THE CHURCH OF DENIAL

Well its Easter. The kids have probably overdosed on chocolate bunnies by now. Your favorite dinner is cooking in the oven. Did you go to Church Sunday to celebrate the death and the resurrection of Christ? Maybe not! Maybe its because your fed up. Could it be your not feeling very Catholic these days? Maybe you've had enough of the scandals, the denials. Perhaps your tired of watching the church try and explain away or blame away its responsibility. If you are, your not alone. The Catholic institution (yes its no different then any other institution) has been doing serious damage control recently as reports show that the current pope (the guy in the funny hat) leader of all the collard pedophiles had perhaps assisted a Priest accused of pedophilia. This shocking (not really) revelation comes as the Institution continues to come under fire for its total lack of management of this epidemic. It might seem that the issue at hand is the way the Vatican and the institution has constantly handled the accusations of pedophilia but its actually not about the way it has handled it. Its the way it has truly shown that nothing in the religious foundations of this organization can be believed in.

Like many, i have simply waited for one thing and one thing only from the Vatican. I have simply waited for them to take unmitigated and full responsibility for their botched management of the sexual abuse scandals. I have waited patiently for the day a news conference was to be called to have the main man (the funny hat guy) not some Cardinal or Clergy or some PR quacks to stand up and take responsibility for what has been allowed to go on in that institution for hundreds of years. I have waited, as i think the world has waited. I want the leader of the collars to stand front and center. I want him to look directly into the camera and say, ''we have made mistakes, a whole lot of mistakes.We have mishandled those who have gone against the values of God, the bible, of the foundations of the Catholic religion. We have betrayed and failed our followers, we have sadly turned a blinds eye to the pain and suffering the actions of certain of our members (Priests) have caused on those who followed the way of Christ. We have protected and sheltered those who should have been prosecuted under the law. For those things we are sorry, we cannot correct the past, nor undo the pain, we can however begin anew with a resolve to remove this disease from our ranks and here is how we propose to do that''. Then he could go on to outline a plan ( a real one with measurable results) for dealing with those pedophiles within their ranks. He doesn't have to give excuses, no explanation for the mistakes which have been made. Just step up and fess up. Take ownership. Get a set of balls because we know the men in your church have them, we know all to well you have them and at the appropriate (most inappropriate) time like to use them.

The thing i find the hardest to accept however has not so much been the way the Vatican and that whole institution has handled the situation its the way some people (mainly the devote catholics) have tried to defend the church. The thing i find sickening about their defense of the institution is that if it was any other organization, company or entity other then the Catholic church those very same people would be parading in the streets demanding accountability and prosecution of the guilty. What does that say about the institution and those that follow it? What does it indicate to anyone with the slightest level of intelligence. In my case it indicates to me that they are nothing more then a fraud. They rally around a book and a figure and use that to drive social values and social conduct when it suits them. When it goes in direct opposition to it they point fingers and attempt any type of diversionary tactic to play off their responsibility. Take for example Warsaw Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz said, ''the church should take notice of individual tragedies and treat sex abuse cases very seriously, but at the same time, he criticized the media for "targeting the whole church, targeting the pope, and to that we must say `no' in the name of truth and in the name of justice." This was followed by this statement by Vienna's Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn which only goes further in demonstrating just how out to lunch some of these zealots are. "I admit that I often feel a sense of injustice these days. Why is the church being excoriated? Isn't there also abuse elsewhere? ... And then I'm tempted to say: 'Yes, the media just don't like the church! Maybe there's even a conspiracy against the church?' But then I feel in my heart that no, that's not it." It doesn't stop there though,  Pope Benedict XVI's personal preacher said, ''allegations that the pontiff covered up sex abuse cases by Catholic clergymen reminded him of anti-Semitism''. Are you serious? Do you really want the population of the world to take you seriously?

Perhaps the long standing denials, cover-ups and attempts to talk your way out of every accusation of sexual  impropriety may explain why people no longer have any confidence in anything you say and why the media has pursued you. The constant word play and excuse making lends as much credability to the institution as to the existance of the Easter Bunny. Perhaps the media and the public in general are waiting. Waiting for the leader (the funny hat guy) to do what i mentioned above. Maybe the press and the public is waiting for the Vatican to release the files of all those in their institution who have been accused of inappropriate conduct. Perhaps were waiting for you to release all the cases you have covered up and those in your institution responsible for those cover ups. Do any of you in the Vatican or the management of the Church believe that the public believes you are above the law? Does the Pope believe he is above the law? Of course he does and so do all the Cardinals and anyone else related to the church. You believe that you do not in fact owe an explanation. More importantly you do not believe that those within your institution deserve to be prosecuted. In fact your more likely to believe in the Eater bunny then you are in justice.

Its not a wonder that the ranks of the Catholic Church continues to shrink. Without the churches major surge into Africa the number of followers would have shrunk beyond its ability to write off the declining numbers to the aging population. The Catholic Institution is in total denial. Every Sunday morning the followers gather to hear the word of God preached and celebrated to them by men supposedly of God. What has become clear is that many of these ''men of God'' preach one principle and practice another. There is no confidence in an institution which can not even follow its own covenant. Whose representatives demand a specif alignment to scripture and rules but have no respect for them themselves. Nowhere in other institutions in our society would that be acceptable but for some reason the leaders and the followers of this institution continue to believe that they are not only above the law but above the word of the God they claim to worship.

When challenged by anyone from outside the church, its followers and leaders first tool is to claim anti-semitism. To call those wanting answers non believers and enemies of God is a sad attempt at deflection. To claim that the sexual abuse scandals are not the fault of the church but of a small percentage within it simply shows the length to which its members will go to avoid holding the institution and its leaders responsible. The Vatican has time and time again worked against prosecuting and dealing with those who have committed these atrocious crimes. They have covered them up, hushed up those who might speak and have tried to purchase innocence. No i am not a believer in God but i am not an enemy of God either. I believe everyone should have the choice to follow whatever religion they best believe represents their core values. I personally do not follow any organized religion. I am however a believer that there is some higher power. I like to believe that the power which i believe would never tolerate such abuse. Such indignation, such shameful denial. When an institution cannot or will not abide by its own doctrine then how in the world can you expect others to? Do you believe you maintain credibility in a mode of denial? That you pull people towards you as you point blame outwards? Judging by your actions or lack thereof you believe the answers to those questions are. Yes.

Christian theology condemns blasphemy. One verse from the Bible that directly concerns the sin reads as follows: “ Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. (Exodus 20:7 KJV). Blasphemy was written into the bible by the writers to protect the Catholic institution from attack. To give the institution this sense of being to holy and important to attempt to bring down. It was designed to protect the institution from those seen as non believers or those from the outside who might want to challenge it. In essence it was to protect and ensure the survival of the Institution, the entity of God and his words. The current situation and the way the Vatican has handled the whole sexual abuse scandal does one crucial thing. All to simply, It shows that it was not those from outside the church which they needed protection from. It was from those directly at its helm.

Robbie Hellstrom