Friday, April 02, 2010
Finally, something for me to be angry about
As opposed to just crabby, that is.
The Catholic church has been taking it on the chin lately, and has seemed completely unable to handle this constant barrage of bad news. Unless, by "handle," you read that as "attack and offend."
Just in the past couple of days a number of atrocious things have been said:
In my own personal online orbit (and yes, actually in real, honest-to-goodness person-to-person life as well), much of this has been discussed, and discussed again, hashed out and questioned and brought about eye rolls and wailing and gnashing of teeth. But what I have noticed is that, from the Catholics I know, there has been nary a peep (wait, not true: a friend of a friend on Facebook was quick to note that it can't be just priests, that this problem must exist elsewhere. Of course it does, and police chiefs quite obviously cover up for pedo cops, editors move journalists around rather than them being charged... Actually, no, that's not true. And, I have to say, the 200 kids at the school for the deaf is a new item on the agenda since she brought that up). Anyhow, back to the topic at hand: just because I haven't heard anything from the Catholics I know (family and friends), doesn't mean they haven't been talking about this, either in disgust at the scandal or, conversely, disgust at the rest of the world for bringing this up and pushing it.
And so, I find myself curious. Is anything being said? Or is this the proverbial elephant in the room?
(Added later) I forgot to mention the church calling much of this "petty gossip," which seems a remarkably short-sighted trivialization of all that's gone on. Salon has a good look at what's gone down in the past week.
*And by abuse I mean a young boy being forced to put the penis of an adult priest in his mouth, or perhaps being forced to fondle the same priest's penis, and perhaps worse. Keep this in mind next time you read a media or spokesman-induced euphemism. Or the next time you hear Bill Donohue prove that some humans are no more than enormous wastes of skin.
The Catholic church has been taking it on the chin lately, and has seemed completely unable to handle this constant barrage of bad news. Unless, by "handle," you read that as "attack and offend."
Just in the past couple of days a number of atrocious things have been said:
- Bill Donohue, the head of the Catholic League in the US (and, frankly, a notorious blowhard who gets way more press and air time than he deserves), came on Larry King Live and worked very hard to convince everyone that the crimes committed by the priests (or, at least, the priest at the school for the deaf in Wisconsin) were not pedophilia because the boys were all "post-pubescent." Bonus points for Donohue for upping the anti-gay hysteria with that one.
- The Pope's personal preacher likened the current attacks on the church to "collective violence" suffered by the Jews. Yes, really, he did. Because legitimate concerns about the hideous abuse* of children and about the cover-ups that in fact did occur are indeed the moral equivalent of Kristallnacht, or perhaps a little something called the "Holocaust." (Check Wikipedia, in case you too have forgotten.)
- US priests who've been accused are sometimes quietly being reinstated. Now, I actually somewhat agree with this, in the whole innocent-until-proven-guilty motif, but I do have issues with them being set loose on more children, or being given new jobs without - at the very least - the people directly involved with them being aware of the current situation.
In my own personal online orbit (and yes, actually in real, honest-to-goodness person-to-person life as well), much of this has been discussed, and discussed again, hashed out and questioned and brought about eye rolls and wailing and gnashing of teeth. But what I have noticed is that, from the Catholics I know, there has been nary a peep (wait, not true: a friend of a friend on Facebook was quick to note that it can't be just priests, that this problem must exist elsewhere. Of course it does, and police chiefs quite obviously cover up for pedo cops, editors move journalists around rather than them being charged... Actually, no, that's not true. And, I have to say, the 200 kids at the school for the deaf is a new item on the agenda since she brought that up). Anyhow, back to the topic at hand: just because I haven't heard anything from the Catholics I know (family and friends), doesn't mean they haven't been talking about this, either in disgust at the scandal or, conversely, disgust at the rest of the world for bringing this up and pushing it.
And so, I find myself curious. Is anything being said? Or is this the proverbial elephant in the room?
(Added later) I forgot to mention the church calling much of this "petty gossip," which seems a remarkably short-sighted trivialization of all that's gone on. Salon has a good look at what's gone down in the past week.
*And by abuse I mean a young boy being forced to put the penis of an adult priest in his mouth, or perhaps being forced to fondle the same priest's penis, and perhaps worse. Keep this in mind next time you read a media or spokesman-induced euphemism. Or the next time you hear Bill Donohue prove that some humans are no more than enormous wastes of skin.
Labels: anger, crime, religion
// posted by Derryl Murphy @ 9:39 PM 
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