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.

The timing couldn’t be worse. Here’s the story from the Guardian, where the above headline and picture come from, too:

The Vatican was today rocked by a sex scandal reaching into Pope Benedict’s household after a chorister was sacked for allegedly procuring male prostitutes for a papal gentleman-in-waiting.

Angelo Balducci, a Gentleman of His Holiness, was caught by police on a wiretap allegedly negotiating with Thomas Chinedu Ehiem, a 29-year-old Vatican chorister, over the specific physical details of men he wanted brought to him. Transcripts in the possession of the Guardian suggest that numerous men may have been procured for Balducci, at least one of whom was studying for the priesthood.

The explosive claims about Balducci’s private life have caused grave embarrassment to the Vatican, which has yet to publicly comment on the affair.

While Catholicism does not condemn homosexuality outright, its teaching is that homosexual acts “are intrinsically disordered”. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states unequivocally: “Under no circumstances can they be approved.”

Balducci was arrested on 10 February, suspected of involvement in widespread corruption. A senior Italian government official, he is alleged to have to steered public works contracts towards favoured bidders. He has not been charged.

It was during this investigation into corruption that wiretaps revealed his alleged sexual activity. In one conversation, Ehiem tells Balducci: “I saw your call when I was in the Vatican, because I was doing rehearsals … in the choir … in St Peter’s.” He then suggests Balducci meet a man who he describes is “two metres tall … 97 kilos … aged 33, completely active.”

Balducci is also a senior adviser to the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, the department that oversees the Roman Catholic church’s worldwide missionary activities.

Since 1995, he has been a member of one of the world’s most exclusive fraternities – the Gentlemen of His Holiness, or Papal Gentlemen, the ceremonial ushers of the papal household. In the words of a 1968 ordinance, they are expected to “distinguish themselves for the good of souls and the glory of the name of the Lord”.

According to a report by the Carabinieri for prosecutors in Florence investigating the corruption scandal, there was a hidden side to Balducci’s life. “In order to organise casual encounters of a sexual nature, he availed himself of the intercession of two individuals who, it is maintained, may form part of an organised network, especially active in [Rome], of exploiters or at least facilitators of male prostitution.”

It named one as Ehiem, a professional chorister born in Nigeria. According to Italian press reports, Ehiem, a member of the choir that sings in St Peters when the pope is not officiating, lost his job on Wednesday after details of the Florence investigation became known to the Vatican.

In an interview to be published tomorrow by the news magazine Panorama, Ehiem said he had been introduced to Balducci more than 10 years ago. He claims: “He asked me if I could procure other men for him. He told me he was married and that I had to do it in great secrecy.”

There were conflicting accounts of how the Vatican might respond. According to one source, there was no provision for the dismissal of a Gentleman of His Holiness. Another said: “We shall wait for the judiciary’s definitive verdict.”

(Emphasis added.) Original story here.

Let’s connect some dots:

• An usher, it seems to me, would be ideally placed to be a pimp to the Pope’s elite visitors: cardinals, archbishops, heads of religious orders dignitaries, ambassadors, etc., etc.
• This arrangement between the two may have gone on for a decade, and is part of a larger operation.
• Choirs — as is evidenced by the current scandal surrounding a school choir in Germany later run by the pope’s brother — have long been used as pools for predators.
• The timing — the Irish cardinals appearing in Rome for a private meeting with the pope.
• Finally, the procurer worked for the missionary arm of the Church! Imagine the possibilities there, for not only procuring victims, but placing predators.

Suddenly, the headline and the story seem to go together all too well!

More to come, almost certainly…

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.

Note the symbolism. I’ve studied omens for years, and I can tell you, you don’t have to be an expert in the Book of Revelation to figure out this one. The Pope knocked down in a flying tackle by a woman clothed in red?

In Revelations 17, the “woman clothed in scarlet and purple” has written on her forehead:

MYSTERY
BABYLON THE GREAT
THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES
AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH (Rev. 17:3)

An angel explains that she represents the city of seven hills, “the great city that rules over the kings of the Earth.” (Rev. 17:18)
“Babylon the Great” (Rev. 18:2) which is to say the Eternal City, Rome, i.e., the Vatican.

The Protestant Reformers clearly saw the reference to the papacy, and delighted in the prophecies of her destruction.

Now the leaping woman wearing red, Susanna Maiolo, 25, of Swiss-Italian nationality, is described in news accounts as “mentally disturbed”. Well, duh.

Not that we’ll ever know why she did it or indeed, just what she was trying to accomplish — even though this was her second attempt, as she tried it last year during the pope’s way out. This time, she was more successful, and apparently, unrecognized by the screeners.

But the lack of news is so typical of Rome. The live feed from the Vatican slowly panned away from the incident up to the altar the moment security guards started converging, and nothing was mentioned of the incident. And try to find a good picture on the Net. Despite the hundreds of cellphones taking stills and movies, only a few have made it online, and they are poor quality.

Of course, we don’t know why she was wearing red both times she jumped at Benedict. But the meaning is very apparent.

1 After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. 2 With a mighty voice he shouted:
“Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!
She has become a home for demons
and a haunt for every evil spirit,
a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird.
3 For all the nations have drunk
the maddening wine of her adulteries.
The kings of the earth committed adultery with her,
and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.”

4 Then I heard another voice from heaven say:
“Come out of her, my people,
so that you will not share in her sins,
so that you will not receive any of her plagues;
5 for her sins are piled up to heaven,
and God has remembered her crimes.

…²¹ Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said:
“With such violence
the great city of Babylon will be thrown down,
never to be found again.

…By your magic spell all the nations were led astray.
²⁴ In her was found the blood of prophets and of the saints,
and of all who have been killed on the earth.” (Rev. 18:1-5, 21, 23-24)

Now that will be a Christmas to look forward to! ;->

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.

Incorruptible

Being pretty much a hermit, it takes a lot to pry me out of my cave. Last night, I was dragged by my sister to see her husband in the opening night of a play, called “Incorruptible“, written by Michael Hollinger, put on by a local company. I went largely out of politeness, but they thought it was right up my alley, and yowie wowie, they could not have been more right.

Incorruptible is a comedy about a monastery in 13th Century France that’s about to go under. The bones of their patroness saint have stopped working miracles and so the pilgrims have stopped coming; desperate measures are called for. Very funny as well as surprisingly historically accurate about the trafficking of fraudulent holy relics.

I had a great time. I’d forgotten how much fun local live theatre can be; actually enjoyable to be with other humans for once! All the actors are excellent, and the dialog is fast-paced and witty. Scariest nun I’ve ever seen too, and that’s saying something! (And yet it was written by a Quaker.) For me, though, not a bad start to the holiday season. In any case, it sure beat the hell out of yet another production of The Nutcracker.

But the reason I mention it here, is that the theme is, of course, Church corruption, actual as well as moral. The term “incorruptible”, you see, also refers to saints so holy that their corpses do not decay. And the practice of “holy theft” — furtum sacrum in Latin — whereby it was perfectly acceptable to rip off relics if they’d get more veneration in a new location justified quite a bit of larceny back then, including to my own patron saint, Jerome. And back before the Reformation, counterfeiting sacred relics was indeed a minor but profitable industry. (That’s probably the least weird explanation, anyway, for why there’s at least 3 Holy Foreskins of Jesus claimed by different cathedrals, for example. ;-> )

So of course, there are numerous sly references throughout the play to the moral bankruptcy of the clergy, both financial and sexual. The audience, mainly well-educated adults, took it all in stride, and laughed almost as much as I did. In the guise of light entertainment, the show really managed to bring up questions of faith, morality, miracles, and religious power.

And it hit me that the scandals have in a way returned us to the Middle Ages, but for once, in a good way. Due to victims coming forward, clerical immorality is now part of the common discourse once again, as it was back then. No longer does the Roman Catholic Church tower like a monolithic pyramid, aloof, divine, and well, incorruptible.

In our own time, we’ve actually succeeded in bringing the faults of the men and women of the cloth out in the open more than all the muck-raking journalists and esteemed historians of the last several centuries. Clergy abuse in the public consciousness, and while still a serious concern, people are unafraid to laugh about it. And that is, in my view, a very healthy development.

So we may not have “won” — sure, the Roman Catholic Church still has immense power and millions of mindless adherents — but this, I think, may be a sign that the tide has turned. It’s the clergy who are ridiculed and shamed now, not victims. And their pious self-importance can’t take it.

Laughter, it seems, may be the most effective weapon of all. Hmmm, maybe I better dig out that medieval religious comedy of my own, Once Upon an Inquisition…

Blessing or curse?

Here they are, two headlines next to each other this morning on ZENIT, the official Vatican newsfeed.

Benedict XVI Defends Young Migrants
Encourages Christians to Aid Children and Youth

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 27, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is appealing to Christians to reach out to migrants and refugees, especially children and adolescents, and to raise awareness of their plight….

and this:

Irish Prelates Lament Report on Child Abuse
Say No Apology Is Sufficient

DUBLIN, Ireland, NOV. 27, 2009 (Zenit.org).- In response to the publication of a report about sexual abuse of children by clergy, the archbishop of Dublin is stating that “no apology is sufficient.”..

The intellectual disconnect revealed here is astonishing in its audacity, truly overwhelming. It goes soars beyond denial, leaps past hypocrisy and lands squarely in the briarpatch of pathological, institutionalized schizophrenia. It would be funny if it were not so scary.

This is pure madness! The Roman Catholic hierarchy condemned by the Irish Government for covering up sex abuse for over 60 years is no different in Ireland than it is anywhere else — all the lying archbishops, deceiving bishops, and enabling monsignors fingered in the report were picked, evaluated, promoted and in short,  given their jobs by Rome, same as everywhere. These men are cut from the identical cloth as the rulers of the Church universal in every nation on the planet, and thus, acted no differently. Prelates in America, Canada, Austria, Australia and elsewhere have acted exactly the same.

This is a Church with no moral leg to stand on. And yet, its fearless leader, Pope Benedict XVI, who himself has done so much to reinstate the coverup, dares harangue the world about child abuse!

The Roman Church has absolutely no right lecturing anyone on how children should be treated. That the shame in doing so does not choke them as they speak is itself a sign of how completely insane the leadership must be.

Fr. Sanchez -- then and now

He’s back. They say criminals always return to the scene of the crime; bad pennies always show up again.

So perhaps it was inevitable that the person of Robert Fortune Sanchez, the former Archbishop of Santa Fe disgraced by his own admitted abuse of at least five women along with gross negligence in his incompetent handling of the clergy abuse scandals, has once again shown up in his New Mexican homeland.

Only now, he’s no longer a prelate, but a simple monk — a Franciscan friar, to be exact.

According to the website of the Franciscan Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the former archbishop has been a friar for two years now, and is celebrating his fiftieth anniversary as a Roman Catholic priest with his Franciscan brothers. (UPDATE: Link has been reset to Province’s homepage, as the page about the jubilee has been removed. Nice to know they’re paying attention!)

He has so much to celebrate, after all. What a record. During his nineteen years as archbishop, hundreds of New Mexico children were sexually abused by his priests, while he did virtually nothing to stop them. Nor did the chief shepherd of the community minister at all to victims and their families and parishes hurt by these monsters.

Instead, Robert Sanchez was busy chasing skirts himself. The damage he left behind is considerable, and even with the patient efforts of his successor, Abp. Michael Sheehan, the Church is still a long way from true recovery.

So Sanchez has some nerve coming back. Not that there is any sign that any further explanations of his inaction will be forthcoming, or that he will add anything to his feeble apologies. In fact, portions of his massive legal deposition are still kept secret, fifteen years later.

In fact, Sanchez becoming a Franciscan is truly ironic. The Order of Friars Minor accompanied the Conquistadors in the Spanish invasion. Until the Yankees took over in the middle of the 19th Century, the Franciscans were the backbone of the Catholic Church in New Mexico. Their missions were central to the Spanish colony, and their power was great enough to successfully defy more than one governor.

The friars thus had great freedom which many of them abused to the point where the Indians themselves revolted. The failure of the Franciscans brought disgrace upon themselves, and in the isolation of their mission churches, set the stage for not only the great Indian Revolt, but the corruption and the scandals of the 20th Century.

Perhaps it’s only fitting, then, that his former excellency returns to his ancestral homeland, as a dog returns to his vomit. Doubtless he will be greeted in fine Catholic tradition. But does his new humble rank demonstrate Christian humility and penitence or something else?

The brazen effrontery of this man who led his Church community into such an awful crisis to return here to celebrate his vocation, speaks only of arrogance and self-centeredness of the worst kind.

This is the Catholic Church, not offering a blessing, but throwing a finger at the people. So it is that once again, the former Archbishop Sanchez has managed to betray his flock while caring only for himself.

Fawker Day - When?

Another year gone to hell.

Here it is once again November 5, Guy Fawkes Day, or Bonfire Night, celebrating the foiling of the infamous Gunpowder Plot in 1605. In the wee hours on that day, Fawkes was caught red-handed, lurking with a pile of barrels of black powder beneath the Houses of Parliament. He and his companions planned to blow the Protestant British monarchy and most of the nobility to kingdom come in what would have been the most spectacular act of terrorism — Catholic or otherwise — ever.

It is the day that I once proposed Roman Catholic clergy abuse survivors claim for ourselves. I called it World Catholic Abuse Survivors Day, but it quickly became known as “Fawker Day”. It would be held according to a bold general plan — which I still think could be effective — calling for a coordinated series of demonstrations at chanceries around the world of a totally different kind. They would be positive celebrations of survivalship, and growing beyond victimhood. No doubt such a global event would scare the bejesus out of the hierarchy, showing them to be irrelevant and out of control, and give a powerful shot in the arm to reformers everywhere.

A lovely vision; alas, like other proposals — such as the somewhat-similar September 1 festival — it died quietly on the vine. And now, concern for these issues seems at the lowest ebb in decades. Why? Could it be that the Survivors Movement itself has finally perished?

That, in itself, would not be such a bad thing. It might mean, for instance, that the Roman Catholic Church is finally doing what it should have all along. Or maybe survivors have really healed and moved on with their lives.

Or maybe it just means people have given up. Those who could get buckets of cash have scurried off as far as they possibly could. Organizations that called for change, like SNAP and VOTF, now find themselves more in the role of watchdog institutions left behind. But the media no longer cares. They’ve got plenty of other scandals to keep them occupied.

The Roman Catholic Church, as I have indicated in my exposé, Sons of Perdition, has retreated back into its black tower of medieval secrecy. The people have chosen to believe their assurances that the bad apples are gone, the dark period has ended, thus setting their children up for future exploitation by their spiritual shepherds. The more things change, the more they stay the same…

So now what?

Maybe it’s time for survivors to survive, to get on with their lives, find new means of spirituality. People have been telling us to “get over it” all along anyway. Why not let the fools suffer the fate they deserve, like the sheep they are?

But it turns out that’s not so easy. Some of us have been so scarred by the injustice we have seen we can’t give up. Some remember their isolation and pain, and fear for the children that come after.

I don’t know what the answer is. All I can do is share something my sainted mother taught me:

Brighten the corner where you are.

It’s taken me a long, long time to see the wisdom in this, as it sounds so simple. It’s taken me just as long to combine it with another bit of wisdom from George Santayana:

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

All victims and survivors, be they of clergy abuse or genocide, can do is be a witness to their truth. That, at least, I and many others, have done.

The awful truth is out there, for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. Deal with it.

As for me, the search for a more positive spirituality goes on. But I remember now, and will never forget again. Nor, God willing, will I so easily believe pious lies.

The Man of Sin

The time has come at last. My book is published and available online. I am finally getting a few good reviews — including one I truly treasure from none other than Fr. Tom Doyle, one of the true experts in the field and a sterling advocate for clergy abuse victims.

All that’s left now is to announce it to the world. So, here then is the officious official Press Release. By coincidence, this is the anniversary season for the real beginning of the clergy abuse scandals in New Mexico, which started with a bang way back, a full seventeen years ago this month.

It all started with a very prominent priest, Msgr. Art Perrault, who went on a sabbatical earned by 25 years of service in September 1992. He announced plans to study scripture in Denver, but that was not to be. Rather than move into a condo as arranged, instead he apparently flew off to Vancouver, Canada, “on vacation”.

And so he escaped clean away, leaving a whole lot of questions, some pretty messed-up kids, and the start of scandals that would take down many of his clerical buddies, not least of which was the archbishop and his close friend, Robert Sanchez.

Perrault was an interesting fellow. Charismatic, brilliant, and a good communicator, he was the chief liturgist and master of ceremonies for the archdiocese. He even taught Ethics at St. Pius X High School, which is where I met him. I even had several personal encounters with him over the two years I was at Pius.

I recall one private meeting, where I had gone to see him to try to stop a gang fight after school. We talked in his office for awhile, and I noticed he seemed to grow more and more anxious. A sheen developed on his face and he licked his lips a lot. Though I’d already been abused years before, I was clueless, but very uncomfortable, and suddenly recalled the warnings of some of the older boys.

Nothing happened. I escaped that time, through no act of my own. Possibly a crowded high school was too risky even for him to gamble on acting out in, who knows?

I do know that he had a lot of powerful friends in the community, people willing to cover for him, like Archbishop Sanchez. In fact, the head of the Servants of the Paracletes once even denied knowing about him.

At a lecture on spirituality once in Santa Fe, I encountered Father Liam Hoare, then Servant General, the top man among the Paracletes. Though it was a public forum with various clergy watching, I couldn’t resist. So I asked Fr. Hoare if Perrault had ever been to Jemez Springs. He smiled kindly and said in his Irish lilt, no, he thought not, unless maybe it was to teach theology(!). This, despite Perrault’s having been a guest there was a matter of public record. It was also personally attested to by a victim I knew who, believe it or not, would accompany Perrault on visits to the monastery. He would be allowed to wander the grounds while the priest was off doing whatever it was he did up there. I shudder to think what kind of theology he taught…

Fr. Perrault has never been seen again, though it was believed by investigators that he stayed somewherein Canada. There was a failed attempt in New Mexico to get a criminal indictment and a flurry of lawsuits, all now long settled. But as far as is known, he never, ever returned to the Land of Enchantment. Why should anyone care at this point?

Notoriety for one thing. Perrault was the first and the biggest name in New Mexico to fall — next to Archbishop Sanchez, that is, who as Sons of Perdition shows, might even have been blackmailed by the priest. Perrault was a brazen, ruthless predator who dared molested his victims even in the archdiocesan offices and the home of the archbishop. Moreover, some of the most sinister rumors that swirled around any priest here in New Mexico, concentrated around him like a dark cloak.

Despite the fact that the law is uninterested and he’s probably has continued merrily abusing the young, Art Perrault may have very good reasons not to return. But it doesn’t mean he hasn’t been in touch. It is known that he communicated at least once after his disappearance with the then-chancellor of the archdiocese, the late Fr. Ron Wolf, and even called the local newspaper. There’s reason to believe he continued to receive a pension or some other form of economic support from the archdiocese.

In the end, however, Perrault is important primarily as a symbol of all that went wrong here. His prominence in the Catholic community, his repeated offenses enabled by his superiors, dark rumors, and the secrecy that still surrounds him go beyond even the poor handling of numerous lesser-known cases. The Church covered up for Father Perrault before he arrived in the Land of Enchantment, while he was here offending, and they’ve probably been complicit in hiding him still.

For the cover-up, there is no statute of limitations.

As you can see, that which was dead lives again. In my quest to update all my sites, I somehow managed to hose the upgrade to this, my WordPress blog. D’oh! But I’m back (thanks, Mark!), and as the saying goes, there will be some changes around here.

First thing I’m going to do is enable comments. Yes, really. I know that among the horde of spambots, some actual people have attempted to sign up. My sincere apologies for not have enabled a conversation. Between lagging technically somewhat and faced with distractions like writing and publishing a book on my own, this site has been woefully neglected.

I’re re-enabled everyone who attempted to register previously — well, at least those addresses who seemed like they might be human. ;-> And I’ll try to notify everyone shortly.

Comments will still be held for moderation, at least until I get to know you. And you’ll only have a two-week shot at best. But I know from folks who’ve emailed me after seeing something on my website, there’s a lot of interesting folks out there and some even weirder than me.

Secondly, the range of interests discussed here will be greatly expanded. I’m rather tired of dealing with clergy abuse and Catholic issues in general at the moment, oddly enough. But as any casual visitor to my sarabite.info sites can see, I’m fascinated by everything from flying saucers to old movies to transcendent painting to Gnosis — not just satanic priests and the follies of Rome. Those will continue provide amusement no doubt, but I need to look at something other than that particular cesspool once in a while. Whether I’ll get much of a chance is another question.

Lately, I’ve been quite taken by the idea of synchromysticism. Don’t know if I’ll play much here with it, but I have found for a long time that the symbolic context of events shows that indeed the Universe is talking to us, whether we’re paying attention or not, so I think there’s a certain validity to these discoveries.

Anyway, to new time visitors and the random few who check back occasionally, welcome!