The Vatican acted swiftly to denounce the above photoshopped picture of the Pope, which was pulled the same day as it was released. The picture is disrespectful and abuses the Popes image, which has to be protected at all costs.
I could hardly contain myself enough to write a blog about this yesterday, because while the Pope’s image has to be protected, our children not so much. A friend mentioned that last year Pope Benedict made a controversial statement that somehow slipped by me unnoticed. Perhaps God Himself was protecting me, but now I have checked it out. Several sources popped up when I googled to see what was said. Several articles came up, including some which give accounts of how the Pope, while known as Joseph Ratzinger the archbishop of Munich, help to protect a known pedophile priest or two. One who for many years was protected by the name “H” and we now know his name was Father Hullermann. Another priest, Father Murphy of Wisconsin, abused 200 deaf boys for years and the Pope knew about it, nothing was done. More scandal revolved around the fact that his older brother, George Ratzinger, led a choir for 30 years in which many serious claims of sexual abuse were made. I’m sure if I kept searching I would find even more instances of turning a blind eye at child abuse.
Just last year, December 2010, Pope Benedict spoke up about pedophilia and this is what he had to say with some explanation from live science.com (the Pope‘s words are in quotes):
Benedict said that while the church accepted some responsibility, he could not be silent about ''the context of these times.... There is a market in child pornography that seems in some way to be considered more and more normal by society." Benedict claimed that as recently as the 1970s, "pedophilia was theorized as something fully in conformity with man and even with children." In this climate, the Catholic Church's actions were merely reflecting the moral relativism of the times: "It was maintained — even within the realm of Catholic theology — that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself," Benedict said. That is, church leaders weren't sure if child sexual abuse was wrong, since secular society seemed to accept it.
Is it just me or is the Pope and Vatican more upset about a photoshopped picture than they are about the ongoing sexual abuse of children within the Church? Actual child pornography pictures are categorized as “normal,” but an obvious photoshopped picture of him has to be pulled immediately because it's disrespectful? These are the things that drive me crazy. They are indefensible. The explanation above is pure rationalization in an attempt to protect the Church and himself from wrong doing. The Church is never going to “own” what happened and is still happening.
Well there is no time for tracking down all the pedophile priests and coming clean with all the victims. No time to expose all the cover-ups and transfers of priests, which allowed them to continue their reign of terror in other parishes. Nope. What is important is to protect the Pope’s and the Church’s image. Oh and tracking down and getting rid of photoshopped pictures that may be disrespectful to the Pope. Yep, they got their priorities straight.
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