Today’s top stories:
- David Cameron is UK’s new prime minister (BBC) — Her Majesty’s asked him and everything, so it’s official.
- Pope Decries ‘Sins Inside the Church’ (NYT) — In what the NYT regards as his most direct words on the subject yet, the Pontiff said these sins pose the greatest threat to the church.
- SEC Chair: No ‘Single Cause’ of Stock Dive (WSJ) — In other words, they still don’t know what the hell happened last week.
- Sanford Vetoes Cigarette Tax (press release) — Yeah, I know it’s dog bites man. But this remains important, and at some point a dog that keeps biting like this needs to be dealt with. The one way we can act most effectively is not to elect a dog that in any way resembles this one in the future.
- Interior Plans to Split Minerals Management Service (WSJ) — In response to oil spill, we’re talking about splitting the entity that takes fees from the oil industry from the one that regulates it.
- Finger-Pointing, but Few Answers at Hearings on Drilling (NYT) — Another aspect of the ongoing story.
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The State actually got it right Monday. Their headline story was the 3 year old who shot his 5 year old cousin. The gun nuts should be really proud of their complicity in this tragedy.
Brad, the Pope story is really maddening. This idiot has basically looked the other way while his cult has run amuck with the lives of hundreds or even thousands of young boys. He needs to be in jail, not running around in a clown suit pretending to be the high potentate of virtue.
“His cult?” Gee, thanks, Bud.
By the way, I believe it’s spelled “amok.”
I think a lot of people think the priests and bishops who were given super-duper careful treatment are part of a papal cult.They are super loyal to the Pope. The priests and nuns who are busy working for social justice don’t get the same degree of papal concern and latitude.
This is the stupidest headline I’ve ever seen. Or at least I hope there isn’t one stupider. From USA Today:
Undersea blowout fail-safe devices not 100%
Duh. Ya Think!
Well, at least you know they can back up the assertion…
Not do I think that priests and bishops are given super-duper careful treatment… I know it for a fact. I grew up two houses down from a Catholic parsonage in a small town and we had a priest who was swept out in the middle of the night. It took about 5 minutes for word the next morning of him repeatedly molesting a young girl who was helping her mother clean his house. Had the bishop not done what he did that night, the priest would more than likely been removed from the house feet first. The guy is still out there, no charges, no penalty, no nothing… the Catholic church just reassigned him. How the Catholic church got around having this guy arrested and why he is not sitting in prison still baffles me.
The Catholic church is more powerful than any mafia organization or gang and more corrupt than all of them combined. Small cults commit the same crimes and the federal government gets involved (think Waco), the Catholic church does it and all that happens is it makes the nightly news and never investigated.
Michael touched on something that has baffled me for years. Clearly the Catholic Church is nothing but a gigantic cult with all it’s ridiculous rituals and overblown ceremonies. I went to a Catholic funeral a few years back and about halfway through I was expecting to see a bunch of dudes dressed in clown outfits come riding in on tiny motorbikes. As someone outside the Catholic Church I found the whole thing quite offensive. Just commemorate the departed and say a few spiritual words without all the mumbo jumbo.
Of course that’s ok by me. If folks want to worship with all this ceremonial nonsense that’s their business. Religious freedom and all that. But they crossed the line with what is clearly a huge criminal conspiracy to simply sweep under the rug the most understated scandal in history with this widespread rape of young boys.
My question to all Catholics: Why don’t you find a church situation that has the same types of rituals and beliefs but doesn’t have all this criminal baggage? Tradition and habit certainly shouldn’t be used as an excuse to condone widespread felony behavior.
Ummm… Kathryn, as you see, Bud actually did mean “cult.”
And to his elaboration, I can only say “wow.”
Ladies and gentleman, what we see on display here is the classic American syndrome of seeing the Catholic church as a strange and alien thing. It’s the thing that disqualified Al Smith, and almost did the same to JFK. In its most virulent manifestation, it helped launch the KKK. To bring it up to date, it’s akin to the GOP’s attempts to tag Obama with the accusation that he wants to make America “like Europe.”
Bud surprises me sometimes. But Bud, to answer you with better faith than that with which you regard my church… The Church is a far, far bigger thing than these scandals to which you refer. Infinitely bigger. It’s the communion of all Catholics who’ve ever been, from St. Peter to the present day, and those not yet born. You’re describing it the way the proverbial blind man would who grasp the elephant by a few hairs on its tail. Accurate from your perspective, but inadequate in the extreme.
Just because, day after day, the only way you encounter the Church is through the headlines of secular media doesn’t mean that what you’re perceiving IS the Church. It’s just one of thousands of temporal aspects of it. That doesn’t mean it’s not accurate; it’s just grossly incomplete.
Does that help? Or, given your instinctive, cultural prejudice against the church, would anything help?
Translation: Brad and millions of others are Catholic out of tradition and habit.
Just because it’s BIG and OLD doesn’t make it an honorable organization. I would maintain that my persepective is the objective one and the long-term Catholic is merely going with the flow. Any objective observer of the Catholic Church would reject it out of hand given the facts.