Catholic Leadership

[brianwspencer]

It's very long, but a blogger I like wrote quite extensively on this -- the entire post is worth a read, but I've knocked out my favorite part below that really speaks to what pisses me off so much.

I love how Giuseppe dalla Torre, head of the Vatican's tribunal...took a moment to note that the Catholic Church "is not a multi-national corporation." In case no one had noticed.

Q: Besides NOT PAYING TAXES, how can you tell the Church isn't a multi-national corporation?

A: If Microsoft, say, were discovered to have been covering up an international child rape ring among its ranks for (at least) decades, and Bill Gates were discovered to have authored a letter ordering members of his organization to keep it secret, and the Dublin office had been discovered to be conspiring with police to hide evidence and silence survivors, and employees who had been identified as child rapists were just moved to other offices, like pedophilia is all about location location location! and because the organization's reputation is more important than protecting children from known rapists, and Microsoft spent more time deflecting responsibility and blaming its gay employees (FOR ****'S SAKE) for the crimes committed by the sexual predators the organization had abetted and protected...Microsoft would be OUT OF ****ING BUSINESS.

Because no one would be making any goddamn excuses for any multi-national corporation, no matter how much other "good stuff" they'd allegedly done, if that organization had been found to be disproportionately staffed with men eminently capable of committing or concealing child rape, corruptible from guy in the local franchise straight to the CEO at the top.

That corporation would be DONE.

But claim to have a direct line to God, and suddenly everything's different.

That is Christian privilege of almost inconceivable proportions, right there: As long as you assert a belief in divine justice, you're more likely to escape human justice.

It's a particularly cruel irony that those who assert moral authority are given the most latitude to behave in immoral ways without the inconvenient bother of being held accountable for their crimes.

And when people who are decidedly unthrilled about the privilege conferred upon religious institutions, particularly in the midst of a worldwide crisis of sexual assault in which countless children have been victimized, challenge this privilege, they are dismissed as bigots, as wanton haters of the Church, or its adherents, or its doctrine—as if there is not a preponderance of evidence to warrant legitimate criticism, as if they are being unfair, as if standing up for children, vociferously and unyieldingly and despite knowing the shitstorm of accusations of bigotry to come, is somehow evidence of a "real" moral failing.

As if compassion for countless children being sexually assaulted is just a convenient excuse to criticize the Church used by atheists and secularists and feminists and other nefarious types.

[hi_im_god]

if you liked that, you'll love this utterly tone deaf vatican response:


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...3A4PAD9ER3GTO0

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI's personal preacher on Friday likened accusations against the pope and the Catholic church in the sex abuse scandal to "collective violence" suffered by the Jews.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by hi_im_god

if you liked that, you'll love this utterly tone deaf vatican response:


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...3A4PAD9ER3GTO0

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI's personal preacher on Friday likened accusations against the pope and the Catholic church in the sex abuse scandal to "collective violence" suffered by the Jews.

i just finished reading about that on msnbc. outrageous and completely out of touch with what the real issue is here.



'While Cantalamessa delivered his ringing defense of the pontiff, the church in Benedict's native Germany made the unusually frank admission that it failed to help victims of clerical abuse because it wanted to protect its reputation.

Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, head of the German bishops' conference, said clerics neglected helping victims because of a "wrongly intended desire to protect the church's reputation." '

the church sticks its head in the sand, pretends everything is hunky dory, and hopes it'll all just go away. well, everything but the money.

i think the desire to protect the church's image is what contributed, and continues to contribute to how these abuse cases are handled-which is very, very poorly.


but for that guy to compare this to the holocaust-gimme a break.

[Danzig]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36166058...d_news-europe/


apparently it's the church's position that this is all 'petty gossip'. have they no concept of reality? how much credibility will the church have when this is all said and done?

Muslims > Catholics

[Danzig]

i figure in about four hundred years a pope will apologize for all this. that's about how long it took for an apology after the inquisitions ended. i understand the current pope wants to re-start the prayer for the conversion of jews as well.

[hi_im_god]

Originally Posted by Danzig

i figure in about four hundred years a pope will apologize for all this. that's about how long it took for an apology after the inquisitions ended. i understand the current pope wants to re-start the prayer for the conversion of jews as well.

they're incapable of dealing with this issue in a way that satisfies anyone outside. no modern institution works like the vatican other than the vatican.

you hit it on the head with the idea that it will take centuries because those are the time frames they believe they have to deal in.

obviously it's ridiculous but they actually think they're weighing a small matter like child rape against the bigger issue of redeeming the world.

and compared to the torture and murder of the inquisition, how bad is a few thousand raped kids? it's not like they endorsed child rape. they only hid the fact some low level employee's engaged in it for decades.

the inquisition happened. and they have a billion + believer's.

why would they think this isn't something that blows over in the next 50 years with essentially no damage? walk a mile in their shoes.

[brianwspencer]

Originally Posted by hi_im_god

if you liked that, you'll love this utterly tone deaf vatican response:


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...3A4PAD9ER3GTO0

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI's personal preacher on Friday likened accusations against the pope and the Catholic church in the sex abuse scandal to "collective violence" suffered by the Jews.

Oh wow. That's unbelievable.