HUMOUR:

ALMIGHTY CONFIDENCE:

HUMOUR:

I HEAR NUTING, NUTING:

Sex scandals in the Catholic Church.

HUMOUR:

HOW TO DRAW THE POPE:

RELIGION:
RICHARD DAWKINS WANTS TO ARREST THE POPE:



The famous atheist and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins has launched a rather absurdist "public conspiracy" to arrest the Pope during his upcoming visit to Britain. Dawkins believes ( or maybe not) that the Pope can be charged under the same sort of international law that led to the arrest of ex-dictator of Chile Augusto Pinochet when he visited Britain. Personally I think this is a publicity grab. Not that I don't think that Pope Rottweiler is guilty, guilty, guilty,guilty beyond measure. It would strain credibility to imagine that in all his years as head of the Holy Inquisition where all such charges end up that he was not involved in dozens and dozens of cover-ups. Still, from a purely legalistic point of view, the sort of crimes that Ratzinger is guilty of have never figured in any international court proceeding before. Thus I have my doubts. Still this is one more drop of vinegar in Ratzinger's upcoming visit. Here's the story from the Times of London.
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Richard Dawkins:
I will arrest Pope Benedict
RICHARD DAWKINS, the atheist campaigner, is planning a legal ambush to have the Pope arrested during his state visit to Britain “for crimes against humanity”.

Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, the atheist author, have asked human rights lawyers to produce a case for charging Pope Benedict XVI over his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic church.

The pair believe they can exploit the same legal principle used to arrest Augusto Pinochet, the late Chilean dictator, when he visited Britain in 1998.

The Pope was embroiled in new controversy this weekend over a letter he signed arguing that the “good of the universal church” should be considered against the defrocking of an American priest who committed sex offences against two boys. It was dated 1985, when he was in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which deals with sex abuse cases.

Dawkins and Hitchens believe the Pope would be unable to claim diplomatic immunity from arrest because, although his tour is categorised as a state visit, he is not the head of a state recognised by the United Nations.

They have commissioned the barrister Geoffrey Robertson and Mark Stephens, a solicitor, to present a justification for legal action.

The lawyers believe they can ask the Crown Prosecution Service to initiate criminal proceedings against the Pope, launch their own civil action against him or refer his case to the International Criminal Court.

Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, said: “This is a man whose first instinct when his priests are caught with their pants down is to cover up the scandal and damn the young victims to silence.”

Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great, said: “This man is not above or outside the law. The institutionalised concealment of child rape is a crime under any law and demands not private ceremonies of repentance or church-funded payoffs, but justice and punishment."

Last year pro-Palestinian activists persuaded a British judge to issue an arrest warrant for Tzipi Livni, the Israeli politician, for offences allegedly committed during the 2008-09 conflict in Gaza. The warrant was withdrawn after Livni cancelled her planned trip to the UK.

“There is every possibility of legal action against the Pope occurring,” said Stephens. “Geoffrey and I have both come to the view that the Vatican is not actually a state in international law. It is not recognised by the UN, it does not have borders that are policed and its relations are not of a full diplomatic nature.”

CURRENT EVENTS:

THE POPE AND THE SEX SCANDALS:

"The big Vatican summit wrapped up, closing ceremonies were Harry Connick Jr. The Vatican is taking a tough stand now, three strikes and you're transferred"

-David Letterman

You know when a story is developing fast when Wikipedia can't keep up with it. Wikipedia entries such as 'Catholic Sex Abuse Cases' and 'Roman Catholic Sex Abuse Cases By Country' become outdated by the day. Allegations of clerical sex abuse which have been simmering for some time in Europe and Latin America have, in the last few days, reached the same level of public scandal that they have long had in North America and Ireland. Hundreds of victims are coming forward. This is not surprising as it would beggar the imagination to think that the problem was restricted to only a few countries.

A few things should be noted. One is that this is hardly "news". It was common knowledge and a standing joke when I was a kid. According to my dearly departed father it was the subject of jokes when he was young. My father, by the way, was born in 1895. The difference was that it was never published in those days. Trying to do so would have meant serious consequences. I have little doubt that the problem extends as far back as there have been celibate priests. Blame the "reforms" of the Middle Ages that got rid of the priestly "housekeepers".

Another thing is that the problem is hardly restricted to the Catholic clergy, as defenders of same have noted-over and over and over and over. It existed and exists in other religious denominations and in any work situation where adults are given excessive power over children. In actual fact I suspect that the greatest incidence of such things, when all the furore has died down and all the prosecutions have been completed, will be found to have been not just in the Church "orphanages" but also in state run "kid jails". There have certainly been such cases in Canada,a nd there will be others. All this doesn't excuse the Catholic Church, but it does put the scandal in its proper perspective ie where adults have excessive control of children. Beware the "helping professions" and what they help themselves to.

The final thing to note is that the obsession with sexual abuse tends to deflect attention from the much more prevalent problem of physical violence. Trust me, I grew up Catholic, leaving the Church at age 15. Sometimes the violence was indeed associated with sex of the sadistic bent, but I suspect that the will to power rather than the will to pecker had a lot more to do with it. There are lots of personal anecdotes that I could relate such as actually outlasting the sadistic vice principal of the Catholic high school that I attended, as he whipped my hands until they were covered with blood from the deep cuts. To my credit I never flinched and looked at him with hatred the whole time. His hard on faded (yes he was a sexual sadist) and it became a simple power struggle. I won, at the cost of the wounds as he gave up first. The priest who sent me to the office because I was an asshole was all over himself with apologies because he knew damn well what his "brother" was. he thought that I was going to meet the intelligent fascist Principal. Ooops. Father Daniel later left the Jesuits and married the nun who used to meet him in the dead of night in the field between the boys and girls school for decent sex. One of the few decent priests I ever met. There were other incidents, but rather than be personal any more I'll merely note that some of the "techniques" that they used on us were things I later read about as military torture methods.

What has to be noted here is that I was a "white boy" with parents with which I lived and leftist parents at that. Here in Canada there is controversy about how many Indian children were actually "murdered" via the physical abuse that they suffered. So...you can perhaps see why the fixation on "sex" makes me a bit uneasy. Speaking of the Natives (and probably kids in Newfoundland) I think that murder is a greater crime than buggery.

Back to the present. As the revelations, late coming as they may be, sweep across Europe the present Pope Benedict is feeling the heat. His own brother has been linked to at least one abuse case. In his own term as Archbishop of Munich (1977-1981) Ratzinger was himself involved in at least one case of transferring rather than either reporting or disciplining a molester priest. His aide at the time, Gerhard Gruber, "took the rap" for him, claiming that Ratzinger was unaware of the case in question.

That's all fair and good. Maybe true. Maybe not true. What is incontestable is that Ratzinger, before he became Pope, was for many years the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (old name the 'Holy Inquisition'). In that capacity pretty well every case of clerical sexual abuse would pass into his notice as the administrator of Canon Law. His response was pretty plain. In 2001 he sent a circular admonishing the Catholic bishops to "observe Papal secrecy" in relation to sexual abuse allegations against Catholic clergy. This was backed up by the treat of "ecclesiastical sanctions" should the bishops report the cases to civil authorities or make them public in any way. Nothing could be plainer. If there was one person who was most responsible for the cover up it was Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict.

Here's what dissident Catholic theologian Hans Kung has to say about Ratzinger's responsibility:

"Arens’s criticism echoes an attack on the church leadership by dissident Swiss theologian Hans Küng.

In an interview published in Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung on Wednesday, Küng said the pope should apologise personally, as "no other person within the church had seen so many cases of abuse pass through their office”.

Joseph Ratzinger [the pope] was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for 24 years – an office that has authority over church doctrine and jurisdiction for various matters including sexual misconduct of clergy.

“Protecting their priests seems to have counted more for the bishops than protecting children,” said Küng.

After the scandals in Ireland last month, more reports have emerged over recent months of abuse at church-run schools and institutions in Germany, including one linked to the Regensburg choir run by the pope’s brother, Georg Ratzinger, from 1964 to 1994. Some 300 victims have come forward since January.

Could anything be plainer ? By the way, go over to our sister site Molly's Polls to express your opinion about whether ratzinger will be "caught" in the court of public opinion on this matter and how much it will affact his Papacy.

RELIGION:

WHO IS TO BE EXCOMMUNICATED ?:

The following is from the School of the Americas Watch. The SOA Watch is dedicated generally to pressuring the USA to observe standards of decency in its dealings with Latin America and specifically to close down the "torture school" formerly known as the School of the Americas. Father Roy Bourgeois has been one of the movers and shakers behind this organization, and he is presently facing the threat of excommunication due to his participation of the ordination of a female priest in contradiction to orthodox Catholic Canon Law. The following tells about his case and asks you to write/fax in solidarity with him.

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Father Roy Bourgeois Update:

Father Roy will be among the SOA Watch activists who will converge in Washington, DC for the SOA Watch Encuentro and the Lobby Days from February 14-17, 2009. Join us!

As many of you know, Father Roy has been threatened with excommunication by the Vatican after he participated in the ordination of former SOA Watch Prisoner of Conscience Janice Sevre-Duszynska. Father Roy is currently waiting for a response to a letter to the Vatican, in which he stated that he can not recant his belief and public statements that support the ordination of women, as the Vatican had requested.

Some of you have asked for addresses to write to in support of Father Roy and to ask that he not be excommunicated. Click here for a list of addresses.

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The list of addresses suggested by the SOAW follows below. Take special note of this. This may be the only chance you will ever get in this life to send a letter of protest to the Pope and also to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, also known as the Holy Inquisition.

The move to excommunicate Bourgeois is particularly inopportune for the Vatican given the recent controversy over the lifting of the excommunication of the 4 bishops ordained by the late Marcel Lefebvre. The traditionalist catholic followers of Lefebvre's sect and his front organization The Society of St. Pius X has often been tainted by accusations of neo-fascism and anti-semitism, and one of the "bishops" whose excommunication has been lifted, Richard Williamson of England, is an active and vocal Holocaust denier. The scandal of rapprochement with this sect has led to considerable pressure on and disapproval of the present Pope. The idea that the Vatican should be considering excommunicating someone like Bourgeois while, at the same time, welcoming the likes of these back into the fold is particularly scandalous.

As a point of interest the followers of Lefebvre, who broke away from the Catholic Church in protest over the liberalization of Vatican Council II should never be confused with the 'Old Catholics' who split with Rome after Vatican I in 1870 because they couldn't accept the doctrine of Papal infallibility. The Old Catholics are considerably more liberal than the orthodox Church, and many of their congregations accept the ordination of women- the issue at the heart of the complaint against Bourgeois. There is some controversy over whether women were ordained in the early Church. I am hardly competent to form a firm opinion on this matter, but judging from the example of the Old Catholics such a thing is not totally outside the ideas of at least some on Church tradition.

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Support Father Roy:
Some have asked for addresses to write their support of Fr. Roy and to ask that he not be excommunicated. Petitions are also appropriate.

Please write or fax or email to Pope Benedict XVI, and/or the Pope’s Ambassador to the U.S., the Apostolic Nuncio, and/or the Congregation for Doctrine of Faith, the group that is moving toward excommunication of Fr. Roy Bourgeois, and/or The leaders of the Maryknoll Order.
Their addresses are below.
ADDRESSES TO WRITE:
Pietro Sambi, Apostolic Nuncio

3339 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W

Washington, DC, 20008

Telephone: (202) 333-7121

Fax: (202) 337-4036
Pope Benedict XVI

00120 Via del Pellegrino

Citta del Vaticano, Europe

The Pope’s email address (for English correspondence) is:
'benedictxvi@vatican.va
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
FAX from USA:

011-39-06698-85378
Congregation for Doctrine of Faith

Piazza del S. Uffizio, 11, 00193 Roma, Italy

Telephone: 06.69.88.33.57; 06.69.88.34.13

Fax: 06.69.88.34.09

Please send a cc of any message or petitions you send to:

Bill Quigley – Attorney for Fr. Roy

7214 St. Charles Avenue, Box 902

New Orleans, LA 70118 or
duprestars@yahoo.com
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it.

THE DEVIL VISITS THE POPE:

Straight from Hel(l) Beloved Comrade Leader Emperor George Bush II dropped in to visit Pope Benedict in Rome. To say that this was less than popular with ordinary Italians would be a gross understatement. Less than a week before the visit Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi was heckled into silence when he tried to address an economic conference in Trento Italy. The issue was the failure of the centre left government to live up to the expectations of many who voted for it, and its continued support of a massive expansion of the US military base in Vicenza. This base will be part of the plans of the present US Administration for an "endless war" on terror (and whatever regimes are inconvenient for American financial interests). The participation of Italy in US initiated wars overseas(Italy has withdrawn its troops from Iraq and is reluctant to send further troops to Afghanistan) is immensely unpopular in Italy, and the visit of the President to Rome is like a red flag before a bull in this atmosphere.

Unfortunately for Bush just before his arrival on Friday the first trial involving the CIA's "extraordinary rendition program" (kidnapping in plain English) opened in a Milan courtroom. There are 26 Americans on trial for the kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric, Osama Mustafa Hassan, in Italy. Another American soldier is on trial in Rome for the murder of an Italian, Nicola Calipari, Italy's #2 secret service man, in 2005 on the road from the Baghdad airport. Strangely enough all these Americans are being tried in abstentia. Just to top in off a report from European investigator Dick Marty that accused Italy and Germany of obstructing his probe into secret CIA prisons in Poland and Rumania also came out Friday.

Italian demonstrators massed in two separate events during the Bush visit. The two Communist Parties in Prodi's coalition and the Greens opted for a rally and concert in the Piazza del Popolo while more radical elements staged a march. Organizers of the march estimate that about 150,000 people took part. They were opposed by over 10,000 police. The march itself was mostly peaceful except near the end when police attacked demonstrators who donned masks and threw bottles.

For news of the protests (in Italian) and for more photos such as those displayed above go to the Roma Indymedia site.

Bush began his visit to Rome with a visit to the Pope- not to confess his sins I presume. he used the occasion to trumpet US "humanitarian efforts" such as doubling the US commitment to fighting AIDS in Africa from $15 billion to $30 billion. In other words from costing the same as killing Iraqis for three days to a sum equal to killing them for six days. The Pope, for his part, opined that "nothing positive comes from Iraq", but refrained from giving a moral lecture to the Emperor as his predecessor John Paul II did. The Pope and the President primpted and posed and exchanged gifts. In some sort of ultimate fit of hypocrisy one of Bush's gifts was a "Moses walking stick" made by a former homeless man in Dallas Texas, and engraved with the ten commandments. Bush ?? Homeless people ?? The mind boggles. A waterlogged shingle from New Orleans would have been much more expressive of what Bush has actually done.

Bush also held discussions with the Vatican's # 2 official, Cardinal Tarcisco Bertone. While leaving the Vatican, however, Bush's limousine stalled as the motorcade proceeded towards the US Embassy. Molly guesses that God decided to put in at least a little word as to what he thought about the whole matter. Later in the visit Bush met with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and with Premier Romano Prodi. He ended his schedule by meeting with right wing ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi , still under suspicion over many of his business deals.

From Rome Bush flew on to Tirana, the capital of Albania where his reception was for once demonstration free. The government of Albania has gone all out to be servile to the Emperor, naming the street in front of the parliament in his honour. Huge welcoming billboards were set up and the streets decorated with American and Albanian flags. In some excess of sycophancy the Albanian government has even issued postage stamps with Bush's picture and the Statue of Liberty. All hail the Emperor !. Ordinary Albanians didn't protest. Aside from a few thousand in a handpicked crowd that the government dragooned to meet Bush in a park the streets were almost totally empty as the people stayed home in droves. This was despite the fact that the TV offerings were entirely devoted to breath-holding coverage of the visit. One supposes that they found something to do other than watch TV or participate in a staged show for the President.

Albania has been a staunch and unwavering ally of the USA, sending troops to both Afghanistan and Iraq. Its resources, however, are more than slightly limited. Its commitment to Afghanistan has recently been increased to an astounding 140 men. It has 120 troops in Iraq. One wonders what on earth they are capable of doing there. Mostly provide an extra nuisance that the Americans try hard to keep out of both harm's way and trouble I presume. As a reward for their servility Bush reiterated his commitment for an independent Kosovo on Albania's eastern border.

From Albania Bush flew off to visit Bulgaria, another fun and pleasant place. Molly will follow him there later as soon as she rounds up the two goats that are the standard bribe for passage out of Albania. Too strange.