Catholic Church Does Damage Control

It's a week after Easter and the Catholic Church is in a an explaining or hiding move rather than a celebratory one. The sex scandals that have already played out in the U.S. now are a virtual tsunami in Europe now as more victims come out of the closet and more molesters in church dress have been outed all over Europe. Ireland, Austria and Germany are the latest countries to see thousands of molested adults tell their stories of how the priest or nun, or some other cleric molested them as children and how they had no recourse but to accept it due to the vast cover up the Catholic Church engages in when caught with it's pants down.

Today's Palm Sunday commemorates Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and is the start of the church's Holy Week, which includes the Good Friday re-enactment of Christ's crucifixion and death and his resurrection on Easter Sunday. But many Catholics would prefer this day to see some of those horrid child molesting priest crucified. Too, they ask their lay political leaders why molesters are free to act out if wearing church garb when those lay perverts are arrested and face criminal charges. The answer is, of course, that politicians have been in bed with the Catholic Church so long they have tended to participate in a cover-up rather than arrest and prosecute church molesters.

Even the Pope is accused of participating in covering up church official sexual predators. The Vatican has been on the defensive amid mounting questions about the pope's handling of sex abuse cases both when he was archbishop of Munich and when he headed the Vatican's doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Pope Benedict apparently practiced the standard church policy when a molester is found in the midst- they simple transfer the pervert to another parish where he molests again and again.

Better that then have news leak out that there is a predator on the pulpit...otherwise those cash donations by parishioners might dry up. Catholic Church members have to ponder some questions. What good has the Catholic Church done in the world? What have they done to exemplify the life of Jesus Christ other than religious ceremonies, which unfortunately have been used to gain the trust of the masses to accumulate wealth and practice sexual misconduct while preaching abstinence.

Is this Pope, when obstructing justice in the endless litany of abuse cases, simply taking care of his own with no thoughts to others, other than keeping the money coming in. This might be a time for Catholics to reflect a little more this coming Easter, including a reflection on the corruption level of the church and whether blindly supporting the Catholic Church is really a "christian" thing to do in honoring the ideals of goodness and purity the church practices but has seemed to lose.