Catholic Catharsis.
The Catholic Church manages ‘outrage’ at last.
It has been ‘saddened’ in prior weeks, it has been ‘dismayed’, it even sneaked in a solitary ‘disgusted’ at one point, but these were individual views; this week-end however, it worked itself up into a collective ‘outraged’.
At last. Halleluiah, Praise the Lord, and any other appropriate collegiate incantations you think I should inset at this point.
You must be agog to hear of the latest goings on in the haute couture world of pretty frocks extraordinaire?
Was the Pope caught dogging with a pretty Thai boy dressed as Shirley Bassey?
Bishop Kieran Conry found hanging in his wardrobe alongside his best black negligee with a Lidl plastic bag fastened over his head and a beatific smile on his worshipful countenance?
Did the number of abused children finally reach some magical tipping point number – 10,000, 100,000, at which the bomb proof conscience of the Catholic Church was finally moved to ‘outrage’?
None of these. Something far, far, worse than that.
Let your imagination run riot for a moment of this Easter Sunday. Finished?
Do you need a few minutes to refresh the mind bleach?
The cause of this collective outrage was that dead sheep of the Anglican Church daring to speak his mind.
He said, wait for it, that the Catholic Church ‘had lost all credibility’ because of its poor (Poor? Ecclesiastical understatement of the year) handling of the scandal of paedophile priests.
And the dam broke. Those Catholic priests who had remembered their faith and spoken in measured cautious tones of small boys abused and lives ruined, were moved to ‘outrage’ and strong language.
Diarmuid Martin, archbishop of Dublin was ‘stunned’ by this news.
“The unequivocal and unqualified comment in a radio interview of the archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, that the Catholic church in Ireland has ‘lost all credibility’ has stunned me,” Martin said.
I can find no record of Diarmuid Martin being stunned in the past. Never before has he ‘woken to a news report and felt so discourgaged’.
A curious set of values in the Catholic chapter of professional middle-men between you and your conscience.
Archbishop Tomasi telling us all that up to 5% of Catholic priests have sexually abused children didn’t stun Diarmuid, nor move him to public statements of having ‘never before felt so discouraged’.
Various diocese in the US accepting that over 4,000 priests had abused young children didn’t have that effect on him.
The publication of the ‘crimen sollicitationis’ revealing that victims of abuse who spoke out against their crime would be banished from the ministrations of the Catholic Church (for which small mercy they were surely grateful, given that which the ministrations had involved for them up to that point) hadn’t ‘stunned’ Diarmuid Martin, nor left him feeling ‘personally discouraged’.
But a mild criticism by the cuddly toy that the Anglican Church have handed their bestest party frock to, brings him to his knees in despair.
God only knows what he will do if he hears the one about the Pope and the Thai boy.
Make for the wardrobe with a Lidl bag, I suspect.
A Happy Easter to all, including those who put their faith in these charlatans.
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1
April 4, 2010 at 10:31 -
The same Rowan W who proposed that Sharia Law would be OK for the C of E flock, at least has the balls to point out to the Romans their failings.
If male Catlick employees recognised that sex with a woman can be fun, maybe far fewer would fiddle with young boys.
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2
April 4, 2010 at 10:47 -
Just squeezed into the Easter TV schedule at 11.05pm on More4 tomorrow night is “Deliver Us from Evil”, an Oscar-nominated documentary about sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in the US. It’s absolutely worth watching, exposing as it does the church’s rank-closing method of dealing with the subject.
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3
April 4, 2010 at 10:58 -
What we have here is two warring tribes, much like chimpanzees who have tribal wars and kill all the males. Females don’t count with them so much, and children least of all. And child abuse… well, that’s just a perk of the job, isn’t it? Only they’re not allowed to say so right out loud.
There is a lawsuit going on in the States this last week… a scoutmaster, on the witness stand, claimed that the parents of abused kids were the ones to blame — for allowing their kids to go on overnight stays with the scout organisation. They should have known what to expect.
Defend the tribe, at the expense of the innocent.
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4
April 4, 2010 at 11:12 -
Defend the tribe, at the expense of the innocent.
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That’s pretty much what the documentary concludes, lenko. -
5
April 4, 2010 at 11:23 -
and pretty much what Ed Balls would do too Gloria
and as for Grayling, well …..
how about all religion is banned from today? maybe that’s the message this easter!
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7
April 4, 2010 at 11:56 -
I’m sure I will be able to see my new avatar in the fullness of time Ms Raccoon, but for the timebeing I remain, on my screen, toothless and be-curler’d Les D. I expect I should empty my cache or something complicated like that. Nah – too technical!
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8
April 4, 2010 at 13:08 -
9
April 4, 2010 at 13:44 -
As an atheist I almost wish there was a hell so those abominable priests could really get the punishment they so richly deserve.
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10
April 4, 2010 at 14:07 -
Can’t disagree with Catweazle’s remarks, and I couldn’t say which is which when it comes to pots and kettles, but are any of these holy Joes totally carbon-free?
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11
April 4, 2010 at 14:28 -
The Pope used to be Cardinal Ratzinger. Cardinal Ratzinger used to be Prefect of the Congregation for The Doctrine of the Faith. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (which used to be called The Holy Office of the Inquisition) is one of the most important administrative offices of the Holy See: its function amounts to that of a court and it has jurisdiction over matters including clerical sexual misconduct. Hmm.
Oh, and who wrote the ‘crimen sollicitationis’ I wonder?….
Still, it’s all petty gossip.
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12
April 4, 2010 at 14:30 -
The Holy Office of the Inquisition eh?
I wasn’t expecting that.
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13
April 4, 2010 at 14:34 -
…..
Nobody expects The Holy Office of the Inquisition.
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14
April 4, 2010 at 14:37 -
Boom Boom!
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15
April 4, 2010 at 14:40 -
From last week’s Sunday Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/india_knight/article7078888.ece
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16
April 4, 2010 at 14:42 -
Did you hear the one about the agnostic, dyslexic insomniac who lay awake all night wondering if there really is a Dog?
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17
April 4, 2010 at 14:45 -
Hmm, I’m in the 5%.
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18
April 4, 2010 at 14:47 -
I suppose that makes me a likable slut.
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19
April 4, 2010 at 14:53 -
OK stop! Everybody stop right NOW! We’ve got it wrong. You know who is really to blame for all this mess?
Satan, that’s who! He is tempting the priests to do naughties with their altar boys, and then tempting US to make a fuss about it, and tempting the MSM to print headlines.
And this MUST be true, because it comes from Father Gabriele Amorth, who is the Vatican’s chief exorcist, and he should know!
If you don’t believe me, read Raw Story’s account of how the Devil FORCED the New York Times to write Bad Things.
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0402/italian-excorcist-devil-ny-times-attack-pope/
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20
April 4, 2010 at 14:54 -
Trust you with the football-ticket funnies Saul. I can’t say I’m surprised: after all, a Boom Boomerang always comes back!
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21
April 4, 2010 at 14:59 -
Let him without fault cast the first stone
I suppose it takes the attention away from Israeli bombing in the Gaza strip
and Islamic terrorists elsewhere ,but then again,as the Danish cartoonist found
out, it does’nt pay to be to chirpy about some religions ,does it ?Last people on earth to criticise the catholic church are the pagans and atheists
with their track recordServus
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22
April 4, 2010 at 15:03 -
Not accordding to Charlie Drake, Glo.
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23
April 4, 2010 at 15:23 -
torquemada…
I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition
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26
April 4, 2010 at 16:54 -
You are rather late Mr Thaddeus. Not exactly what one could call ruthless efficiency, is it?
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30
April 4, 2010 at 18:15 -
Friar Rowan was simply pointing out that the Montagues have finally reached the same point as those ecclesiastical eminces at the CofE and have became irrelevant to the minds of modren fowk (my spelling).
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31
April 4, 2010 at 22:17 -
Are (Catholic) Priests in the UK subject to CRB check?
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32
April 4, 2010 at 22:58 -
21 Toquemada
Last people on earth to criticise the catholic church are the pagans and atheists
with their track recordServus
Hmmm. Do you mean ARE the last, or SHOULD BE the last? It’s not clear to me.
Are you naming yourself after Tomas de Torquemada (1420 – 1498)?
The letter ‘r’ is missing so not too sure.
Let me disabuse you of the idea that pagans and atheists are of the same ilk.
Pagans believe in the metaphysical and supernatural, just like believers in other faiths.
Atheists are those who can not and will not accept such a concept as God exists. -
33
April 4, 2010 at 23:42 -
Ancient and Tattered Airman has me really confused now. I don’t know if I’m an atheist, pagan or existentialist now. Actually I don’t really care but I do have some sympathy with those who are unable to break free of their shutters to view other opinions.
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34
April 5, 2010 at 01:43 -
I’m reminded of a story told by Grouch Marx on some American tv show.
He tells of meeting a priest. The priest asks ” hey, aren’t you Groucho Marx? I want to than you for all the joy you’ve brought into the world.”
Grouch replies “and I want to thank you for all the joy you’ve taken out of it!”
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35
April 5, 2010 at 19:30 -
Just squeezed into the Easter TV schedule at 11.05pm on More4 tonight is “Deliver Us from Evil”, an Oscar-nominated documentary about sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in the US. It’s absolutely worth watching, exposing as it does the church’s rank-closing method of dealing with the subject.
(reposted just as a memory-jogger)
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37
April 5, 2010 at 22:04 -
I told you we were steam-driven here, so actually we don’t have a dvd recorder that works, but I will record it for you and see if I can get it onto a dvd at a later date. It is listed on Channel4 OD though, so you should be able to watch it on the pc for the next week (or so the exasperated teenage boy tells me!)
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38
April 6, 2010 at 13:29 -
The problem here is one of gross hypocrisy. The Catholic church and it’s wayward priests has been rumbling on for some years. I came across the extent of the abuse when I found out that Cardinal Mahony had effectively covered up for a pedophile priest, and also in the process lied to his congregation about the circumstances under which the priest was detected as being a child sex offender.
To add further insult to injury, Mahony, the charitable face of the church then demanded that church funded youth centers and children homes be closed down to pay for the substantial out of court settlements for victims of abuse.
Ratzinger, the now incumbent pope in the Vatican prior to his climb to that of God’s representation on earth was the point man in the Vatican for dealing with the growing complaints about priests abusing children. This came up again recently in the press with one publication suggesting that the pope’s future as head of the Catholic church was untenable and should resign.
The problem is not only confined to the Catholic church, all religions seem to have this problem and one of the biggest issues that we have as a society is not knowing what to do with these people. Sure, lock them up and when they are released they will go back to doing what they do, we can’t state execute them and they can’t be re-wired to accept that you can’t abuse children.
The Catholic church to date have adopted the stance of just ignoring all this and moving their priests around in the hope that it will go away but when you have people who are placed in a position of trust within a community abuse that trust and abuse children it’s not going to go away and it shouldn’t. Either they face the problem and do something about it or they get people in who can deal with the issue.
As to whether the Catholic church has lost it’s credibility is subjective. Personally I think it lost its credibility when I was able to gain the skill of critical thinking and draw conclusions on it. Whatever is missing in this world, I don’t think we are going to find it looking to any religion.
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