Back again, the pope made me do it

It's been a while now, I've some unsettling times workwise, but back to normal now, and I've been inspired to post by the pope's plan to visit.

First, the leaked brainstorm document (Some humorous suggestions amongst a list of things that the pope could do on his visit, including launching a brand of condoms and singing a duet with the queen). He's peeved because he thinks they should have sacked some people for this 'outrage'.

Catholic commentators are crying out, like the peasant Dennis in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, that they're being repressed, and everyone hates them.

Well overlooking for a moment, the hypocrisy of the pope, considering his own record on punishing naughtiness (presumably if it all been covered up everything would have been fine), and also the hypocrisy of the catholic church getting concerned about repressing people - they're deliberately overlooking the fact that it was a leaked brainstorming session, where, as most of us who've ever been forced to take part in one, includes just about everything at the start. It's not like it's government policy, or even from a senior member of the FO or government, they might as well have got hold of a Post-It note with "Bloody France" written on it out of a Whitehall bin and started condemning the government for this new outrage.

In fact, sometimes good ideas do emerge from the most ludicrous suggestions. Much as I hate them, I have to admit they can help, at the very least, get people thinking about a problem.

In this case, I think at the very least they can glean that some members of the population do find the ex-nazi chief sky-wizard to be a figure of fun. I also hope it raises the controversial nature of the visit. This is a man who is, to all extents and purposes, flying in the face of the evidence and condemming millions to poverty and death due to this stance on condoms and AIDS.

It's great that some moves are afoot to have him arrested for crimes against humanity as soon as he sets foot on UK soil. I don't see this actually happening, attractive as the proposition is, but it might make the Vatican cancel the visit, which would be a great victory for rational thinking. If not, then it's sure to create some lively debate. The NSS is planning protests and a film festival about atrocities within the church.
http://www.iheu.org/protests-planned-pope-visit-uk

But back to the hypocrisy, something the gold-encrusted and powerful church has a blind spot for. They've taken the strange decision to go on the offensive about being criticised for only seeming to take action to keep the child-abuse situation under wraps. They've even been claiming that it was an atheist conspiracy at one point. Now I know lots of atheists, and the quantum leap required to get them to actually agree on what to conspire about is beyond them.

Whereas, of course, the catholic church is clearly more than capable of an international conspiracy, involving police, social services, governments and with a colossal disregard for human suffering.

Not content with crying 'repression', as if it's just the poor little defenceless catholic church who everyone's picking on, they've also gone on to come up with a sequence of, frankly, childish excuses:

1) They're claiming, as if it's some sort of excuse, that it's not technically 'paedophilia', but 'ephebophilia' (a homosexual attraction to teenage boys). I'm not sure what point they're trying to make, but it seems to me that they're trying to say it's not a church problem but a gay problem.

2) They also, in the same statement, declared that 'well, the other religions are doing it too!', according to some scrappy bit of research they've done. This excuse has never worked, not at school, not at work, not with my wife.

3) They then published some figures showing that anyway, it's only 1.5% to 5% of priests that are doing it. 1 priest in every 20 is abusing children??? That's something they're saying in their own defence? Believing in a beardy sky fairy is an awesome feat, but it's as nothing compared to believing that that is a point in your favour.

4) That's it the fault of the permissive society. You see, the church sets the moral climate of society, not the other way round. Except when it's bad morals, then it works the other way. No wait...

5) It's all Harry Potter's fault. Wonderfully whacko Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican's chief exorcist blames it all on the devil who's at large in the Vatican, and this child abuse scancal is just one of his many pieces of handiwork. And Harry Potter blurs the distinction between good and evil and lets the devil in. These people are being allowed to teach children. If it wasn't tragic, it'd be funny.

Anyway, at least some good's coming out of it. People are leaving the catholic church in droves, and starting to view priests suspiciously. They should: if they're not trying to invade a child's body, they're after its mind.

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