John Aravosis raises a good point

Go read this post about an African priest who was suspended by the Roman Catholic church for blowing the whistle on child abuse. Only in the RC church could such a thing occur.

Toward the conclusion of his post, Aravosis raises a good point:

If the Vatican doesn’t intervene and reinstate Anthony Musaala, we’ll know all we need to know about the new Pope.

Indeed. Let's see if popeyguy Frank puts the priest back to work. I'd like to think this will happen and that he will praise the priest, as well. But this is the Roman Catholic church. We shouldn't get our hopes up.

The church of sex

Last night while watching the local (NYC) news, I heard a righteous rant. The station has a fairly rightwing guy who opines late in the show (along with a great leftwing funny guy, so you don't mind it so much). Anyway, he chose the Vatican as his sparring partner last night.

What he said was why is my church totally focused on sex? What happened to god and religion? Today's Roman Catholic church is just about opposing contraception, belittling gay couples, fighting against abortion and raping little kids when no one is looking. He was aghast and hoped the new pope would return the religion's focus to, you know, religion.

It was a great rant because it made sense and was easy to understand. The Roman Catholic church is all about sex -- which isn't allowed for priests (right!), single people and teh gays. The only thing priests do anymore is rant about everyone else's sex lives (while refusing to talk about the sex lives of priests). How did this come to pass? When exactly did the Vatican turn Roman Catholicism into the church of sex? And lastly and most importantly, why?

I went to a Catholic high school in the 1960s and even did a semester at a Catholic college. And I assure you no one, including the priests and brothers, was focused on this stuff. This is a new, sick addiction for the church -- and it needs to move on. Somehow, some way, the church must learn that people have a right to govern their own sex lives. And after the priests shut up about sex, if they have something to say about, you know, religion, they should let us know. Until then, the church of sex should be shunned.

Then who, pray tell?

This is the funniest thing I've seen in a while:

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Vatican won a major victory Monday in an Oregon federal courtroom, where a judge ruled that the Holy See is not the employer of molester priests.

Then who, pray tell, employs these creatures? Do they receive checks directly from Jeebus, to fund their forays into little boys' pants?

The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mosman ends a six-year question in the decade-old case and could shield the Vatican from possible monetary damages.

Isn't that convenient?

"There are no facts to create a true employment relationship between Ronan and the Holy See," Mosman said in his ruling from the bench.

Indeed. No relationship at all. And no need to pay attention to this:

The plaintiffs argued that Ronan's fealty to the Pope, the Vatican's ability to promote priests, the Vatican's laicization, or removal, process, and the ability to change priests' training all pointed to the Vatican employing priests.

But it's not employment. Again, how very convenient. It's nice to know we live in a world where the Vatican will never be held accountable for its actions. That must be comforting for the popey guy. He's probably having a celebratory chalice of wine right now. It's great to be the popey guy!

Timmy Dolan is rip-roaring mad

You already know about Cardinal Dolan paying off the rapist priests, and the brouhaha this caused when it was reported in the NY Times. Yesterday the NY Post printed Dolan's rebuttal, such as it is. Timmy waved his hands in the air and tried to confuse the issue by focusing not on what the church should or shouldn't have done, but on whether the payments (some as high as $20,000) were "charity" or "payoffs".

In discussing Dolan's response, Ed Brayton says it plain and clear:

The real question here is not whether those payments were payoffs or charity; the real question is why the church chose this route rather than turning any information they had over to the police. We know why they didn’t — because the current pope, when he was a cardinal, explicitly ordered them not to do so. And that’s the real problem.

It all comes back to the popey guy. No wonder they don't want to talk about it. If they spoke honestly about the scandal, it would bring the popey guy down in flames. That's quite a church they've got there, where the main culprit is their supreme leader. It speaks volumes about the Roman Catholic church.

Popey guy's makin' a profit again!

"Vatican budget emerges from the red." So says a BBC headline. The lede expands on this, adding "The Vatican has announced its finances have returned to profit after three consecutive years in the red."

Hooray!! Is this fabulous or what? The popey guy must be so pleased. I mean, just think -- despite the raping of so many little boys, they're turning a profit! Oh, happy days!

I hope the popey guy celebrates with several male street urchins tonight. He's turning a profit again! Oh, boy!