Business as usual.
5 October 2007As I have been getting back to some of the more current event type posts, I figured today would be a good day to cover this. Nothing like a little religion to fire you up for the weekend.
As you may, or may not know…I tend to reject most organized religion. Note that, I simply reject the organizational entities. I know plenty of fine Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Pagan and New Age folks. I just tend to think the one thing they all miss is that alot of what they believe is that it should be less about following questionable rules in a book of questionable authorship, and more about living well and being nice. Anyone who knows me, knows full well I am actually quite a spiritual person, in my own way. I have never been agnostic, or atheist. I do not like labels for any belief. Words and names have power, and all too often, the power they have is to lead people to make assumptions about a person based on how they identify with the world around them.
And, as my Dad used to say: assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups.
But, out of all the organized religious groups, these days the Catholic Church has been the one committing the most foul of offenses. Even after all of the scandal, they are still conducting business as usual. And, make no mistake, just underneath the surface, it is a business. Only a business worries about marketing and PR. The sad thing is, I know a hell of alot of good catholics, who in alot of ways are deist in their belief. They have no problem believing, but they apply reason to what they do. They do not just blindly walk.
So, over the last week, we have seen the Archbishop of Mozambique claim that condoms are laced with AIDS. Everyone’s been talking about these fire and brimstone statements, but nobody has been looking at the more interesting statistic: That some 17.5 per cent of Mozambicans are Catholic, and that it is estimated that 16.2 per cent of Mozambique’s 19 million inhabitants are HIV positive. When statistical analysis like this begin to converge, it’s very telling.
But, it’s easy to get your panties in a twist over catholicism in Africa. The bishops down there have been doing this for years. In alot of ways, catholicism in Africa resembles the catholicism of the old Vatican. The Vatican and Pope’s who gave us things like the Knights Templar. Or the Inquisition. A lot of fire and brimstone posturing.
But, that’s not what has me writing today. What has me going today is, something far more insidious, as it goes to the very heart of what is wrong with the Catholic Church: their twisted, evil, and sick view of priorities.
If you doubt that the organization is a business, consider how in California, they dodged and weaved in the system, declaring bankruptcies, and attempting to hide assets, to create an illusion of being poor. My dad used to say, the Catholic Church is the richest non profit organization in the world. I guess if you are cashing out real estate, stocks, bonds and whatnot…he could have been right.
But, the really disturbing element of this whole thing, is not the settlements, or even the spin and dodge directly related to it. What’s truly and completely 100% sick is the following pair of articles.
First up, we have the church basically evicting some of their own devoted followers. Okay, the church they believe in, has the ecclesiastical right to tell them where to go, so to speak. However, let’s consider the hypocrisy involved:
“These nuns are precious to us, but there are priests living in fabulous-looking little houses, by themselves,” Diaz said. “You don’t see them getting kicked out.”
In fact the handsome residence of the Santa Barbara bishop — once a convent — remains safe behind seven palms on a corner lot. The building is the largest in a neighborhood where homes have been fetching $2 million. […] By local standards the convent property promises no economic windfall. Oprah Winfrey paid $50 million for an estate in neighboring Montecito. But in the heavily Hispanic, relatively poor section of Santa Barbara that the sisters have served since 1952, comparable two-bedroom homes go for around $700,000.
Warped and twisted priorities. There is no other possible way to define that. You cannot mitigate the total abhorrent mindset the leaders of the church have when they choose to keep their opulence, in favor of pitching out the very folks who do the lifting, the working, and dying for them. If Jesus got angry with the money lenders in the temple, it makes you wonder what he would do in this situation.
I caught the eviction article a few days ago. And it was a pretty sad article. But then, today, I found something that just made it all the more sickening.
The Vatican has purchased an Italian football team. You heard me right. A football team. And believe me, there are some really really really sick and perverse quotes. Let’s do a round-up:
Edoardo Menichelli, the Archbishop of Ancona, said the move would help bring more morality into football.
“We want to bring some ethics back into the game, which has been undergoing a grave crisis in terms of sportsmanship,” he said.
Bringing morality into football? How noble of you. How about you take the beam out of your own eye? How about you bring some ethics, and morality to your own damned house? Because I am sure this is what Jesus meant when he said “sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.” (That was sarcasm, for the sarcasm impared)
The Vatican aims to introduce an ethical code which will punish Ancona’s players for any foul play.
How about you start punishing the people who have brought your house to ruin? How about punishing parish’s and other archbishops who skirt the law, and hide people who abuse children? How can you even think applying ethics and moral standards to a football team is somehow a priority when you cannot even get your own ethics and morality straight?
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state, is a fanatical football fan and has openly spoken about his ambition to create a football team of priests.
Simply amazing. That the Vatican would endorse use of funds for something like this is simply jaw dropping.
So let’s see here, I just want to make sure we have this all figured:
* Hide abusive priests to avoid liability: check.
* When discovered, Try and hide all of your money to avoid paying for your hubris: check.
* Evict your female adherents: check.
* Sell your adherent’s convent which is worth less money than other male residential property: check
* Admit you were wrong with one side of your mouth, reinforce your absolute righteousness with the other: check
* Buy a football team: check
* Proclaim to press about how moral and ethically superior you are: check.
Can someone please step up and tell me I have it all wrong? Is the world really this god damned surreal? But more to the point, true seeking Catholics should be outraged at the sheer and utter corruption of their institution. There are believers out there, starving, sick, abused, huddled…and they are buying a football team? This is sickening to the core. You do not have to be a catholic to see how perverse this is. And make no mistake, it is perverse.
Jesus was a remarkable human being. He was nailed to a tree for proclaiming how it would be awfully nice if we loved our neighbor. He was ridiculed for telling people there were two sides to everything, to not cast the first stone. But he also gave a warning: it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to get into heaven. Hiding in a pointy hat, and taking a vow of poverty are symbols and words. It’s what’s in the heart that matters, it’s the heart that gives words meaning. The Vatican is obviously filled with rich men, and by their own book, cannot pass into heaven. Their own Saviour has stated that he knows what is in the hearts of men.
Makes you wonder, does it not? It’s business as usual. And while the stockholders took a hit, nothing has changed. The decadence, the opulence, the nearly complete disregard for their fellow human beings, their flock…goes on.
Current Mood:
Discontent & 
Disappointed
