Pink Elephants And Pedophile Priests
Sex abuse by priests is just a media construction, says the new pope. Robert Scheer takes the Rat and the church to task:
Despite the horrific drumbeat of child molestation revelations, however, sensible Catholics hoping for a more transparent and less sexually repressed church shouldn't hold their breath. The new pope is not only a longtime leader of vicious church attacks on "evil" gays, he also has shamefully blamed the molestation scandal on the media."In the church, priests also are sinners. But I am personally convinced that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the United States, is a planned campaign, as the percentage of these offenses among priests is not higher than in other categories, and perhaps it is even lower," said Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — now Pope Benedict XVI — in 2002 when he was the head man of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
...And, as is so often the case with the most severely judgmental and repressed, this stance is rife with moral hypocrisy.
How else to explain an institution that refuses to accept responsibility for the lives it has violated through sexual abuse, even as it incessantly condemns same-sex couples for wanting to form stable families? If you are gay and want to get married you are "deviant and a threat to society," according to the Vatican, and if you adopt a child — the irony is dark here — it is tantamount to abuse.
Pope Benedict himself exemplifies this contradiction. The same man who doesn't get the scale of the molestation cover-ups has written some of the Vatican's most anti-gay rhetoric, including a 1986 letter to bishops calling homosexuality "an intrinsic moral evil," as well as a 2003 battle plan telling Catholic politicians they have a "moral duty" to oppose gay marriage and adoptions.
"Legal recognition of homosexual unions or placing them on the same level as marriage would mean not only the approval of deviant behavior … but would also obscure basic values which belong to the common inheritance of humanity," stated the church's "Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons."
"Allowing children to be adopted by persons living in such unions would actually mean doing violence to these children, in the sense that their condition of dependency would be used to place them in an environment that is not conducive to their full human development."
Tell that to the many happy children of loving and nurturing parents who happen to be gay. Such a common-sense solution to the tragedy of unwanted children is what the pope abhors as part of a "dictatorship of relativism," to quote from his pre-anointment speech April 18.
...Is it too much to ask that a religious institution sporting such an abysmal record in dealing with (the sick sexual proclivities of church leaders) stop dictating the bedroom behavior of its millions of followers?
God, he's disgusting. So, the pedophile priests are all a media contrivance, but allowing gays to adopt is "child abuse."
I wouldn't care so much about his stance on allowing gays to adopt -- he's allowed his opinion on the subject -- but don't pretend to care about the welfare of children when you deny the molestations taking place in your own church.
I don't even begrudge him the right to doubt what's happening in his church. He may well find this unbelieveable. But to simply dismiss it with a Scarlett O'Hara "fiddle-dee-dee" wave of the hand without at least investigating this, tells me that his concern for the welfare of children is a facade.
I would ask anyone, if you headed any type of organization, and there were rumors of child abuse circulating about it, wouldn't you at least -- for the sake of certainty -- look into it?
Patrick, the Goddess Fan at May 25, 2005 5:46 AM
I think the Rat completely understands the scope and magnitude of the abuse in the church. After all, is he not one of the people that were instrumental in covering it up and moving pedophile priests from one congregation to another? This is an evil, evil man. May he reap a bountiful harvest of all he has sown.
A wise person once told me that in his experience, the most rabid homophobics he knew were gay themselves, but trying to repress their true sexuality. They then were manifesting hatred for others borne of their own self-loathing. "To thine own self be true" may be cliche; but it is a way to live one's life to keep one from going completely insane and becoming, oh, say, a bigot with diarrhea of the mouth.
Goddyss at May 25, 2005 9:45 AM
I agree, those who suffer need to be thought of before we take pity on those who haven't abused. Like we should give the ones who don't sexually abuse children a medal? In one of the medias seemingly rare moments it confronted a very big evil within the Catholic church system. And Rat wants us to just focus on the 'good ones'? How are we supposed to know which ones are good if they keep switching around the evil ones to new locations. It's like giving someone a "Get Out of Molestation Charges Free" card. If I become a nun, can I beat the hell out of conservatives and then ask for forgiveness?
And no need to go into the 'gay is evil' thing, there were probably homosexuals before there was Catholicism- get over it people! Focus on what's going on with you and yours, before you focus on everyone elses.
Lia at May 26, 2005 2:09 AM
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