Petty Gossip - Democratic Underground

NanceGreggs

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Sun Mar-28-10 10:20 PM
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Petty Gossip

Edited on Sun Mar-28-10 10:39 PM by NanceGreggs

Faced with yet another resurgence of outrage over the Catholic Church’s systematic cover-up of the sexual abuse of children at the hands of its priests – this time triggered by allegations that the current pontiff himself participated in this heinous exercise – Pope Benedict XVI today chose to respond not by reassuring the faithful that such a serious matter would be investigated and addressed, but instead by adding insult to injury.

In his address to the crowd assembled in St. Peter’s Square to observe Palm Sunday, His Holier-Than-Thouness stated that faith in God leads one "towards the courage of not allowing one’s self to be intimidated by the petty gossip of dominant opinion".

One cannot help but note the use of the words “one’s self” – because, as this particular pontiff has demonstrated time and again, it’s his world, and it’s all about him, and the children who were stripped of the innocence of their childhood be damned – literally and figuratively – for suggesting otherwise.

Petty gossip. The ruination of so many lives, the emotional turmoil lived and relived by not only the victims of abuse, but their families, their neighbours, their communities – reduced, with a sense of arrogance and self-serving cover-your-own-assitude, to the term “petty gossip”, allegedly predicated not on facts as we now all now know them to be, but on something as inconsequential as "dominant opinion".

It is a phrase one would expect to see as a headline in a fan-magazine, in response to rumours of infidelity leveled against a current star-de-jour. To see it invoked by the allegedly infallible leader of millions of faithful Catholics in the context of the sexual abuse of children is, to put it mildly, an affront to human decency.

The truth of the matter is that we will never know the full extent of the truth of the matter. We will never know how many children have been abused, how many continue to keep such soul-searing incidents to themselves – out of shame for what they were subjected to, out of respect for a church that failed them completely, out of fear that “going public” will end in a kind of private hell few of us can imagine.

We will never know how far-reaching the effects of such abuse have been; how many tormented children still suffer now as adults – those who live with untold nightmares, those who have eschewed relationships, marriage, children of their own, too emotionally damaged to participate in the fulsomeness of life as the rest of us know it.

We will never know how many children could have been spared the pain, the anxiety, the humiliation of being preyed upon by sexual predators had the Church handed its pedophiles over to the appropriate authorities, rather than brazenly – and, dare I say (and I do), with malice aforethought – placing such predators in positions where their lust for the most defenseless among us could be satisfied without fear of detection or consequences.

We will never know how many priests, who had suppressed their desires for young flesh for years, even decades, were encouraged to indulge their proclivities by the knowledge that their behaviour would be officially “unacknowledged”, and their sins steadfastly protected from public view.

We will never know how many suicides were prompted, how many violent acts were triggered, how many failed lives are attributable to the actions of men without conscience, or their superiors who aided and abetted those actions by allowing them to continue unabated.

The fact is that had the Catholic Church swept this scandal under the rug by transferring its pedophile priests to positions where their access to children was non-existent, or their conduct was closely monitored, the world-at-large would have – upon learning of such things after-the-fact – understood its protective attitude, its reluctance to have its dirty laundry publicly aired, its decision to take matters into its own hands and deal with the problem behind closed doors.

However, as we now know, the “problem” was not dealt with at all. In fact, it was allowed to flourish with the full knowledge – and actual participation – of those whose solemn vows dictated the exact opposite course of action.

Transferring a priest accused of sexually abusing a child to another, never-forewarned parish is not a matter of rectifying an embarrassing problem. It is, in no uncertain terms, complicity – a complicity to ensure that those who had a penchant for indulging in sexual activity with unwilling, under-aged victims would have access to an unending supply of young flesh to prey upon, along with an assurance that should “petty gossip” hound the rapist, the victim of said rape would be quickly silenced through intimidation and/or humiliated in a public court by accusations of their own complicity – or even the threat of eternal damnation for speaking the truth.

In the secular world, the behaviour the Catholic Church has participated in is known as pimping. In the world of Holy Mother the Church, as now exemplified by the attitude if its esteemed leader, it is simply known as petty gossip.

Although no longer a Catholic, I was raised as one – in the strictest of conditions, including being educated in a Catholic school. I am the descendant of generations of German and Irish Catholic ancestors, and understand their mindset – their unwavering faith in the Christ whose teachings they grew up with, and embrace to this day.

Like millions of other present-day Catholics, they are reluctant to abandon the tenets of their faith. But their faith is founded upon the teachings of Christ, not the arrogant admonitions of a manipulative pontiff whose current focus is an attempt to persuade the faithful that he, along with the pimps who placed him in his present position, is somehow blameless for the suffering of those they collectively placed in harm’s way – not as a sacrifice to an angry God, but as a meal to be served to the most decadent among themselves.

I believe that Catholicism, as a religion, will survive. But the survival of the Catholic Church as an organization, as corrupt a corporation as the world has ever known – well, that’s a whole ‘nother kettle of fish-and-loaves.

And I, for one, will be glad to see it destroyed – and resurrected, into the state of being in which it was meant to exist, by those who are not merely disinterested shareholders concerned with the bottom line, but those who are truly “of the faith”.

As an ex-Catholic, I no longer believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, et cetera.

But I DO believe that this self-serving, ass-covering pope is about to be proven as fallible as the next guy who thinks sodomizing, raping, or in any way molesting an innocent child is not a matter of grave concern – but simply a matter of damage control, lest the collection plates be reduced to a pittance, and the coffers be emptied by legal fees and the obligations of restitution to the wronged.

On a personal note, should this missive somehow find its way into the pontiff’s hands, I would urge an examination of conscience, the confession of sins, and a solemn oath before God to do penance, and amend one’s life accordingly.

Amen.