08 April 2005
How Do You Define Perverse?
Here's how I define it. Say you're a cardinal, right? And a bunch of priests are raping little boys within your jurisdiction. What do you do? Well, common sense would tell you that the priests should be removed and probably turned over to the cops.
But you don't do that. Instead you shuffle them around from one area to another, where they continue. When it gets too hot for them in each area, you move them to another where they're not known, and you continue this spreading of the child rape for, oh, decades.
And it gets found out, and priests are arrested and there's a huge scandal and it's your fault. Do you quit? No, you stonewall and, as punishment, you get sent to the Vatican, which priests work their entire lives to achieve. But never mind, at least you're out of the public eye, right?
Well, not if you get to conduct one of the funeral masses for the Pope on worldwide TV.
So, our president promotes all those who fucked up the Iraq War, and appoints a hater of the UN as the ambassador to it. Meanwhile, an unapologetic enabler of pedophile priests (one of which was a founder of NAMBLA) gets about the most tasty job you can get in the Church.
Is it just me that finds satire beside the point in this hopelessly off-the-rails world? This is like something written by Terry Southern.
But I suppose that, given the death of the pope is taken as a demarcation point from one era to the next, having Cardinal Law conduct the ceremonies marking this new Bizarro Age is entirely appropriate.
I would scream but my throat has become way too hoarse since 2000.
Here's how I define it. Say you're a cardinal, right? And a bunch of priests are raping little boys within your jurisdiction. What do you do? Well, common sense would tell you that the priests should be removed and probably turned over to the cops.
But you don't do that. Instead you shuffle them around from one area to another, where they continue. When it gets too hot for them in each area, you move them to another where they're not known, and you continue this spreading of the child rape for, oh, decades.
And it gets found out, and priests are arrested and there's a huge scandal and it's your fault. Do you quit? No, you stonewall and, as punishment, you get sent to the Vatican, which priests work their entire lives to achieve. But never mind, at least you're out of the public eye, right?
Well, not if you get to conduct one of the funeral masses for the Pope on worldwide TV.
...the Vatican's decision to let Cardinal Bernard Law lead a funeral Mass for Pope John Paul in Rome has prompted outrage back home, where the ousted Boston archbishop is seen as a symbol of a pedophile priest scandal.Huh! And, let's not forget, you also get to be in the conclave that picks the next pope. You naughty, naughty cardinal, I hope you've learned your lesson!
Victims of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergymen were particularly harsh in their reaction, saying the decision to give Law a prominent role in the pomp and circumstance surrounding the pope's death came as a slap in the face.
"I find it personally very insulting and one more instance of how the Roman Catholic hierarchy protects and promotes even the most egregious among them," said Ann Hagan Webb, a regional coordinator of the group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.
"He (Law) protected priests at the expense of children over and over and over again, and this symbolically says: 'We don't care about these children; we'd rather honor him,"' Hagan Webb, a clergy abuse victim herself, told Reuters.
Law resurfaced in American media this week following the pope's death, granting a lengthy interview to ABC News and being photographed at numerous public events.
"From the moment Law appeared on ABC, we have received an overwhelming number of e-mails and phone calls, for the most part from people very much upset by Law's visibility," said Suzanne Morse of the Catholic laity group Voice of the Faithful, which grew out of the scandal.
So, our president promotes all those who fucked up the Iraq War, and appoints a hater of the UN as the ambassador to it. Meanwhile, an unapologetic enabler of pedophile priests (one of which was a founder of NAMBLA) gets about the most tasty job you can get in the Church.
Is it just me that finds satire beside the point in this hopelessly off-the-rails world? This is like something written by Terry Southern.
But I suppose that, given the death of the pope is taken as a demarcation point from one era to the next, having Cardinal Law conduct the ceremonies marking this new Bizarro Age is entirely appropriate.
I would scream but my throat has become way too hoarse since 2000.
Labels: politics
¶ April 08, 2005
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