Friday, March 19, 2010

Sex and Scandal: “Don’t ask don’t tell” and the Catholic hierarchy


Seems the good Pope Benedict is implicated in a cover up of a child molesting German priest back in the 80’s. Instead of turning him into the authorities, the Pope directed him to get psychiatric counseling … all the while the priest continued on with his sexual predilections, being reassigned to another parish where his perversity continued.

Meanwhile Bishops are under fire over their exposed cover ups; and all over the planet -- Latin America, Ireland, UK, Germany, Austria, France, Poland, Australia, Canada – victims are coming forward attesting to decades of sexual abuse at the hands of priests. The cover-ups and denials of the Church hierarchy in those countries indicate they don’t have a much better track record than the pope, or US Church officials. So much for the hackneyed whine of the defensive devout that molesting priests are just a tiny, insignificant minority. That duck doesn’t quack anymore.

Oh, sure…the Church pays the necessary lip service. The pope condemns sexual misconduct, and I’m sure he’d wish it would all just go away. Some church officials are admitting they just weren’t aggressive enough; they didn’t realize the breadth of the problem or its life long implications to the victims.

And why should they? These aren’t psychologists. They aren’t typically trained psychotherapists, sex therapists, social workers, Special Victims Unit detectives. They are largely sexually repressed shaman who have been trained to read Latin, promote the Church to find new recruits, accept the impossible as real and reject the real as impossible. They are wannabe apostles to a myth, dressed in gender neutral opulent costumes, conducting foolish rituals, embracing magical liturgy, promising nonsensical rewards for belief, forgiving people for sins so they can clean their slates and repeat the sin, and mumbling the same old prayers that fall only on the ears of their awed and cowed parishioners.

It is to these self imposed eunuchs, these socially impotent pretenders, that responsibility rests for ferreting out perverts among their ranks; all while a goodly number of their own highly placed brethren are themselves doing exactly the same unholy acts. It’s the quintessential example of the inmates policing the inmates.

If the Church really understood the depth of the problem; if it cared as much about the victims’ well being as they do about their own financial stability; if it were genuinely invested in rooting out and resolving the problem and ending it once and for all; they would have taken draconian steps to fix it years ago. The pope could have appointed his own VBSMI (Vatican Bureau of Sexual Misconduct Investigation), with all the power and independence that the Church gave to Tomas de Torquemada, the 15th Century leader of the Spanish Inquisition.

When it came to rooting out and punishing imagined enemies of the Church, heretics and back-sliding converted Jews, Torquemada was all powerful and remarkably effective. But then, those were the good old days when the Church felt threatened by those innocents they considered ungodly. Now that it’s the “godly” themselves that threaten the innocents the motivation isn’t quite as strong. They don't want to hear the ugly truth, much less uncover anymore of it than absolutely necessary

It took 350 years for the Catholic Church to apologize for the persecution of Galileo; 750 years to apologize for the Inquisition. I’m going to guess that the thousands and thousands of victims of wholesale sexual abuse and cover-up by the Catholic clergy should get their apology in, oh … 2500 CE. This assumes the Church doesn’t fuck itself into oblivion between now and then.

29 comments:

NewEnglandBob said...

This is just another in a long line of examples that proves that the last place to find morals or ethics is within any religion.

If members of RCC don't stand up and demand to have this problem fixed then they are part of the problem.

Dromedary Hump said...

I have seen in "Deep Thoughts" blog, religionists defending almost EVERY clergyman accused of a sex crime. They blame the victim, the refuse to believe this "wonderful man" did these things.

They cannot let themselves accept this reality any more than they can accept reality over superstition.

If lay Catholcs wanted to really put this to an end they could all go on strike, stay out of church and stop tithing for as long as it takes to get real Vatican action. It would bring the Church to it's knees... uh... so to speak .

Anonymous said...

Amen (Ah, men...) to that.

Anonymous said...

You've started sumptin' with this word play... it may never end.

Angel said...

This is what abstinence in religion comes to. Unless the reasons for abstinence are your OWN and not driven by a jealous god in the sky who really doesn't give a crap about you. He couldn't care less if you haven't wacked off in a month or ten, all in his glorious holy name.

Veering a bit off the topic of coitus really-should-have-been-interrupted for those poor souls being preyed(prayed?!) on by horrible men in cassocks, may I offer another example of early Catholic atrocity?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albigensian_Crusade

This was the last stronghold of Gnosticism. It burned out not only Gnostics who refused to return to Catholicism but most of the population of southern France.

Dromedary Hump said...

Anon.. Yikes..I created a word Monster!! :)

Angel,
I always wondered if the sex crimes in the church are a result of the celebacy, or if it just attracts perverts who use their power over the gulible & the fear of god to keep them silent. But since it is also prevalant in the protestant sects, I'm thinking the latter.

Yeah, the crusade against the Cathars was just one of a long list of attrocities.

Engineer of Knowledge said...

Hello Hump,
Yes, isn't it odd that if you profess guidance from God, your Kiddy F'in will be over looked.....because that is God's way...Right?

Hello Angel,
I too have written often on the attrocities against the Albigensian Cathars and a favorite subject of mine.

I have just completed a posting where I think I can explain the difference of mind sets which makes one person believe in nihilistic viewpoints and others living in the real world.

Angel said...

Hump, I can most certainly agree with you that the priesthood would attract a type of individual who craves that type of power and influence over individuals. Maybe they didn't start out as sexual perverts but they ended up as one.

Engineer, I'd be interested in reading this post. Link? I can't access your profile.

But "Nihilist versus the real world?" Not sure you're going to be able to make a very strong argument unless you've been able to dig deep under the skin of certain religions.And to do that you'd have to be Irenaus-incarnate to pull it off. (Gone undercover much?) I've seen both sides of this argument in real life and it's a very tricky path. Both sides have something to offer and both sides damn one another to a certain extent OR claim that the other is on a certain learning curve in religious evolution.

Anonymous said...

My departure from the faithful to the un-faithed began a half-century ago. As a medieval history major, I discovered the atrocities of the many religions of the world are too numerous to list. That was, however not why I left the theist traditions behind - that was because I just couldn't make it work. These pedophilial crimes and abuse of all sorts, sexual and psychological are crimes regardless of the perpetrator. My question is why we feel the clergy should be held to a higher standard. If the clergy are promoting an ideal that has already been discarded by me, it is like beating a dead horse to hold his religious beliefs against him. The crime is sort of the absolute value aspect of the event. Laying blame on an institution will not change the minds of the believers. Their faith rests on things unseen and beyond knowing. Don't waste time on that old sacred cow. Direct the attention at the commonality of criminal and victim in addressing the action, preventing it in the future by reasonable means and supporting the victim in their healing process through dealing with anger and pain, not stoking the fires of hatred which is more destructive to the one who hates than the one who is hated. I'm not talking about wishful thinking here, but whatever form of therapy works for the individual victim. These aren't groups out there, but individuals with names and proclivities be they victim or criminal in each crime under investigation. Not all of anything is really the same is it? Stop the broad brush strokes and deal with the real.

Engineer of Knowledge said...

Hello Angel,

The link is http://www.engineerofknowledge.blogspot.com/

The title of the piece is A Pivotal Moment In Human History.

It speaks of Pre-scientific people who developed what they thought were believable answers to big questions but have become impossible to support with answers once someone started to demand scientific accuracy.

The true difficult task for many religious people is to free themselves from the limits of man’s own five senses, which evolved to work in our earthly environment. Much of religious beliefs were developed from what was known at the time of the Middle Ages. From this point on, it just remained stagnant.

I hope you visit and enjoy.

DM said...

go shoot yourself in the head...

add some comment moderation to your blasphemy blog...

http://community.history.com/topic/2477/master/1/

Sharon said...

DM I've been to your web site, it's crazy making.

And the fact that you've chosen to use Nostradamus as your standard of reality says an awful lot about you. It says that your personal connection to actual reality is not that strong.

Dromedary Hump said...

Barb,
A couple of good points you made.
Let me adresss the two that stand out.

First, we hold clergy to a higher standard because society embues in them a status that puts their morality and ethics above the norm. Not to you and I, but to the overwhelming majority of the plant's population. With that status comes a responsiblitiy to attain that level of ethical behavior.

Additionally, we hold them to a higher standard just as the population at large expects religions to maintain a higher standard than say secular governments. As we have seen through history, the Church( s ) have waged war, committed heinous crimes in the name of God. Yet, when theists are confronted with that fact they say "Well, no worste than Stalin or Pol Pot, or Hitler." A peculiar response that reasoning given that religions claim to represent god's will on earth and should thus in theory set a better example, not simply settle for moral equivalency.

Second, clergy have been protected, cloaked, by the Church. The Church has been complicit in the crimes of their employees. I can think of no other profession where the guild, union, brotherhood, company, bureau, or any catagory of oversight has institutionalized the protection of child molesters.

This alone screams for "placing blame" on the institution. It cannot be ignored, or excused. Unless the pressure is applied, from outside the church then it will continue as it has for decades if not centuries. The fact is, I have seen nothing from the Church that indicates they are talking new and dramatic steps to protect children from their holy employees.

If you have, please share it with us.

Angel said...

Why oh why does DM persist in pointing out that he/she/it wishes you practiced comment censoring?

Interesting read, Engineer! Thanks for the link. I'll post further comments on your blog. I'm thinking that the fourth century was the beginning of the Christian downward spiral, though, as opposed to the Middle Ages. Once the first Council of Nicea convened the divine status of Jesus was 'decided upon' and that's when the shit really hit the fan. You don't do war in name of someone you merely respect as a wise man. You DO commit people to war in the name of someone you consider divine.

Anonymous said...

Sorry if I gave the impression that I supported the insupportable position of the church. By no means, I simply wanted to point out that hypocrisy knows no bounds and rests in all camps under different mantles. The victims deserve every attention to their needs without qualification or exemption of perpetrator by class or position. Those who condone the continued actions of these child- molesters are equally guilty, as accessories, of the crimes they pretend to abhor . The Pope is not excluded from these responsibilities nor is anyone else in a position to address the issue be they teachers, Scout Masters, Nuns, Priests, Ministers, Rabbis, Doctors, Lawyers, Plumbers, Brick masons, mothers, fathers or complete strangers etc.

Dromedary Hump said...

Folks...

Please do not respond to the troll's inane posts. He is making his rounds to all the atheist blogs. He is seeking attention. The less we give it, the better.

Thanks.

Engineer of Knowledge said...

Hello Angel,
You bring up a very good point with reference to the first Council of Nicea convened the divine status of Jesus. I find it very interesting that three of the original 12 disciples who wrote the Gnostic Gospels were omitted when they described the life of Jesus. There was the Gospels of Thomas, (Doubting Thomas), Gospels of Philip, and Gospel According to Mary Magdalene all who went to Egypt (the center of all advance knowledge of the time) after the crucifixion of Jesus. All three spoke of Sarah (in Hebrew meaning “Princes”) was the child of Mary Magdalene and Jesus. Some how this all of this information went away at the Council of Nicea and given no validity.

Contents under pressue said...

Actually, in this case, it took them around 40 years to apologize for some of the sex scandals.

Hump, I beg to disagree with you that it will take centuries for them to apologize this time around.

We have the intarwebz after all - every dirty little secret of the church is literally just a few mouse clicks away for anybody with the drive to dig up the truth.

And every attempt they make to suppress information can only destroy their credibility further.

There are also the news organizations such as the BBC that put their time and energy into creating those wonderfully accurate and yet entertaining documentaries on wonders like this.

And even if the church did buy every single copy of this docu, well, that's what torrents are for, right? :D

Angel said...

Is it just me or does the new Pope look evil? Since the first time I saw the man's face on CNN I could clearly visualize a pair of horns on his head.

Contents: And Wikileaks!! We cannot forget Wikileaks! Damn it all to the Camel-Purgatory, they're still not up and running this year. Still fund raising.

Besides the buggering priests, the Gnostic Gospels are the biggest thorn in the Vatican's backside I think they've seen this century. 1945 was a truly bad year for the Catholic faith when the first of them was circulated to academic circles for scrutiny. The past FIVE years have been a riot to watch in relation to those scriptures. And not just by reading the Inquirer or Star or any of those trash mags.

The only way they can seem to discredit those particular disciples is to, in fact, point out their differences when compared to the other disciples. You're correct. Egypt was The Place to go to for higher learning. Gee. Now we're right back where we started: blind faith/ignorance versus science and learning. There's a definite trend here.

Ignorance is revered for some HumpDamned reason.

Contents under pressue said...

@DM

LOLZ

Thx for the link - best laugh I had in months :D

I haven't seen material like that since I started watching Stephen Colbert.

Contents under pressue said...

Hump, I think your blog has been infested with the dreaded David Mabus.

symptoms of this ailment include, to quote a credible source (http://skippytheskeptic.blogspot.com/2008/05/who-hell-is-david-mabus.html):

"essentially an a-grammatical explosion of written diarrhea, peppered with random links in much the way a watery dump might be studded with undigested corn. He mostly seemed to want to crow about the end of the Million Dollar Challenge, but he also mentioned the departure of Ellen Johnson from American Atheists*, so I'm not all that sure what he was getting at."

Other blogs that have been hit by the Mabus include PZ Myers' Pharyngula blog. PZ has already formulated antibodies against the Mabus (i.e. ban-hammered), and has included this comment on the Mabus' other characteristics (http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/plonk.php):

"Deeply deranged, disturbed individual who believes James Randi has cheated him out of a million dollars, and who vents by spamming websites and email with his angry tirades. Certifiable. Needs immediate mental health care. His real name is Dennis Markuze, and he lives in Montreal, Canada."

Prescription: Nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. Although given you probably don't have access to any nuclear devices (at least none that I know of...), and you very much would want to keep your blog fallout-free, may I suggest a ban hammer?

Dromedary Hump said...

Contents,
Thanks.
It doesn't bother me enough to trouble myself with it.
It's the theists who actually can influence our lives and our government that concern me. Not impotent psychos.

Contents under pressue said...

...there's a difference?

DM said...

http://engforum.pravda.ru/showthread.php?t=280780


Einstein puts the final nail in the coffin of atheism...


*************************************
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7vpw4AH8QQ

*************************************

atheists deny their own life element...

add some comment moderation to your blog of blasphemy...idiot...

Dromedary Hump said...

Contents,

LOL... well, one is a dangerous fanatic who has the ability and power either individually or as part of a cohesive group to negatively effect our lives and freedoms.

The other is a mindless Christ-sucker who lacks the intellectual apptitude to do more than troll. Usually they have been molested as a child and can't form mature heterosexual relationships.

Ofcourse, deep down you're right... there's no difference ;)

DM said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
NewEnglandBob said...

I wonder how the weather is in Granby.

DM said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmtK-X_MV0k&feature=fvw



DOWN THE TOILET!!!

Anonymous said...

These sex scandals always makes me angry !! The vatican is a real shame for the human kind.

Melinda Watson

knee anatomy facts