Priests to harangue faithful more than ever

Amusing: 

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican is admitting many Catholics around the world reject its teachings about sex issues like artificial contraception as an intrusion into their private lives, and are ignorant of other core doctrines about marriage, divorce and homosexuality.

The Vatican blamed its own priests for much of the problem. It says they simply aren't doing a good enough job educating the faithful about essential church teachings and helping out families when they run into trouble.

Yes, that must be the problem. The priests just need to talk more about what you can't do down there. They've been far too quiet about sex the past fifty years or so. Just imagine how refreshed Catholics will feel when priests double down on the sexy no-no's. Because we never hear priests talking about how awful gay people are. Or how you'll go to hell and never receive communion again if you get a divorce. Absolutely never.

What a church.

I'm sure gay families will be welcome

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia will host a large gathering of the Roman Catholic church called the World Meeting of Families in September 2015, an event expected to bring hundreds of thousands from around the world, church officials announced Monday. 

I'm sure they'll make every effort to include gay families. Right? Right? Of course not. The pope could hardly restrain himself when talking about these gatherings last year. "Family", to the pope, means "kill the gays".

I hope if there are any gay families that (foolishly) think of themselves as Roman Catholic, they'll head on over with their kids and several gay flags and lots of gay friends with video cameras to record the reactions of the loving Christians.

City of brotherly love, my ass. This is going to be a hate fest.

More Roman Catholic hypocrisy

This morning, I came across a story in HuffPo's religious section about the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. It vividly illustrates how anti-Obama and pro-GOP the USCCB is. Though the article focuses mostly on the bishops' poor compliance with new sex abuse procedures (i.e., they're doing absolutely nothing and continuing to protect the pedophile priests), it veers off at the end to talk about other matters.

Apparently there is a possibility that they'll issue a church proclamation about the economy -- something along the lines of "greed is not good". Unfortunately, such a statement would be seen as anti-GOP (because it is). And though the bishops are happy to knock Obama and his policies daily during this pre-election period -- they're terrified of doing anything that could be seen as opposing the Republicans. That would be "political". Sweet, huh?

A number of bishops -- reflecting the increasingly conservative slant of the USCCB -- raised concerns that such a document could be seen as implicitly criticizing Republican budget policies and could be seen as too political.
In the end, the bishops voted 171-26 to draft a message, tentatively titled "Catholic Reflections on Work, Poverty and a Broken Economy," and scheduled for debate and release a week after the November elections.

Anything that hurts Obama in the pre-election period is fine. But tread on the GOP? No way! These bishops are the most hypocritical creatures imaginable. To the church's final arbiters of morality, the words "truth" and "ethics" are without meaning. What craven creatures the lot of them are.

Gee, I wonder why

Traces of blood and fragments of muscle, tendon, skin and hair found on 2,000-year-old stone knives have given researchers the first conclusive evidence that the obsidian blades were used for human sacrifice long ago in Mexico.

"These finds confirm that the knives were used for sacrifices," Mainou said.

Sky gods, anyone? And of course, today we see Catholics imbibing the "body and blood" of jeebus -- every day, if they want to. Religion is sickening on so many levels.

Media notices Timmy Dolan is anti-gay

An article in today's New York Daily News reveals the ugly, blackened heart that sits in the chest of NY's recently minted cardinal, Timmy Dolan. Here's an excerpt:

The conflict was set in motion after Carl Siciliano, founder of the nonprofit Ali Forney Center, sent a letter to Dolan, saying his “loud and strident voice against the acceptance of LGBT people” creates “a climate where parents turn on their own children.”

Dolan fired back: “For you to make the allegations and insinuations you do in your letter based on my adherence to the clear teachings of the Church is not only unfair and unjust, but inflammatory,” he wrote. “Neither I nor anyone in the Church would ever tolerate hatred of or prejudice towards any of the Lord's children.”

He won't "tolerate" hatred or prejudice. What a joke. Dolan is the Vatican's point-man for bigotry against GLBT people. He is the primary voice of American religious hatred against gays. It's not like this is a secret. The man travels far and wide to spread his special kind of poison. And the end result is a worsened situation for GLBT people throughout the United States (and the world). This causes increased discrimination, rejection, depression and death for this population of "the Lord's children". And it's particularly harmful to young GLBT people, who are generally without resources and sometimes resort to suicide.

This is who Timmy Dolan is. He is a creature filled with hatred for GLBT folks -- and this is true despite there being no rational reason for the hatred. GLBT folks never did a thing against the church. It's all from the church's side: hate, hate, hate. It's sickening and I'm glad to finally see the general media covering this issue. I hope they stay with it.

With this sort of thing going on, day after day and year after year, I don't know how anyone remains a Catholic. I say to these people: look toward your church, see the hatred it spews against an innocent group, and then leave the church forever. It's obvious that the Roman Catholic Church has no connection to a "loving god". You've been duped.

The disease spreads

Some financially strong Catholic-sponsored medical centers are joining with smaller secular hospitals, in some cases limiting access to treatments like contraception and abortion.

We should thank the popey guy, not revile him

In one of the emptiest gestures yet, the Vatican held a closed-door meeting in Rome, allegedly as a way to move forward in the church's golden era of child abuse, but really to hide it away and plaster praise on the worst offenders.

Here's an excerpt from the story:

ROME (AP) — A top American cardinal on Monday defended Pope Benedict's handling of sexual abuse cases by clergy, saying he should be praised not criticized, as advocates for abuse victims demanded that the Vatican release its secret files on pedophile priests. 

Indeed. And who said this? Why, it was a "top American cardinal", Cardinal Levada, the very man who preceded the popey guy in the position of "head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the church office ensuring doctrinal purity and, in recent decades, also shaping the Holy See's policies on handling abuse cases involving clergy."

So Levada oversaw the early days of the pedophile scandal, and then handed the reins to the popey guy, who put whipped cream and a cherry on top. These two men are the walking piles of moral decay who allowed the child abuse scandal to continue, the very men who protected the pedophile priests while ensuring that children remained in danger.

And what was Levada's function at this grand meeting? He was the symposium's keynote opening speaker. Here's more of his nonsense:

Levada lamented that the pope "has had to suffer attacks by the media over these past years in various parts of the world when he should receive the gratitude of us all, in the Church and outside it." 

Oh, the poor popey guy. My heart bleeds. By the way, the church's next move will be to create 22 new cardinals. Among them is archbishop Timothy Dolan, the evil man in charge of persecuting gay people for the church, and another evil twit. Here's a takeout from the story that describes this gem of a priest:

Next week, Benedict will raise 22 churchmen to the rank of cardinal, including a former bishop of Savona, Italy, who abuse victims allege failed to act for years on accusations of pedophile cases in that diocese. Monsignor Domenico Calcagno currently heads a Vatican office. 

Sweet. The church is a criminal organization and it is crowning new mafia dons. Anyone who remains a catholic in light of all the church has done, is morally bankrupt.

Submitted for your approval

HONOLULU (AP) — The second miracle in allowing a nun to soon become St. Marianne Cope involves the healing of a New York woman who had an infection that was destroying her organs.

Details on the miracle were revealed for the first time Tuesday by the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities in Syracuse, N.Y. They say a bag of soil containing Marianne's bone fragments from the Hawaii peninsula where leprosy patients were exiled was pinned to Sharon Smith's hospital gown. She was cured after months of prayer to Marianne.

Sure sounds miraculous to me! Sign me up! That popey guy really sets the bar high, huh? With standards like these, it's a wonder they don't make 50 new saints a day.

Excuse me while I go pin a baggie filled with dead people to my pajamas. Yuck.

PS: Is that first sentence in the AP article awful, or what? Yeesh.

Even worse than we imagined

From HuffPo today:

VATICAN CITY (RNS) A new report by the Irish branch of Amnesty International says the sexual abuse of children by Ireland's Roman Catholic priests "included acts that amounted to torture and inhuman and degrading treatment."

The 430-page report, released Monday (Sept. 26), "reminds us that Irish children were subjected to treatment that would be horrifying if it were done to prisoners of war, never mind little boys and girls," said Ireland's Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Frances Fitzgerald, in Dublin.

The Roman Catholic Church is a child-raping, criminal enterprise. Never forget this.

What did the church do to those 34 dead boys?

Dutch Prosecutors Probe Catholic Institute Deaths is the headline of a story in the NY Times today. Here's an excerpt:

Dutch prosecutors are to investigate the deaths of 34 boys in a Catholic institute for the mentally disabled in the 1950s — the latest probe in a long-running inquiry into sexual abuse in the church.

I particularly liked this bit:

The Roermond Diocese — where the institute was based — issued a statement saying it could not comment on the investigation, but welcomed the probe, saying it was in line with the diocese's policy of reporting such matters to prosecutors if necessary. 

Those guys sure wanna do the right thing, huh? If necessary, of course. Otherwise, fuggedaboutit.

At the heart of this case is that thirty-four boys died at this Catholic institute in a three-year period! Suspicious? Duh. The popey guy must be shaking in his special red shoes. I can't wait for the outcome in this case.

The Roman Catholic Church -- bringing you filth for 2,000 years.

They're still raping kids

If you think the Roman Catholic child abuse scandal is all in the past, you should read this story in the NYT. It's the same old tale: priest repeatedly abuses children; the bishop knows about it; the bishop says nothing; and the priest continues merrily on his way. This one is going on in Missouri right now.

Special bonus: the bishop is an Opus Dei priest who swept into the parish and immediately destroyed many great, kind programs in order to redirect the diocese's funds toward massive anti-abortion protests.

No morality. That's what we always see from officials of the Roman Catholic church.