Thursday, April 17, 2008

Pope Debate

Why is it that political candidates are hounded for every offhand comment or imprecise gaffe or off-color acquaintance, but when the Pope comes to town, nobody's pressing until it hurts? We get pablum about where the Pope went, who he talked to, and, oh, yes, that he mentioned the pedophile scandal as something bad. Oh, dear. (my paraphrase).

My questions would go something like:

"Pope Benedict, you are the head of a global organization that has over two thousand years of entrenchment. This is the organization that brought us The Spanish Inquisition (no heretics on our watch!), a ban on the use of birth control (no family planning on our watch!) refusal to ordain women (no women as equals on our watch!) Your office decided to provide a papal dispensation for Fridays that fall on St. Patrick's Day during Lent (No having the Resurrection be more important than corned beef! Jesus, take a back seat; Patrick's in town!)

"So tell me why, when there is irrefutable evidence that priests were raping children, and their bosses protected them, endangering other children in the process, all you can do is shake your head and tut-tut your way through press conferences? If you in your arrogance think that you can consign me to hell for using a condom, what is your answer for an ineffectiveness that amounts to complicity when it comes to the pedophiles your organization protected and encouraged?"

Why does nobody take this man to task? Why does the press feel that it needs to be polite? What has he done to deserve this special treatment? What? Is ti the hat? Does the hat have some special amnesia-inducing qualities?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're really worked up about that corned beef, aren't you?

JC said...

I'm RILED!