sophiaserpentia | (no subject)

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How *dare* the Pope's critics smear him... by... quoting his own words in public?

There's not really that much to say about this anymore. There's been extensive, prominent, very public worldwide discourse about the ways in which widespread sexual abuse by priests has been hidden from secular authorities, and therefore effectively enabled, by the Catholic Church for 20 years now. They haven't changed, they resist change even now (for example by directing their attorneys to very aggressively attack rape survivors), and it's evident they have no will to change at all.

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They have the will to power and that seems to be the extent of it.

They need some incentives to change. Like huge public trials, sentencing child molesters and those who shielded them to prison, and fining the church with huge fines to confiscating wealth of the church. In the US, tax exempt status of the church could be withdrawn.

There's been all that. Dozens, maybe hundreds of trials. Judgments. Numerous dioceses driven to bankruptcy by large settlements with survivors. 20 years of bad press and declining public support. Still no change in the culture at the top. Maybe it's time for something more drastic, like a RICO suit.

I favor public executions of the guily in front of the churches they were attached to, followed by selling the church at auction to real estate developers.

Public executions only turn the public more barbaric.

Barbarism towards child molesting priests and those who protect them is not, imo, a bad thing.

Barbarism in any form corrupts a civilization.

So does institutionalized child abuse.

You know what they say about two wrongs.

Very rarely is a convicted priest sent to prison like other child molesters found guilty. Often the names of the guilty party are kept secret while the church pays a small fine. I say enough of that bullshit!

I like the idea of a RICO case being made against the institution. It has done quite a bit of damage to another Italian organization in the states. The Mafia is by no means destroyed but it did get damaged a bit. I don't think that the Roman Catholic Church can be destroyed either but it could be weakened. It's coffers could be emptied or at least siphoned off.

I am reminded of an episode of some local televangelist on the public access channel who said that Pontifex Maximus= High Priest of Satan. Those nutty Pentecostals, they say the funniest things.

A lot of Protestant churches have their own problems of this sort, but none of them are as singularly big as the RCC, not even the SBC. Frankly I'd like to see some of the Protestant denominations face some reckoning on the child abuse they've enabled over the years.

I listened to some commentary over the weekend on this. Apparently for a long time, the RCC has been passing off that this was an "American problem". Now that it's popping up all over Europe and the hundreds of suits to come, the pressure is increasing. The RCC relies on their secular power under the cover of religion and having their real-world wealth and authority hit up will shake it even if many of the faithful carry on.

Since this exploded in the US in the early 90's, the Church in Europe's been washing their hands of it. But now I suspect we're seeing the start of a large public outpouring of survivor accounts there; it's just a trickle now, but you'd think the Church would have learned to change their ways after everything it's been through in the US. And the fact that Pope Benedict has been *personally* implicated in the cover-up will likely accelerate that.

So far I've seen some amazing attempts to protect the leadership at the top - it's a fascinating exercise in protection of power and privilege.

What will stop this I think is serious questioning of the value and protection ideas like theism get.

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