The Bishops are Coming for You Joe… And they’ve got a whole Lumber Yard Sticking Out of Their Eyes!
“It seems to be open season for correction on priests and bishops,” whinged Bishop Robert Morlino back in 2014. Oh, you poor, poor thing! I think the 45th US President stole a page from that playbook when he griped that, “There’s never been a time in the history of our country where somebody was so mistreated as I have been.” Never. Never, ever. There are sins said to “cry to Heaven for vengeance,”
murder (Gn 4:10), sodomy (Gn 18:20–21), oppression of the poor (Ex 2:23), and defrauding workers of their just wages (Jas 5:4).
The one’s crying the loudest seem to be the most heinous perpetrators of these things, the ones self-promoted as the most pious and righteous. I don’t know about you but I am SO tired of these pompous, arrogant, “religious” windbags. Talk is cheap, show us some action! Put the money where your mouth is! Well, maybe not in the mouth, you’ve already done enough of that.
Alas, Morlino is ascended to Catholic heaven now — St. Robert pray for us!
The catholic church, of which I was once a devout member, just cannot get over themselves. I remember the last time I sat in one of their pews, listening to the droning homily about cafeteria catholics who only show up for holidays and the poor Church loosing members (and revenue). Gosh, I wonder why! I come to hear ‘the good news’ and instead it’s a dogmatic sales pitch and attempted guilt trip.
It was a headline ran across my phone’s news feed today that got me going on this: “The American Conference of Catholic Bishops has taken additional steps to potentially rebuke US President Joe Biden for his support of abortion rights.” Of course, as with just about all the church does, “It is a long process,” reports CNN, “and a rebuke of Biden and other Catholic politicians who support abortion rights is not assured.”
Oh, it’s assured, you can bet on that.
You know what’s truly not assured? That the Church is going to unite in taking responsibility for the thousands of children they’ve systematically harmed…some will do scant little of their own volition. They will come out with some namby-pamby apologies, put some mission statements up on their diocese webpages and not much else.
In fairness, Pope Francis has made some laudable statements and efforts. He’s used words like “sorrow” and “shame.”
With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realizing the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives.
This apology finally came out in a 2000 word letter after an American grand jury reported:
Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all.
Of course, there are also reports and evidence that Francis knew about the problem prior to the report yet did little to nothing — as also did Pope Benedict… and John Paul II… and Paul VI. Why that should be a surprise to anyone, I wonder and I am sure I’m sure the coverup goes back much farther than 1963. Pope Francis has also blamed Satan, saying,
“[The Church must be] saved from the attacks of the malign one, the great accuser.”
Speaking of accusers, it’s been rather entertaining watching all the finger pointing and scrambling to throw each other in front of the train among all these dignified clerics.
It’s been a stupidly long process trying to get these people to admit many of their ‘best & brightest’ have been raping and masturbating with minors and that they’ve known and let it go on. A schism has even formed over Pope Francis’ more reformist views and admissions of Church culpability. But I thought these bastards who resist the truth were all about “right to life” and protecting the sanctity of childhood. That’s certainly why a bishop conference vote of 168 to 55, with six abstentions, have elected to go on with their “long process” to rebuke President Biden and other Catholic politicians who support women’s reproductive rights. Yet, it’s almost impossible, especially, within the higher levels of the Church, to get them to break down their system of coverups and denial, to own up, take unreserved responsibility, and stop making excuses for their own willful criminal neglect and evil.
But sure, assemble to discuss the best way to rebuke and punish Joe Biden for being progressive while Catholic. No abortions, no birth control and a recommendation of the rhythm method or abstinence to avoid unwanted pregnancy. You know what else promises no pregnancies ? Clerics having sex with children…and all this from the abstinence guys themselves. I think they figured out long ago that the best way to avoid pregnancy was masturbating with minors that they could keep frightened into silence. Now here they want to be involved in secular government. Hell, if they ran the United States, we’d be in an Iran-type government and you’d better believe they’d keep right on doing these horrific things — denying women and the common ‘lay’ people sexual autonomy and reproductive rights while also molesting and raping children.
Please, Just STOP
STOP already with the zealotry, the arrogance, the finger pointing and the hypocrisy! It is just appalling to watch because you are so disgustingly practiced and adept at it.
STOP Blaming
Stop blaming it all on a “a very grave problem of a homosexual culture in the Church.” Pssst, Cardinal Burke — why the diversion? NO, it’s not homosexuality, that’s like blaming a ‘culture of heterosexuality’ for a man who rapes a 9-year-old girl…or 17, 18 or 23. It’s not the fact the rapist is heterosexual that makes him a rapist, it’s that he’s a criminal, selfish and probably a narcissist who lacks empathy and decency. He’s a rapist because he’s a rapist.
Late Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison, Wisconsin who took the time to try and ban people in same-sex civil unions from receiving Catholic funeral rights, actually said,
“If you’ll permit me, what the Church needs now is more hatred! As I have said previously, St. Thomas Aquinas said that hatred of wickedness actually belongs to the virtue of charity.”
No, it’s not hatred you need Morlino. What you need is intense abhorrence and intolerance of your clergy who harm the defenseless.
End.
Of.
Discussion.
Stop finding scapegoats. And YOU’RE the guys running the show, take some damned responsibility and FIX the problem instead of trying to fuck over dead gay people to make your point and splitting hairs over the age of the victim and whether it was technically pedophilia or homosexuality
So they weren’t pedophiles, strictly speaking. These were gay men who wanted to get it on with sexually mature (in the physical sense) boys.
Well, that makes sexual contact with minors just a little better now doesn’t it? ‘It’s not Church practices and policies, it’s those evil gays who infiltrated the church!’ No, here’s what it really is: Someone in a position of power abused it and took advantage of a minor. They took advantage of a culture of laxity and denial that believes itself better and smarter than its parishioners and secular law. They took advantage of peoples trust knowing nobody would fight back or question them. Notice the phrasing in that quote, “sexually mature boys” — BOYS. They admit they’re minors, children, even as they call them “sexually mature (in the physical sense)” so they can paint gay men as somehow just as bad as, or worse than pedophiles.
No, it’s not hatred you need, it is a sense of morals, a deep sense of right and wrong, an utter intolerance for it in your organization. Report the criminals, hand them over to authorities. Instead of mincing words and meanings, moving these bastards around and covering their tracks, actively own and change the culture.
If you’re going to hold big self-important conferences from which you just come out pointing more fingers, remember: Any time you point a finger, there are another three fingers pointing right back at you.
Or how canst thou say to thy brother: Brother, let me pull the mote out of thy eye, when thou thyself seest not the beam in thy own eye? Hypocrite, cast first the beam out of thy own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to take out the mote from thy brother’s eye.
— Luke 6:24, The Douay-Rheims Bible (aka the Catholic bible)
And Duh Morlino —
No kidding there are same-sex-attracted men in the clergy BIIIIIG REVELATION THERE! That is SO obvious I could have told you that when I was a kid in the 1970s. I remember asking my mum why Father Michaels sounded exactly like Kenneth Williams. I know it’s a stereotype but he had an amazing blow-dried quaff and rather a pronounced sashay with a penchant for bling… and he wasn’t the only priest who raised eyebrows, there was also Father McSweeny, and Father Lysaught. Of course, I’ve really no proof of what their sexual orientations where but they were certainly very flamboyant men. The thing about theses men is, at least in my experience, they were harmless. They were fabulous and kind men who were in awe of creation and art and showed a real sense of humility and charity. Nearly all of the gay men I’ve chosen as friends are like that — they’re, generous, kind, lovely human beings. And you know, same-sex attraction was so important to Jesus that he said NOTHING about it in the gospels. What he DID talk about was the value and blessedly innocent nature of children.
I just looked Fr. Michaels and the other priests up, they’re not on any lists, no documented accusations that I can find. Mother Theresa’s spiritual advisor, Father McGuire though, he was a ‘man’s man.’ He’s got a really loooong list of sex abuse and died in a federal penitentiary where he belonged. He was Chicago tough, you didn’t argue with or question that guy because he’d fly into a spitting rage. He was known to get in peoples faces and demand obedience. People tripped over themselves when he came to my school as if Christ himself had trotted in on a donkey. McGuire was one of those guys like Morlino, who didn’t think lay people should be questioning priests and bishops, let alone hold them to account. Turns out McGuire was also a serial pedophile whose history they covered up as they moved him around…until he just finally went rogue and became an itinerate priest and spiritual advisor who always traveled and shared a room with a boy.
But what CAN the bishops do?
A good start would be to stop with the masturbatory blathering about your station as a Bishop and start reporting members of your clergy or hierarchy to secular law enforcement the moment they are accused of inappropriate sexual contact with ANY parishioner, regardless of age — even if it is ‘only’ the first time. If the clergyman is innocent, he’s innocent — take the steps, do the right thing. STOP hiding and covering up.
Thomas Becket, a medieval Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, was assassinated by knights loyal to Henry II of England following a series of disputes regarding the division of power between the Crown and the Church. One of these was over Becket’s opposition to Henry’s initiatives to try clerics who committed secular crimes, in secular courts. That seems obviously fair to me. You clerics have been playing at this game for WAY to long now. If you commit a crime, you need to be tried for it. I don’t give a damn how big or important you are in the Church.
Instead, how about you own up, pledge and show work to do better going forward, bring your congregations into the solution and be transparent. The upshot of taking those steps is you will build respect, people will admire the work you’ve done and you will be remembered for that rather than being a pompous windbag asshole. Then, who knows, maybe your pews will begin to fill up again.
And put information for contacting SECULAR authorities and resources on your diocese websites, not just a victims assistance coordinator who works for the diocese. I mean, c’mon! That’s a like asking victims of DuPont’s Teflon coverup to call one of DuPont’s “trained specialists” at their 1–800 hotline “who will listen to your concerns and take notes to prepare a report that will be forwarded to the appropriate DuPont management for review.” How about you put up contacts for consumer protection agencies on that “ethics” page of yours, hmm?
A nod though, to the San Francisco Archdiocese, they put up a link to BishopAccountability.org which states:
The bishops themselves have apologized for what they call their “mistake,” but they say nothing about the crucial actions that constitute accountability.
For true “bishop accountability” to occur, two things must happen: 1) There must be a full “account” of the bishops’ responsibility for the sexual abuse crisis, both individually and collectively, and 2) bishops who have caused the abuse of children and vulnerable adults must be “held accountable.”
And to the congregations:
Take your clergy down off the damned pedestals— have them earn your respect by them rolling up their sleeves, doing estimable things, and asking you to participate in transparency. Don’t just traipse after them kissing their asses and leaving them alone with children because they are ordained. Demand transparency and accountability. Start questioning them and holding them to the same standards we hold our other experts, like doctors and contractors. They are human beings, they don’t have ALL the answers and they are flawed like all the rest of us. Sometimes, just like some doctors and contractors, they are rather dishonest, entirely dysfunctional and unable to properly meet the demands of the job — that’s where oversight, transparency and accountability come in.
Male OBGYNs, the smart and considerate ones anyway, have a woman nurse in the room with them when they examine women. If for no other reason, that is just smart for the doctor’s own protection. Institute procedures like that with priests. WHY are they allowed to be alone with children? Hell, if I were a priest, I’d insist on an attendant and cameras at all times if I was dealing with kids… none of this ‘come to the rectory after school’ nonsense. And come on! As a parent, I would NEVER allow my child to be alone with another adult, priest or not. I’d have to know that adult VERY well and I would still be asking both of them for reports. Hell, I wouldn’t want my daughter meeting with a male teacher alone, after school.
If I ever found out a priest had touched my kid sexually, I’d knock the hell out of him, you better believe it would be open season on priests and bishops.
And church people, one more thing:
Stop with the type of denial captured in the image below. Really? You “just want to be left in peace” and ignore the egregious crimes being committed right under your nose? That makes you complicit and equally as guilty, it doesn’t make the problem go away and it does nothing to help your church.
And Church, what exactly have you done about the mass children’s grave in Tuam? Atoning for sins of this magnitude requires more than an Act of Contrition and a few Our Fathers and Hail Marys. Where is your grand conference of bishops for that? Almost 800 children die in a single Irish ‘care home’ for orphans and unwed mothers between the 1925 and 1961; the majority of the deaths in the 1950s. Over 36 years, that averages about 22 children who died, per year. All your faithful get is some canned apology?
Here’s a similar issue with over 200 dead indigenous Canadian children in unmarked graves at a residential ‘Indian school.’ I’ve read reports that as many as 6,000 native children died in these schools primarily run by the Church. “These graves were often visible from the windows of the schools. Some children were even forced to bury their own classmates.” These schools were systematically created to remove native children from their parents and acculturate them into colonial European society to ‘deal with’ Canada’s “Indian problem.”
Pope Francis did express his condolences and sorrow June 6, recognizing the discovery brought up the traumas of the past when the Canadian government policy was to send Indigenous children to residential schools as part of a mistaken effort at assimilation. Catholic religious orders ran most of those schools, and stories of abuse are rampant.
We could go back to New Spain and Catholic abuses in Latin America and their mission systems but whole books are already written about it. You could spend days googling story after story after account of Church abuses.
The Church is T minus A, all talk, no action. So have at it, hold your conferences and rebuke Joe Biden. You’re great at rebuking others and ‘lovingly’ — or hatefully, as Bishop Morlino instructed — pointing the finger at anyone but yourselves. The Pope to his credit initially pointed out a culture of putting priests on pedestals and not questioning them — he called out clericalism and the fact that many of these guys come to see themselves as above the people they serve. The conference of (un)American Bishops basking in their purple potentate didn’t appreciate that view at all. No, ‘It’s those evil prurient gays!’
Clericalism is an attitude found in many (but not all) clergy who put their status as priests and bishops above their status as baptized disciples of Jesus Christ. In doing so, a sense of privilege and entitlement emerges in their individual and collective psyche. This, in turn, breeds a corps of ecclesiastical elites who think they’re unlike the rest of the faithful.
— Father Donald Cozzens, Don’t Put Priests On a Pedestal, US Catholic
We have secular governments spread across the globe now because you lot couldn’t handle power in the best interest of those you claimed to lead and teach. You could not keep your meddling hands out of government…or out of children’s pants. You want to play in politics? I suggest you take a look at what Georg Carlin had to say about that because he’s dead right and pretty soon, the people will be coming for you. It is open season and we’re tired of your bullshit.
