I read this morning that the Vatican thinks they are being persecuted on their pedophile priests. At first it seemed it was a US problem but..



Myself, I cannot imagine anything much more evil. The sheer numbers, the abuse of deaf children and the inadequate response by the heads of the church is astounding.

Punishment to the Church in the US have been punitive. Big settlements have beat the church up pretty badly, forcing acknowledgment. In Europe they don't have those huge fines. They can be in the thousands, peanuts.

When I read that the Pope's mismanagement is involved.. How much higher does it get? The Catholic church protected their own but not the children. That fact uncovered in any other setting than the church would trigger a massive bloodletting with those responsible being canned and jailed.

This is Easter week. In my home town in Mexico this is a huge deal. Long, long lines of people worshiping. Centuries old traditions of parades where the faithful lug huge sculptures of Christ, the Virgin, angels, saints and every other thing you can think of between churches. The bulk of the people are very strong Catholics. It is wonderful to watch the faithful. The religion, the traditions are beautiful.

Yet to weigh in on the pedophile priest is Latin America. It bothers me to think that underneath all this beauty that I am watching could be another core of skunks like the US and now Europe is uncovering.

A side note: One of our main priests is married and has children. People chuckle over it but fondly. The Church as it exists in Mexico is not a straight Roman Catholic Church. The native religion was incorporated and the pageantry of this Easter is unlike that in Europe. Hopefully unlike the US and Europe they don't put up with pedophiles posing as priests.

It ain't just Catholics.

Plenty of Protestant "men of God" have decided to "lay on hands" and "suffer the little children" as well.

http://reformation.com/CSA/allabuse.html

Unfortunately the existence of perverts in other religious bodies is a fact but when the main governing body just hides the pedophiles and ignores the problem, that condemns the whole religion. Another article on how the US cleaned up the American Catholic community says:



No one in the church can presume to tell the Pope what to do. If he continues to just cover up past misdeeds he needs to step down. This is in his court now.

US Catholics urge Vatican

Well, if a picture is worth more than a thousand words.

But then there is my passport and FM3 picture. I gotta tell you, aging and pictures don't always compliment the subject. The Pope looks like a cherub with my picture alongside to compare it with.

[quote= The Pope looks like a cherub with my picture alongside to compare it with. [/quote]


So, you're saying you look like actor Dan Trejo Jr.?

That is a close one. Maybe Dan, the Pope and I can get a group rate with a plastic surgeon.

I honestly don't see how the Catholic Church can regain the trust of its entire congregation when more and more cases come out of abuse by priests and the church's wide-spread coverup. If they covered this up, what else have they covered up?

It seems the Boy Scouts have similar problem.

But, the Scouts sure as heck make sure those homos and atheists are nowhere to be found.

"Praise God and pass the children!"

I think with the scouts, they are correct in that there have been societal issues that have affected the organization. However, that doesn't excuse hiding all the cases that have happened. Image has always been all too important to the scouts. Also, their approach in preventing abuse (if there aren't any gays or atheists, there aren't any pedophiles), is clearly ineffective and logically flawed.

When I was a young kid, I had seen an ad in a comic book for cub scouts, and wanted to join so bad. Once I was old enough, I joined, and my parents were involved as well. I must say that it was a very positive experience for the most part, learning some good skills. Once I had my Arrow of Light, I didn't get involved in the regular Boy Scouts, mostly because of scheduling, location, etc. As I got older, I realized that I had an issue with how the organization treats atheists and gays. While I would like for my boys to be exposed to some of skills scouts teach, I just can't let them be systematically taught to discriminate and be told that it's okay.

Now, when those dang girl scouts go out and sell those cookies, I buy too many boxes of them, spending too much money, and consuming too many calories. When I am asked to buy something, donate, whatever, in support of the Boy Scouts, I politely decline. Often, I think that I would prefer to say, "I'm sorry, but I can't support an organization that actively promotes discrimination." But I don't know if the kids would bother learning from it, when "Loyalty" is such an important thing to Scouts.

On another note, I often wonder how many organizations are out there for socialization and families that aren't driven by religion, politics, or alcohol, especially on the Harbor.

Does the pedophile ice-cream man rank up their anywhere? If you dig deep enough there a quite a few stories of local businessmen and other pillars of the community who can be filed away under the peder-ass category!

Keeping pedophiles away from children makes sense. Keeping athiests and homosexuals out of the Boy Scouts does not.

Yes, it's their choice but the Girl Scouts were faced with the same choice and evolved.

Can you earn a Boy Scout badge for lying?

On my honor I will do my best
to do my duty to God and my country...

Then there's that "morally straight" verse in the oath.

Awkward.

I wrote that the Boy Scouts have a right to discriminate if they choose. Until they end their discrimination as the Girl Scouts have done, I don't support them. I urge the United Way to quit giving to them. I urge public schools to quit giving them access to our children in greater form than other entities, etc.

I can start a club of tall fat men and not let anyone else in. It's ok.

Hmmmm...maybe you could urge our government to stop giving paychecks and perks to the members of the Congressional Black Caucus until they end their discrimination.

Did the name change to the "Heterosexual Boy Scouts"? I don't recall that.

FWIW, there was also a time when black congresspeople or Senators were excluded or very rare. Getting together as a group to help others get in or to help one another through the legislative maze makes or made sense.

So, I would probably support a discriminatory group of "homos kicked out of the boy scouts" or "gays refused entry to the boy scouts" or "atheists kicked...." etc.

***on edit***

I intended to add another post, but inadvertently edit the other post to this one instead. While I can't remember the previous post verbatum, it was basically explaining my lack of support for groups like "Miss Black America" and/or the NAACP.

Sorry for the screw up.

They get paychecks and perks because they are elected members of Congress. They shouldn't get any special access not given to other caucuses. If donors want to give more because they are in that caucus, they can, but don't have to. Just like Stash and I don't have to support the Boy Scouts. I would discourage that kind of discrimination as well, FWIW.

Thanks to Democrats.

Who are all now Republicans, thanks to the "southern strategy."