Whose children would Jesus rape?
Trouble for Joe Ratzinger (via Atrios):
A widening child sexual abuse inquiry in Europe has landed at the doorstep of Pope Benedict XVI, as a senior church official acknowledged Friday that a German archdiocese made “serious mistakes” in handling an abuse case while the pope served as its archbishop.
[.....]
There was immediate skepticism that Benedict, as archbishop, would not have known of the details of the case.
Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, who once worked at the Vatican Embassy in Washington and became an early and well-known whistle-blower on sexual abuse in the church, said the vicar general’s claim was not credible.
“Nonsense,” said Father Doyle, who has served as an expert witness in sexual abuse lawsuits. “Pope Benedict is a micro-manager. He’s the old style. Anything like that would necessarily have been brought to his attention. Tell the vicar general to find a better line. What he’s trying to do, obviously, is protect the pope.”
Sometimes I think that the sex scandals will put the Catholic Church out of our misery once and for all. But I know that it won’t.
March 12, 2010 7:11 pm
Posted in: Good News For Conservatives, We Are All Mayans Now
49 Comments
49 Responses
Cat Lady - March 12, 2010 | 7:14 pm · Link
Cue the Louis CK video again…
Why is it always the comedians who tell the most truth?
DougJ - March 12, 2010 | 7:15 pm · Link
@Cat Lady:
Why is it always the comedians who tell the most truth?
Because you have to laugh not to cry about the truth.
Midnight Marauder - March 12, 2010 | 7:21 pm · Link
This is what is so grating to me, the idea that the Church can still toss out any ol’ patent bullshit excuse and think that people will continue to swallow the nonsense.
I don’t know who I want to see “fall from grace” more badly: Pope Benedict XVI or Governor Goodhair.
Brachiator - March 12, 2010 | 7:25 pm · Link
One church leader is apparently claiming that the Devil makes them do it.
You can’t make this stuff up.
gbear - March 12, 2010 | 7:25 pm · Link
@Midnight Marauder:
Why chose?
DougJ - March 12, 2010 | 7:26 pm · Link
@Midnight Marauder:
Pope Benedict by a mile. Governor Goodhair is just a standard issue douchebag.
EDIT: I mean Joe Ratzinger. I am not calling that fucker “Benedict”.
demo woman - March 12, 2010 | 7:27 pm · Link
He didn’t mean to be in Hitler’s Youth army either.
Bret - March 12, 2010 | 7:30 pm · Link
Father Ted Crilly agrees.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ - March 12, 2010 | 7:30 pm · Link
@DougJ:
IIRC some wag around here started calling him Pope Nazi the 1st. Hey, if the shoe fits…
Cat Lady - March 12, 2010 | 7:31 pm · Link
I never thought I’d see the end of the Soviet Union, or apartheid. We’re now witnessing the implosion of the Church. There will be no more Catholics in Ireland in 5 years due to the Ryan Report and the Murphy Report. Mainland Europe is next. Gay marriage in Mexico is pretty much the death knell there. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of psychopaths.
jrg - March 12, 2010 | 7:32 pm · Link
Well, fuck me running. Why not just convert to Satanism and cut the middle man?
Linkmeister - March 12, 2010 | 7:32 pm · Link
The Church has outlasted popes with mistresses, popes decamping to Avignon, popes turning a blind eye to Nazism, popes collaborating with the Spanish Inquisition, and the sale of indulgences. This latest round of shameful behavior is not going to bring it down.
Regrettably.
demkat620 - March 12, 2010 | 7:32 pm · Link
This is why I left the church. This and the shit they are trying to pull in D.C. over gay marriage.
Fuck ‘em.
MikeBoyScout - March 12, 2010 | 7:33 pm · Link
In a surprising and ironic move The Texas Board of Education stumbled upon inserting truth in to its social studies curriculum when the board’s far-right faction took a swipe at papists and included the history of the Roman Catholic Church Pope’s involvement in the 20th century children molestation and rape scandal.
The board’s far-right faction could not be reached for comment as they were participating in homophobic racist KKK meetings for Texas succession.
Blessed are the avid organized believers, for they shall have a plan to fuck you and get away with it with a clear conscious.
Brachiator - March 12, 2010 | 7:34 pm · Link
@demo woman:
Fixt for the sake of a salacious play on words.
DougJ - March 12, 2010 | 7:34 pm · Link
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
I don’t believe it is fair to push the Nazi angle too hard. He was very young at the time.
He’s an asshole, but I still think it is important to be fair.
El Cruzado - March 12, 2010 | 7:35 pm · Link
Maybe the suspicious resemblance with Emperor Palpatine isn’t coincidental after all…
Mark S. - March 12, 2010 | 7:36 pm · Link
Look, people, there probably are only 27,500 child molesting priests running around right now, and most of them probably prefer teenage boys and not pre-adolescent children. What’s everybody getting so worked up about?
ThatLeftTurnInABQ - March 12, 2010 | 7:43 pm · Link
@DougJ:
I support and commend your commitment to fairness, and wish that I could emulate it. Unfortunately my temper has been up on this subject ever since this particular Pope used the Regensburg Address to tell me to go to hell, in the most literal possible sense. So I’m not feeling very fair. Sorry about that.
Midnight Marauder - March 12, 2010 | 7:45 pm · Link
@gbear:
You bring up a good point.
@DougJ:
I would probably feel the same way if I hadn’t been born and raised in Texas, and watched Governor Goodhair personally hammer the nails in the coffin of The Lone Star State’s amazing potential.
So I’ll say Joe Ratzinger.
By a foot.
DougJ - March 12, 2010 | 7:47 pm · Link
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s awful.
Fergus Wooster - March 12, 2010 | 7:47 pm · Link
Fuck Joe Ratzinger, first of all. Second, anyone who hasn’t seen “Deliver Us From Evil” should (documentary, available on Netflix).
Third – Fr. Tom Doyle is a class act, and a wonderful person. This guy has consistently done the right thing and suffered for it by the church. He made a point of telling various pedophilia and rape victims “Sorry” on behalf of the church, because it was the only time they had heard it.
Seriously, for all the awfulness that is the Church, I can’t reinforce enough what a force for contrition and accountability this guy is.
Tax Analyst - March 12, 2010 | 7:48 pm · Link
@Brachiator:
I always thought the Church placed the ultimate blame on all those seductive six-year-olds working their evil wiles on all those innocent, humble and devout priests.
Those evil children ply their sensual wares, flaunting their hyper-sexual nature by swaying around in those little jumper suits, short pants and cute little summer dresses, not to mention that highly suggestive “Hello Kitty” attire.
eemom - March 12, 2010 | 7:48 pm · Link
hey…...I thought the Citizen Mod Brigade told y’all to lay off the church-bashing! That shit’s SACRED, ya know.
And while I’m at it, no more mean cracks about Jane Hamsher! She’s a pure and decent person who REALLY wants the best for this country.
And don’t even get me started on the disgraceful disrespect to Lord Zilla that I was APPALLED to witness the last time he was kind enough to honor us with his Presence.
I’m ashamed of you people.
Fergus Wooster - March 12, 2010 | 7:49 pm · Link
Fuck Rick Perry too. (I’m a Texan, after all). But seriously, fuck Ratzy more. Rick Perry didn’t play a role in fucking over the liberation theologians in South/Central America the ‘80’s.
Perry just doesn’t have the body count to compete (possibly due only to lack of opportunity).
Emma - March 12, 2010 | 7:51 pm · Link
A friend of mine of Sicilian extraction calls him “Benny the Rat” because he says Ratzinger reminds him of a small-time Mafioso. And DougJ I wouldn’t disagree with you for the world, but… Benny was more or less the same age as these kids. Still, even if we want to absolve him of his youthful sins, they have taught him nothing about his own fallibility. Not to mention the duty he owes another human being: judge not, lest ye be judged.
kay - March 12, 2010 | 7:51 pm · Link
@Cat Lady:
Did you read the article? It’s amazing how strong the denial was.
When the huge child abuse scandals broke in the US, the Church thought it was due to “common law” and the fact that US victims could sue for damages. They blamed it on our civil legal system.
So, they believed one of two things: the abuse scandals in the US were driven by greed, and the victims were lying, or, they were telling the truth, and the European legal system wouldn’t lead to discovery of child abuse.
The first doesn’t make any sense because a fair number of child abusing priests in the US were European nationals. They knew child abusing priests weren’t an American invention. So I pretty much have to conclude they believed civil immunity from damages and discovery in Europe would cover the crime, and limit the damage to the US.
The betrayal of trust is just breathtaking. They had a ten year warning. They ignored it.
gbear - March 12, 2010 | 7:52 pm · Link
@Midnight Marauder:
I would probably feel the same way if I hadn’t been born and raised in
TexasMN, and watched GovernorGoodhairTPAw personally hammer the nails in the coffin of TheLone Star State’sLand of 10,000 Lakes’ amazing potential.You’ve got brothers and sisters in misery.
Fergus Wooster - March 12, 2010 | 7:53 pm · Link
@DougJ:
I understand, and I tried to give him that much. But he pissed that away when he (i) announced that the Holocaust was a crime against Christianity as much as anyone, committed by a neo-pagan sect against the Church, that (ii) the Germans were as much a victim of the Nazis as anyone, and (iii) re-introduced the prayer for conversion of the benighted Jews.
I really try to shy away from the Nazi slur, as I’ve known decent Germans who came of age during that time. But he’s made it impossible.
DougJ - March 12, 2010 | 7:53 pm · Link
@Emma:
Point taken.
Tom Hilton - March 12, 2010 | 7:55 pm · Link
This doesn’t surprise me at all. Ratzinger has been fighting all his life to preserve the most repressive, hierarchical aspects of the Roman church—and those are exactly the attributes that a) made so many kids so vulnerable in the first place, and b) gave so many priests the idea they could do whatever the hell they wanted with the kids who were under their authority, and c) made them unaccountable for their crimes.
maus - March 12, 2010 | 7:59 pm · Link
@Cat Lady:
Perhaps jesters have throughout history been the only people able to tell the truth about the aristocracy/theocracy without being murdered?
@29
EEsh.
MikeBoyScout - March 12, 2010 | 8:02 pm · Link
In an effort to improve its public image the Vatican and eBay announced the Roman Catholic Church’s acquisition of Paypal.
The Vatican’s spokesman said that the Church would be changing the name of the service to Papal and withholding payments to bloggers who dare to discuss the Church clergy’s fascination with pubescent boys and the leadership’s nearly effective 100 year cover-up.
Blessed are the avid organized believers, for they took enough of your money already to pay to forestall the justice you deserve for as long as you live.
stormhit - March 12, 2010 | 8:05 pm · Link
I prefer his Catholicism to whatever all you are hating on.
Violet - March 12, 2010 | 8:09 pm · Link
Seems like he’s Pope Palpatine to me. Do a side by side image comparison – it’s striking. Their roles, responsibilities and actions don’t seem that different either.
Gus - March 12, 2010 | 8:15 pm · Link
Is my math off, or did this guy perform nearly 8 exorcisms a day?
gbear - March 12, 2010 | 8:21 pm · Link
@stormhit:
I prefer
his Catholicismcovering up the fucking of young children to whatever all you are hating on.(Get it now?)
Tax Analyst - March 12, 2010 | 8:22 pm · Link
@Gus:
Your math is good. Eight exorcisms/day would be 70,080 over a period of exactly 24 years, not counting the extra day occurring in Leap Years.
Maybe he found a way to perform Batch Exorcisms. I wonder what the parameters would be for identifying the evil(s) that needed to be driven away?
gbear - March 12, 2010 | 8:23 pm · Link
@Gus:
Is that what the old kids are calling it these days?
DougJ - March 12, 2010 | 8:24 pm · Link
@gbear:
That never gets old.
MikeBoyScout - March 12, 2010 | 8:31 pm · Link
@38 Tax Analyst March 12th, 2010 at 8:22 pm,
It’s a twice daily cron job that hashes a table of the seven deadly sins and various phone books.
General Egali Tarian Stuck - March 12, 2010 | 8:37 pm · Link
Call me when they make Father Guido Sarducci Pope.
Tax Analyst - March 12, 2010 | 8:52 pm · Link
@General Egali Tarian Stuck:
Or Pope-O Giggio. Remember him? The little Italian
mousepontiff that used to be on the Ed Sullivan show all the time.Bruce (formerly Steve S.) - March 12, 2010 | 9:04 pm · Link
Dude, the premise of the religion is that a god-man was born of a virgin, performed miraculous healings, then rose from the dead. Billions believe it anyway. A sex scandal isn’t even a speed bump for this institution.
Anne Laurie - March 12, 2010 | 10:29 pm · Link
@Fergus Wooster:
Quoted for truth. Ratzinger thinks the only problem with National Socialism is that its mid-twentieth-century failure made it impossible for “good Germans” like himself to fully implement their agendas. If only those pitiful dreamers could have worked with the Church Militant, they could’ve re-instituted the Holy Roman Empire by now!
Anne Laurie - March 12, 2010 | 10:35 pm · Link
@Tax Analyst:
“
KillExorcise them all, and let God claim his own.”Although this elderly technocrat may well be padding his numbers by counting demons, not human victims. One of the tenets of this particular folkway is that dozens or hundreds of demons may “inhabit” each afflicted soul—as per the gospel story about Jesus and the Gadarene swine.
Mnemosyne - March 12, 2010 | 10:37 pm · Link
@Anne Laurie:
G likes to say that the main problem that conservatives have with the Nazis is that they killed too many Jews. That’s one of the reasons Holocaust deniers spend half their time disputing the number of dead—if they can just whittle that number down to something acceptable, they can rehabilitate the whole fascism project.
Khârn the Betrayer - March 12, 2010 | 10:41 pm · Link
The only thing surprising about the catholic church’s abuse scandals is that I keep feeling surprised when another one turns up.
Blow Riley - March 13, 2010 | 8:23 am · Link
Q: How do you get a nun pregnant?
A: Dress her like an altar boy!