Former Pope Benedict XVI's Anti-Gay Lies Continue

Picture of then Pope Benedict XVI with his "personal secretary".

Former Pope Benedict XVI - thought by many to be a self-loathing closeted gay with a long time male lover - has again launched a major attack on gays and also the 1960's sexual revolution and Vatican II for the rampant and global sexual abuse of children and youths by Catholic clergy.  He conveniently ignores the reality that in the 1950's and likely long, long before then, sexual abuse was rampant within the priesthood, so blaming the 1960's sexual revolution for something that long proceeded it is specious at best.  He also side steps his own role in cover ups as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - historical also known as the Inquisition - while serving under John Paul II who protected some of the worse predator clergy.  Moreover, it was Benedict who enforced the Church's warped 12th century dogma on human sexuality that many experts credit with the psycho-sexual maladjustment of predator priests that along with unquestioned power set the stage for abuse.  The take away about Benedict's creed is to believe none of it.  Here are highlights from the Washington Post on Benedict's attempt to avoid his own responsibility in the abuse scandal and the corrupt nature of the Church hierarchy:

Breaking years of silence on major church affairs, Pope Benedict XVI has written a lengthy letter devoted to clerical sex abuse in which he attributes the crisis to a breakdown of church and societal moral teaching and says he felt compelled to assist “in this difficult hour.”

The 6,000-word letter, published in tandem Thursday by a Catholic outlet and an Italian newspaper, decries the 1960s sexual revolution, laments the secularization of the West and describes seminaries filled with “homosexual cliques.”

Benedict’s personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein [thought by many to be Benedict’s gay lover], confirmed the authenticity of the letter in an email.

Since abdicating the papacy six years ago, Benedict — living in a monastery inside the Vatican City walls — had remained nearly silent on issues facing the Roman Catholic Church, in part to yield full authority to his successor, Pope Francis. The new letter, then, marks an unprecedented moment in the modern church: a significant pronouncement from an ex-pope on the most central problem facing the church.
 Benedict wrote that he contacted both Francis and the Vatican’s secretary of state before proceeding. And the pope emeritus finished his essay by thanking Francis for his work to show “the light of God.” But Benedict’s remarks on the topic differ sharply from those of Francis, who has emphasized the corrupted power of clergy and has acknowledged systemic problems that result in coverup. Those themes also prevailed during a February sexual abuse summit at the Vatican that involved leading bishops from around the world.
 Benedict devoted the first third of his letter to changes in society and inside the church beginning in the 1960s that gave rise to an “all-out sexual freedom.” He wrote that Catholic moral theology “suffered a collapse” of its own during a period of major reforms.  One outcome of the sexual revolution, Benedict wrote, is that “pedophilia was then also diagnosed as allowed and appropriate.”

David Gibson, the director of Fordham University’s Center on Religion and Culture, said it was a “major problem” that Benedict was “blaming the abuse crisis on liberal mores and gays and secularization.”
 In the letter, Benedict did not describe his own role in dealing with the crisis, nor did he discuss particular cases. Benedict, before becoming pope, was the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. As pope, he sometimes defrocked hundreds of priests per year, and the Vatican was more forthcoming than it is now about releasing data on abuse.

But analysts say Benedict also had significant shortcomings and was slow to acknowledge the institutional problems that have enabled abuse to persist — including the role of bishops and cardinals in protecting accused priests.

Benedict remains a sick and twisted individual.

End Private Catholic Priest Access to Minors

As I often note, I was raised Roman Catholic and went all in on being Catholic, not the least because I was desperately trying to "pray away the gay" given the psychological damage the Church's 12th century dogma on sexuality and homophobia had done to me. I first became an altar boy at age 8 and prior to Vatican II.  I remained one until I graduated from high school,becoming one of the :senior" altar boys along the way.  While I was never sexually molested, I understand why and how easy it would be for a predator priest to prey on altar boys in particular and also children in Catholic schools. The priest of that time - and perhaps still so - were treated as demigods and never questioned or challenged.  And making matters worse, women were NEVER allowed in the church sacristy - where priest and altar boys donned their grab for mass - other than to drop off laundered altar linens. If one were going to molest an altar boy, the church sacristy was the perfect venue, especially at an early mass with perhaps a single altar boy attending at mass. This ease and unquestioned private access to children and youth combined with the Church's sick dogma on sexuality, is, in my view, why the sex abuse problem in the Church has been so rampant and why boys were disproportionately targeted.  Without such private access, the abuse would been far less.  A piece in The Advocate argues that this private, unquestioned access to would be victims must end.  Here are excerpts:

Cardinal Walter Kasper, a liberal reformer in the Catholic Church, recently spilled the beans about the state of Pope Francis's shaky papacy, telling a German interviewer that, "There are people who simply don't like this pontificate. They want it to end as soon as possible to then have, so to say, a new conclave."

While Pope Francis is on thin ice with conservative Catholics, for a host of reasons, he is arguably one of the most politically shrewd men on the planet. The 82-year-old is showing signs he's aware that if his papacy comes undone it will be because of movements from the Catholic right, the faction of the Church that insists homosexual men in the priesthood are the root cause of the clerical sex abuse crisis.
 As one of the most powerful religious figures on the world stage continues to makes his clever, byzantine moves to slander all homosexual men as mentally deranged and in need of psychiatric intervention — via bullhorn, dog whistle or that Bergoglian amalgam of both — and all to save his own hide, it's time for lay Catholics, at least those who aren't stakeholders in global slander, to step up to the plate and nip the clerical sex abuse of minors in the bud. Namely, to help end all private priestly access to minors, including child and adolescent participation in the sacrament of confession.

Readily available statistics show that the vast majority of Roman Catholic priests are not child molesters and in and of themselves present no danger to children and teens. But the church structures that enable grown men's private access to minors are demonstrably a danger to the young, and for continuing that reality, priests can be held to moral account.  Ultimately, it is ordinary Catholic parents, not the bishops, priests, and assorted lay Catholic power brokers/hangers-on who have the power to end private priestly access to minors, not merely by ending their children's participation in the sacrament of confession, but by putting that decision in writing to their parish priests, copied to their local bishops.

Biases, positive or negative, are a far cry from peer-reviewed social scientific data. With attorneys general in various states investigating Catholic dioceses, and with more clerical sex abuse scandals propping up in every corner of the globe — Australia, Chile, Germany — is it asking too much of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to, at minimum, provide the American public with some hard social scientific data, from objective non-Catholic sources, on child conscience formation to justify ongoing private access to minors by Catholic priests? Or will Catholics, indeed the American public at large, content themselves with yet another "oversight board" or "safe practices model" every time another clerical sex abuse scandal hits the news cycle, especially in light of the recent admission by German Cardinal Reinhard Marx that Catholic Church officials simply destroyed documents on child sexual abuse to cover-up for the crimes of priests?

Of course, there is a rather simple alternative that all Catholic parents can take who wish to instill gospel values into their children and teenagers, and to ensure their kids can look to the saints of history, official and unofficial, as role models. Be they parents in same-sex or opposite-sex relationships, single, liberal, conservative, or what have you, the safe alternative for Catholic parents is this: reading, praying and talking together as a family about life, about the virtues, and about the importance of examining conscience on a daily basis. Absolutely none of that requires a level of personal intimacy with strangers, and most certainly not the kind of intimacy that attends, especially for impressionable minors, calling a grown man outside of the family "Father."

If we can confront the degrees to which those of us who identify as Catholic sustain, by active commission or unexamined patterns, the ecclesial structures that are still, at present, endangering children and teens while serving as a springboard for the slander of innocent adults, we can ensure that future generations will look back on this one and feel what should come naturally — a sense of total mystification that we ever tolerated this trash heap of sexual abusers, enablers, and assorted slanderers for one second. 

Why Pope Francis' Sex Abuse Summit in Rome Will Fail

The Roman Catholic Church is in crisis in the western world, especially in the United States,  as the never ending lawsuits by victims of clerical sex abuse goes on, dioceses continue to file for bankruptcy protection, parishioners are walking away, and criminal investigations are expanding. Indeed, several high clerics have been convicted in criminal prosecutions.  Only in the undeveloped world where uneducated populations abound is the Church growing.  Hence, Pope Francis' calling of a gathering in Rome next month.  Many expect the summit to fail for various reasons, not the least of which in my view is Francis' refusal to (i) undertake a thorough house cleaning of the Vatican hierarchy and removal of numerous bishops and cardinals, and (ii) discard the Church's 12th century dogma on human sexuality.  A piece in the National Catholic Reporter (which is not controlled by the Vatican) by a long time Vatican observer lays out why the summit will fail.  Here are excerpts:

Next month's meeting in Rome, called by Pope Francis to deal with the sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, may well be a failure before it even starts.

The stakes for the meeting have been ratcheted up, at least for the American church, as the Pennsylvania grand jury report on clergy sex abuse has summoned up new scrutiny of the church's response, from the pews and from government officials; then, in November, the Vatican squelched a vote at the U.S. bishops' fall meeting on measures designed to hold the hierarchy accountable for not dealing with abuse. . . . According to the Vatican, the meeting will focus on three main themes: responsibility, accountability and transparency.

There are five reasons this meeting will fail.

First, four days is much too short a time to deal with such an important and complicated issue. The Vatican says the meeting will include "plenary sessions, working groups, moments of common prayer and listening to testimonies, a penitential liturgy and a final Eucharistic celebration." . . . To think that the February meeting can accomplish anything in such a short time is not supported by experience.

Second, the expectations for this meeting are so high that it will be impossible to measure up. . . . In addition, having sidelined the efforts of U.S. bishops in November, the meeting must come up with a way to hold bishops accountable, or it will make the excuse look unwarranted and phony.

Third, a strength of this meeting is that it will include presidents of episcopal conferences from all over the world. These are some of the most important bishops from their countries. But the cultures and legal systems of the participants vary tremendously, which will make agreement on policies and procedures difficult.

Many bishops in the Global South do not believe that sex abuse of minors is a problem in their countries. . . . This is in part because many Global South bishops have no idea how bad the problem is. In their traditional cultures, victims of abuse are very reluctant to come forward to report the abuse to the church or civil authorities.  As a result, too many bishops around the world are making the same mistakes that the U.S. bishops made.

Fourth, as far as can be seen at present, the meeting is not well-prepared. . . . This meeting, on the other hand, was only announced by the pope in September, and the committee created to organize it was not appointed until the end of November. The committee's first communication with the meeting's participants was in the middle of December, which gave the bishops until Jan. 15 to send in their response to a questionnaire enclosed with the letter.

Nonetheless, the meeting will also fail because, in order to succeed, Francis will have to lay down the law and simply tell the bishops what to do, rather than consulting with them. He'll have to present a solution to the crisis and tell them to go home and implement it.  Francis will not do that. He does not see himself as the CEO of the Catholic Church.

Francis appears to believe that the current laws are sufficient but need to be enforced. His goal, then, will be to get the bishops on board, not come up with new solutions. This is important, but it will not satisfy those wanting accountability structures to punish bishops who do not do their jobs. . . . Francis may pull it off, but I fear that when the meeting is over, it will only be seen as a small step forward in an effort that is going to take years.

Expect the exodus from the Church in the developed world to continue, especially among the younger generations, and be prepared for more horrific bombshells like the Pennsylvania grand jury report that came out last year. 

Clericalism and a Derelict Hierarchy Fuel Catholic Church Sex Abuse

Accused sexual predator Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

Even as far right Catholic sites such as Church Militant - ironically edited by a self-loathing closet gay man - continue to blame the Church's seemingly never ending sex abuse scandal that is finally creeping up into the ranks of the Church hierarchy on "gay priests," Commonweal, yet another legitimate site is pointing the finger at the Church hierarchy and the Church's insane doctrine on human sexuality.  A derelict, if not actively involved, Church hierarchy abetted and/or covered up sexual abuse. Adding to the problem was the Church's desperate recruitment of psychologically unfit individuals as it struggled to fill ballooning shortages of candidates for the priesthood.  None of this was unknown to the highest levels at the Vatican as the scandal surrounding Cardinal Theodore McCarrick continues to unfold.  Here are excerpts from Commonweal:

Emerging details about the scope and duration of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s sexually abusive behavior once more underscore the fact that an institutional sickness afflicts the Catholic Church. A predator priest can ascend to princely rank only if the clerical culture around him enables those who are complicit by their silence and failure to act.

The behavior of “Uncle Ted,” as the cardinal insisted he be called by his preferred victims, was something of an open secret at elite levels of the church. As the New YorkTimes noted, multiple reports about McCarrick’s sexual encounters with seminary students were made between 1994 and 2008—to American bishops, to the pope’s representative in Washington, and even to Pope Benedict XVI.  . . . . He even played a prominent role as a spokesperson for the church’s “zero-tolerance” policy on sexual abuse.

The causes of clerical abuse are complex and multilayered. Some Catholic conservatives and others on the right seem not to take this sufficiently into account. [*] First Thingssenior editor Matthew Schmitz recently tweeted: “It will be impossible to address sexual abuse in the Church if bishops and priests do not clearly affirm the Church’s teaching on sex, including same-sex activity. 

A 300-page report, prepared by researchers at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the request of the U.S. bishops seven years ago, found no statistical evidence that gay priests were more likely to abuse minors. What’s more, researchers found that the uptick in the number of gay priests from the late 1970s corresponded with “a decreased incidence of abuse-not an increased incidence of abuse.” The disproportionate number of adolescent male victims, according to the report, was linked to opportunity, not to preference or pathology.

A witch-hunt mentality demonizes the vast majority of celibate gay men who are faithful to their vows, serve the church, and are as horrified as anyone at the abuses committed. 

If the church removed all gay priests from ministry today, it would suffer for that loss. Nor would it bring an end to the abuse crisis. The problem is with those bishops, and others with influence in the church, who at best are asleep at the wheel and at worst willing to excuse predatory behavior. Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley this week acknowledged a “major gap” in procedures for how the church deals with a bishop or cardinal accused of abuse, and called for specific new steps. “

There were plenty of red flags about McCarrick, more than enough to stop his ascent into the College of Cardinals. That it was nevertheless allowed to proceed is an institutional failure on a massive scale. No scapegoating will make this mess go away.

And no single step—ending celibacy requirements or allowing priest to marry—will serve as a panacea. The significant spike in abuse cases in the 1960s and 1970s, the John Jay researchers found, had much to do with psychologically unhealthy priests who were not properly screened, and who became clergy at a time when seminary education lacked a focus on psychological-emotional development. Improved seminary training and education in the 1980s, according to the report, contributed to a “sharp and sustained decline” in abuse cases since then.

More important is changing a clerical culture that prizes secrecy and loyalty over truth and transparency. That will be tedious, challenging and essential work. In the ongoing wake of the McCarrick scandal, it’s time to take up that task with greater urgency than ever.

Catholic Priest Who Blew Whistle on Sex Abuse Suspended and Considers Fleeing Africa

Speaking of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, a story out of Africa underscores that absolutely nothing has changed under Pope Francis.  Cover ups and sanctions against those who seek to expose the institutional Church's utter moral bankruptcy continue to be the norm.  Fr. Anthony Musaala (pictured above) has been suspended indefinitely for shining a light on what he calls an open secret: Sex abuse by Catholic clergy is a problem in Africa too.  Just like all over the rest of the world.  The problem is systemic and, in my view, is the direct result of the Church's celibacy policy and its bizarre obsession with all things sexual.  Here are highlights from the Los Angeles Times: 

KAMPALA, Uganda — He is a celebrity across eastern and central Africa, a gospel music star known to many as the "Dancing Priest." But for years he also was a keeper of painful secrets — his own and many others'.

In going public, Anthony Musaala has forced the Roman Catholic Church in Uganda to confront a problem it had insisted didn't exist. And he may stir a debate far beyond Africa's most Catholic of countries.

The Ugandan priest has been suspended indefinitely by the archbishop of Kampala for exposing what he calls an open secret: Sex abuse in the Catholic Church is a problem in Africa as well as in Western Europe and North America.

The African Catholic Church is fast-growing, pious and traditional. As the church elsewhere forks out billions of dollars to compensate the child sex abuse victims of priests, few African Catholics have questioned the assumption, voiced recently by Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson, that the African church is purer than its counterpart in the West, which is regarded as secular and permissive.
It's not more pure, says Musaala. He says he has the evidence to prove it.

"The Vatican turns a blind eye because it doesn't want to be embarrassed about this blooming church. But I think it's time we had the truth," Musaala says.

In March, he wrote to the archbishop of Kampala, Cyprian Lwanga, about priests who fathered children, kept secret wives or abused girls or boys, and called for a debate on marriage for priests.  .   .   .   .  People know. Nothing is ever done," said Musaala in an interview.  

The letter was leaked to the news media. And in response, Lwanga suspended Musaala, saying his statements stirred up contempt for the Catholic Church and damaged the morale of believers.

For African Catholics, the revelations of child sex abuse in Western churches are shocking enough. But the idea that African priests might be sexually abusing boys had been unthinkable. Paradoxically, many believers in Africa are aware that some priests break their vows and father children, but talking about it is taboo.

When he suggested to church colleagues that victims of child sex abuse should be compensated, they were horrified, suggesting that hundreds of people would file fraudulent claims.

"There are real victims who need to be compensated and who need psycho-social help. I think the church needs to set up a fund to deal with these cases," Musaala said.

At times, he fears for his safety and worries about the possibility of a mob attack. He's considering leaving Uganda, even though he loves his country.

I hate to say it, but I think in some ways the Mafia has more scruples and morality than the Catholic hierarchy.  At least in the Mafia, the sexual abuse of children isn't tolerated.  Not so when it come to the "princes of the Church."  As I have said many times, change will come to the Church only when huge numbers of the Catholic laity open their eyes and walk away, taking their financial support with them.  Meanwhile, the criminal prosecution of bishops and cardinals would be a good interim measure.

 

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.

Quote of the Day: Andrew Sullivan on Cardinal Dolan and the GOP

Even a casual reader of this blog must know that I find Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York morally reprehensible for many reasons, not the least of which is the man is a pathological liar and a protector of child rapists.  Now, in a blatantly political move Dolan has agreed to give a final benediction at the Republican National Convention next week (unless Hurricane Issac washes it out).  Andrew Sullivan - who was also raised as a Catholic and is equally disgusted with the Church hierarchy - has some pointed comments on Dolan's political partisanship.  Here are excerpts:

The de facto endorsement of the Romney-Ryan ticket by the Catholic hierarchy became close to authoritative yesterday, as the Cardinal Archbishop of New York accepted - in unprecedented fashion - an invitation to offer a benediction on the last day of the RNC, having gone out of his way to praise Paul Ryan as a "great public servant" whom he is "anxious to see in action." The usual practice is the local bishop for a benediction in his diocese. But the Romney-Ryan ticket persisted for obvious political reasons, argued for a big name Catholic, and Dolan, astonishingly, said yes.

The reason this is a big problem is that Dolan is in many ways the national leader of the Benedict XVI hierarchy.  .  .  .  The other problem is that he has already all but endorsed Paul Ryan:  .   .   .   . 

Ryan, an enthusiast of Ayn Rand, wants to drastically gut Medicaid and Medicare, deny 30 million people impending access to health insurance and Dolan interprets this as his "obvious solicitude for the poor." He praises a man who voted for an unfunded Medicare D entitlement, two disastrously expensive wars, and now pledges to balance the budget only over three decades is a model of accountability and restraint and a balanced budget! 

And make no mistake: Dolan is an old-school Catholic pol - a figure who approved payments to molesting priests to expedite their firing, brazenly lied about it, then ran away abroad when the press demanded an explanation. His most important issues are criminalizing abortion, stripping gay couples of any civil legal protection, and making sure that non-Catholic employees of Catholic hospitals and schools be denied access to insured contraception. That he is saying the benediction for a ticket that explicitly endorses a priority for the super-rich over the working poor and views illegal immigrants as beneath contempt also tells you a lot about Dolan's priorities. 

The Cardinal's spokesman insists it's just a prayer - but as Michael O'Loughlin of the Jesuit magazine America has noted, the leading Catholic Archbishop in the country traveling all the way to Florida to big-foot the local bishop and finish up the GOP Convention is such a staggeringly partisan act, especially given the politics around contraception and religious freedom, it's deeply reckless .  .  .  .

Religion: Losing the Flock

A new WIN-Gallup poll, entitled the Global Index of Religion and Atheism 2012, has been released.  Depending upon one's view of religion - especially fundamentalist forms of religion - the results are either good news or bad news.  For those who see religion as an all too often malignant force that supports bigotry, oppression and ignorance as I do, the new poll results are good news: the number of individuals describing themselves as "religious" is down 9% from 2005.   And several other things are striking in the findings.  The first is the veritable free fall of religion. The second is that the poorer one is, the more religious one is likely to be, underscoring the allegation that religion is the opiate of the people.  One commentator had this to say about the results in Ireland:

The highlight of the survey was Ireland. One of the questions was, "Irrespective of whether you attend a place of worship or not, would you say you are a religious person, not a religious person or a convinced atheist?" And according to the survey, this one-time Catholic stronghold has undergone a dramatic shift. In 2005, when this poll was last conducted, 69% of Irish defined themselves as religious, 25% as non-religious, and 3% as convinced atheists. In 2011, those same numbers stood at just 47% religious, 44% non-religious and 10% atheist. In other words, in just six years, one in every five Irish people has given up religion, which is enough to vault Ireland into the top 10 nations worldwide with the most atheists. This is less a demographic tide than a demographic earthquake.

And it's easy to guess why. In per-capita terms, Ireland suffered more from the Catholic child-rape scandal than any other nation in the world, and the Vatican's response has consistently been one of denial, arrogance and condescension. There's been such fury at the church in the last few years, some pundits wondered if Ireland was "divorcing" from Catholicism, and it appears that this is exactly what's happening. The church authorities have acted as if they were immune from the law and even from public opinion, and that all they had to do was hunker down and wait for everything to blow over. They seem to have forgotten that simply leaving the church is a choice that fed-up people can make. But the Irish people clearly haven't forgotten, and they're voting with their feet in a way that could well set the church on an irreversible slide into demographic irrelevance.

In the USA, the poll results showed:

In the U.S. people who say they are "religious" dropped from 73 percent to 60 percent and the number of Americans who say they are atheists rose, from 1 percent to 5 percent.

As for religion serving as an opiate of the downtrodden, the poll found this:

RELIGIOSITY IS HIGHER AMONG THE POOR: People in bottom income groups are 17% more religious than those in top income groups.  It is interesting that Religiosity declines as worldly prosperity of individuals rises. While the results for nations as a whole are mixed, individual respondents within a country show a revealing pattern.  If citizens of each of the 57 countries are grouped into five groups, from the relatively poor to relatively rich in their own countries, the richer you get, the less religious you define yourself.

For centuries, religious authorities have conspired with rulers to keep the down trodden" in their place."   We are see this even today in Russia where the Russian Orthodox Church appears to be in bed with the Putin regime.

Catholic Organizations File Suit in "Religious Freedom" Ruse - Meanwhile, More Predator Priests Exposed

UPDATED:  For a further sampling of the filth that The Catholic hierarchy wants the media to ignore, check out this Fox News story involving a Franciscan academy and the forced release of secret files.

Am I being too cynical, or is it more than a coincidence that a raft of lawsuits have been filed by Roman Catholic organizations claiming that the Obama administration is attacking "religious liberty" just as more filth and comes out of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia involving predator priests?   And leading the charge is Archbishop "Porky Pig" Dolan (pictured above) who is suspected of hiding millions of dollars while head of the Milwaukee Diocese so that victims of sexual abuse would not receive deserved compensatory damages.  The hypocrisy is palpable.  Yet the media and some conservative pundits like Michael Gerson apparently believe all Roman Catholics are so stupid that they cannot figure out that they are being played by the Church hierarchy.  Personally, I'd love to see the lazy and feckless mainstream media counter each bleating by the Church hierarchy with a story on the latest breaking sex abuse stories (my Google search agent discloses new stories EVERY day).  A story in the New York Times illustrates this point and shows precisely what the Church hierarchy hopes to keep off the front pages via these bogus lawsuits.  Oh, and note the Church's proposed punishment - a "supervised life of prayer and penance" with no reference made to turning the priests over for criminal prosecution.  Here are highlights:

Two more Roman Catholic priests from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia have been found unsuitable for ministry after sexually abusing children. 

 The archdiocese said Sunday that it had substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor against Msgr. George J. Mazzotta, 73, and Msgr. Hugh P. Campbell, 77, who were ordained in the 1960s and held a series of positions in Philadelphia-area parishes and hospitals.

Both men agreed to accept a supervised life of prayer and penance, and the findings were announced over the weekend to members of their most recent parishes, the archdiocese said. The priests are entitled to appeal the archdiocese’s findings to the Vatican. 

The two priests are not among the 26 who have been under investigation since a 2011 grand jury report accused the archdiocese of covering up sexual-abuse allegations against dozens of priests.  Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said on May 4 that 5 of the 26 priests had been judged unsuitable for ministry and would be barred from working as priests unless they successfully appealed the findings to the Vatican. Ultimately, they may be “defrocked,” or laicized. Three other priests were cleared, and 17 cases are still being investigated. One accused priest has died since the inquiry began.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a victims’ advocacy group known as SNAP, said the latest findings were another indication of the archdiocese’s failure to respond promptly to abuse allegations. “How do Philly Catholic officials explain keeping an admitted pedophile priest’s secret hidden for six months?” SNAP said in a statement on Monsignor Campbell.

News of the latest findings came amid the criminal trial of Msgr. William J. Lynn, the archdiocese’s former secretary for clergy, who is charged with child endangerment and conspiracy on allegations that he allowed accused priests to remain in positions where they could continue to abuse children. Monsignor Lynn has denied the charges.

Meanwhile, Reuters is reporting another scandal involving the Legionnaires of Christ.  Here's a sampling:

The leader of the Legionaries of Christ admitted on Tuesday he knew for years the scandal-plagued Roman Catholic order's most famous priest had fathered a child but still allowed the popular cleric to preach about morality.

The moral bankruptcy of the Church hierarchy is nearly complete.  These lawsuits are nothing more than a disingenuous smoke screen to occupy the media and draw attention away from the real story that needs to be told and retold about the Catholic Church leadership.

 

Catholic Church Priests to Abuse Victim: "You never got to like it?'"

Having followed the worldwide Catholic Church sex abuse scandal since the lid first blew off of the Vatican orchestrated cover ups in Boston a decade ago, I thought I had heard just about every sick, outrageous claim possible from the lips of Catholic Church bureaucrats seeking to protect child rapists, but the Irish Independent has a story that takes the prize.  A sex abuse victim was interrogated by three priests - one of whom is now Cardinal Brady, the senior Catholic cleric in Ireland - after he reported being molested and had his inquisitors had the perverse audacity to ask the boy whether he come to the point of liking the sexual abuse.  The implication being, of course, that somehow the victim had either brought the abuse on himself or had enjoyed it.  Yes, it's pretty unbelievable, but in my estimation par for the course with the Church hierarchy which seems more morally bankrupt with each passing day.  Here are some story highlights:

'You never got to like it?" That was one of the remarkable questions put to Brendan Boland when he was interrogated by priests in 1975 after reporting to the Catholic Church his sexual abuse at the hands of Fr Brendan Smyth.

"You never got to like it?" The question itself is abusive. It serves no obvious good purpose. I sought an explanation for it last week, but was told only that the entire exercise was intended "to gather evidence against the criminal priest". 

A spokesperson for Cardinal Sean Brady, who was present as a priest at that investigation in 1975, told me that Brady "did not construct those questions or ask those questions". But he was there and he signed off on them (as plain "John" and not "Sean" Brady). 

"You never got to like it?" Being abused, that is. The answer that Boland gave to the three priests was an absolute "No". 

It was a question that might do-in the head of any victim of repeated violence, never mind the head of a teenager at puberty. What possible implication could there have been if he had answered "Yes"? That he shared the blame for his own rape? The undercurrent to this question, with its hint of erotic humiliation, raises a question about the institution that framed it, and about the nature of dominance and power within the organization itself. 

The three priests who interviewed Brendan Boland knew full well that child sexual abuse was happening in Ireland. If others were not speaking about it because of fear or ignorance, what was the excuse of church authorities who knew of actual abuse? 

Were Brady and his colleagues not dismayed when, one month after their own interview with victims of abuse, the Irish bishops published a highly significant and lengthy pastoral letter entitled Human Life Is Sacred? 

For nowhere throughout its 72 pages is sexual abuse mentioned. Nowhere are the clergy, religious or faithful to whom it is addressed alerted to the blasphemy and danger of child sex abuse that bishops knew was damaging some children's lives. 

Many other subjects were set out in that major pastoral, which some saw as a political intervention aimed against reform of the civil law. The bishops warned about abortion, "the contraceptive mentality" and sex outside marriage. They spoke earnestly of love, "certain kinds of sex education", the evils of drink in family life, celibacy, social justice and even euthanasia.  But the hierarchy made no specific reference in their 1975 pastoral to one phenomenon of which they, at least as much as anyone else, were aware. Child sexual abuse. Why?

[S]ex abuse is fundamentally about the abuse of power, and not just about sex. The exercise of power within their church remains a problem for Catholics. Already this year we have seen a Catholic headmistress closing her door in the face of a pregnant teenager and the Vatican censoring priests for their mildly dissenting views.  Last week's BBC documentary hit home partly because the reporter involved is the nephew of a priest, and most of those who appeared in it are ordinary Catholics or ex-Catholics living on both sides of the Border. If some media are engaged in a witch hunt, the BBC was not. Most media are merely reflecting the concern of the majority of Irish Catholics, who in theory are as much a part of the church as is any cardinal. 

Meanwhile,  Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, one of the few voices of decency within the Church hierarchy has called for an independent investigation of clerical sex abuse.  No doubt, Martin is not winning any brownie points in Rome.  But he seems to be one of the few members of the hierarchy that "gets it" in terms of the evil that has been done and the guilt of senior members of the Church hierarchy who not only allowed the abuse to happen but who went to great lengths to cover it up. Here are highlights from the Irish Independent:

One of the highest ranking members of the Catholic Church in Ireland has called for an independent investigation into past allegations of clerical sex abuse.  Archbishop Martin said a commission should be set up to examine all accusations against paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.

"I know it's not fashionable to talk about commissions, but I believe an independent commission to investigate the activities of Brendan Smyth, as to how he was allowed to abuse for so many years - north and south, church and state," Archbishop Martin told RTE.  "I believe that would be in the public interest."  He said it was the least Fr Smyth's victims deserve.

As I have said many times before, I do not understand how any decent moral person remains a member of the Catholic Church.  Whether members of the laity want to admit it to themselves, a portion of every single dollar given at the parish level makes its way to support the bishops and ultimately the Vatican.  That's right, a part of every single dollar.  Those who give to their local parish are supporting the filth that makes up so much of the Church hierarchy.

Philadelphia Sex Abuse Trial Continues to Spotlight Catholic Church Moral Bankruptcy

The sex abuse trial against Msgr. William Lynn, the former secretary for clergy at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and accused predator priests that is ongoing in Philadelphia continues to give the gift of making it painfully obvious to all but the most delusional that the Church hierarchy is morally bankrupt and that the leadership did not give a damn about the welfare of children and youths.  It was all about protecting those in the clergy.  The number of young lives damaged or destroyed never, ever mattered to these horrible bitter men.  That two cardinals played active roles in allowing the sex abuse to continue for years speaks volumes.  I truly do not know how a moral person can remain a Roman Catholic under the current hierarchy, many of whom, in my opinion, ought to be serving long prison terms.  Here are highlights from the New York Times on the latest horrors to be revealed:

Two men testified Wednesday of abuse they suffered as youths at the hands of a now defrocked Philadelphia priest. The two victims of Edward Avery, a former priest who has pleaded guilty to sexual assault charges, appeared during the landmark trial of Msgr. William Lynn, the former secretary for clergy at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, who is charged with child endangerment. Monsignor Lynn is suspected of allowing priests accused of abuse to remain in positions where they could continue to abuse children. 

One victim, now 23, told the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas how Mr. Avery abused him in the sacristy of St. Jerome’s Catholic Church in Northeast Philadelphia in 1998, when he was 10 years old.   The man said that he had already been abused by the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, another priest who is charged with abuse, and that Mr. Avery said he intended to do the same thing with him. “He said he heard about my sessions with Father Engelhardt and that ours were going to begin soon,” said the man, who was an altar boy. 

 

The witness said the priest turned on music and forced the boy to do a striptease until he was naked. He then sat the boy on his lap, and forced him to perform oral sex and masturbation, and told him that he was doing God’s will. “ ‘This is what God wants,’ ” the witness said Mr. Avery told him. 

The other victim, now 49, struggled to keep his composure at times as he recalled being abused at Mr. Avery’s residence when he was 15 and again on a ski trip to Vermont when he was 18.   Last month, Mr. Avery pleaded guilty to rape and conspiracy and was sentenced to two and a half to five years in prison. 

Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican can crack down on American nuns for not being sufficiently anti-gay and for focusing on social ministry, yet those who protected and enabled sexual predators remain untouched.  It is beyond sickening.

The Arrogance and Moral Bankruptcy of Pope Benedict XVI

I'm no fan of the Catholic Church hierarchy or the current occupant of the throne of St. Peter. Indeed, in my opinion, many organized crime members have more moral integrity than those involved in a global conspiracy to cover up the sexual abuse of children and youths. A column in the Toronto Star does a great job of lying out the case for why Pope Benedict XVI ought to be forced to abdicate something he would do but for his arrogance and lack of shame. They say that power corrupts and when one adds to that a lack of accountability, the corruption becomes nearly complete. Benedict XVI is a case in point as are most members of the Church hierarchy. Here are highlights from the column:

Dictators, who tend not to die peacefully in their beds, are among the few on this planet who can claim a job for life. And then there’s the pope.

No challenge to his authority, no Catholic Spring, no curia putsch allowed there; can’t be dislodged for reasons of poor health, psychological trauma or colossally bad judgment in ministering to the world’s nearly 2 billion faithful.

Faith, however, has never in modern memory been so fragile, so at risk, as under Benedict XVI, with alarming numbers abandoning the Church, at least in the West.

Benedict may be indubitably pious and unmatched as a scholar-pope but, on his watch, the Catholic Church has sunk into a morass of unprecedented scandal. The latest crisis — explosive documents obtained by an Italian investigative TV show in what’s been dubbed “Vatileaks’’ — arises from a three-way private correspondence, which included the pope, with an archbishop who blew the whistle on what he saw as a web of corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the Vatican, an alert that got the poor man transferred . . .

At its most suspect core, however, the Vatican has been unable to contain or adequately address the ever-expanding grotesquerie of predator priests and lay practitioners sexually abusing children.

To be fair, most of the tawdry abuse that has come to light in recent years occurred during the papacy of Pope John Paul II. For all his charisma and political courage, John Paul never confronted the pedophilia rot among his clergy, the Church more concerned with protecting its reputation than protecting children. But, in his quarter-century as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — disciplinarian-in-chief — Benedict, or Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as he then was — was directly responsible for dealing with priests who violated their oaths. Instead, known perpetrators were quietly moved around parishes and, on too many occasions, continued to commit sordid crimes.

As Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Ratzinger approved the transfer of a priest, Rev. Peter Hullerman, who’d sexually abused boys. Hullerman received psychiatric treatment, returned quickly to pastoral work with children and continued ministering to youth even after being convicted of molesting boys in 1982. Not until 2010, after new accusations of sexual abuse emerged, was Hullerman suspended from his priestly duties. Pope Benedict’s hands are dirty.

Grand juries, district attorneys and government commissions (as in Ireland) have done all the heavy lifting for the Church, . . . . Left to its own devices, the Vatican would probably have dithered for, oh, another couple of centuries.

Last week, the Jesuit Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome hosted a landmark international symposium on clerical sex abuse, with attendance by representatives of 110 bishops’ conferences and 30 religious orders. . . . . But canon law has not been changed to reflect the scourge of abuse by clergy, and there’s no indication it will be. And only one actual victim was invited to speak at the symposium.

I’ll say it again: Benedict’s hands are dirty. Can’t even slide him out of the picture gracefully as a pope emeritus, no matter how doddering he gets, no matter how complicit he might be proven to have been in the concealing of predator priests. Benedict turns 85 in April. He’ll die a pope. But, for many of us, he will have been predeceased by his church.

Yet despite all of this, the filth that is the Catholic hierarchy is still treated with deference and even allowed to testify before Congress. One has to wonder when the KKK and neo-Nazi groups will be afforded this privilege - they certainly are no less morally bankrupt than the Catholic Church leadership.

Pope Arrives in Benin - To Shake Down the Ingnorant and Uneducated

With the fortunes of the Roman Catholic Church plummeting in the educated developed world, God's Rottweiler, Benedict XVI has traveled to the African nation of Benin to sell some of the Church's snake oil to those not educated enough to realize that they are being courted by a morally bankrupt monster who has been personally implicated in cover up of the sexual abuse of children and minors. The Johannesburg Times notes the Pope's visit here and recognizes that Africa is the Catholic Church's main area of growth:

Africa is the Roman Catholic Church's fastest-growing region despite revelations of sex abuse and corruption scandals that have shaken followers in Europe.

But the sex abuse scandal isn't limited to the developed western world. Another Johannesburg Times article looks at the all too familiar pattern of sexual abuse and cover up that is widespread in Africa as well. Here are highlights:

The continent has the world's fastest growing number of Catholics --rising by eight million between 2007 and 2008 alone -- and often sends its dynamic priests to work in increasingly deserted churches across the secularised West.

But the African Church is also riddled with scandals, from child abuse to extramarital relations, collusion with those in power, and ill-gotten fortunes.

African priests have also been known on occasion to be involved with practices that do not sit happily with the Catholic Church -- from exorcism or animal sacrifices to Freemasonry.

In Benin alone, two bishops -- including the Archbishop of Cotonou Marcel Honorat Agboton -- have been dismissed for sex and corruption scandals.

Benedict's first visit to Africa in 2009 was overshadowed by a controversial comment when he said the distribution of condoms "aggravates" the AIDS crisis and spoke of sexual abstinence as the only solution.

One can only hope that as the targeted population becomes more educated it will realize that they've been sold a corrupt and fraudulent bill of goods. In the meantime, I'm sure Benedict XVI and his henchmen want to rake in as much money and add as many names as possible to the Church's membership roster so that an overall decline in the Church can be disguised and hidden - at least for now.

Obama Supports LGBT Rights in UN Speech - Will the Catholic Church Declare War on Him?

As the National Journal and other news outlets are reporting, President Obama addressed the United Nations today on the issue of pursuing peace and prosperity for all of the world's citizens. In the speech, Obama made special reference to the need for countries to stop persecuting their LGBT citizens:

"And to make sure our societies reach their potential, we must allow our citizens to reach theirs. . . . . No country should deny people their rights, the freedom of speech and freedom of religion, but also no country should deny people their rights because of who they love, which is why we must stand up for the rights of gays and lesbians everywhere."

Remarks such as this one are not sitting well with the protectors and enablers of child rapists in the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy. In the forefront of those condemning Obama and accusing him of "not protecting children" and "undermining the family" because of his pro-LGBT policies is the corpulent Archbishop of New York City, Timothy Dolan (has the man ever missed a meal or heard of the sin of gluttony?). As if Dolan and his morally bankrupt fellow bishops and cardinals (and yes, the current Pope) in the Church hierarchy have any business lecturing anyone about failing to protect children and families. They pretty much wrote the book on how to aid and abet child abuse. Indeed, many of them belong behind bars. Alvin McEwen raises the question of whether Dolan and the institutional Catholic Church are on the verge of declaring war on Obama. Here are some excerpts from Alvin's piece on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters: Exposing the Lies of the Anti-Gay Industry:

NY Archbishop Timothy Dolan has sent a letter to President Obama claiming that he is alarmed about recent actions by the President's administration that supposedly "escalate the threat to marriage and imperil the religious freedom of those who promote and defend marriage."

These "threats" named by Dolan are positions made by the Obama Administration to ensure lgbtq equality. They include:

1. The Justice Department no longer defending DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act) and raising questions about the law's constitutionality.

2. The Obama Administration supporting the Every Child Deserves a Family Act, which would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in foster care and adoption placement

3. Sexual orientation sensitivity training for federal employees

4. The repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

Dolan claims that these actions undermine what he calls the "natural family:"

In [light] of how the Catholic Church is suspected of funding the National Organization for Marriage - an organization attempting to stomp out marriage equality in all 50 states - and the fact that next year is an election year, one would be dumb no to take Dolan's words as a threat.

I think Dolan is dangerously stuck in the past. We no longer live in the time of the Middle Ages where government decisions had to be agreed upon by the Catholic Church before they are made.

The laws of this country are governed by the Constitution, not papal authority. No one elected Dolan to public office and he has no standing - other than that of an ordinary American citizen - to demand that the President reverse his standing on DOMA or any other law.

Dolan forgets that he does not live a theocracy, but a secular country which is home to many different people with many different religious beliefs. And also different families.

Not every family has the mother and father dynamic but that does not make them inferior to those who do. All families which provide love and support to their children should be embraced and supported. That's the most obscene thing about Dolan's letter. It sends a message to those families in existence who do not embrace the mother and father dynamic that they are inferior.

Personally, I believe that Dolan needs to shut his porcine mouth and stay out of politics. And if he and other bishops fail to do so - and if it turns out that the Catholic Church is bank rolling NOM - then the Church's tax-exempt status needs to be revoked immediately. Just think of the new tax revenues that could go towards deficit reduction without touching tax rates. The GOP ought to love the idea - if, of course, it's serious about deficit reduction.

Victim of Sex Abuse by Priest Receives $30 Million Vedict

If the Roman Catholic Church will not do its own house cleaning of pedophile priests - and the bishops, cardinals and Popes who enabled them and covered up abuse - then perhaps the only way to force reform is through huge judgments in favor of abuse victims. That seems to be the thinking of a Delaware jury that awarded $30,000,000 to a man who said he was sexually abused more than 100 times by a Roman Catholic priest. Moreover, the jury levied $3 million of the award against the priest's parish. Obviously, no amount of money will restore the damage suffered by this victim. However, the severe financial punishment meted out to the Church will hopefully force reform - if not at the volition of the Church hierarchy, then by demand of insurance cariers who may be rethinking issuing liability policies to the Church and its parishes. Here are highlights from the New York Times:
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A jury in Delaware on Wednesday awarded $30 million in compensatory damages to a man who said he was sexually abused more than 100 times by a Roman Catholic priest — the largest such award granted to a single victim in a clergy abuse case, victims’ advocates said.
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In an unusual outcome, the jury decided that the parish where the abuse occurred, St. Elizabeth in Wilmington, must pay $3 million of the damages, while the perpetrator is liable for the rest.
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It is usually the diocese or the religious order, not the parish, that is held responsible for damages. But the Diocese of Wilmington, which covers all of Delaware, declared bankruptcy last year just as the lawsuit was going to trial, so this lawsuit as well as more than 100 pending lawsuits against the diocese was frozen.
*
The jury is set to hear evidence on punitive damages on Monday. Thomas S. Neuberger and Stephen J. Neuberger, father-son lawyers for the plaintiffs, say they have saved the most damning evidence for this phase, and that the award to the plaintiff could grow substantially beyond the compensatory damages.
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St. Elizabeth parish is a large church with an elementary school, a high school, and three resident priests. The Rev. Norman Carroll, the parish pastor, said he could not talk about the case because it was continuing. Mr. Vai, the plaintiff, testified that the parish was negligent in his abuse. He said that when he was a small boy being hauled up the stairs to his abuser’s bedroom in the rectory, he was spotted by another parish priest, who is now a diocesan official. The official, Msgr. Thomas Cini, testified that he was unaware of the abuse. Another witness testified that other priests in the parish were aware of Mr. DeLuca’s behavior.
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The Rev. Thomas Doyle, a Catholic priest who was an expert witness for the plaintiff in this case and many others, said, “This was egregious because of the level of direct knowledge imputed to priests who lived there at the time.”
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What is truly egregious is the fact that the current Pope and the many, many bishops and cardinals involved in cover ups still hold their positions - and that sheeple still bow and ass kiss to such morally deficient individuals.

U. S. Catholic Conference's Clueless New Leader

I previously noted the unfortunate signal from the American Catholic Church in the form of the election of New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan as the new Conference president. I'm not alone in my condemnation of the move towards reactionarism James Carroll, a columnist for the Boston Globe and Distinguished-Scholar-in-Residence at Suffolk University, has a pretty scathing piece in the San Francisco Sentinel which describes the American hierarchy as "willingly turn themselves into mascot-lobby for the Republican Right." With the pampered, corrupt, and thoroughly hypocritical hierarchy moving increasingly in an opposite direction from most American Catholics, one can only hope that more of the laity will vote with their feet and flee to the Episcopal Church and the ELCA which offer largely the same liturgy without the poisonous bitter queens in dresses. Here are some highlights:
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“My major priority,” New York’s Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan said at his election last week as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, “would be to continue with all vigor I can muster what’s already in place. It’s not like we’re in a crisis.”
*
Hello? The Catholic Church not in a crisis? The moral authority of the Roman Catholic hierarchy is at its lowest ebb since the Inquisition. In the United States, the once-influential bishops have willingly transformed themselves into a mascot-lobby for the Republican right. “We bishops are the teachers,” one insisted this week, yet not even conservative Catholics actually take them seriously: Think of those right-wing Catholics on the Supreme Court who uphold the very same death penalty the bishops condemn. Vast populations of Catholic laity—not just liberals—are ashamed of the global episcopate for its persistence in enabling priestly sex abuse.
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That continues even now as the world’s Cardinals gathered in Rome on Friday for yet another do-nothing red-hat session on the abuse crisis. . . . . Catholic professional groups openly defy the hierarchy, as, for example, the Catholic Health Association did by supporting President Obama’s health care reform legislation, probably providing decisive Catholic legislators with just enough cover to vote yes. Even as the bishops met this week, the National Coalition of American Nuns denounced their silence about the scourge of suicides among young gays—yet what could bishops say, since their ferocious opposition to marriage equality is a pillar of gay demonization? No crisis? The same issue of the New York Times that featured Dolan’s election carried news of a growing movement of alternative, lay-run Catholic churches in the Netherlands and Belgium, where one priest said, “Something is beginning to crack.”
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But Dolan’s job, in sync with the mission given to every bishop by Pope Benedict XVI, is to reverse the changes of Vatican II—or what is left of them after the triumphal reaction of the last three decades. Cruelty is sacrosanct. . . . Timothy Dolan’s job is to put the best face on the reactionary hierarchy’s slow motion act of self-destruction. The surest sign of this crisis is the jovial conviction that there is no crisis.