Abandoned Altars

This summer, sixteen years ago, the clergy abuse crisis began for me, as well as for a lot of people. On June 2, 1992, ABC News PrimeTime broadcast the very first piece about serial child molester James Porter. I remember watching it, hugging myself and crying. I couldn’t believe that they were talking about the same kind of horror I had been dealing with for several months previous.

But it was indeed. Three weeks later, they broadcast an update. A young Diane Sawyer told the story about how it came about. The exposure of Porter was due to a brave survivor, Frank Fitzpatrick, who had been abused by Porter as a 12-year-old altar boy. Now grown, and a professional investigator, he tracked Porter down and actually confronted him on the phone.

The show even ran bits of the tape. Porter admitted he had abused Frank with an embarrassed chuckle, but that was the most remorse he would show. He claimed he had stopped molesting children in 1967, which of course, was a total lie.

For Diane Sawyer said that just during those three weeks some 60 victims came out. They even showed footage of her camera crew confronting the ex-priest, who reacted like a caged animal. It was electric, overwhelming, like nothing that had been on television before. (more…)

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“Venit, vidit, vicit,” is how I think it would be in my lousy Latin.

“He came, he saw, he conquered.” That would be Pope Benedict all right. I have to say his performance during his US trip was masterful. Though lacking the charisma of his predecessor, he made up for it with a certain folksy charm by so openly enjoying the adulation he received anyway. And he didn’t slip up even once.

He actually talked about the clergy sex abuse crisis, even met with a few victims. And so the word will go out that yes, the nightmare is over at last. “Roma locuta est, causa finita est.”

Yes, Rome has indeed spoken, but is the case really closed? One strong indication it just might not be came from one Richard Sipe, who stood up and fingered Cardinal McCarrick.

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With Pope Benedict’s arrival in the US just days away, interest is growing in his role in the clergy sex abuse scandals. A British documentary revives the charges that he led the cover-up.

That is but the tip of the proverbial iceberg, I’m afraid. Recent historical research for a book I’m writing has convinced me that Joseph Ratzinger is largely responsible for the scandals erupting in the first place. And he is directly responsible for their ending. Details can be found here.

That’s right. The scandals are over, folks. You just have not realized it yet.

Why is this important? First of all, they are over because the cover-up is in place even worse than before.

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VATICAN CITY — In a surprise move, Pope Benedict XVI today announced that he had taken immediate steps to end the long-standing conflict between Heaven and Hell. During a news conference hurriedly called for the occasion, the Holy Father made the historic proclamation surrounded by his cardinals. It took place directly after an emergency secret consistory that had the world speculating.

“The great feud between the heavenly kingdom and the infernal one is now over,” the Supreme Pontiff proclaimed. “I’m happy to say, the gates of Heaven have now been unlocked and thrown open. Even now, Lucifer and his former followers are being readmitted to Paradise.”

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An Israeli scholar says that Moses either saw a “cosmic event” or was high on a psychedelic, probably acacia, which he claims is similar to ayahuasca. Says he himself tried the latter, didn’t say if he saw God, though.

So is that a rational explanation? What were the rest of the Israelites on then when God landed on Mt. Sinai? Curious, I checked out the actual verses (King James version) and to me, it really does sound instead an awful lot like a rocket landing:

16 And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.

17 And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.

18 And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.

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