Abandoned_Altars

What’s wrong with this picture?

I’ve neglected this blog a lot. Believe it or not, I’ve wanted to turn my attention to topics other than clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Church. As a gnostic, heretic, and long time sci-fi fan, the religious implications of UFOs, what the Church knows about Roswell, and even the possibility that Christ could be seen as an extraterrestrial have long intrigued me.

But the Church just won’t let me be. Every time I think, Okay, I can walk away now, they come up with something even more outrageous. I’ve stoically ignored the meltdown in the Irish Church, even failed to mention the choirboy scandals in Germany. But now…

Well, now there’s a new scandal brewing in Rome.  And thus the cause for the irony between the headline and the picture above.  Those are Irish cardinals who’ve been called in on the carpet for the sex scandals there.

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Sometimes the best gifts are those you never ask for, but are given anyway.

For instance, I would never, ever have thought of writing to Saint Nick,

“Dear Santa,

“This year, could you somehow have the pope tackled during a procession? I don’t want anybody really hurt, but it would sure brighten up my Christmas.”

But guess what? It happened anyway! Well, although an elderly cardinal broke his leg, the pope himself wasn’t hurt in the commotion, and that’s just fine with me. (Seriously, the last thing I’d want is Ratzi to become a martyr — and the incident wouldn’t have been at all funny, either.)

But having him taken down with a flying tackle by a woman in red? Priceless.

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Behind the mask

I had a rather peculiar feeling when reading how shocked and dismayed Pope Benedict XVI said he was over the report on Irish abuse.  I was reminded in fact of a scene from the classic film Casablanca (1942). You know the one — the refugees in the bar beat the Germans in the “Battle of the Anthems” and so the head Nazi, the evil Maj. Strasser, orders the corrupt French cop Capt. Renault to shut the place down.

Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
Capt. Renault: I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Capt. Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.
[aloud]
Capt. Renault: Everybody out at once!

Yes, caught between admitting that abuse was due in large part to the Vatican’s culture of secrecy and cover-up which he himself has restored and having to do something about it, the Supreme Pontiff’s response of “outrage, betrayal, and shame” is predictable. Since, however, as the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , Ratzinger is more likely outraged by the revelations of abuse rather than its actual happening.

For if anybody knew what was going on it was him. And if the Grand Inquisitor didn’t know, that in itself is a major scandal!

But rather than confess any faults of God’s Holy Church, he places the blame squarely on the perpetrators and the bishops who enabled them. Like Capt. Renault, the Holy See profits from the cover-up and also by the abuse.

Let’s face it: Abuse, or even homosexual acting out with their peers keeps some of the remaining clergy — mainly men who cannot survive in the “real world”, content.  The cover-up is necessary to keep a lid on things and the papal hands as white and unblemished as his robes. And the corruption in the sacred premises is every bit as seedy and degenerate as that in a refugee hellhole.

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