

Their lobbying probably will encounter resistance from several of the commonwealth's federal lawmakers, including some in Hampton Roads, who dislike the idea of giving the estimated 11 million people illegally living in the country a special route to legal status.

In addition to priests addressing the issue from the pulpit, Caruso said parishioners throughout the commonwealth will receive a one-page insert in their church bulletins explaining the issue, along with contact information for members of Congress.

Long interested in reforming what they view as a failing system, the bishops and other supporters have stepped up their lobbying since the Senate passed a sweeping immigration overhaul in June. The measure includes a provision to allow millions of people illegally living in the United States to take steps toward citizenship under procedures that can take 13 years, as well as proposals to beef up border security and other changes. Virginia's two U.S. senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, voted for it.

Rep. Scott Rigell, R-Virginia Beach, who also opposes the Senate bill, has yet to see a path to citizenship proposal that he would support, said his spokeswoman, Kim Mosser Knapp. Rigell is interested in helping children in the country illegally, she said.

Rep. Bobby Scott, D- Newport News, favors assisting those in the country illegally. Earlier this summer, Scott said giving those 11 million people a path to citizenship - while securing U.S. borders, protecting workers and uniting families - "is critical to any comprehensive immigration reform package."

One can only hope that Virginia's immigrant and Hispanic voters are watching carefully and will realize that they need to turn out in force and vote against the GOP's statewide slate in November in order to send a strong message to the GOP.

No Fundamental Change in Catholic Church Sex Abuse Policy

Throughout the sex abuse scandal that has raged over the last decade or more, the Catholic Church hierarchy has worked hard to (i) paint the problem of priestly sex abuse as a problem of the past, and (ii) convince gullible Catholics and the larger population that the Church has changed its ways.  The problem is that both of the Church's PR efforts are not true as repeated stories from around the world reveal.  A piece in the National Catholic Reporter looks at the current situation and concludes that no fundamental change has really occurred whatsoever.  The bigger question is why, if this article is correct, anyone gives the Catholic bishops the time of day?  Especially, politicians who ought to be running from ties to child rapist enablers.  Pope Francis may talk tough, but nothing has really changed to date.  Here are some article highlights:

Rumors that the Roman Catholic church's clergy sex abuse crisis is a problem of the past have been greatly exaggerated.

"The bishops' public relations machine has persuaded the people that it is a problem that was, not that is," Jeff Anderson says, "and that is a living lie. There have been superficial changes, but not fundamental changes."

Anderson, one of the most well-known lawyers to bring a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic church, was part of a panel to promote the publication of Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal, a new book by journalist Michael D'Antonio.

The event took place April 23 in New York City's Bleecker Street Theatre, one week before new revelations that, just across the Hudson River, Newark's Archbishop John J. Myers allowed a priest who admitted to groping a 14-year-old boy to attend youth retreats, travel with a youth group on a pilgrimage to Canada and hear the confessions of minors.

In addition to Anderson, the panel, moderated by D'Antonio, included some of the biggest names in advocacy against child sexual abuse, all of whom figure prominently in Mortal Sins: canon lawyer Fr. Thomas Doyle, psychotherapist Richard Sipe, former priest Patrick Wall, and Barbara Blaine, founder and president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Much of the conversation among the five panelists focused on why these abuses continue to persist given that in the past decade, the institution has suffered severely negative press, a mass exodus of followers, and more than $3 billion in settlements worldwide.

D'Antonio traces the root of the problem to the church's unusual relationship to spiritual and political power, which he said began in 1870, when the pope was given a new form of authority called infallibility. Then, 60 years later, the Vatican's civil status was defined in a concordat signed by then-Prime Minister Benito Mussolini.

"Catholicism became the only religion in the world with the status of a country, ruled by a churchman who was also a monarch," D'Antonio explains in Mortal Sins.  For Doyle, it's the church's monarchical structure that has made the global sex abuse cover-up possible. "In the office of pope, there is the power to demand complete obedience and to require secrecy in order to preserve that power."

Anderson said the obedience requirement has resulted in the "absolute exclusion of critical thinking" among the clergy, who are threatened with "the loss of pay, power and pension" if they refuse to obey.

"I have a deep respect for church as the body of Christ, but no respect left for the institution, the pope or the bishops," Doyle said. "There is corruption from the top down."  .   .  .  . What changed me was meeting the victims of sex abuse and their mothers and fathers," Doyle told the panel audience.

Like Doyle, Sipe trusted the institutional church would eventually fix this crisis, and he, too, said the cover-ups "reach the highest corridors of the Vatican."

"We will not see radical change under this pope or any other pope unless there is a change in the system that says the pope and cardinals are above everyone because God made them that way," Doyle said. "The men at the top need to be fired."  "We must demand and require legally and culturally that the Vatican disgorge itself of its secrets and that they obey civil laws," he said.

There's more to the article, but readers can see where it is going.  I remain of the view that until more Catholics simply walk away, the powers that be in the hierarchy will see no reason to change.   Until the hierarchy's power, money and undeserved privilege is seriously threatened, there will be no change.  Meanwhile, members of the laity who continue to drop checks in the collection basket help finance the criminal enterprise.

Catholic Bishops Threaten to Block Immigration Reform if Gays Included

In my view, those who believed that Pope Francis might usher in a new climate in the Roman Catholic Church are either delusional or simply have their head up their ass.  In terms of the Church hierarchy's anti-gay jihad, nothing has changed.  And other than nice words, nothing has changed on the sexual abuse cover ups either.  It is all business as usual in terms of gay bashing and no punishment for the members of the hierarchy who aided and abetted child rapists.  Consistent with this continued moral bankruptcy, the U. S. Catholic bishops have renewed their opposition to comprehensive immigration reform if bi-national same sex couples are included in the legislation.  Of course, the biggest question the bishops' latest tantrum raises is that of why anyone decent with a shred of morality pays them an attention at all. A piece in AmericaBlog looks at this latest example of Catholic Church anti-gay animus.  Here are highlights:

The Catholic church, in its traditional move when it doesn’t get its way at the ballot box, is taking human shields in order to force its minority religious view on 100% of the American people.  This time the Catholic leaders, infamous for their ongoing aiding and abetting of child-rape in their own church, have taken 11 million undocumented Latinos hostage in yet another of their ongoing efforts to gay-bash.

The Catholic bishops, who have no business telling non-Catholic Christians like myself how to live our lives, let alone the rest of non-Catholic America, sent yet another anti-gay nastygram to President Obama, demanding he exclude gay bi-national couples from any immigration reform package, or they’ll torpedo the legislation.

The Catholic bishops threw a similar hissy fit over immigration reform in February.  Oddly, the bishops have yet to throw a hissy fit about their own colleagues aiding and abetting pedophilia.  It’s only the gays’ presumed-pedophilia that worries the Catholic bishops – the real thing, not so much.

The Catholics elders are known from their human-shield-taking.  They’ve taken children hostage in Illinois, Massachusetts and Washington, DC as part of their church’s ongoing political vendetta against the gays.  And the lead Catholic bishop in France recently seemed to justify anti-gay hate crimes.  So if they’re willing to harm children, and tolerate a few hate crimes, in order to get their way, they’re certainly willing to take a swipe at Latinos too.  (Perhaps it’s time Latinos learned that the Catholic church is not their friend – and perhaps this latest move will finally prove it.)

As for the Catholic threat to torpedo immigration reform lest the gays be free – let them try.  The only reason immigration reform is moving at all is because the Republican party is terrified that its lost the Latino vote forever, while Latinos are an ever-growing percentage of Americans.  That, along with traditional GOP bashing of gays, women, and African-Americans, among other people and causes, has so turned off young voters that it’s not clear, other than the South and very old white men, just who is willing to vote for a Republican anytime between now and the next century.

So let the Catholic church just try to torpedo the GOP’s big comeback with Latinos.  That should be fun to watch.

I continue to believe that a government investigation of the Catholic Church is needed in America.  It is the only way the truth will ever come out and the only way that the nasty old men in dresses will ever be held accountable for their crimes against children and youths.

Priest Plans to Defy the Vatican’s Orders to Stay Quiet on Gays and Women

In a move that it would be refreshing to see more Roman Catholic priests and laity take, the Rev. Tony Flannery (pictured above), a prominent Irish priest, is refusing to knuckle under to the Vatican's demands that he uphold the Vatican's position that women should never be ordained as priests and that he adhere to the Vatican's anti-gay and anti-women orthodoxy.   Not surprisingly, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - a/k/a the Inquisition - is really pissed off and has its panties in a huge knot.  The reality, of course is that in the Church's earliest days women did hold high office and the Church's absolute ban on contraception is of relatively recent invention.  The New York Times has an article that looks at the Vatican's efforts to shut down a conversation that needs to take place if the Church is going to avoid sliding into further irrelevance in Ireland (and elsewhere in the western world) in the future.  Here are excerpts:

DUBLIN — A well-known Irish Catholic priest plans to defy Vatican authorities on Sunday by breaking his silence about what he says is a campaign against him by the church over his advocacy of more open discussion on church teachings. 

The Rev. Tony Flannery, 66, who was suspended by the Vatican last year, said he was told by the Vatican that he would be allowed to return to ministry only if he agreed to write, sign and publish a statement agreeing, among other things, that women should never be ordained as priests and that he would adhere to church orthodoxy on matters like contraception and homosexuality. 

“How can I put my name to such a document when it goes against everything I believe in,” he said in an interview on Wednesday. “If I signed this, it would be a betrayal not only of myself but of my fellow priests and lay Catholics who want change. I refuse to be terrified into submission.”

In the letter, the Vatican objected in particular to an article published in 2010 in Reality, an Irish religious magazine. In the article, Father Flannery, a Redemptorist priest, wrote that he no longer believed that “the priesthood as we currently have it in the church originated with Jesus” or that he designated “a special group of his followers as priests.” 

Instead, he wrote, “It is more likely that some time after Jesus, a select and privileged group within the community who had abrogated power and authority to themselves, interpreted the occasion of the Last Supper in a manner that suited their own agenda.”

He believes the church’s treatment of him, which he described as a “Spanish Inquisition-style campaign,” is symptomatic of a definite conservative shift under Pope Benedict XVI.  “I have been writing thought-provoking articles and books for decades without hindrance,” he said. “This campaign is being orchestrated by a secretive body that refuses to meet me. Surely I should at least be allowed to explain my views to my accusers.” 

In reply to an association [of Catholic Priests] statement expressing solidarity with Father Flannery, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith denied it was acting in a secretive manner, pointed out that Father Flannery’s views could be construed as “heresy” under church law, and threatened “canonical penalties,” including excommunication, if he did not change his views. 

The Vatican's obsession with silencing Flannery are in sharp juxtaposition to the Vatican's failure to take meaningful steps against those who harbored and protected sexual predators within the clergy.  Indeed, in another Times article, details are provided about how German priests carried out sexual abuse of minors for years.  Here are highlights:

BERLIN — A report about child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in Germany, based on victim accounts and released by the church this week, showed that priests carefully planned their assaults and frequently abused the same children repeatedly for years. 

The church’s credibility regarding its commitment to an impartial investigation suffered a fresh blow last week when the bishops canceled an independent study into the abuse scandal amid allegations by the independent investigator, Christian Pfeiffer, that the church was censoring information. 

The church insists that it remains committed to carrying out the independent study once a new investigator can be found. Even if the church should produce a report, observers note that it will be a challenge to undo the damage caused by Mr. Pfeiffer’s allegations. “It’s not even about the damage to their image so much as it is to their trustworthiness,” said Andreas Holzem, a professor of church history at Tübingen University.

The reported assaults were clustered largely in the country’s heavily Roman Catholic regions along the Rhine River to the west and throughout the south, including Pope Benedict XVI’s home state, Bavaria. 

Germans were further outraged by reports this week that two Roman Catholic hospitals in Cologne had refused to carry out a gynecological examination on a 25-year-old suspected rape victim. An emergency doctor who had helped the woman told the newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger that the hospitals cited ethical objections to advise women on unwanted pregnancies and on steps that can be taken to prevent them, like the morning-after pill.

German Bishops Cancel Study Into Sexual Abuse by Priests

Motivated by apparent fears as to the horrific picture that would be painted of the Church - especially the obstruction of justice and cover ups orchestrated by the bishops and, of course, the Vatican, Germany’s Roman Catholic bishops on Wednesday canceled a study into the sexual abuse of minors by priests.  God forbid that more of the public and the sheeple still in the pews in Germany come to understand the full scope of the moral cesspool that is the Church hierarchy.  The reality is that the only way that the scope of the Church's crimes will ever be known is for government criminal investigations to go forward.  Whether or not politicians have the courage to take on the Church, however, remains a troubling question.  Here are highlights from the New York Times on events in Germany:

Germany’s Roman Catholic bishops on Wednesday canceled a study into the sexual abuse of minors by priests, prompting the investigator to accuse them of trying to censor what was to be a major report on the scandals. 

The independent study, examining church files that sometimes date to 1945, was meant to shed light on undiscovered cases after about 600 people filed claims against priests in 2010 following a wave of revelations of sexual abuse.

Bishop Stephan Ackermann, a spokesman on abuse issues for the German Bishops’ Conference, said that the hierarchy had lost confidence in the researcher, Christian Pfeiffer, a criminologist, and that it would look for another specialist for the study.

Mr. Pfeiffer told German Radio that the bishops wanted to change previously agreed-upon guidelines for the project to include a final veto over publishing its results, which he could not accept. 

Officials made “an attempt to turn the whole contract towards censorship and stronger control by the church,” said Mr. Pfeiffer, head of the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony. 

One lay Catholic organization, known as the International Movement We Are Church, called the decision “a devastating signal for the credibility of the church leadership” that showed the bishops could not accept an independent inquiry into the scandals. The German justice minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, said that the church’s effort to clear up the scandals should not end in “a halfhearted inventory.” 

“It’s high time that the Catholic Church opened up and let outside experts look at its archives,” she told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

A commission set up by the Belgian church received 475 reports of abuse before its premises were raided in 2010 by the police seeking evidence for possible criminal cases against predator priests. It reported 13 victims had been driven to suicide.  

Speaking to German Radio, Bishop Ackermann said the bishops feared that Mr. Pfeiffer would publish results without their permission. 

The criminals in the Church hierarchy need to be exposed and rather than kissing the pompous asses of the bishops - both in Germany and in America - elected officials should be pushing for government controlled criminal investigations into the Church and the rampant sexual abuse of minors that was not only allowed to occur, but in some cases aid and abetted, and most certainly covered up by the Church leadership.  These bishops have no standing to be making any pronouncements on moral issue and a good number likely deserve to be behind bars.

Catholics Defy Bishops and Pray for Gay Marriage

I often want to pull my hair out over the way ion which far too many Catholics continue to not only listen to but also give deference to the morally bankrupt, criminal cover up conspirators of the Catholic Church hierarchy.  With the Catholic bishops leading the current charge to deprive LGBT citizens  the civil rights enjoyed by others, it is refreshing to see that some Catholics have seen the light and are giving the bishops the figurative middle finger in defiance of the bishops hate filled agenda.  A case in point is Catholics in Seattle, Washington who have held a pray service voting for the affirmation of gay marriage on November 6th.  The Seattle Post Intelligencer looks at the event which I hope will become something common:  Catholics openly saying "No" to the foul hierarchy.  Here are story excerpts:

The folk mass hymns and gospels were familiar, the response "And with your spirit" recited Sundays in church by millions of Catholics, but the 120 faithful gathered outside Seattle's St. James Cathedral on Sunday afternoon were praying for a cause their bishops are campaigning against.

Mobilized by Catholics for Marriage Equality, they celebrated a "Liturgy of Love," praying for the recognition of same-sex unions and the passage of Referendum 74, which would legalize marriage between persons of the same gender.

"I would just say the God I have come to know is not one to tell people they are not equal," said Robert Gavino, a Seattle University student.

John House, a parishoner at Our Lady of Sorrows parish in Snoqualmie, added: "Catholics believe Christ's primary message is one of love, and Catholic social teaching teaches us that God loves everybody. We are standing up for centuries of Catholic social teaching."  They are also standing against their bishops.

We disagree, said those on the steps of St. James Cathedral.  "I find (bishops' claims) perplexing:. Nothing about marriage equality in the state of Washington is any infringement on liberty. This is about civil marriage and civil law," said John Morfield, a longtime parishoner at St. Mary's Catholic Church.

And Barbara Guzzo, organizer of Catholics for Marriage, argued that the bishops have brought "anguish, division and sadness" to the faithful, "particularly those with a gay person in their families, the hurt that this has caused."

Fr. John Whitney, S.J., pastor of St. Joseph Church, has encouraged discussion and helped a recent meeting to promote reconciliation between those who share the bishops' passionate opposition and those who back Referendum 74. "Authority never supplants conscience," he told parishoners in a recent "e-blast."

But stridently conservative bishops across the country have brought politics to the pulpit -- and delivered dictates of what belongs in the consciences of those in the pews.

State Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, present at St. James on Sunday, is a practicing Catholic and chief sponsor of marriage equality in the Legislature. Murray said he was outside the cathedral as a demonstration of his faith.  "I think any time we show solidarity with those on the margins of our society, it is an expression of our faith," said Murray. "We (gays) are certainly on the margins . . . at least in the hierarchy's structure."

Sadly, nowadays the Catholic bishops have become one of the biggest obstacles to the fulfillment of the Gospel message.  The principal message is one of hate and division and exclusion.  Their true gods are power, money and control over others.  The true message of Christ is nowhere on their radar screen.

Is the Catholic Church Sex Abuse Scandal About to Expolde in Australia?

Thanks to a Google search agent I use, I get daily digests of news stories from around the world.  And the sad reality is that there are stories about the molestation of children and youths - and the ever present efforts by the Church hierarchy to cover up for predator priests - somewhere in the world virtually every single day.  However, things appear about to explode to a new level in Australia where news reports indicate that three of that nation's top Catholic prelates have been exposed for covering up acts of sexual abuse of children and minors.  And contrary to the Church's efforts to always blame the gays for problem, many of the victims are girls.  Personally, as noted before on this blog, I believe the systemic sex abuse problem stems from (i) the Church's bizarre celibacy requirement which originated solely to keep property from being lost from the Church to the families of priests, and (ii) the equally bizarre obsession of the hierarchy and priesthood with all things sexual.   The Sydney Morning Herald looks at the growing calls for a government investigation of the Catholic Church.  Here are highlights:

PRECISELY six months after the paedophile priest Denis McAlinden was reprimanded but not reported by the church over allegations of child sex abuse, Father Brian Lucas told the Wood Royal Commission that ''to engage in a cover-up … is the very worst way of approaching it''.

Now Father Lucas, the general secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, is one of three senior Catholic officials being investigated by police detectives over the concealment of McAlinden's offences in the 1990s.  Strike Force Lantle is due to deliver a brief of evidence to prosecutors in the next few weeks.

 Despite an ''admission'' he made to Father Lucas, McAlinden was sent a letter as part of the censure process promising that ''your good name will be protected by the confidential nature of this process''. Archbishop Wilson has declined to undergo a police interview.

''A royal commission must now be urgently established to uncover the full extent of the church's systemic failure to deal with decades of child sexual abuse committed by priests in dioceses in NSW,'' the Greens MP David Shoebridge said.

Hunter man Lou Pirona, whose son John was sexually assaulted by a priest as a child and died last week after leaving a letter saying he was in ''too much pain'', said: ''Any inquiry that unearths the people who did these things to children, and those who hid it, is not only desirable but necessary.''

The Australian Broad Casting Corporation identifies the clerics at the center of the cover up controversy and sketches the scope of the problem as follows:

The priest at the centre of the allegations, Father McAlinden, died in 2005. The three senior leaders facing possible legal action are Father Brian Lucas, retired Bishop Michael Malone, and the Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson. 

 

SUZANNE SMITH, REPORTER: Strikeforce Lantle has been investigating how the senior leaders in the Church dealt with this priest, Father Dennis McAlinden.  He arrived in Australia in 1949, and for 40 years was transferred from parish to parish as complaints emerged about his behaviour.

 

 DAVID SHOEBRIDGE, GREENS MLC: Well, we've seen today that there are senior members of the Church who are not talking to police. We now also know this is a systemic failing. It's not just one priest, it's not just one diocese - but there is a systemic failing by the church, and until we have a Royal Commission that uncovers the real truth, then those victims and their families will never have a sense of completion, will never have justice.

Yes, it is the same pattern that has been seen all over the world as the Vatican directed a worldwide criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice and protect vile predators from justice.  And the toll of damages lives of victims likely runs into the hundreds of thousands.  There are few institutions more foul than the Roman catholic Church.  Yet we continue to see politicians - here in America, typically Republicans - kissing the asses of the Catholic bishops rather than calling for investigations, criminal prosecutions, and jail sentences for the horrible morally bankrupt "princes of the Church."

Catholic Church Loses Ontario Battle Against Gay Straight Alliances

In an example in my view of who all schools that receive any government funding ought to be treated the Ontario legislature has enacted the Accepting Schools Act, known as Bill 13, which mandates that all schools in the province must allow GSA's regardless of whether they are public or Catholic schools.  The Globe and Mail has details.  Needless to say the child rapist protecting members of the Church hierarchy are beside themselves and playing the victim card - even though the Catholic schools are publicly funded due to a historic deal that was made back in the early days of Canada's split from Great Britain.  Obviously, the next issue will be whether that public funding should end in the event the Catholic schools refuse to abide with Bill 13 - something that seems to be gaining popular support as reported here.  Here are highlights on the bill's passage:

The Ontario government’s anti-bullying legislation is well on its way to becoming law, making it clear that sexual assault, gender-based violence and incidents based on homophobia will not be tolerated in the province’s elementary and secondary schools.

The Accepting Schools Act, known as Bill 13, passed third and final reading on Tuesday with a vote of 65 to 36. It was the first bill to pass since the Liberals won a minority in last October’s provincial election. The New Democratic Party supported the bill and all 36 Progressive Conservative MPPs voted against it.

“Today is about saying to Ontario students, ‘You can be who you are. You will be safe and accepted at school and the Ontario government supports you in that desire,’ ” a visibly relieved Education Minister Laurel Broten told reporters just minutes after the vote.

The bill amends the province’s Education Act and every school must comply with it, regardless of whether they are public or Catholic, Ms. Broten said.  The bill has opened up a rift between Roman Catholic church leaders and the government over an amendment which removes schools’ veto over allowing students to set up clubs called Gay Straight Alliances.

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario praised the bill, saying students must be protected from discrimination, including homophobia.  “We’re pleased that neither a board nor principal may prevent students from using the name ‘gay-straight alliance’ if they wish to start such a student organization,’” ETFO President Sam Hammond said in a statement.

Even as the bishops pout and stamp their feet, the lay trustees of the provinces Catholic schools seem to be getting the message that the bishops may be cutting the schools' financial throats.  Here are these highlights:

Ontario’s Catholic school trustees fear that they have lost the support of their communities in their opposition to gay-straight alliances, and that the issue has eroded public support for Catholic education, a document obtained by The Globe and Mail shows.

The OCSTA memo amounts to an acknowledgement that the trustees are “out of step with where the rest of the culture is at” by taking a hard line against GSA’s, said Peter Tabuns, the New Democratic Party’s education critic.

He suggested that trustees may be raising questions about the McGuinty government’s commitment to funding Catholic education as a “rallying cry” to try to pull people together. “But I can’t see how it would be successful,” he said. “I don’t see the signals that would indicate the whole landscape is about to change.”

[T]he bill has turned into a debate on whether it will continue funding Catholic schools, Ms. MacLeod said.  “This has opened up a Pandora’s box,” she said.

8 Ways Christian Fundamentalists Make People Become Agnostics or Atheists

While surveys have shown that religious fundamentalism tends to inversely related to education levels (Episcopalians and Evangelical Lutherans are among the best educated denominations and least likely to believe in the Bible as inerrant), science, reason and knowledge are not the only things that drive individuals from Christianity.  No, the Catholic hierarchy and their Christian fundamentalist allies are do a great job all on their own as they daily demonstrate that the hallmarks of their style of religion are hate and hypocrisy.  And ironically, their constant jihad against gays is one of the leading reasons why people are increasingly converting to agnosticism or atheism.  Yes indeed, rather than "converting people to God's word" they are driving them away.  An article in AlterNet looks at the leading reasons people walk away from Christianity.  Here are excerpts:

If the Catholic bishops, their conservative Protestant allies, and other right-wing fundamentalists had the sole objective of decimating religious belief, they couldn’t be doing a better job of it.

 

[I]f you read ExChristian testimonials you will notice that quite often church leaders or members do things that either trigger the deconversion process or help it along. They may turn a doubter into a skeptic or a quiet skeptic into an outspoken anti-theist, or as one former Christian calls himself, a "devangelist."Here are some top ways Christians push people out the church door or shove secret skeptics out of the closet. Looking at the list, .you can’t help but wonder if the Catholic bishops, Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann and their fundamentalist allies are working for the devil.

 1. Gay Baiting.   Ignorant and mean-spirited attitudes about homosexuality don’t drive just gays out of the church, they are a huge deconversion issue for straight friends and family members. When Christians indulge in slurs, devout moms and dads who also love their gay kids find themselves less comfortable in their church home. Young people, many of whom think of the gay rights issue as a no-brainer, put anti-gay churches in the “archaic” category. Since most people Gen X and younger recognize equal rights for gays as a matter of common humanity, gay baiting is a wedge issue that wedges young people right out of the church.

2. Proof texting. People who think of the Bible as the literally perfect word of God love to quote excerpts to argue their points.  .   .   .   .   They proceed to quote whatever authoritarian, anti-gay or anti-woman verse makes their point, like,    .    .    .     .   In doing so, they call into question biblical authority, because the Bible writers so obviously got these issues wrong. Literalists who prooftext are a tremendous asset to those who would like to see Bible worship fade away – because prooftexting on one side of an argument invites the same in return, and it is easy to find quotes from the Bible that are either scientifically absurd or morally repugnant.

3. Misogyny. For psychological and social reasons females are more inclined toward religious belief than males. They are more likely to attend church services and to insist on raising their children in a faith community.   .    .   .    but fortunately for atheists, this fact hasn’t caused conservative Christians to back off of sexism that is justified by – you got it – proof texting from the Old and New Testaments.    .    .    .   Between 1991 and 2011 the percent of women attending church in a typical week dropped by 11 points, from 55 to 44 percent.

4. Hypocrisy. Christians are taught – and many believe—that thanks to the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit they are a moral beacon for society.   .    .    .    But the added pressure on those who call themselves the "righteous” means that believers also are prone to hiding, pretending, posing, and turning a blind eye to their own very human, very normal faults and flaws.  .     .      .    People who desperately want to be sanctified and righteous, “cleansed by the blood of the lamb” – who need to believe that they now merit heaven but that other people’s smallest transgressions merit eternal torture—have a lot of motivation to engage in self-deception and hypocrisy.    .    .   .   Backbiting and social shunning are part of the church-lady stereotype for a reason. They also leave a bitter taste that makes some church members stop drinking the Kool-aid. 

5. Disgusting and Immoral Behavior. The priest abuse scandal did more for the New Atheist movement than outspoken anti-theists like Christopher Hitchens (God is Not Great), Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), Sam Harris (The End of Faith) or Bill Maher (Religulous) ever could.  .    .    .   .   The Freedom from Religion Foundation publishes a bi-monthly newspaper that includes a regular feature: The Black Collar Crime Blotter. It features fraud, drug abuse, sex crimes and more by Protestant as well as Catholic clergy. 

6. Science Denial. One of my former youth group friends had his faith done in by a conversation with a Bible study leader who explained that dinosaur skeletons actually are the bones of the giants described in early books of the Bible.  .   .   .   .   science denial doesn’t just move believers to nonbelief; it also rallies opposition ranging from cantankerous bloggers to legal advocates. It provides fodder for comedians and critics: “If the world was created 6,000 years ago, what’s fueling your car?” It may produce some of the most far-reaching opposition to religious belief, because science advocates argue that faith, even socially benign faith, is a fundamentally flawed way of knowing. 

 7. Political Meddling. If you look at religion-bashing quote-quip-photo-clip-links that circulate Facebook and Twitter, most of them are prompted by church incursions into the political sphere.   .   .   .   .   I myself give George W. Bush credit for transforming me from a politically indifferent, digging-in-the-garden agnostic into a culture warrior. He casually implied that, when going to war, he didn’t need to consult with his own father because he had consulted the big guy in the sky, and my evangelical relatives backed him up on that, and I thought, oh my God, the beliefs I was raised on are killing people. The Religious Right, and now the Catholic bishops, have brought religion into politics in the ugliest possible way short of holy war, and people who care about the greater good have taken notice.

8. Intrusion.  [S]erious intrusions, in deeply personal beginning- and end-of-life decisions, for example, generate reactive anti-theism in people who mostly just want to live and let live.  Catholic and evangelical conservatives have made a high-stakes gamble that they can regain authoritarian control over their flocks and hold onto the next generation of believers (and tithers) by asserting orthodox dogmas, making Christian belief an all-or-nothing proposition.   .   .   .   .   the more they resort to strict authoritarianism, insularity and strict interpretation of Iron Age texts, the more people are wounded in the name of God and the more people are outraged. By making Christian belief an all-or-nothing proposition, they force at least some would-be believers to choose “nothing.” Anti-theists are all too glad to help.

Nowadays, when I hear someone proclaim that they are a Christian - frequently in inappropriate settings where such statements ought not even be made -  it's usually one or more of the foregoing characteristics/actions that springs to mind.  Believe me, it's almost nothing of a positive nature.  Let's hope the bishops and their Christianist allies continue killing Christianity - or at least their foul version of it.

Maureen Dowd Slaps Down the Catholic Bishops

As noted in prior posts, I believe the shrieks of the Roman Catholic bishops that their "religious liberty" is under attack by the Obama administration are utterly disingenuous.  Instead it's all about (a) distracting the news media from the constant stories of sex abuse by priests and (b) inflicting their 12th century beliefs on all Americans.  In a New York Times column Maureen Dowd give the bishops a much needed slap down and comes to calling them hypocritical liars.  It's a great read.  Here are highlights:

I wasn’t surprised to see the Gallup poll Tuesday showing that 82 percent of U.S. Catholics say birth control is morally acceptable. (Eighty-nine percent of all Americans and 90 percent of non-Catholics agreed.) 

The poll appeared on the same day as headlines about Catholic Church leaders fighting President Obama’s attempt to get insurance coverage for contraception for women who work or go to college at Catholic institutions. The church insists it’s an argument about religious freedom, not birth control. But, really, it’s about birth control, and women’s lower caste in the church. It’s about conservative bishops targeting Democratic candidates who support contraception and abortion rights as a matter of public policy. And it’s about a church that is obsessed with sex in ways it shouldn’t be, and not obsessed with sex in ways it should be.

The bishops and the Vatican care passionately about putting women in chastity belts. Yet they let unchaste priests run wild for decades, unconcerned about the generations of children who were violated and raped and passed around like communion wine.

They still have not done a proper reckoning, and the acrid scandal never ends. In the midst of a landmark trial in Philadelphia charging Msgr. William Lynn with covering up sexual abuse by priests and then recirculating the perverts, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Sunday that two priests in their 70s who worked in parishes and hospitals had abused minors at some point and were unfit for ministry.  This follows five priests sidelined earlier this month.  .  .  .  . plus 17 others suspended after last year’s sickening grand jury report on rampant sexual abuse in the Philadelphia Archdiocese. 

[T]he pugnacious Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York rejected the compromise and charged that the White House is “strangling” the church.    Interpreting the rule in the most extreme way to scare Catholics, he said: “They tell us if you’re really going to be considered a church, if you’re going to be really exempt from these demands of the government, well, you have to propagate your Catholic faith and everything you do, you can serve only Catholics and employ only Catholics.”

The Archdiocese of Washington put an equally alarmist message in the church bulletins at Sunday’s Masses  .   .   . 

The church leaders headed to court hope to undermine the president, but they may help him. Voters who think sex is only for procreation were not going to vote for Obama anyway. And the lawsuit reminds the rest that what the bishops portray as an attack on religion by the president is really an attack on women by the bishops. 

Bullied Gay Minnesota Teen Jumps to His Death

With an anti-gay marriage amendment on the November ballot, the anti-gay vitriol from the "godly Christian" crowd and child rapist protecting Catholic Church hierarchy has been high in Minnesota.  We'll never know if some of that anti-gay rhetoric encouraged Jay “Corey” Jones' tormentors in their bullying.  Bullying which Jones' father says played a major factor in the 17 year old's leap from a pedestrian bridge.  The blood on the hands of the Christianists continues unabated and what is most disturbing is that the godly folk don't even seem to give a damn.  The level of callousness and plain evil is shocking and certainly is part of what is prompting the millenial generations growing exodus from organized religion.  Here are excerpts from the Post Bulletin on this sad but all too familiar story:

Bullying because of his sexual orientation played “a big part” in the suicide of a 17-year-old Century High School student on Sunday, according to the boy's father.  Jay'Corey Jones knew he was gay from a young age and was bullied for a number of years because of it, suffering depression as a result, said to his father, JayBocka Strader of Rochester.

"He said all of his life they always picked on him," Strader said. "He'd still try to keep his head up at school, but then he'd come home and be really sad about it."

Jones, a member of Century's gay-straight alliance, had an image on his Facebook page that said, "Gay & Proud." He was open about his sexuality and occasionally wore tight, colorful tank tops and short-shorts to school, Strader said.

"He just got really depressed about it because the guys weren't accepting him," Strader said.  Jones jumped from a pedestrian bridge near Century High School on Sunday, according to police.

In response to an inquiry from the Post-Bulletin, schools Superintendent Michael Muñoz issued a statement acknowledging there are issues related to bullying in the district. He did not directly address Jones' situation.  The district is in the planning stages of providing training and support for students, staff and families, Muñoz said, and will continue anti-bullying collaborations with Gov. Mark Dayton’s recently formed anti-bullying task force, Rochester police and others in the community.

I hope Maggie Gallagher, Tony Perkins, the Catholic Church hierarchy and similar hate merchants are happy with this latest fruit of their handiwork.  

 

Washington Post Slams Catholic Bishops and Hierarchy

I've noted many times that ridding the Catholic priesthood of sexual predators and punishing those who enabled them and covered up their misdeeds for decades if not longer continues to be nowhere on the radar screen of important issues for the Church hierarchy.  Attacking and opposing full civil rights for LGBT citizens, opposing contraception, launching disingenuous claims that "religious liberty" is under attack, etc., are important to this sick group of self-centered men, but not the rape of children and youths.  Or at least not until it causes media embarrassment.  The Washington Post takes note of the sick priorities of the bishops and hierarchy in it's lead editorial today.  Here are highlights:

BY THE CATHOLIC Church’s reckoning, it has undergone a sea change since the days when sexual predators in clerical collars sexually abused young boys with scant fear of dismissal, reprimand or even excessive concern by their supervisors.

Yet despite the hierarchy’s insistence that it is investigating and rooting out sex criminals, the church often seems stuck in a defensive crouch. Too often it has failed to move against abusers and those who tolerate them until forced to do so by legal action or the threat of full-blown scandal.

In its reluctance to discipline Catholic leaders who covered up or ignored sex crimes, the church also deepens the impression that it remains focused more on safeguarding its image than protecting victims.

Worryingly, there are even signs that the church’s passivity has morphed into hostility toward its accusers. In March, the New York Times reported that lawyers for the church have launched a campaign against a group that has championed the victims of pedophile priests, asking courts to force the group to disclose more than 20 years of e-mails. The organization, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, says that the church’s action is a serious threat to its advocacy.

While Catholic leaders insist they have turned the tide against clerical sexual abuse, the church’s behavior suggests that its default is to protect the abusers and their supervisors who turned a blind eye. Until that changes, the church’s promises of zero tolerance will remain an illusion.

Five Philadelphia Priests Ousted For Sex Abuse - NC Bishops Attack Gays

In yet another example of the utterly f*cked priorities of the Catholic bishops, as note in a prior post, the bishops of Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina, have mobilized to urge Catholics to vote in support of Amendment One to bar any legal recognition of sames sex couples in North Carolina.  When it comes to weeding out sexual predators, about the only thing the bishops do is drag their feet as illustrated by the cesspool situation in Philadelphia.  More than a year after a grand jury raised concerns about 37 accused priests, only eight of the cases are resolved with five priests being removed from ministry.  The other 29 remain thankfully have been suspended from ministry positions.  The conclusion is pretty obvious: depriving LGBT citizens of civil law rights is a high priority while protecting children and youths from would be child rapists is barely on the radar screen.  I ask you, which situation poses the greater harm?  These men are despicable and I hope exit polls on Tuesday reflect that a majority of Catholics vote against Amendment One.  Here are details from MSNBC on the morally bankrupt archdiocese of Philadelphia:

Five priests have been deemed "not suitable for ministry," the Catholic Church of Philadelphia announced Friday, in its first action since it suspended 26 priests after a January 2011 grand jury report detailed dozens of cases of sexual abuse by clergy.   Philadelphia Archbishop Chaput said three other clergy were reinstated to the ministry and one had died without a determination. 

SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, sent out a statement saying they're shocked that more than a year after a grand jury raised concerns about 37 accused priests, only eight of the cases are resolved, according to NBC Philadelphia.

SNAP had called on Chaput to personally visit every parish where priests with "unsubstantiated" allegations have worked and appeal to "victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to come forrward and shed light on the accusations, one way or another." Instead, the victims group said, "we predict he'll do the bare minimum and make no real outreach efforts."

In an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, a 51-year-old Philadelphia man said Feret [one of the removed priests] sexually assaulted him at least 100 times in the 1970s when he was a student at St. Timothy's school in Northeast Philadelphia. The abuse occurred in the church confessional, choir loft and other places, according to the victim, who the newspaper said chose to remain unnamed.  He told the paper that he once reported the abuse to a teacher and the school principal, but nothing happened.

After the 2011 suspensions of the priests, including Feret, the man contacted and was interviewed by police. News that the priest was being removed came as a huge relief, the man told the Inquirer.  "It's affected my whole life — in every way," he said.

The Catholic laity truly needs to rise up and demand that many bishops and cardinals be thrown from office.  If the Vatican and the Nazi Pope refuse, then the laity needs to "vote with their feet" and leave.  There are many wonderful ELCA and Episcopal parishes where they could find new church homes and cease being accessories to child abuse.