That's what anyone who demands accountability and transparency from the Catholic hierarchy is like. Digby and Tristero weigh in, with a solid analysis of the history and some rightful outrage.
Via Digby:
A senior Vatican priest, speaking before Pope Benedict XVI at a Good Friday service, compared the world’s outrage at sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church to the persecution of the Jews, prompting angry responses from victims’ advocates and consternation from Jewish groups.
The Vatican spokesman quickly distanced the Vatican from the remarks, which came on the day Christians mark the Crucifixion. They underscored how much the Catholic Church has felt under attack from recent news reports and from criticism over how it has handled charges of child molesting against priests in the past.
See Jim Burroway's comments on this, as well.
The Church has forced itself into a corner and is reduced to damage control of the most extreme variety. I mean, criticizing criminal activity by members of the hierarchy is equivalent to antisemitism? Excuse me? Is anyone going to buy that one?
A leading advocate for sexual abuse victims in the United States, David Clohessy, called comparing criticism of the church to persecution of the Jews “breathtakingly callous and misguided.”
“Men who deliberately and consistently hide child sex crime are in no way victims,” he said. “And to conflate public scrutiny with horrific violence is about as wrong as wrong can be.”
Regular readers here are aware I have little respect for the Catholic hierarchy, and an episode like this one -- and, as Digby points out, it's only one episode in the Church's history -- decisively underscores the complete moral vacuum at the head of this beast.
And if you want to see where the antisemitism comes into the mix, look no farther:
Father Cantalamessa’s remarks come after weeks of intense scrutiny of Benedict, which some in the Italian news media have seen in conspiratorial terms. Last week, the center-left daily newspaper La Repubblica wrote , without attribution, that “certain Catholic circles” believed the criticism of the church stemmed from “a New York ‘Jewish lobby.”
Tristero sort of says it:
Comparing the well-earned disgust the entire world rightly feels over the system-wide rape of women and children by Catholic priests to the demented bigotry of Anti-Semitism is way, way, WAY beyond offensive. . . .
Note to Vatican:
Cut it out, you stupid assholes. You are managing to accomplish the impossible: making the awful situation YOU refused to deal with a whole lot worse. Back off. NOW.
Frankly, I don't really care if the Vatican goes down in flames. I think the world might be a better place, and I say this in full awareness of the good work that Catholics do in the world. I also say it in full awareness that much of this work is done in defiance of the Vatican, such as the priests and nuns in South America and the Caribbean who distribute condoms in the fight against AIDS. We all remember, of course, the Diocese of Washington pulling its social services programs because the District legalized same-sex marriage, much as the Archdiocese of Boston did with adoption services in Massachusetts, because they couldn't sustain those programs in conformity with their "beliefs," which apparently dictate against placing children in loving, stable homes. (That's pretty disgusting, actually.) And then there's always Bill Donohue.
I think their most stunning defense so far -- may even beat out Donohue's -- is this one: "The Devil made them do it."
Somehow, the scales seem to be tipping wildly out of balance here.
2 comments:
i would call the church's actions on their new and improved priest scandal more of a bunker position that a defensive one - (this is what i blog swarmed about today) --- what they are doing in terms of the cover up and PR denial claims is something that should put them out of business...
i would start with removing their tax exemption
Churches get way too much latitude in this country. As far as the tax exemption issue, there's already possible grounds for that both in Boston and Chicago -- a little matter of direct lobbying by the Archbishops, which is a clear violation of the terms of their tax exempt status. Complaints were filed, there was no follow-up. We need to rethink our whole attitude toward organized religion in this country -- after all, the Founders had no use for it.
Rereading this post, it occurs to me that the Catholic Church, like anything else, has reached the point of senescence, when it's no longer possible for it to contribute constructively to human society. It happens with institutions as it does with organisms.
So far, they've scapegoated gays (Donohue is still flogging that dead horse, even after the pope gave up on it) pointed fingers at other institutions, claimed immunity (read "above the law"), and, best of all, claimed supernatural forces. In fact, the hierarchy has done everything but hold those responsible for the cover-ups accountable.
Losing tax exemptions should just be the beginning. How about criminal prosecutions? Start by extraditing Cardinal Law.
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