The Pope's number two man, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, whose home archdiocese has recently imprisoned priests for molesting young girls, is blaming the Catholic Church's problem with child rape on gay men.
The Vatican's second-highest authority says the sex scandals haunting the Roman Catholic Church are linked to homosexuality and not celibacy among priests. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state, made the comments during a news conference Monday in Chile, where one of the church's highest-profile pedophile cases involves a priest having sex with young girls. "Many psychologists and psychiatrists have demonstrated that there is no relation between celibacy and pedophilia. But many others have demonstrated, I have been told recently, that there is a relation between homosexuality and pedophilia. That is true," said Bertone. "That is the problem." His comments drew angry reactions from Chile's gay rights advocates.For the most part, aside from posting a video earlier this year of the great Stephen Fry's rebuttal to the question is the Catholic Church a force for good in the world. I have largely stayed away from this topic. The reason being, I am not Catholic. I am Protestant, Lutheran to be exact. So, as the horrific and sordid details of the Vatican's institutionalized acceptance of the rape of children spilled out over the past few years, I have felt, that as I am not a member of the Roman Catholic Church, it really wasn't my place to comment.
Well, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone's response to the crimes of his church, has made me rethink that position. This twisted, deluded , sexually dysfunctional man in a dress, has spewed forth his hate fueled internalized homophobia in hopes of shifting the blame for the horrors perpetrated against children on his watch to ANYbody other than those actually responsible.
Lets be clear here. This issue deals with the Roman Catholic Church as an organization, NOT as faith or theology. I have no quarrel with anyone who professes the Catholic faith, seeks to practice and honor the liturgical rites of that faith, or even seeks to actively share that faith with others. Yet the institutional culture and organizational hierarchy of that church, were it a secular institution, would have been raided by the police, it's operations shut down and it's leaders arrested decades ago.
The problem with the Roman Catholic Church in 2010 is that men like Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, don't see the systematic and institutionally sanctioned rape of children as the real problem. Rather Cardinal Bertone thinks efforts to stop those crimes and hold those who commit them responsible, for him THAT is the real sin.
Until that viewpoint changes, the Catholic Church should and must be viewed as a threat to Children and epicenter of the largest organized sex crime ring in human history.
1 comment:
Good for you David. We need more to speak out.
i grew up 1 block from the Catholic School and Church in my community. I hope none of my friends had to be part of this.
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