By Matt Stoller, a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. You can follow him on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/matthewstoller
Here’s CBS New York, back in February.
The Catholic Church is closely watching the attention Archbishop Timothy Dolan is receiving this week in Rome, praise and adulation one expert says is exactly what it needs right now….
“Dolan from a media and pop culture point of view is a rock star. He just exudes charisma, sort of charisma on steroids,” National Catholic Reporter’ John Allen said.
Allen calls Dolan the star of the consistory, and Pope Benedict XVI could use some star power on his team.
Here’s what came out today.
Timothy Cardinal Dolan yesterday blasted a report that he authorized payments to pedophile priests — and said no such payments are being made to New York clerics.
Dolan, while serving as Milwaukee archbishop in 2003, agreed to pay multiple accused pedophile priests $20,000 in exchange for their agreeing to leave the priesthood, according to documents cited by The New York Times.
Joseph Zwilling, Dolan’s New York Archdiocese spokesman, told The Post last week that there was no “payoff” to pedophile priests — only “charity.”
In the dominant cultural and media narrative, Dolan is a “rock star” for being elevated to Cardinal. He’s successful and charismatic, and a possible papal successor. The bishops represent the Catholic masses, and the hierarchy of the church speak on behalf of those Catholics, attending to their spiritual and political needs. On another level, of course, these leaders are simply unaccountable corrupt corporate leaders who happen to wear robes and run a big multi-national venture known as Catholic Church, Inc, which is distinct from the religious practices of millions of Catholics. Like many corporate elites, these men, and they are men, protect their institution by covering up horrific acts of violence perpetrated on the powerless.
This dual-tracking, of an overall narrative on one hand and revelations that cut entirely against that narrative, is why Obama will negotiate with bishops over contraception instead of challenging their legitimacy. It’s why the Pope’s attacks on nuns and suppression of all but deeply reactionary authoritarian impulses within the bureaucracy go unremarked within elite circles. Catholic elites are like bankers, who are trusted men in suits no matter what they do. Or generals, who are heros regardless of their incentive model and links to defense contractors. Etc.
Obviously, not all upper level Catholic Church leaders are corrupt, and some are no doubt good faith community leaders. This is true across all authoritative classes. It’s just that the structures that hold their authority, that are supposed to self-police, are no longer doing so. So corruption flourishes, as you’d expect. These institutions spiraling downward reinforce each other. That Dolan isn’t prosecuted, that the Catholic Church can implement discriminatory policy against women taking leadership positions, that child sex abuse is unpunished, all of that relies on our legal and political infrastructure tolerating and encouraging the evolution of these reactionary structures. And then Church elders can provide moral cover for any number of authoritarian impulses by political factions, such as the current war on women’s rights.
In other words, the collapse of the rule of law in America is refracting across all elites institutions, as Chris Hayes will no doubt point out in his new book. The media plays a very specific role in this ecosystem, not to cover up the crimes so much as to paint a much more aggressive narrative that whitewashes out their very possibility. In this case, the upper level actors in the Catholic hierarchy are necessarily religious or spiritual, so no matter how many times rape and the protection of rapists is uncovered bishops and priests retain their authoritative positions in society.
Ultimately, we must tear down this false authority, or it will tear us down. In modern America, Wall Street bankers aren’t the only ones who go unpunished for their crimes. And that’s worth noting.
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Let’s see, what is still considered a crime in the United States of America, shall we?
Molesting children? Nope.
Murdering innocent people? Nope.
Torture? Nope.
Unlawful imprisonment? Nope.
Aggressive war? Nope.
Invading privacy? Nope.
Poisoning people? Nope.
Stealing people’s money? Nope.
The United States of America: beacon of freedom in the 21st century.
Let’s continue to export this wonderful vision of society to the rest of the planet, shall we?
I had quite enough of this “Blame America First” crap back in the 70s when I was in college.
Things aren’t perfect here, but considering the alternatives…..
Well it’s our country. You’re free to be a flag waving patriot, pro-military, pro-imperial, human rights abuser. But we can’t have such nonsense in positions of power.
Most folks have had quite enough of a 35 year march to extremism, especially students of history.
heh;
more aptly put;
“If you don’t come to democracy, democracy will come to you”
http://02varvara.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/b52.jpg
Love
Right.
Who wants to be like Sweden?
Ewww!
Nothing like ignorant American exceptionalism on view. Do you even have a passport?
My Country, right or wrong….
Here’s the rest of the quote –
If right, keep it right, if wrong, set it right.
Just to break it down for the exceptional – we have an obligation to fix what is wrong with our Country!
Alternatives? Hmmm. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, FRance, Norway, Japan, Finland, Italy, even lately Turkey, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc, Lots of great alternatives. Yes, lets consider the alternatives.
There are lots of better places. In 2010, the US had a worse Gini Index rating than the Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Iran. Does anyone think things have gotten better in the last 2 years?
And the US Freedom of the Press ranking is down there at #47, below Taiwan and South Africa.
Whatever ranking you use, the US has been falling. We really ought to fix this.
American Exceptionalism is wonderful. No doubt the Swedes believe Swedish Exceptionalism is wonderful also, much as the Greeks, Germans, and Chinese believe that Greek, German, and Chinese Exceptionalism are also wonderful.
It is one thing to believe one’s clan is exceptional; another again to believe one’s clan has a monopoly on this. The former is called patriotism; the latter, delusional.
as i’ve said many times in the past;
If you don’t like your Unalienable Rights, you’re more than welcome to GTFO! ;-)
Love
Re: jsmith
> Let’s see, what is still considered a
> crime in the United States of America, shall we?
>
> Molesting children? Nope.
This pretty much proves you’re completely insane.
As soon as a youngin’ is 18 they can engage in gang rape for pornographic consumption, become a call girl or call boy, or any number of sexual engagements that would otherwise be questionable based on age alone.
Molestation is a serious problem, and the Government has responded in a typical, visceral, full-bore fascist response, creating law enforcement agencies,everything from entrapment, to life in prison to murder in prison is an acceptable “remedy” for what is perceived as the most heinous of crimes. When US Soldiers rape in foreign countries this standard sometimes changes. When soldiers blow away civilians out of pure hate and rage, sometimes that too is forgiven.
To suggest that sexual disorders require treatment instead of state sanctioned violence and destruction is tantamount to screaming fire in a crowded theater, since the people must be allowed to “have their revenge”.
Lots of men molest their children. I’m thinking of a particular man who molested all three of his children–two girls and a boy–for years and years. He never had to defend himself for one minute.
I have run into multiple numbers of women and children who have suffered this crime against them. Their fathers and brothers have never been called to account.
I know this is coming late…
What you are describing is a failure to report the incident to the police, or to follow it up in court, or a failure of evidence, nerve, whathaveyou. Failure in these areas does not mean the behavior is not defined in law as a crime.
Nowhere in the world is child molestation more a crime than in the USA.
World famous fact.
They are still crimes (try getting away with any of the above). Some criminals are more equal than others…
This blog should stick with economic news.
This blog should cover Government corruption that has enabled Wall Street criminals to get away with epic criminality. Let’s have some real live investigative journalism not some funded think tanker with an tight editorial agenda masking as guerilla bloggin’.
Where have you been? Yves has covered this deeply and extensively for years, as have this site’s contributors. Research past Blogs and LINKS at NC before you expose your appalling ignorance again.
Ad hominem, and wrong to boot.
It was the butler,in the Vatican, with the leaked documents, and revealing the “truth” is evil !
Or was/is it ?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/03/vatican-leaks-pope-benedict-documents
I read and waited on this thread and amazed to see no reference to this most recent matter.Yet there is soem question regarding investigative journalism , so here complying with said request ( just a day late)
Maybe you should start your own blog.
Then you can dictate what appears there.
~
“This blog should stick with economic news.” It all depends upon the parameters of “economic news” one sets. I’d vote for an ecological perspective on all economic activity because all said activity takes place within and is totally dependent upon the biosphere. That does not stop me from appreciating this as one of the best websites dealing with -in a broad sense- the changes needed to create a sustainable world. I think “synthesis” is a decent term to describer this website’s selection of topics.
This blog should cover whatever the hell Ives wants to cover.
AMEN to THAT!
Why are churches and synagogues exempt from paying their
fair share of property taxes? Why should we taxpayers subsidize their fire and police protection?
“Separation of church and state?” Fine, then hire your own
private fire and police protection.
Stop parasitizing off of Americans.
Paying for fire and police protection isn’t the main point of property taxes.
It has nothing to do with separation of church and state. Since the rise of the nation state, the theory behind tax exempt status for churches is that churches perform some sort of useful charity function in society. Hence, by taking on a role that might otherwise have to be performed by government, they are given tax exempt status, in the same way as any secular charity.
Good, then communities should send all their hungry, drug addicts and bums to the nearest temple or church.
Really?! Huh. You mean the churches actually have an obligation to the society? Whoa. I think they’re falling way behind.
Everybody knows the Church (not just Catholic) in this day and time is a under the table support group for illegal labor some supply medical service , job placement kind of a catch all for anyone here illegally and ,they were given immunity to do so. The godless scumbags they stab us in the back when ever they get the chance.
I agree!
It has never ceased to amaze me concerning the Moral corruption of the Church; condemning all homosexual behaviour regardless of wether it occurs between consenting and loving adults, and shielding pedophile priests with another. Or exhorting the congregation to have charity for the poor, yet never challenging any power structure that creates the poor. And the Church wonders; why are the pews are empty on Sunday?
I still consider myself Catholic, because of the spiritual knowledge that has been produced the many great men and women who have emerged from the Church…but I have no great love for ritual, and I have no allegiance to the leadership of Catholic Church.
So then why do you still consider yourself Catholic? Habits hard to break?
Old complaint: The Church is dragging it’s feet on dismissing pedophiles from the Priesthood!
New Complaint: The Church is moving too fast in removing pedophiles from the Priesthood!
This is just another hit piece because Cardinal Dolan is leading opposion to the HHS Mandate.
Pretty sure THE complaint is that the Catholic church is protecting pedophiles. That Dolan is/has been paying them off is just another layer of corruption.
It’s called ‘hush money’. Ass-raping priests were paid to keep their mouths shut to help the church hide the scandal. Your comment shows that you support covering up the scandal as much as possible.
Miami Vice episode
Crockett–“Is it organized crime?”
Castillo–“More like organized religion”
“Media” is a plural noun. This is not merely a schoolmarmish picking of nits: the U.S. media, even the so-called MSM (mainstream media), for all their massive faults, should not be placed in the same vat and stirred. It is imprecise to refer to them as a single unit, despite their frequent pack-like behavior.
Good one Matt. Look, the entirety of Catholic Church structure is abhorrent to the ideals of equality, community, and justice. Why does media present these crows as paragons of virtue? Even when there is a clear “fall from grace”, involving large swaths of the church hierarchy, media tends to focus on the original crime of the parish priest, not the larger, institutional crime of the cover-up and the rampant abuse of its First Amendment protections.
Today’s Catholic Church is more of a political machine than a spiritual guide, directing believers to “vote their conscience” after railing against contraception and abortion – two public policy issues honoring society’s professed support for equality and sending charismatic bishops to media outlets to rail against a contraception policy designed to alleviate the appearance that church dollars are paying for the pill. I have nothing at all against the Catholic laity, it is the church hierarchy that I believe should be shunned. If the Catholic Church chooses to be a political entity, it should pay the price – tax them!
Well, the chief exponent of “faux news” at FOX News is a Roman Catholic (he has even written a book about his early experience with Roman Catholic “education”).
Tony Blair revealed rather late in the game that he was the Pope’s poodle as representative of Bushian/British Imperal foreign policy.
Bobby Jindhal, Governor of Louisiana, is ever the steadfast representative of the Roman Catholic/Holy Roman Imperial agenda, even as he turns the Gret Stet toward “private education” for the “proper” indoctrination of the masses. Connect his surname to the might of STEEL in india, to the might of “Republican” “Confederate NOBILITY” authority by his mentor ex-Gov. Foster.
There are so many Roman Catholic Dynasties at the tiller of the Ship of State.
I was surprised to find out that Jefferson Davis was a Roman Catholic. But it makes sense. The US has long been an affront to the RCC because of its relative prosperity compared to Roman Catholic countries.
His wife was Jewish.
Which one?
You mean that ol’ Jeff was married to Judah Benjamin? The CSA was ahead of its time!
It is significant that it was “Saint Ronnie” who “officially” as President declared by fiat that the U.S.A. would recognize Vatican City (and the Holy See) as a nation-state. Such recognition had been eliminated in the past, for good reason.
This “official” act by Reagan as Imperial President at the helm of the Good Ship Southern Strategy fits hand-in-glove with the Plan made plain by the publication of the book by Plinio Correa de Oliveira, “NOBILITY and Anlogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII: A Theme Illuminating American Social History” (York, Pennsylvania; Hamilton Press; Copyright 1993 by The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP), “a registered name of The Foundation for a Christian Civilization, Inc.”). The sycophantic Foreword of this book is by Morton C. Blackwell, described in the book as follows:
“The Honorable Morton C. Blackwell is president of the Leadership Institute and Republican National Committeeman of Virginia. In the Reagan White House, he was Special Assistant to President for Public Liaison (1981-1984), with responsibility for religious, veteran, and conservative groups. He supervised the youth effort for Ronald Reagan in the 1980 Election Campaign. A leading conservative in the Republican Party, Mr. Blackwell specializes in political education and training.”
Featured in the book is the ultra-conservative agenda of Joseph, Cardinal Ratzinger, the ex-Nazi “Hitler Youth” Bavarian who was made Pope Benedict XVI, and who as Pope was publicly exalted as “moral arbiter” for We the People of the U.S.A. by George W. Bush, in his “official” capacity as President. Pope Benedict XVI was feted in the “Crown Capital” the District of Columbia by the President, high government officials, and the Roman Catholic stronghold represented by the Roman Catholic/Jesuit strongholds called “universities” within “Washington, D.C.” It is not going too far to claim that George W. Bush, as President, presided over Pope Benedict XVI’s ersatz “coronation” as Emperor of the so-called “Christian nation” of the United States of America, thereby subsuming all “Christians” under the rule of the Holy Roman Catholic Church/Holy Roman Empire, as from the Third Century of the Christian Era unto the Reformations of Jan Hus and Jean Calvin, the Protestant Reformation of Martin Luther, the Prespyterian, Methodist, Shakers, and sundry congregations who expressly defied and rejected the Roman Catholic (as well as the Anglican-Catholic) hegemony of the so-called “catholic/universal church”–actually the Imperial Catholic Church–thereafter.
Thus did Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush betray Americans whose ancestors came to the New World to escape Roman Catholic Tyranny, all whose ancestors defied Anglican-Catholic Tyranny in the War for American Independence from the British Empire incorporating the “Divine Right of Kings” according to the Anglican-Catholic Imperial tradition.
As our American Catholic Nuns consider defecting from the Male Imperial Rule of the Roman Catholic hierarchy–in order to claim their sovereign right as free Americans to continue to perform good works as 501C-3 “charitable” institution instead of as abject slaves to the Pope/Emperor and Court of the Roman Catholic Church/Holy Roman Empire–it is HIGH TIME for Americans to REVOKE Ronald Reagan’s treacherous recognition of “Vatican City/the Holy See” as a nation-state. It is not, and never has been a legitimate nation-state. Nor should we forget that it was FASCIST MUSSOLINI who forged, with Vatican schemers, the SPURIOUS “city-state” status of Vatican City, as a “state” independent from Italy, even though it be ensconced within the heart or Rome and even though it fails to meet the requirements for LEGITIMATE STATE status. Even if REAGAN chose to RE-INSTATE THIS LIE for a fraudulent purpose, in order to advance Republican Despotic Dynastic strategic interests over the interests of We the People of the U.S.A., are we bound to continue it?
To continue it is to be complicit in a fascist fraud serving the cause of despotic rule in America by the very same “NOBILITY” BLOC/Imperial 1% whose DNA in perpetuity intends to eat the world entire.
The Christianity of Jesus of Nazareth was hijacked and perverted/coverted to their benefit by the CHURCHIANITY of so called ‘Fathers ( Bishops, Cardinals etc!)’
See TV series ‘BORGIAS’
Nothing I read about this institution or it’s leaders
(Vatican Mafioso) is surprising!
Yes, nothing like a tv mini-series to convey historical accuracy, nuance and context…
“The Sopranos” did a pretty good job of illustrating reality.
How the hell do you know this? The supposed ravings of one potential itinerant wandering apocalyptic street preacher were taken by various cultists and groups, written down a century or two after “his” death, adapted by the powerful, who threw in all kinds of “scripture” well after the fact, then cobbled together into the creaking mess we call Christianity today. After millenia of pious philosophizing, brutal religious wars, and hypcorisies, we have the modern church.
There was no pure Christianity. We have no idea what the wandering apocalyptic we call Jesus really believed…undoubtedly it was a lot different than the current system, but to claim there was some pure Christianity corrupted by “the church” is downright silly.
Well, I see your point.
However, Thomas Jefferson thought that there was a “pure” or “primitive” Christianity (he also thought Christianity was “the most perverted system which ever shone on man”, meaning it had been altered the most from its original purpose).
Jefferson’s version of the Bible is interesting. He sees Jesus as simply a wandering teacher, and eliminates everything supernatural.
There is an alternative voice within the Catholic Church today, and it’s a powerful one: the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), a.k.a. “the nuns”. They are mentioned in passing in the Matt Stoller piece but they deserve more attention if only to offer a contrast with the corrupt, insulated, misogynistic “corporate elite” of the Vatican. The LCWR has taken a courageous, principled stand against the Vatican’s politically-influenced campaign the Affordable Care Act (over abortion rights) and mindlessly wrong-headed campaign against gay rights.
In contrast to the bishops, the LCWR represents –through active works— a message of social justice, tolerance, and compassion for the poor and powerless. They offer evidence that the Catholic Church has not lost its spiritual center. And they are now fighting the hostile takeover and suppression of their organization by the Vatican. They deserve our admiration and support.
Every Catholic should know that the portion of the church structure most engaged in the business of actually doing God’s work is the nuns. And yet, the Grand Inquisitors (aka Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) have recently tried to shame them – in part for being women, but also for being the last bastion of gender equality and liberation theology remaining in the church. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17794961
A hint for the Inquisitors, spend a little time studying the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch to better understand how we see you.
That’s an important distinction. In many ways, the same applies to the USG vis-a-vis Occupy. A little Comparative Mythology 101 is in order.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This thread is all about the tensions between functions 1 and 3. We’ve all heard people say, “I’m spiritual, but not religious.” One could also say, “I love my country but not my government.”
IMO, the preponderance of the RCC and USG are religous without being spiritual, ie they’re morally bankrupt institutions (of mostly white men) concerned with promoting their own interests above all else.
Delineating the four functions of a mythology ranks among Campbell’s greatest achievements. However, I think he completely missed the point when it comes to the power of myth in politics.
If we think so little of the alleged divine origin of our laws, then why does POTUS end damn near every speech with, “God bless America?” Why does Congress have a chaplain to open and close proceedings? Why do we think we’re so damn Exceptional?
Conversely, if the RCC is really concerned about spreading the gospel of Jesus the Christ (btw, christ is not a last name, it means ‘messiah,’ one who brings spiritual renewal and deliverance; in many ways, it’s analogous to ‘buddha,’ one who has awakened), why does the hierarchy shield rapists and muzzle nuns?
There’s precious little that’s Christ-like in the RCC’s male-dominated hierarchy, but we see apostles of naked power aplenty. Dolan, I’m looking at you.
Matt is (knowingly or not) making the 1 vs 3 distinction when he says, “This dual-tracking, of an overall narrative on one hand and revelations that cut entirely against that narrative, ….” OTOH, we have the mythology of America: the ‘New World’; ‘land of opportunity’; ‘land of the free and the home of the brave’; ‘the last best hope of mankind’; ‘the indispensable nation’; etc.
OTOH, it was genocide that won the west, not a freakin’ weapon perversely named the Peacekeeper; slavery that built the nascent nation’s first mansions; frauds of mythic proportions that betrayed, and betray, the public interest; and so on ad nauseum.
As a nation, we haven’t so much lost our way as we’ve had it stolen by the perversion of the powers of myth. Compare a child’s wonder-filled awe in the face of so many things we take for granted, with the weponized perversion found in the policy of “Shock & Awe.”
Function 1’s awesome potential, to move people to make the ultimate sacrifice, is deliberately and systematically perverted, bent to serving the perverse private interests of politicians and priests, as if there was any difference these days, eg John Brennan and his allegedly superior morality in deciding
whom to murder in the name of “national security”.Pardon me, Homeland Security informs me that the politically correct phrase is, “keeping us safe from terrorists.”The patriarchal, phallocentric hierarchies of both the RCC and the USG, in favoring the religious function (which I like to call the county club of mythic proportions, in every sense of the word ‘club’) to the exclusion of the spiritual, have completely lost touch with what matters most to people. Their hubris only hastens their downfall. Too bad they’re taking the rest of the planet with them.
But fear not, all is not lost. We, the People, still got that old black magic – in the LCWR, in the Occupy movement, in Wisconsin, and right here on NC.
Thanks for that. I like this site because such perspectives are included–which is to say, all this money and percentages and strife and harmony and criminality and law and politics and prestige-seeking are this here.
I was raised Roman Catholic. A single, deliberate, impure heterosexual thought toward an unmarried adult female was grounds for burning in Hell forever UNLESS confessed to a priest or UNLESS one had a pure act of contrition before death.
Given the above, the RCC’s toleration of child molesters is such extreme hypocrisy that I am surprised it has any decent members left.
Hint to Catholics: Just as we don’t need banks for a sound economy neither is the Roman Catholic Church (or any other denomination) needed in order to be a Christian. Read your Bible (even a Catholic one is sufficient but I’d ignore the footnotes) and form your own worship groups, I suggest.
didn’t we go through this 500 years ago?
“the streets are fields that never die”
-J. Morrison
And your point is?
My point is your point reminds me of Martin Luther. It’s not an exact parallel, but it’s a resemblance. The corruption of institutions is a field that never dies.
In Louisiana, Jesuits have utter contempt for women, and despise them, although they recognize their “utility.” There can be no doubt that extreme misogynists rule Roman Catholic/Vatican/Holy Roman Empire interests.
The true name of the Third Reich was the Holy Roman Reich III. The European Union despots in conjunction with other “NOBILITY and Analogous Traditional Elites” Dynastic Despots, especially the DNA of the Old Confederacy and the M-I Corporate Complex in America, have been hard at work through Financial Agency to increase their “Lebensraum” under their Global Holy Roman Reich IV.
Reggie Middleton has the “cure” for that.
The Jesuits were popular with the nobility for the lightness of the penance they assigned.
“Give me a child until he is seven, and I will give you the man.” is also a Jesuit saying.
Jesuit High School reigns supreme in New Orleans. Jesuit Seminary, nearby, is where sodomy is practiced with gusto by many an aspiring Roman Catholic “priest,”–“free at last” to practice the “one true religion.”
The Knights of Malta and their Jesuit tutors (see also Manresa Retreat House) in New Orleans “keep the faith” at the top of the corporate food chain. “Economics + Politics” of the White Male Master Class and their slaves still runs “la politique de Richelieu” for “God and country.” Sick, sick, sick.
What about “Notre Flame”?
The same, on South Carrollton Avenue, doing damage to the reputation of “Our Lady” whom the Roman Catholics claim to revere, the very goddess at the top of the totem pole of gods of the Society of Jesus, just under the Golden Calf.
Though to be balanced we must point out pedophiles in public schools and juvenile detention are just a likely to be shielded. Church guilty yes but a easy target. Sexual abuse of women in the U.S. military is at scandalous levels and lately some symbolic gestures where made to aknowlege severity of issue but attacks and abuse continue…not good to be critical of military….
Though to be balanced we must point out pedophiles in public schools and juvenile detention are just a likely to be shielded. Capo Regime
Sexual sin is to the Catholic Church what drinking and dancing is to the Baptist Church only much, much more so. The hypocrisy and double standard is off the scale.
“Phallic idolatry” and “phallic tyranny” in all quarters.
So it’s ok with you that these guys are ‘merely human’ and worse than average humans at that? That’s some divinely-inspired institution you got there.
The 99% has been taught by our elites to reject class, but if you look at this from a class perspective, Dolan is acting just as we would expect elites in a kleptocracy to act. Dolan wasn’t defending his parishioners’ church. He was defending the church run by him and his. He wasn’t defending his parishioners. He was defending his class.
In related news, Dolan has declared the moon to be the sun and east to be west. So for those of you planning to view the transit of Venus today, it will begin shortly after 6PM on the West Coast when the moon is in the eastern sky.
The one place where I would disagree with Stoller is in the following: “Obviously, not all upper level Catholic Church leaders are corrupt, and some are no doubt good faith community leaders.” I don’t see anything obvious about it. That’s the thing about corruption. It doesn’t just taint those directly involved, like Dolan, but all those who sit back and passively tolerate it. If upper echelon Catholic Church leaders aren’t denouncing Dolan, then they are condoning him. That is after all the job description of a leader: to lead. And if they aren’t taking up this issue and denouncing Dolan, they aren’t leading. Like Dolan, they are putting their class above their community and if that isn’t acting in bad faith, what is?
Given the truths of “harsh reality” Stoller’s claim is preposterous.
Given that the Catholic Church coverups of, and promotion of, child abuse have been going on since at least the *1920s* in Ireland, continuously and without a break,…
…well, I’m sure there are a few oddball bishops who aren’t in on the child abuse, but I’d have to expect that 99% of the bishops are part of the child abuse by now. The honest ones would have been pushed out long ago…
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=9189
Breaking News! This Just In!
A young boy was discovered outside of Archbishop Timothy Dolan’s New York residence this morning, wandering naked, under the influence of drugs, and bleeding profusely.
Police officers were dispatched to the scene and reported smelling a strange scent inside Dolan’s residence. They investigated and the smell turned out to be that of another young boy, decomposing in Dolan’s bedroom.
A forensic team was dispatched and several other boys were found buried in Dolan’s back yard.
Timothy Dolan is widely regarded as a rock star exuding charisma on steroids, however the question everyone is wondering now is will this latest scandal affect his many admirers or will they continue to shower him with praise and adulation?
Will these discoveries affect his upcoming trip to Rome in order to help deflect attention away from the latest pedophile priest scandal surrounding the Pope?
The New York Times tried posing these questions to Archbishop Dolan, however he clearly had little appetite for discussing this latest incident.
His appetite for Italian cuisine, however, is another story, the Times reported.
“You gotta avoid the cream pastas, the ‘dolce’ and the vino,” Dolan said.
When told by the NY Times reporter “that’s part of the fun”, Dolan responded “my sentiments exactly! Ha!”
Story developing….
This just in, Pope, still Catholic. Bears seen massing in woods, government vows investigation and clean up! Pictures at 11. Pope coming to Philadelphia. Maybe Philadelphia parishes, the ones not closed down and abandoned, will not notice all of the grade schools and high schools closed and abandoned, after years of tax free existence. Maybe the ongoing trial of the demented, recently died from natural causes Cardinal, and his high ranking still on trial fellow monsignors will go by the wayside of the coming Papal visit. Maybe Mitt Romney will be there, next to the Basilica where the Mormons will be building their newest large scale church on the Ben Franklin Parkway.
http://www.snapdfw.org/archives.php
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/us/cases-close-for-msgr-lynn-in-philadelphia-abuse-case.html
For complete coverage of the trial of the Catholic Church in Philly:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/120201744.html?c=r
Catholic church is primarily an organization of pederasts.
Religious activities are a cover up.
If things are looked at from this perspective everything falls into place. Celibacy, witch burning, pedophilia and constant battle to cover it up.
The horrors of the Catholic Church only get worse the more we learn about them.
Castrating children who reported abuse (1950s):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17453849
The Dutch Catholic sex abuse report:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/16/children-dutch-catholic-institutions-abused
(I’m sure you all know about the major Irish Catholic sex abuse reports: the Ferns Report, the Ryan Report, the Murphy Report, the Cloyne Report. Basically, it has been demonstrated conclusively that the Catholic Church in Ireland is primarily a ring of child abusers and people who covered up for them, and is still doing it.)
Kidnapping and selling newborns in Spain, for 50 years:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2049647/BBC-documentary-exposes-50-year-scandal-baby-trafficking-Catholic-church-Spain.html
Apparently they did the same thing (baby trafficking) in Quebec in the 1950s as well.
Oh. And the chief exorcist of the church says that the “devil is at work in the Vatican” (well, he would view it that way)… because he knows personally that a ring inside the Vatican kidnapped a girl for use as their sex slave and then murdered her.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/22/emanuela-orlandi-vatican-sex-parties_n_1536531.html
And for a quick reference to the child abuse:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_sex_abuse_cases_by_country