The Vatican's sex crimes

Sounds like the new sex crimes czar at the Vatican would like to crack the whip. But there's a curious disconnect in the story (and his thinking).

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican's new sex crimes prosecutor has insisted on the need for transparency about the church's failures to protect children from sex abuse by priests. 

In his first public comments since taking office, the Rev. Robert Oliver quoted Pope Benedict XVI in saying the church must recognize the "grave errors in judgment that were often committed by the church's leadership."

Hmmm. Now, let's see. He's quoting the pope's words here. Something about grave errors having been committed by "the church's leadership". Who could this refer to? Why, I do believe the pope himself was in charge of all this for the past couple of decades. So those "errors" committed by "the church's leadership" refer to the popey guy himself. He is the man who is most responsible for hiding the sexual abuse committed by priests.

But sssshhhhh! No one's supposed to notice. Everything's fine. Move along.

Evil pope stays on point

You have to give the pope credit: he never stops beating his drum.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The pope pressed his opposition to gay marriage Friday, denouncing what he described as people manipulating their God-given identities to suit their sexual choices — and destroying the very "essence of the human creature" in the process. 

Way to go, popey guy! Spread the true spirit of Christmas all around. Joy to the world! The article says he "made the comments in his annual Christmas address to the Vatican bureaucracy, one of his most important speeches of the year." Nice. Very nice.

And how's this for an example of colossal dissonance?

"People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given to them by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being," he said.

I can't believe he said that. That's a great description of how gay people know they're gay. Because they "have a nature, given to them by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being." We don't even have to change the pope's words. Seriously, who writes this guy's stuff? A gay Vatican priest who hates the pope's hypocrisy?

And now I'll speak directly to the pope. Think of this as my Xmas message to the grand man. "You pig, you." Let me repeat this: "You pig, you." What a disgusting, amoral man. Then again, who better to sit at the head of a worldwide death cult?

Ho, ho, ho. Merry Xmas!

Tomorrow is D-Day for American nuns

Storming the beaches.

Tomorrow, the largest group of American nuns will issue their response to the ridiculous charges spewed at them by the Vatican. No way they're gonna lie down for this. I cannot wait to read the response. And the nuns are getting tons of support from Americans:

More than 900 Roman Catholic nuns gathering in St. Louis, Mo., this week to discuss the future of their relationship with the Vatican were surprised to be greeted by supporters with a simple message on their signs: "We're with you, sisters."

We are indeed with you, sisters. Since the Vatican will never back down, I expect this to end with the nuns seceding from the Catholic church and forming their own, independent religious organization. That would be lovely. They could model Catholicism for the Vatican, to show them what it looks like.

Eat it, popey guy. No one in the US is going to bow down to the Vatican's authoritarian edicts. No one.

Evil sky god speaks through popey guy

Shady popey guy.

An AP story reveals that the popey guy isn't mean. He's just enacting the sky god's plan. Here's how the story begins:

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI began his eighth year as pope on Tuesday after spending the waning days of his seventh driving home his view of the Catholic Church, with a divisive crackdown on dissenters and an equally divisive opening to a fringe group of traditionalists. 

He's a fun guy. The article is an attempt to understand "Benedict's recent moves to quell liberal dissent and promote a more conservative brand of Catholicism" Is it all coming from the evil popey guy's mind? Is he the worst thing that ever happened to Roman Catholicism? Nah, they say.

The pope promised [in 2005] not to impose his own will on the church but to rather listen "to the word and the will of the Lord, to be guided by him, so that he himself will lead the church at this hour of our history." 

See? It's the sky god who wants to punish liberal catholics, nuns, women in general, and gays. The poor popey guy's got nothing to do with it. The words fall out of his mouth, sure -- but it's not his fault! He's sweet -- cuddly, even. It's just that the sky god is making him say these awful things.

The Vatican last week put those words into action, cracking down on the largest umbrella group of nuns in the United States, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious . . . and accused the group of taking positions that undermine church teaching on the priesthood and homosexuality, while promoting "certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith." 

Indeed. Let's all attack the nuns for having a heart. That'll help the church's image. But it's not just the nuns.

[O]n the very day it announced the crackdown on the U.S. nuns, the Holy See said it was nearing agreement to bring an ultra-traditionalist conservative group of Catholics back into communion with Rome after two decades of schism.  

To critics, the coincidence was remarkable: the Vatican was in a way rejecting the U.S. nuns who had embraced Vatican II and its call to go out into the world to serve the poor, while embracing the Society of St. Pius X which had rejected Vatican II.

But as he says, it's not him; it's the sky god who whispers in his ear. What can the poor guy do?

Is this guy the best thing that ever happened to the Roman Catholic Church, or what? He's given us pedophilia scandals that he himself facilitated. And he's begun a literal pogrom against gays throughout the world. (And let us note that the popey guy is a big queen. Closet cases always lash out at openly gay men. It's what they do.) He clearly is the most evil pope in ages. If he keeps this up, the church won't last another ten years. Go, popey guy!

Funny NYT headline

"Pope Demands Greater Ethics in Economics"

It's just too rich. What about those 34 dead boys the other day?

The popey guy's empty words

The popey guy did an Easter-themed Q&A on TV yesterday and the subject was, by and large, human suffering. Here's an excerpt from an article on MSNBC, recounting the exchange he had with a 7-year-old girl:

The first question posed came from Elena, a Japanese girl who told the pope many children her age were killed and asked why children have to be so sad.

"I also have the same questions: why is it this way? Why do you have to suffer so much while others live in ease?" Benedict said. "And we do not have the answers but we know that Jesus suffered as you do, an innocent." Trying for words of comfort, the pope told her that "even if we are still sad, God is by your side."

He said the girl should tell herself: "One day, I will understand that this suffering was not empty, it wasn't in vain, but behind it was a good plan, a plan of love."

Christians have been trotting out this inane "argument" for as long as they've been around. Apparently this is why, after a massive earthquake, children are buried alive and then eaten by rats as they suffer their last moments on this Earth -- because "behind it [is] a good plan, a plan of love."

These people are monsters. What kind of scum do you have to be to make an argument like this -- and in public, no less, and when speaking to children? Anyone who hears this and thinks it makes sense is intrinsically disordered -- just like the popey guy.

The deep concerns of the popey guy

The popey guy.

AP yesterday:

A Chinese bishop whose ordination caused a crisis in the Vatican's relations with China may avoid excommunication because he may have been pressured into being consecrated without the pope's consent, the Vatican said Thursday.

It must be grand to spend one's day worrying about the rules of make-believe. I guess it's like playing an endless game of Dungeons and Dragons. I'll bet they have a lot of fun over there in the vatican, pulling on different costumes and picking out shoes and excommunicating people and everything.

And in the meantime, the sexual abuse of children by priests continues unabated. From AP today:

A former bishop's televised admission that he sexually abused two of his nephews caused an uproar in Belgium on Friday, with the prime minister, senior clergy and a prosecutor expressing shock at the way the ex-prelate made light of his offenses.

Popey guy likes pedophile bishop

The popey guy is always classy.

So the popey guy let another pedophile bishop off the hook. What a shock, huh? You can click this link to visit the NYT story. Here's an excerpt:

"If the pope can't ever bring himself to say 'this man is being demoted because he enabled pedophile priests to hurt kids,' then there's little real chance for internal reform." 

Duh. Yeah. The Roman Catholic Church is a well-organized pedophile machine and that's all there is to it. Mind you, the popey guy might get scared by all the publicity and do something, you know, right in this instance. But to date, he hasn't. And if he only does the right thing when a spotlight is shone on a single incident by the press, that's not a policy that will protect kids. But then, protecting kids has never been a goal of the Roman Catholic church. 

Sign of the times

AP today:

In the unlikely location of a North Carolina jewelry store near the beach, a lavishly jeweled cross and a ring once owned by Pope Paul VI sit under lock and key, awaiting transfer to an even less familiar venue for symbols of Roman Catholic authority: an eBay auction.

 Ugh.

Open email to the popey guy

As I said in a previous post, I email the popey guy all the time. You know, just to tell him what an evil dork he is. I popped off another one this morning and I thought I'd share it with readers. (I figure no one reads them so I don't spare the snark.) Here it is:

Dear popey guy,

I read a story today about your reaction to violence against Christians. There was a quote included in the story, and it asked a question that I'd be more than happy to answer for you. Here's the quote:

"Together with the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, we are stunned in the face of religious intolerance and so much violence, and we are asking ourselves, in sorrow: why?" said Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of Italy's bishops conference in an Epiphany homily in Genoa."

Well, here's the answer, loud and clear: you are intolerant and you breed violence against others, particularly children and gay people. And then you fail to comfort the children who were raped by your own priests.

Yet today you ask why violence and intolerance is being directed against your church -- as if you are innocents. The answer is clear: because of karma, popey guy, because of karma.

You attack gay people several times a week and thereby encourage haters all over the Earth to attack them also. You choose to breed hatred against gays at a time when they are singled out for murder in several countries. But this doesn't bother you at all. Interesting, that.

If you had any connection with morality at all, you wouldn't do things like this. And because you have no moral sense, your church has become something reviled by normal, good-hearted people everywhere.

There is also a quote from you in this article. It says:

"[The pope] . . . prayed that . .  'comfort be given to communities that are suffering' — a reference to the wave of violence."

Isn't that sweet? We only wish you had ever directed similar attention toward the children who were raped by your priests.  But you never do, do you?

Like I say, that's why karma is comin' to get you. 

Sincerely,
Keith O'Connor 

If you'd like to send your thoughts to the popey guy, here's his email address. Have fun, and sock it to him.

Lest anyone wonder why I smack the popey guy

Joe.My.God today reports:

Yesterday Pope Benedict spoke via satellite from the Vatican to bless the hundreds of thousands gathered at a massive annual anti-gay marriage rally in Madrid.

Here are some of the popey guy's words:

“The motherly gaze of the Virgin Mary, the loving protection given by St Joseph, and the sweet presence of the Child Jesus are a true image of what each Christian family should be.”

See, ya gotta have the mommy doll, the daddy doll and the baby doll. Cause that's what baby jesus wants. And we wouldn't want baby jesus to cry. We really, really wouldn't want that. He might hurl lightning bolts at the Earth!

Here's some more on the day from Spero News:

Organized by the Archdiocese of Madrid and Cardinal Antonio Rouco Varela under the motto ‘The Christian Family: the hope of Europe,’ the event began at 10 AM in the Plaza de Colon. The cardinal, in the company of fifty bishops from Spain, France, The Netherlands, and as far away as Poland, celebrated Mass on an elevated dais that was surmounted by a white cross some sixty feet tall. Also present were the thousands of lay people, including small children, representing not only Spain, but also various other countries and represented by their national flags.

Pomp, circumstance, costumes, 60-foot crosses and bunches of kids. Party time! Doesn't it get you all choked up when the popey guy uses kids for props against gay marriage? It's so sweet. The man really understands the wonder of childhood. Now if he'd only he could get his priests to stop raping them . . .

This guy is my mortal enemy, as he announces almost every single day. All nations enter righteous wars when attacked. So it is with me.

Confused popey guy speaks

Today the Associated Press reports:

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI urged Christians to remain strong in the face of intolerance and violence in a New Year's appeal Saturday that came hours after a bomb blast outside an Egyptian church killed 21 people as worshippers left Mass. 

It's funny, isn't it? As far as I can recall, the popey guy never issued a statement like this to the zillions of abused catholic kids. He never once said, "Stay strong, children, in the face of sexual attacks by my priests."

I mean, 21 people died at that church in Egypt. How many kids were buggered by priests? Hundreds of thousands? More than a million? Yet there's no similar message to the children.

But then, we peons have to remember that the popey guy is not like us. (Cue the celestial music.) He is infallible. Everything this guy does is right and holy and true. I stand corrected.

I liked the way this AP article ended. It shows that the popey guy is a true super-hero, costume and all:

After leaving the basilica, the pope removed his gold-colored robes, donned an ermine-trimmed crimson cape to guard against the chill, and greeted from his apartment window pilgrims and tourists in a packed St. Peter's Square.

 You go, girl!

Sinead seconds the motion

Sinead O'Connor, wonderful ripper-upper of Pope pix, caught the same thing I did in the Pope's recent remarks. (I'm ashamed to say I found this article on the Huffington Post. Yes, I was so bored by the after-Xmas slump that I visited the awful Huffington Post. So sue me.)

What set us both off was the way the popey guy referred to child buggery as something that was was an accepted thing in the 1970s. Here's my post. Here's Sinead's. 

And in case you don' t want to visit those links, this is the actual quote from AP that set us both off: 

"He said that as recently as as the 1970s, pedophilia wasn't considered an absolute evil but rather part of a spectrum of behaviors that people refused to judge in the name of tolerance and relativism."  

This is one seriously confused fellow. Too bad he's in a position of authority. But hey, I know -- let's not think of him that way. I know, I know! Let's think of him as a batty janitor who works at the vatican. This way it's just the batty janitor sounding off. Feels better already, doesn't it?  

UPDATE: And PZ took it up the following day. But the best take-down of the popey guy over this was at Ed Brayton's blog, Dispatches from the Culture Wars. Click here to read it.