But... You Fuck Kids

Here's a senior Vatican priest, Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa, talking about the church's sexual abuse scandals before Pope Benedict at a Good Friday service:

"I am following the violent and concentric attacks against the church, the pope and all the faithful by the whole world. The use of stereotypes, the passing from personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt, remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism."

He claims to have been quoting a letter written by an unnamed Jewish friend.

So, the Vatican spends Good Friday, the day of the supposed crucifixion of Christ, morally equating the attacks on the Catholic Church for the institutional covering-up of sex crimes against children... with the Holocaust?

(Actually, the Vatican has released a statement that Father Cantalamessa's sermon was not an official Vatican statement, but until the Vatican actually condemns the abuse of children and offers an apology and to comply with the legal investigation into that abuse, I don't give a flying fart in space how they tap dance. Plus, the remarks were printed in the Vatican's newspaper.)

David Clohessy, an advocate for sexual abuse victims in the US, gets it right: he's quoted in the article thusly: "Men who deliberately and consistently hide child sex crime are in no way victims. And to conflate public scrutiny with horrific violence is about as wrong as wrong can be."

I don't expect the Pope himself to say anything about it, considering his history with the Jews, both as Pope and as a former Nazi.

You know what all of this lunacy reminds me of? It reminds me of that episode of South Park where the boys met those guys from NAMBLA, and the NAMBLA guys kept talking about how society frowns upon their way of life, to which the boys keep adding "But... you fuck kids!" That's how I feel every time someone from the Church (or apologist groups like the Catholic League) try to make the issue about how everyone just wants to attack the Catholic Church for no reason.

But... you fuck kids.

Frankly, at this point, what the US really should do with this is cut ties with Vatican City, since it is its own sovereign nation. The Pope should not be allowed back in this country until he agrees to cooperate with criminal investigations into a policy he created and made official in regards to the victims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests. Of course, the US government will never do that, because religious status will always trump the law. I guess because it would be rude, or something.