Deviant, Defiant Catholicism
Isn't this precisely what has infuriated the Irish victims of Roman Catholic priests' sexual abuse over the years of the children in their care?
When it was made abundantly clear that compassion was restricted for the poor unfortunate celibate priests, and their indiscretions hurriedly covered up, as parishioners were hushed, not to embarrass the Church. And the transgressor was spirited to another parish, then another, leaving behind him the broken souls of children deprived of their faith and the innocence of their youth.
Faith not only in the Church they had been brought up to trust and obey, but in the holy figures which were there to protect them, and the silently and so highly-respected priests whose word was the Law of God. Lost faith in their lost childhoods, their misplaced trust that their parents too would protect them from evil, those same parents who placed the care of their children to the ministrations of priests with their formidable entitlements.
One doesn't have to go to Ireland, to Germany, to Austria, to Switzerland, to observe first-hand the laxity of the church hierarchy in their casual dismissal of the vicious damage done to survivors of child molesters, pederasts clothed in priestly garb. Right here in Ottawa manifestations of that same light disregard for the emotional upheaval the faithful abused are submitted to takes place, as well.
When a highly-placed Church authority figure whose obsession with children as sexual objects of desire, one whose guilt in the possession of child pornography is uncontested - when as Bishop of St.George's, Newfoundland, the now-disgraced Raymond Lahey, faces trial in 2011 on criminal charges of possession of child pornography, living for the while in the tender care of his Catholic brethren in Ottawa - gets somewhat of a free pass.
An introductory letter for a series of publications titled We are Strong Together, used in Grades 7, 8 and 9 Catholic instruction curricula - written by then-Bishop of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Raymond Lahey - is considered to be of lasting value as an instructive letter of the faith and Catholic academics to be included for young Catholic students in schools in the Ottawa and Eastern Ontario Catholic school boards.
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, responsible for the publication of those books, did issue to dioceses across the country stickers which they could use to cover the page with the letter under the signature of Raymond Lahey, but the Ontario and Eastern Ontario Catholic school boards obviously consider this to be an unrequired subterfuge, themselves assessing the message as enduringly valuable.
Assistant to Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast claims the letter to be so well written its content was too valuable to be lost, and simply his signature was not sufficient to detract from the messages inherent in the books' intent, to deepen the faith of young Catholics in God. What kind of mixed message do they think they're providing for impressionable children? Young people are not completely unaware of what occurs of a sensational nature that appends to their Church's reputation.
They will understand that the deeply degraded behaviour of Raymond Lahey in betraying the faith and trust of the young under his care, does not matter all that much to the Church. The harm he has done to the lives of young parishioners in Nova Scotia is irrelevant to the Church hierarchy; children's feelings, their emotional and physical debasement is irrelevant to the work of the Church.
That while there is a hushed understanding for the human fallibility of a fallible human being, there is scant left over to be lavished on the victims. How this will work to "deepen a young Catholic's faith in God", as Father Joseph Muldoon contends, is questionable. It would represent to the young who use these instructive books, a salient instruction in the depths of unsurpassed hypocrisy.
Exemplified by their Church authorities. Who obviously have little regard for the sensibilities of the young, other than as slates to be filled with Churchly dogma. While the most basic of human rights have been transgressed under their tutelage and imprimatur and they simply refuse to take ownership and responsibility for that failure.
When it was made abundantly clear that compassion was restricted for the poor unfortunate celibate priests, and their indiscretions hurriedly covered up, as parishioners were hushed, not to embarrass the Church. And the transgressor was spirited to another parish, then another, leaving behind him the broken souls of children deprived of their faith and the innocence of their youth.
Faith not only in the Church they had been brought up to trust and obey, but in the holy figures which were there to protect them, and the silently and so highly-respected priests whose word was the Law of God. Lost faith in their lost childhoods, their misplaced trust that their parents too would protect them from evil, those same parents who placed the care of their children to the ministrations of priests with their formidable entitlements.
One doesn't have to go to Ireland, to Germany, to Austria, to Switzerland, to observe first-hand the laxity of the church hierarchy in their casual dismissal of the vicious damage done to survivors of child molesters, pederasts clothed in priestly garb. Right here in Ottawa manifestations of that same light disregard for the emotional upheaval the faithful abused are submitted to takes place, as well.
When a highly-placed Church authority figure whose obsession with children as sexual objects of desire, one whose guilt in the possession of child pornography is uncontested - when as Bishop of St.George's, Newfoundland, the now-disgraced Raymond Lahey, faces trial in 2011 on criminal charges of possession of child pornography, living for the while in the tender care of his Catholic brethren in Ottawa - gets somewhat of a free pass.
An introductory letter for a series of publications titled We are Strong Together, used in Grades 7, 8 and 9 Catholic instruction curricula - written by then-Bishop of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Raymond Lahey - is considered to be of lasting value as an instructive letter of the faith and Catholic academics to be included for young Catholic students in schools in the Ottawa and Eastern Ontario Catholic school boards.
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, responsible for the publication of those books, did issue to dioceses across the country stickers which they could use to cover the page with the letter under the signature of Raymond Lahey, but the Ontario and Eastern Ontario Catholic school boards obviously consider this to be an unrequired subterfuge, themselves assessing the message as enduringly valuable.
Assistant to Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast claims the letter to be so well written its content was too valuable to be lost, and simply his signature was not sufficient to detract from the messages inherent in the books' intent, to deepen the faith of young Catholics in God. What kind of mixed message do they think they're providing for impressionable children? Young people are not completely unaware of what occurs of a sensational nature that appends to their Church's reputation.
They will understand that the deeply degraded behaviour of Raymond Lahey in betraying the faith and trust of the young under his care, does not matter all that much to the Church. The harm he has done to the lives of young parishioners in Nova Scotia is irrelevant to the Church hierarchy; children's feelings, their emotional and physical debasement is irrelevant to the work of the Church.
That while there is a hushed understanding for the human fallibility of a fallible human being, there is scant left over to be lavished on the victims. How this will work to "deepen a young Catholic's faith in God", as Father Joseph Muldoon contends, is questionable. It would represent to the young who use these instructive books, a salient instruction in the depths of unsurpassed hypocrisy.
Exemplified by their Church authorities. Who obviously have little regard for the sensibilities of the young, other than as slates to be filled with Churchly dogma. While the most basic of human rights have been transgressed under their tutelage and imprimatur and they simply refuse to take ownership and responsibility for that failure.
Labels: Canada, Human Relations, Realities, religion
posted by Pieface @ 6:35 PM
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