Sex and the City: the Collapse of the Holy Roman Empire

Becky Anderson, speaking from Rome for CNN yesterday, told of how 3 as yet-unnamed Cardinals compiled a secret dossier about a gay network of Vatican clerics who have made themselves vulnerable to blackmail by male prostitutes. They presented it to Pope Benedict XVI, and as far as Becky understood, he will pass it on to his successor. “The Italian media is awash with these sex scandals at the Vatican” she said.

She added that the British media is awash with the scandal of allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct with four priests dating back to the 1980’s. The allegations are leveled at the top British Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who was, until yesterday, proclaiming his innocence and insisting he would exercise his right to vote. He was going to resign in March but the Pope forced him out yesterday.
 
Benedict XVI’s reactions to the two latest scandals are hard to understand. In all the years that he’s had the opportunity to actively investigate child rape by priests and the bishops who protected them, he hasn’t lifted a finger. Cardinal Mahony is still set to vote in the enclave. Yet Benedict XVI forced the resignation of Cardinal O’Brien, who didn’t rape anybody as far as we know. Nothing has been proved against him, any more than anything has been proved against the group of gay clerics, whose resignation Benedict didn’t force.  

Our resigned Pope is being ill-advised. Didn’t anybody ever tell these fellows that once you tell or live a lie, you have to fabricate and fabricate, weaving for yourself an illusion that fools many at first but eventually you’re the only one who believes in it. At that point, nothing that you do makes any real sense.

The Catholic church is falling apart at the seams, as it was bound to one day. It has operated with immunity for way too long, protected by its own laws that make it unassailable. Its excuse? That the hierarchy answers to a higher law because they are men of God. Well, that would be great if it did and they were, but it clearly doesn’t because they aren’t. 

Notwithstanding which the Vatican still holds huge sway over many of its subjects who deny any wrong-doing, pretty much in the same way that anti-Semites deny that the holocaust happened. But the massive power it had over minds up to the 1970’s has been waning for a long time, and the velvet curtains that once shielded the Vatican’s corruption from the world so well get more and more moth-eaten.  

The fall of Rome. If the Catholic Church was what it represents itself as, it wouldn’t have had a reason to fall. But it’s always been about the accumulation of temporal power and wealth and, under the guise of spirituality, has had a two-pronged strategy for subjugating people and limiting their capacity to think for themselves. The first is fear-mongering, using guilt and threat of eternal damnation as tools, and the second is to demonize sex, pitting it against spirituality. 

Of course the height of spirituality is to have no sex at all. So the vow of celibacy makes priests, cardinals and the Pope, more spiritual than anybody else. They take the vows of poverty and obedience, too, and that allegedly adds to their special spirituality, makes them somehow closer to God. But the vows are just for show.   

Even if they haven’t accumulated personal wealth, which many of them have, Catholic clergy don’t experience poverty. They are well taken care of, they have decent clothes – some of them  very expensive clothes and jewelry -  a place to stay, food to eat, medical care if they get sick, a car to drive, petrol in the car. They can travel and their plane fare is paid for, and when they retire they have a home to go to. 

Monseigneur Rauber, Cardinal Danneels, Monseigneurs Vangheluwe and Jozef De Kesel who took over after Vangheluwe resigned when exposed for child abuse.

As for obedience, who do they obey? Not the rules of society. Priests answer to bishops, who answer to the pope, as do Cardinals. Oh wait a moment; some of those Cardinals elect that infallible being who answers to God. 

And we all know what happens to the celibacy vow. Well, priests, bishops, cardinals and popes all have minds of their own. They can at any time say "I can't be part of an organization where the reality doesn’t match the PR." 

But that would mean giving up a life that gives them enormous power, one of the perks of which is that they can commit or conceal crimes with impunity and make unwelcome moves on men lower down the hierarchy, and of course on children. And because they aren’t men of God but are just ordinary men with as much carnality, prejudice, inner conflict and self interest as the rest of us, they abuse their power, sometimes to the fullest extent that the abuse can stretch. 

Which is why Rome is falling, falling.

Protector of Pedophile Priests, Cardinal Mahony Retains his Power to Vote for a Pope

Words can be dramatic and effective tools for change, more effective than weapons if they reach to a person’s soul. They can also be cheap. The latest illustration of the latter is a post in Cardinal Roger Mahony’s blog on Wednesday February 20. This is the man who protected pedophile priests and was recently removed by his successor Archbishop Jose Gomez from all duties. He wasn’t defrocked by Pope Benedict XVI, though.

And he can still vote to elect the next pope. The California Catholic Daily said on Feb 14 that “Cardinal Roger Mahony praised outgoing Pope Benedict XVI for his legacy of spreading Catholicism throughout the world and said he looks forward to traveling to Rome to help elect a successor.” Well, he’s hardly going to criticize the man who let him get away with his crimes, is he? I don't suppose that in the new-found humility he speaks of in his blog, he's walking to Rome in sandals and wearing a hair-shirt. The blatant hypocrisy is astonishing and makes Mahony’s blog post even more sickening. The opening paragraph reads:  

“One very insightful and powerful Address has sustained me over these past difficult years as all of us in the Church had to face the fact that Catholic clergy sexually abused children and young people.” As if he had had nothing personally to do with any of it. The rest of the post is all about realizing what a bad man he has been; about his tremendous shift in consciousness and sudden attack of humility.  

“…In past years I can't recall myself desiring and choosing: 

*    poverty with Christ poor, rather than riches;
*    insults with Christ loaded with them, rather than honors;
*    worthless and a fool for Christ, rather than to be esteemed as wise and prudent. 

But through God's grace, I am for the first time realizing that I should be praying for the very things from which I cringe, the disgrace I abhor, the fool that I seem. Lent is a long period of time, but I am not sure where I will be by Easter on this particular journey embracing and praying for humiliation. [But before I have to do any of that let me just go and vote.]

Christ, have mercy!”    

Christ have mercy on who? The soul of the pedophile-protector, or those who still live under the shadow of that terrible abuse? The children of those children, who have also been affected. Mahony's words are those of a narcissist who has no intention of really being accountable. After all, he didn’t give up his power.  

I’ve heard countless, moving stories of men and women who have treated others badly in their past and have gone back to each one to personally apologize. If Mahony had announced that he was going on a pilgrimage to say sorry to every child who was molested because of his actions; if he had invited the pope to defrock him and pushed for all other bishops who had behaved in the same way to be exposed and put on trial for collusion; if he showed with his actions that he was remorseful, he’d be believable.  

But he didn’t, so his words are cheap. More effective would have been to talk about the torment of the people who were abused as children and the role that he played, and to say that he would dedicate the rest of his life to making it up to them in whatever way he could and to help those who hadn't had the courage to speak out to do so, instead of egotistically telling us all about the spiritual advancement of his own precious soul. 

And far from showing any real remorse, he has even complained about being a scapegoat. But scapegoats don't get to elect popes. Mahony’s fall from grace wasn’t really a fall at all but a political maneuver that would allow him to retain his real power – playing a part in the control mechanism of who gets the role of pope; they don’t want another Pope John Paul I with real courage, integrity and vision and who can think and act for himself. What has happened with Mahony lays to bed any validity around accusations of conspiracy theory nuts and paranoia. It is living proof that the Vatican is far more concerned with its wealth and temporal power than it is with the emotional and real spiritual well-being of its subjects. 

Photo credit: California Catholic Daily

The Vatican, NRA, Republicans and the Muslim Brotherhood Have a Lot in Common

Conservatives are an interesting group. Whoever they are or whatever party name they bear – the Vatican, Republicans, Muslim Brotherhood, the National Rifle Association in the US - the same dynamics operate. Lust for control and power, misrepresenting themselves, disregard for the people they supposedly represent, reliance on dogmatism, success in conning those they rule for a while, and absolute inability to see when they've pushed it too far and have hit the losing streak.

Oh, and the desire to keep women down and out of their power. Granted some are a lot more rabid than others, but it’s just a matter of degrees, really. The essential thing is a shared fundamental disregard for democracy and the sacredness of the individual and their right to the use of their own mind and body. The funny thing about conservatives is that they’re paranoid about their enemies and always think they’re better than and different to other conservatives. For example, I’m sure Republicans would be outraged to be compared to the Muslim Brotherhood and vice versa.

Catholics would shoot me for saying members of the Vatican – which includes the pope – are in principle not much different from the National Rifle Association. And the NRA members would hotly defend themselves perhaps, saying they don’t protect child rapists. 

In a way, though, they’re all control freaks with big PR engines, living in a culture of immunity. Control lust drives them. In some it’s rabid, vocal, and even physically violent; in others it’s more sophisticated and a whole lot more sinister and difficult to eradicate. The people who know how to use their brains and have independence of mind should be the ones running the world, but even when one becomes a leader, like Pope John Paul I or Barack Obama, either they’re gotten rid of or they don’t get the support they need to do as much as they could. It’s frustrating to watch.

People who are more or less in control of their minds often just want to get on with their lives. And although eventually that control lust casts its long shadow over them and they’re forced to act, by then it’s such an uphill battle. It’s a shame, because these heroes who rise up in our midst like living miracles don’t get the support they deserve and we don’t get the full benefit of what their leadership with our support could bring us all. 

But it seems to be the nature of the human beast. The aggressor is always the control freak. I guess the important thing is that at some point Liberals do wake up and start asserting their rights, using their power for good, participating more actively in politics. 

So, liberal Egyptians will vote the Muslim Brotherhood out of power. Americans will vote conservative Republicans – especially those backed by organizations like the NRA - out of Congress. Catholics will eventually get vocal about a cabal of bishops voting in pope after pope who does nothing about the bishops who protected pedophile priests and about corruption in the Vatican and the disempowerment of women that Catholicism promotes.

It’ll happen. And nobody’s going to keep women down. We’re destined to progress, all of us.

Pope Benedict XVI Quits and Leaves a Shameful Legacy

So Pope Benedict XVI quit. While I was watching the video of his speech the thought running through my head was, I wonder how much his attire for the event cost. I have no good opinion of popes in general. I think the concept that the man and the men who vote him in are somehow sacrosanct and channeling the word of God, is ludicrous. 

But there was one pope who captured my imagination. He didn’t really want to be pope but he accepted the role and then not only wasn’t anybody’s pawn, but had ideas of his own. Albino Luciani, later to become Pope John Paul I, was born on 17 October 1912 in the Veneto Province of Northern Italy. He believed that the church should be a spiritual haven for people, that it should not be a wealthy organization and that priests, bishops and popes should be spiritual leaders. Strange concepts admittedly. 

When Pope Paul VI died, those supremely spiritual creatures the Cardinals huddled together to choose the next pope and after the 4th ballot the result was none other than our humble fellow Luciani who was by then pretty high up the Roman ladder. Rumor has it that the Cardinals were initially split down the middle between two candidates, neither of whom was Luciani.

Ultra conservatives wanted Giuseppe Siri who preferred a conservative interpretation, and even a reversal, of Vatican II reforms. Sounds like the GOP and their man Mitt. Then Ryan. Then Rubio. But I digress. Slightly more moderates wanted the more liberal Giovanni Benelli but he was opposed because he was too autocratic. It didn’t sound like much of choice. More rumor has it that Siri actually won the 3rd ballot and was somehow persuaded to not accept it. Of course we’ll never know, because those Cardinals vote from an enclave – which admits no outsiders. So that God can talk to them more clearly no doubt.

What we do know is that somehow a majority eventually managed to agree on Luciano. David Yallop, the author of In God’s Name wrote that Luciano was initially hesitant, and didn’t want to be Pope. But he allowed himself to be persuaded and from that point on acted with confidence and resolve. He refused the thousand-year-old tradition of the Coronation Ceremony and had an inauguration mass instead. He also refused to wear the papal tiara. 

He was an intelligent, heartfelt and friendly man, and one who connected with the masses. According to Yallop he immediately set about routing out corruption in the Vatican, particularly with regard to Mafia connections and fraudulent finances, and was very vocal in his protest against the massive wealth that the Catholic Church had and wasn’t using to alleviate poverty. He also wanted to remove the ecclesiastical ban on birth control. Within 33 days he was dead. I always thought the CIA had excellent cover-up skills, but they have nothing on the Vatican, if Yallop is correct. 

Since we all know now how good they were at covering up for pedophile priests, chances are that Yallop was on to something. The Vatican first stated that Pope John Paul I was found with a book in his hand by his private secretary at about 6:30 in the morning when he went to look for the Pope who hadn’t shown up at the morning chapel service. This was an outright lie, as the Pope had been discovered at 4:30 am by the nun who had woken him up at that time with coffee for 20 years.

The Vatican also said the bedside light was on, which conflicted with Vatican police testimony, and that the cause of death was a heart attack. They later added weight to that by saying that he had been very ill and had suffered from heart disease all his life. He hadn’t been ill at all – he was in fact a very healthy man who took medication for low blood pressure and nothing in his medical history ever showed any reference to a bad heart.

Sources within the Vatican told Yallop that John Paul was clutching a sheath of papers when he died, and not a book. His personal effects – including the low blood pressure medication - were removed and they were never seen again. Within hours there was not a trace of Pope John Paul I in the papal chambers. Embalmers were called in at 5 am. Another unusually hasty move.

John Paul’s body began to be embalmed twelve hours later. When accusations of poisoning emerged, the Vatican refused to conduct an autopsy, stating that autopsies on popes were forbidden, which was another lie. Popes Pius VIII and Clement XIV had both been autopsied. The Italian press went beserk.

David Yallop presented some incredibly convincing and in-depth evidence to support his claim that Pope John Paul I was murdered, and sheer logic says that indeed he was, given what he stood for and what he was intending to do. But nobody could hold the Vatican responsible as they are a law unto themselves and they allowed possible murder to be gotten away with. 

Just as they allowed so many bishops to get away with shunting pedophile priests around from parish to parish to avoid prosecution. A leopard doesn’t change its spots, I guess. Pope Benedict XVI had plenty of opportunities to put a stop to the rot. He did nothing and I think he leaves nothing but a shameful legacy. And so long as the Vatican continues to lie and cover up its crimes it makes a mockery of the position of Pope and of everything that the Catholic Church allegedly stands for. Spiritual? It’s not the word I would use.