Hypocrisy Personified
In the midst of the recent revelations of massive abuse of children by Catholic clergy in Ireland and Germany, I guess it really shouldn’t be that shocking to learn of a homosexual prostitution ring being run right out of the Vatican. This latest sex scandal in the Church was revealed through wiretaps being used by Italian police in an unrelated corruption investigation. CBS News reports:
The Vatican is facing allegations that one of Pope Benedict’s ceremonial ushers, as well as a member of the Vatican choir, were involved in a gay prostitution ring.
The police wiretaps:
…reveal Angelo Balducci, an Italian executive who’s been a Gentleman of his Holiness — the elite group of black-suited men who serve the pope in unpaid roles as ushers — negotiating with the 29-year-olf Nigerian Vatican choir member for the services of male prostitutes, as part of the larger prostitution ring.
A little more from the Examiner:
Apparently the tapes record Angelo Balducci, a Gentleman of His Holiness, negotiating with Thomas Chinedu Ehiem, a 29-year-old Nigerian Vatican chorister, about men he wanted brought to him for sexual purposes.
Meanwhile, Catholics in Germany are the latest to discover that priests whom they trusted have actually been violating their children for decades. From the BBC:
Germany’s justice minister has criticised the Vatican for what she called a “wall of silence” over recently-emerged abuse allegations.
Allegations of sexual abuse are being investigated in 18 of Germany’s 27 Roman Catholic dioceses.
Former students from a number of Catholic schools have alleged sexual abuse by teachers.
Ms Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger referred to a Vatican rule dating to 2001 that requires abuse cases to be investigated internally.
The most recent revelations involve a choir led for many years by the Reverend Georg Ratzinger, the current Pope’s brother. Colm O’Gorman, an Irish survivor of clergy sexual abuse, writes in Tuesday’s Independent UK:
Revelations that Pope Benedict’s brother may be called upon to testify in a church abuse scandal raise valid questions about how much the current Pope knew about the allegations. A more revealing line of inquiry would be to examine the extent of the pontiff’s knowledge of the global clerical sexual abuse scandals.
Before he became Pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In this powerful position he was in charge of managing cases of priests who abused children in any Catholic diocese across the world.
O’Gorman’s article concludes:
Even today, after all that has been exposed by those of us who have spoken out about our experiences of brutalisation, the Vatican refuses to act to properly protect children. As new scandals erupt in Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain, Brazil and Nigeria, the Pope has failed to put in place and enforce mandatory child protection policy across his church. I asked a senior church figure why this was the case. I was told that to put in place global policy underpinned by church law would admit that the Vatican had the responsibility and the power to do so, and expose it to lawsuits and potentially massive financial losses. So there you have it. It would appear the Vatican values its money and its position more than the safety of children.
Why are President Obama and Democrats in Congress giving men like this any influence over the health care reform bill? From Politico last week:
The Roman Catholic bishops signaled Thursday that if agreement is reached with House leaders on anti-abortion language, the church would work to get the votes needed to protect the provisions in the Senate — and thereby advance the shared goal with Democrats of health care reform.
“We would strongly urge everyone, Democratic and Republican, to vote to waive the point of order,” Richard Doerflinger, an associate director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told POLITICO. “Whether it would be enough to get to 60 votes, I can’t predict. We would certainly try.”
And why are these men allowed to lecture the rest of us on the morality of abortion and gay marriage? I think it’s high time for these “gentlemen” to go clean up their own ugly messes before they meddle any further in our governmental affairs.
Filed under: General Tagged: | Angelo Balducci, child abuse, Colm O'Gorman, germany, ireland, Italy, pedophilia, Pope Benedict, Sex Scandals, Vatican
I was raised in the Catholic Church. But, I haven’t practiced….ever, actually. My sense of reasoning was incapable of processing its teachings into anything logical enough to be believed.
My guess is their following will continue to show up and feed the collection plate no matter what is revealed about them.
I was raised a Catholic too.
My parents were rather strict about it, so I didn’t make waves. Couldn’t even go with my friends to a movie if the “Legion of Decency” rated it B or lower
Same here.
When we were little, my cousin somehow got it into her head that she wanted to be a priest and for the longest time didn’t understand why she couldn’t. I think that was the point where I started being amazed about why, why in this day and age anyone would raise their kids in a religion that treats them like second class citizens. Sure, we all enjoy bingo, but…..;)
When I realized I couldn’t be a priest, or an altar boy, or even go into the sacristy because I was female, I lost all respect for the religion I was brought up in. Years ago, my mom apologized to us for sending us to Catholic schools.
I’m sorry that you were hurt by the experience. Pretty cool of your mom to get it and actually apologize, though. I always wondered if, back in the day when it was more common to go to seminary and all that, the boys
lorded it over their little sisters. It seems like it could’ve created a bad dynamic within the family.
My son, when he goes, goes to a Catholic church. He does it because that is where he was baptized and because his grandfather was devout Catholic and Ben idolized his Grandfather.
I baptized them at Dave’s family church because at the time it meant more to them than to me.
Now I tell him I wish he would go somewhere else because they won’t ordain women and because of their stand on abortion and gay marriage etc…. I hope some day to convince him.
I still think of myself as a Catholic–even after all these years of not going to church (since I was about 16).
“My guess is their following will continue to show up and feed the collection plate no matter what is revealed about them.”
That’s what I’ve seen on the Catholic side of my family. Denial in the face of the child abuse scandals! If it had been their own child, grandchild – different story.
I don’t know. Unfortunately, lots of parents refused to believe their children at first.
True, but once they get it, they are among the most outraged.
It is very hard for people to leave what is familiar and comfortable to them. If they leave religion, obviously that is one thing. But if they still believe, leaving the RCC to go to a Methodist church, for instance, is almost impossible.
It isn’t the religious beliefs per se that are at fault here. It’s the very human beings who control the Church hierarchy and laws.
It’s the religious beliefs too. I was raised Episcopalian and recently went to an Episcopal church. It’s eerie to see a woman priest, a little girl acolyte by her side, singing “Glory be to the Father and to the Son….”
And, I think Pope Benedict has a scarey face. I see nothing pure or compassionate to instill comfort.
November, 2009: Catholic bishops shape health care bill
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33852621/
I wish they’d stick to their gay prostitution ring and leave women’s rights alone.
Hey, BB. Hope you’re feeling better.
Question: do you know if the current Vatican scandal is part of this earlier one, or a separate story altogether?
Ooops, messed up the link.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100209/world/eu_vatican_intrigue_1
No, I don’t know. I hadn’t heard about that story before. It does sound like there could be a connection though. There was some kind of investigation going on that the Vatican phone calls got caught up in.
I wish they would just stick to themselves – corrupt immoral misogynists.
You will never hear me sa6 anything good about that bunch of holier than thou hypocrites.
the other day a friend of mine said something on her face-book page about “why can I get a pro-life plate for my car, but not a pro-choice plate. Several people answered, one saying she should get signatures and lobby Florida state legislature.
Some other guy, I do not know him, said “how about women just taking responsibility for their mistakes”!
So I of course told him to MYOB and that I was sure he NEVER had sex with women he didn’t intend to have children with.
It went back and forth and I ended with his not having a Uterus so he could just STFU.
He had a very Irish name and I was tempted to ask him if he were Catholic and trying out for Pontiff since he was so Pontifical. But I thought I might offend Catholics and piss off my friend.
But clearly this church is a danger to women since they have so succesfully brain washed their congregation and even in to the wider community.
Brava, bb. Very powerful stuff here. You’ve linked the dots together. Personally, I want ALL institutionalized religion out of my government–Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Muslim, whatever. Once a movement becomes institutionalized, it seems to lose its values.
Amen and a hallelujah chorus!
The majority of institutionalized religions are gender oppressive. Maybe if we had ERA we’d be better equipped to remove their influence on our government and its policies.
there is no “institutionalized” religion in your government.
She was talking about the *influence* of religion on government policies, and the Catholic Church as well as evangelical churches are certainly having a powerful influence on the so-called health-care reform bill.
well that is certainly different.
Um–Jesse Ventura is on CNN making a ridiculous amount of sense. What the HELL is going on? Just weird.
I really like him. I can’t help it. I like that he just says what he really thinks.
I wonder what Al Franken thinks now. I know he isn’t fond of Jesse–but, dear god, he’s making a ridiculous amount of sense!
saying what?
That we need to close Gitmo and prosecute for torture right up the chain of command and let gays into the military on an equal basis and end the war and that the Dems and Repubs are in collusion and praising Hawaii’s state-run health care system and that the elections of 00 and 04 were stolen and we need to end electronic balloting and a bunch of other things along those lines.
It’s about time someone started making a ruckus about Bush v3.08. Good for JV. But it sounds like he completely overlooked women’s issues (FOCA, ERA, CEDAW, Stupak, etc.).
Thanks for writing about this, bb. I hadn’t seen anything about it in my “top headline” news.
Yet another chance for people to bash gays, including the church hierarchy. We know how this will play out: Catholic church: still standing. Gays: hated.
Its terrible but nothing suprises me any more about the church. Some of the stuff that went on is just shocking.