So the Pope retired. That's a thing
now.
 |
| Please don't devour a child on the way out. |
See, this is something that the
Catholic church should be pushing more. 'What, you think we're old
and steeped in archaic irrelevant tradition and viewpoints? Nuh-uh!
Our Pope just broke six hundred years of tradition baby, he's radical
to the max! What a rebel!'
So, with the Pope retired, I've seen
him be inundated with glowing farewells. And. Well. Something just
doesn't sit right to me. Just a small, niggling detail. A tiny one,
really, barely worth mentioning, but hear me out.
Isn't he complicit in a mass cover up
of child abuse? Since, like, for ages?
Anyone?
Look, I get so far as typing the
letters 'pope co' into Google and it auto-completes with the phrase
'pope covering up child abuse' and there's tonnes of stuff there. And the internet doesn't lie. All the time. Only around the high eighty percent mark. Secret Vatican edicts (which weren't that secret, come to think of
it) and instructs of hush shit up, done before Mr. Pope became Mr. Pope. For once, I'm not going to
link storm here, as there's really too much to go on and quite
frankly all that formatting gives me a headache. I will say that I
love this guy who
denounces the original journalism that proclaimed this policy, in
that it wasn't really a secret anyway.
Not debating the facts of the document or policy, just that isn't
wasn't a big of secret as it was made out to be and seriously man,
way to get irritable over the wrong point. That's like – and
if I may invoke Godwin's Law here – looking at a signed order from
Hitler to execute Jews and claiming that clearly someone with such
poor handwriting was an evil man. (Aside, I demand some props for invoking Godwin's Law on Mr. Pope without mentioning his youth activities.) I... look, all I'm saying, if I was
retiring after having a severely questionable involvement in hiding
child rapists, I'd be damn sure I wouldn't find the only time this
was mentioned in the press the occasional reference solely using the
word 'controversy.' Among so many others, Ann Widdencombe, a Tory MP who I'd usually have
some time for (mostly due to good will engendered when she appeared
on Doctor Who) presented a glowing tribute to his reign that
left me feeling a little alone as no one seemed to care, about, you
know, mass child rape.
It wasn't like he'd died, and it's
kinda not cool to bring this shit up whilst the body's still warm.
He's retiring. We can still criticize, surely?
Maybe he retired because as without his
role model, Jimmy Saville, it just didn't seem worth it. Or perhaps
it was somewhat similar one of the many headaches David Cameron has
to deal with. Recently, one Welsh Tory MP claimed that gay couples couldn't provide a 'safe and warm environment' for children,
and I swear I heard ol' Davy's head hitting his desk from all the way over here. You
can just imagine the bellowing, 'For fuck's sake people, I am
trying to present an image that we are not all colossal
bastards, could you leave this shit alone for like five
fucking minutes? Five minutes? No talking? No, fuck it, not
one of you gets to talk to people ever again! Unless it's
Boris. That idiot got himself stuck up a zipline for forty minutes
and that somehow only made that foppy-haired fool more electable.
Lucky cretin.' In the same vein, Mr. Pope might've been yelling 'Five
minutes! Could you fuckers go five fucking minutes without fucking
a child? I am up to the back teeth with shifting you buggers
around! I am too old for this shit. In fact, I am too old for
the shit! I quit!'
One of the things that really compounds
things for me is twofold; firstly, yeah, there's some people
involved in this that should be in prison. Like, right now. Now. How did these things happen and the first reaction from the higher
ups wasn't, 'Yeah, that priest should be in prison. Like. Right now,'
and instead it was felt that protecting the institution was more
important than a child? Or is that me being naïve? The second thing
is the method of silencing, Excommunication. Or, to paraphrase; you
shut the fuck up or you will automatically go to hell. Auto-damnation
seems to me should have been reserved for the priest, but, clearly
I'm not clergy material and thus not suitable to question this.
And hey, guess what? If I didn't just
want to focus on child rape, Mr. Pope has been at the forefront for
many over shitty policies that exist only to promote human
suffering. Let's look at this case.You may remember it from my brief discussion over abortion, but
let's look at the bullet points:
- Stepfather rapes 11 year old girl, in an attempted triple combo of rape, incest and pedophilia
- 11 year old gets pregnant from rape
- Doctors determine that girl cannot bring the twins to term as she'd and the twins would die, (also the rape and incest thing) recommends abortion
- Has abortion to save her life
- Catholic church leadership loses it's shit and sends everybody but the stepfather to hell
Does not one person up high in the
church take one look at these sorts of things an go, 'Sweet Jesus,
are we doing nothing but increasing the amount of misery on this
planet?' Look, I was going to discuss further horrible policies, but
quite frankly, I am super depressed. I have a tiny comfort that I've
read some conflicting reports, that the above story may have some wiggle room,
but it's not like incidents of this measure of misery are isolated.
Most Catholics are wonderful people to be sure, but they are being
severely mis-served by their church, who's attitude of arse-covering
and backwards has let some serious horrors be perpetrated. Hell,
we're not even surprised at this shit anymore. Also, next time, big
church, how about picking someone that doesn't look like an Indiana
Jones villain? Please.
Yeah. I feel all sad now. I had a point
to make, but all I feel is a hollowness where my joy used to reside.
I wonder if there ever was a way to say all what I wanted to say in
an actual amusing way, in song?
God bless you, Tim Minchin.
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