Papal infallibility covers a lot pigheadedness and downright criminality but it can’t disguise this Pope’s creepiness.
From today’s paper – “It is a great suffering for the church in the United States and for the church in general and for me personally that this could happen,” Benedict said, adding that he would work to keep pedophiles out of the priesthood.
Good luck. Isn’t this how we fight drug addiction and illegal immigration. And you have to feel a little funny dumping money in the collection basket when the church has already spent over two billion bucks fighting or settling with sexually abused parishioners. The Pope covers up crimes, discriminates against women and gays and claims that Christ is speaking through him.
The first LSD I took was from a guy who lived in my dorm. I had no idea what to expect or how long it would last. I was hanging out with friends and they all went home. I was up all night watching and listening to a Pope Paul VI poster. I think it was this one (above) although this seems more anti-Italian than anti-Pope. I haven’t done any more of that stuff since 1969 but having to look at the Pope and Bush in the same shot is like a bad flashback.
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38. Willing Slaves of the Passing Moment
Decades ago, I was a fairly stereotypical 20’s-ish student having a conversation with some fairly stereotypical 20’s-ish students. They were making some fairly stereotypical comments about how dumb and conservative people were in the era of the 1950’s. The conversation had to do with some event or other, I forget what.
I proposed that if they were in the 1950’s at that moment, and had grown up in the ‘30s or ‘40s, they’d be 1950’s people too. The general reaction of the group, and the vehement reaction one one girl in particular, was general shocked disbelief.
“You mean if you lived twenty-five years ago, in that world, you’d be going through life with the attitudes and perceptions that you have now?”
“Yes, absolutely.”
Well, no. The only way that could happen would be if your ideas and opinions and attitudes were unchangeable physical structures in your brain, immune from your surroundings and experiences, impossible to educate or develop or deceive or improve.
Come to think of it, maybe she -was- immune from her surroundings and experiences, impossible to educate or develop or deceive or improve.
This came to the top of my slippery mental stack when I was thinking about the 2000’s era Catholic priest sex scandal, and people’s reactions to it all. Of course there was the whole spectrum of possible takes, from “It just goes to show how evil those Catholics are” to “Wow, where do I sign up!”.
You may have forgotten: In the first half of the Twentieth Century, keeping the lid on things like this was the normal thing to do. If a doctor spent a little too much time inspecting a fine young man, well, he’s a little weird but so what. If an adventurous girl got caught by Mom Nature, she got shipped away to a Bad Girls’ Home until her weight returned to normal.
What, is it some kind of news to you that attitudes are different now than they were 50 years ago?
Of course, actual sexual contact with little kids is pushing the envelope.
Of course, in the current philosophical environment, pushing the envelope is considered to be a good thing.
The point here, though, is that if you’re one of those people who react to the Catholic scandal with the common outburst of mindless contempt, consider this: If it were 1948 right now, you — yes you — would probably consider a discreet coverup to be the normal thing to do.