VATICAN, March 16, 2010-- In a story written by reporter Marco Bellizzi, the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano claims that the American Catholic Bishops speak for the entire Catholic Church when they criticize the current health care bill now under consideration in the American congress. The Vatican claims that “the health care bill approved by the US Senate is not acceptable. . . It cannot be supported and the moral objections raised by the project cannot be postponed for a later moment.” (http://www.cbcpnews.com/?q=node/12618. 2010.0320Sa2329.)
How can it be that the Catholic Church from Rome, Italy, is weighing in on the issue of health care in America? Their main objections appear to be based on issues of abortion, birth control and gay marriage. Seems that they are now presenting themselves as friends of the court as it were, presenting themselves as expert witnesses in the matter of marriage, sex, pregnancy, giving birth and raising children.
They are, in fact certifiably incompetent in this field since by the very vows to attain their position they have renounced any intention to explore, experience and encounter the issues of marriage, sex, pregnancy, giving birth and raising children. Since they are never wrong therefore, in any of these issues, they apparently now feel comfortable in ordering their followers - especially American members of congress who are also Catholic - to do as they say.
Nuns and priests are forbidden to experience marriage or sex. Some priests and popes were married, a thousand years or so ago we are told, but that was in the ancient past. None living today have that experience. Sex is also unknown to them. Or is it? Rumors have it that priests often have sex among themselves. Of course, substantiation is hard to come by in that area, but there have also been long standing rumors of pedophilia between priests and Catholic children. That substantiation was also hard to come by until recently. Now information is leaking through an aroused world penal system that pedophilia not only HAS occurred, but that it has been APPROVED by the Catholic church, inasmuch as they not only did not report the transgressor to the proper authorities - as REQUIRED by law - and they did not punish the transgressors themselves, but instead transferred them to ANOTHER venue where they could find another garden of innocents for their immoral and illegal personal passions. And THEN, when “almost exposed” again, these pedophiles in priest's frocks would be sent on, almost as if to carry out their hideous mission in another parish, and then another. And considering that the current pope had been in charge of the council with authority to investigate such charges one can only conclude that he HAD to have taken place in that sexual abuse, either in direct action with minors or in the cover up. At any rate, it is now clear that Pope Benedict had the opportunity to resolve this issue and he hid it. We can now see clearly the Pope's attitude toward the children, the law, and the alleged teachings of Jesus. The Catholic Church trumps all of those bit players.
Now let’s affirm that probably 99.9% of all Catholic priests and nuns are committed to carrying out their duties as ministers to their congregations. But let’s also be clear that we are not speaking about priestly pedophilia as an isolated event. Let’s also be very clear that we are not speaking about an ecclesiastical or religious issue. We are speaking now as a political point of order because the catholic church has decided to bring their church pressure in a political issue and thus forfeited their right to be respected and treated SOLELY as a religious organization.
Furthermore, It is not the issue here that one priest committed a sexual abuse against a minor child. Nor is it even that one bishop covered up a sexual abuse of a minor child. Nor is it even that one supervisor of the priest and the bishop failed to detect and enforce the laws of man and of their church. Nor is it even that these repeated actions apparently became an epidemic of sexual, physical, mental, moral, religious and spiritual rape, or that it continued for more than 40 years - because those accusations apply to only one small country in christendom - Ireland - in which these events repeatedly occurred. Now a groundswell of pedophilia that was committed by Roman Catholic priests back in the 1950s and 1960s is emerging across Europe and the United States.
The present Pope, while Bishop of Regensburg referred a pedophiliac priest to a psychiatrist who stated that in his professional opinion the priest was “incurable”. That priest was subsequently reinstated, transferred to another parish where he continued his pediphilia for years. The current pope's brother said in a newspaper interview published 2010. 309Tu, that he now regrets that he used to slap pupils as punishment after he took over a renowned German boys' choir in the 1960s http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/09/georg-ratzinger-popes-bro_n_491858.html 2010.0320Sa2322. He has only admitted slapping; now one must wonder if he went farther than that. One must certainly wonder at his qualifications that "earned" him that post.
While a cardinal at the Vatican, Joseph Ratzinger, now the pope, wrote a 2001 letter instructing bishops worldwide to report all cases of abuse to his office and keep church investigations secret under threat of excommunication. The Vatican insists the secrecy rules serve only to protect the integrity of the church's investigations, and should not be taken to mean the church should not tell police of their members' crimes. But victims' advocates in Ireland and the United States said the pope again failed to make it clear whether the church considers the secular law a higher priority than canon law when seeking to stop a pedophile priest. Unfortunately though, the Pope DID make it perfectly clear that he condones the Irish coverup. We can now clearly see that he participated in these illegal pedofilic activities if not as a perpetrator then as an accomplice. We know that because the leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Brady who apologized for "mishandling" a serial child molesting priest, said that he would not resign over the scandals and their coverup UNLESS the Pope asked him to do so. The pope has evidently agreed with Cardinal Brady that the church is more important than those kids, and the Irish law is totally inconsequential. Isn't Jesus supposedly quoted as having something to say about rendering to Caesar and to God? Seems like only the children got rendered.
Chhttp://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/03/21/world/AP-EU-Church-Abuse-Pope.html. 2010.0321Su0101
So we have not just the crime, and the cover up, both repeated again and again thousands and thousands of times over forty or more years, the willful and criminal defiance of the laws of many nations, the intentional and self-righteous disregard of the alleged teachings of Jesus, for the single purpose of seeking to appear to be legal, honorable, trustworthy and orthodox. One might wish for the Pope to step down but we know that would never happen, and wonder if there is anyone available for the position who understands the implications of morality, laws, and the meaning of Jesus?
Add all this to the Catholic church's discrimination against gays and lesbians who seek equal rights among human laws, the witch-hunt denouncement of a woman’s right to choose to carry and give birth to a child which she may not even have agreed to create (she was raped because God willed it, or God made the guy want her even though she didn't want any part of it, and she doesn't want and can't afford another child which she, and only she will have to care for over the next twenty years?), the attempt to prevent the use of birth control devices, preferring the spread of disease to helping prevent women from becoming pregnant from a pregnancy they did not want and cannot afford, the refusal to permit women into the priesthood, the requirement of chastity for the priests, and you have the picture of an organization that is isolated from the problems of the people they supposedly serve. The members of this isolated brotherhood clearly and obviously live an unnatural and abnormal life and view the people they serve through a distorted prism. They have been guilty of willful disobedience of national laws and they have offered no defense except to say they are sorry. Indeed they are. They are sorry that they got caught. Maybe the political message they have for the American health care system is that if you get sick it is because God wills it, and you will get well if that is his will too.
While the priests and nuns themselves have almost without exception conducted themselves in a highly trustworthy, honorable and devoted fashion, the Catholic hierarchy has behaved in a shameful, disgraceful, immoral and illegal manner.
You were a religious organization. We all urge you to clean your dirty vestments, clear your ranks of criminals and perverted priests and then endeavor to help your congregations find a spiritual dimension in their lives - and in yours also. If you wish to become and remain a religious organization you will be respected as such.
If you want to become a political organization then you are fair game and you will have to defend your statements, platforms, and intentions, and find your past transgressions investigated, all in the mud of politics. And you are no better equipped for this battle than is Mark Sanford or Larry Craig.
You can continue with your mumbling and incantations and smoke and mirrors and hocus pocus, and your faithful members can continue to contribute from their labors to your continuing calls for support because they appear to serve you more than you serve them. But if you become a political organization then you cannot retreat behind your priestly garments claiming any form of special privilege including all your buried secrets.
