Slimy Vatican tactics at the UN

If you thought Pope Francis changed everything, think again. The U.N. is looking into the, you know, child-raping that Catholic priests engage in without ever facing legal consequences.

The link leads to a BBC story about a UN panel that demanded answers from the "Holy See", in the person of Archbishop Tomasi. Just listen to the responses made by the Vatican rep:

At the Geneva hearing, CRC member Sara Oviedo said: "The Holy See has not established any mechanism to investigate those accused of perpetrating sexual abuse, nor to prosecute them."

Another question from the panel asked why the Vatican continued to describe abuse as an offence against morals rather than a crime against children.

"Does the Holy See believe that paedophilia is something that can be successfully overcome?" was another question.

"To prevent abuse of minors is a real, immediate concern," Archbishop Tomasi said.

On prosecution of offenders, he said priests were "not functionaries of the Vatican but citizens of their countries and fall under the jurisdiction of their own countries".

When asked if the Vatican would hand over Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, a Polish papal envoy recalled from the Dominican Republic in September amid claims of sexual abuse there, Archbishop Tomasi said he was being investigated by the Vatican's own prosecutors.

A member of the CRC asked about the Church's practice of moving priests suspected of abuse.

"The question of what I would call offender mobility is of great concern," said Bishop Charles Scicluna, the Vatican's former chief prosecutor of clerical sexual abuse. "It is a no-go simply to move people from one diocese to another... That is policy that has to be followed."

Every one of those responses is craven. It's like the Vatican thinks there is nothing to apologize for, nothing to fix, no reason to invite criminal investigation of the rapes. Hey, Pope Francis: new leaf, my ass -- or rather, the kids' asses. The church sounds like the goddamn mafia -- or some lowlife firm hired to defend the GOP.

These aren't the responses of "moral" people. They're excuses and prevarications that make no sense and have no reality at their core. The church is doing absolutely nothing to stop the child-raping proclivities of its priests. And they don't believe they're responsible for any of it. Not. One. Thing.

Hey, pope Frankie, either you get real or some legal entity needs to figure out how to jail the thousands of priests that you're protecting. And then you need to hold massive meetings at the "Holy See" to try and figure out if any of you have a clue what the word "morality" means. Good luck with that.

Roman Catholic church continues to demonize gays

Liberal Catholics adore Pope Francis. In their view, he is bringing long-needed change to the Roman Catholic church. But this view is based on impressions rather than real, doctrinal change. Perhaps their mushiest belief about Pope Francis is that, with a few simple words, he eradicated the church's horrifying stance on gays. Not so fast, says Frank Bruni.

Here's a bit of his opinion piece, but go read the whole thing if you have time:

The church’s treatment of gays and lesbians is especially rife with mixed messages and hypocrisy. In schools and congregations, many priests, nuns and other Catholics state or quietly signal that they see nothing sinful in the loving relationships of gay couples, only to have more hidebound Catholics swoop in to sweep such couples away. For a gay person who doesn’t want to be exiled, secrecy is smarter than honesty, which is supposedly a virtue. 

The weirdest thing, of course, is that kind Catholics disapprove of the church's continuing pogrom against gays. But it's hard to wipe away centuries (milleniums?) of anti-gay bigotry by the church. Let's hope the laggards catch up, and soon. It's time to accept gays and move on. And it's way past time for the church in all its forms to stop firing people for being gay.

God of love, my ass.

Pope Francis not very nice, really

The Catholic church continues to amaze me. Readers might at first experience pink, fuzzy, hopeful thoughts on seeing this in the news today:

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis overhauled the laws that govern the Vatican City State on Thursday, criminalizing leaks of Vatican information and specifically listing sexual violence, prostitution and possession of child pornography as crimes against children that can be punished by up to 12 years in prison. 

Swell, huh? But then you read a little further and come upon this:

It was issued at a critical time, as the Vatican gears up for a grilling by a U.N. committee on its efforts to protect children under a key U.N. convention and prevent priests from sexually abusing them. The Vatican signed and ratified the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990 yet only now — 23 years later — has it updated its legislation to reflect some of the treaty's core provisions. 

So this law was enacted under pressure and it only took 23 years for a pope to pipe up and say something about protecting kids. Oh, and the law only covers priests and lay people who work or live in Vatican City. For Catholic priests stationed all around the world, it's business as usual.

That's quite a religion they've got there.

More church hypocrisy

I'm tired of writing about it.

This is just perfect

The Catholic Church of England said Saturday it has contacted the Holy See to ask if the papal knighthood awarded to late television star Jimmy Savile could be posthumously removed following sexual abuse allegations.

That was the initial story. The add-on is even better:

LONDON (AP) — The Vatican says it cannot rescind the papal knighthood awarded to television star Jimmy Savile, who emerged as an alleged child sex predator after his death. 

Couldn't happen to a nicer church. Irony lives in the Vatican. It's an essential part of its nature.

Timmy Dolan and the GOP

Get ready to vomit.

Dolan recently told a radio program that he is "happy" Ryan is on the GOP ticket and called him a "great public servant."

"We go way back, Congressman Paul Ryan and I," Dolan said. "I came to know and admire him immensely. And I would consider him a friend. He and his wife Janna and their three kids have been guests in my house; I've been a guest at their house. They're remarkably upright, refreshing people."

Can you believe this?

NEW YORK (AP) — Roman Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan will give the benediction at the Republican National Convention on the night Mitt Romney accepts the presidential nomination.

Unbelievable. What a cheap church this pope is running. Cardinals for hire. Amazing. But at least we know what Timmy Dolan's been doing: shilling for the GOP. What a slimy character that man is. Kids, get ready for "Jeebus for Romney" season. It should be lots of fun.

(Do you think the popey guy will do an ad for Romney? And if he does, will he wear the red shoes? I think he will. Definitely.)

I love the wording

PARIS (AP) — Gay marriage and adoption are in the spotlight in France as the Catholic Church is using a religious holiday to urge politicians to protect heterosexual traditions.

Just amazing. And "heterosexual traditions" need a lot of protection, you know. If someone doesn't nurture them, they'll die out, for sure.

You just don't know what to say

The Vatican has brought in the Fox News correspondent in Rome to help improve its communications strategy as it tries to cope with one of its most serious scandals in decades, The Associated Press learned Saturday.

Is that perfect, or what? The AP article ends with something that seems to be a slap in the Vatican's face:

The Vatican has been bedeviled by communications blunders ever since Pope Benedict XVI's 2005 election, and is currently dealing with a scandal over leaked documents.

They have to be making fun of him, right? This comes right after a Vatican spokesman said all their problems were the work of the devil. Gotta be a jibe. Gotta.

Popey guy says absolutely nothing

Here's what the popey guy said to his capos (bishops) recently about gay marriage:

"Particular mention must be made of the powerful political and cultural currents seeking to alter the legal definition of marriage... Sexual differences cannot be dismissed as irrelevant to the definition of marriage. Defending the institution of marriage as a social reality is ultimately a question of justice, since it entails safeguarding the good of the entire human community and the rights of parents and children alike."

That doesn't even mean anything. It's just a bunch of words. It's ultimately a "question of justice"? Well, yes it is: justice for gay people who want to marry and should be able to. But what is the popey guy talking about? "[S]afeguarding the good of the entire human community and the rights of parents and children alike"? How? 

The church has been viciously attacking gay people for many, many years yet they have never been able to state one rational reason for their actions. Why do they attack gays? It's a question sorely in need of an answer.

But of course, the answer is a reason "that cannot speak its name". They do this because they're a bunch of closet cases. Because they're gay, and they've stupidly chosen to live within a church that condemns them for what they are, they lash out ever more furiously at...themselves. That's what closet cases do. They're the original one-trick ponies.

If I'm wrong about the church's motives, then pray tell, what is the real reason for this virulence? The popey guy's words are empty. They tell us nothing. It's an amazing travesty and I can't believe that anyone who's Catholic -- and awake -- will remain with this church much longer. And that, in case you're not keeping track, is a good thing.  

More fun from the bishops

Today from Associated Press:

BALTIMORE (AP) — The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops says the church should not be dismissed as an outmoded bureaucracy. Archbishop Timothy Dolan says the church is a spiritual family that has much to teach the world.

. . . The archbishop . . . said bishops repent daily for their missteps . . . [b]ut he says the church should not be defined by its problems.

Indeed. The church should be defined by its actions against children, gays and women -- and that is exactly what's happening. It's the reason why Catholics are leaving the church in droves. In fact, we can hope that the church will soon collapse -- and good riddance.

Lordy, would you look at this

I posted the other day about an insane column that appeared in the Archdiocese of Boston's official newspaper, The Pilot. In it, David Avila said Satan was responsible for the existence of gay people. It was an attempt to push the idea that god didn't create gays, because, you know, that'd be a mistake. So naturally, the devil did it.

It was so embarrassingly off the wall that they're gonna take it back! Here's an excerpt from the linked article:

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, Twit

There's a wonderfully idiotic "defense of marriage" article written by the "most reverend" Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, the "Bishop of Brooklyn" in today's NY Daily News. What a dolt. Not only is he in outer space on the moral issues but there are misspelled words and, my favorite, he begins his mighty conclusion with a long non-sentence. Apparently the bishop didn't do too well in school. Here's that conclusion (I've bolded the non-sentence, for fun):

As the chief shepherd of the Catholics in our City's two most populous boroughs, Brooklyn and Queens, the decision of our Catholic Governor and State Legislature to overturn the common understanding of marriage that, despite many developments over thousands of years, has always been understood between a man and woman. That there was virtually no public debate on the issue and that the entire matter was concluded in just over thirty-minutes late on a Friday evening is disgraceful.

As a protest, I have asked my collaborators not to bestow or accept honors, nor to extend a platform of any kind to any state elected official, in all our parishes and churches for the foreseeable future.

Big penalty, huh? No more honors to or from the sky god. That's tough. In closing, I give props to the commenters at the News site who did a great job of trouncing this dim-witted mountebank. If you read the whole story, check out the comments. Zing!

With leaders like this, the church will be dead in 20 years. And I say hooray.

Popey guy likes pedophile bishop

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. 

It speaks

So the pope appeared in the news today. In a back-and-forth about AIDS with a reporter he spouted complete nonsense, apparently thinking he'd said something with, you know, meaning. Here's the exchange:

Reporter: "Are you saying, then, that the Catholic Church is actually not opposed in principle to the use of condoms?"

The pope: "She of course does not regard it as a real or moral solution, but, in this or that case, there can be nonetheless, in the intention of reducing the risk of infection, a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more humane way, of living sexuality."

Nice. Very clear, pope guy. You sure straightened everything out with that comment. Now we understand . . . uh, duh . . . no, we don't. In fact, your response means nothing at all.

I love this part: ". . . in a movement toward a different way, a more humane way, of living sexuality." What in blazes does that mean? And you're the sexuality expert, eh? Well, you did have to delve into the field, what with all your priests having sex with innocent children and all.

So, pope guy, are you going to revisit South Africa now to tell the people there to use condoms, after you just told them not to? Maybe you can engrave those new, immortal words of yours on stones and drop them on the people from a plane. You know, to get that clear, new message out. Hallelujah!

He just goes around doing good works, doesn't he? Watta guy!

UPDATE: Here's a new quote from the AP about the popey guy's remarks:  "Pope Benedict XVI says in a new book that condoms can be justified for male prostitutes seeking to stop the spread of HIV." Nice. "Normal" people can't use condoms but prostitutes can -- and it's male prostitutes he's talking about. What a twisted creature.

The gay-hating pope

Note: I had this post up about a week ago but then decided it might be too much for visitors and took it down. That was silly of me and I've changed my mind. In fact, I'll be trashing the pope regularly. Here it is.

The creature who now calls himself pope is one sick puppy. Please tell me why this man feels compelled to lash out at gay people at every opportunity.

Oh, wait. I already know. He's a closet case, that's why. I think every gay person recognizes, through gaydar, that the pope is gay. His self-hatred, then, is immense.

This is the creature who said this year that gay people are "an attack on creation." He said this in a world environment where gay people are often attacked and murdered because of their sexual orientation. In other words, this lowly man foments hatred and murder against gay men, lesbians and transgender people. This is undeniable and inexcusable.

We should not be surprised, however. This same creature went to Africa last year, in effect, to kill a lot of people who live there. He actually told these folks, who live in a country where AIDS is rampant, that condoms do not protect you against AIDS.  Let's repeat this in clear terms: The pope lied to people in a way that will cause their deaths. This is the type of man he is. This is the type of organization he heads. (I roar with laughter when the church speaks of a "loving god." Pompous, evil twits, all of them.)

The anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-progress, anti-democrat, anti-sex, anti-life pope still sits on his magic throne, making believe he represents a mythical and needless god. He is the definition of hatred. He is an animal.

I write the pope an email every time he does something vicious. In other words, I write him every week or so. If you'd like to write to him, try benedictxvi@vatican.va  This is the address announced by the Evil Empire when he became empress, er, I mean pope.

I have no idea if anyone reads the emails, but they don't bounce back. I imagine the vatican set it up to throw off the faithful. Actually, I don't think anyone has ever read any of these emails, though they might have told some poor nun to do it.  But then they wouldn't pay attention to her if she told them anything about any of the messages -- because she's a woman. Sounds right, actually.

Go ahead, let the old, self-hating fart know what you think about this religion of his, and how he handles himself. He could use some rational mail. 

Please note: This is not a hateful attack on the pope. It is an attack on the pope's hatred. Different species.