Also, I was going to articulate a basic FOME tenet: Everyone goes to heaven, there’s no such thing as hell, which we think of as "really" good news.
Then this.
Just when I think I can’t be shocked, a grotesque horror story comes to my attention. I got to it through Good Jesuit, Bad Jesuit (I think).
According to the story, Jesuit priests and one brother serially molested two mentally retarded men who lived and did menial work at a Jesuit retreat center in Los Gatos. Price tag: $7.5 million.
Molesting mentally retarded people is a felony in California. The California Jesuit hierarchy covered up the ongoing felonious behavior, thus facilitating it.
Particularly obnoxious in the LA Times story is a Jesuit superior named Smolich. His puling denials and claims of ignorance and blindness are as unacceptable as those of any corporate crook. He’s in charge but he don’t know nothin’.
Here’s an article about SNAP protesting an honor being given to Smolich.
There are three groupings, at least, of Jesuits who are culpable in this and the other sex abuse cases.
1. The actual Jesuit personnel who did the raping and related crimes.
2. The Jesuit hierarchy who covered up and enabled (promoted) additional raping.
3. Every other Jesuit who had any knowledge or any suspicion of any sexual misconduct with vulnerable populations by fellow Jesuits, and failed to take action sufficient to protect actual and potential victims.
My assumption is that group three is the most populous. My guess is that, at least in America, that the total of the three groups equals a huge percentage of all Jesuits.
The various bishops and heads of orders have so persistently hidden evidence, and in many cases helped accused priests abscond, that the only way it get to the bottom of the problem is through RICO prosecutions of the very highest Church officials reachable by US law.
The bishops and the raping priests are not the worst of the problem. It’s group three that makes the organization truly corrupt.
There’s a cross-dressing motif that would make a hilarious satyr-play to this tragedy if it weren’t for the seriousness of the case.
According to this story, one of the Jesuit priests accused of molesting the two retarded guys, Father Angel Mariano, S.J., is a transvestite who had earlier been arrested for performing sex acts on teenage boys while dressed as a woman.
Of course, the conviction and jail sentence hadn’t cost him his job with the Jesuits.
So the subtext is one of incredible insult to women. The Jesuits consider this clown, Mariano, who must register with local authorities as a sex offender for the rest of his life, more worthy to be a priest than the holiest, most erudite, most competent woman in the world.
According to numerous reports, increasing percentages of priests being ordained in the USA are from second and third-world countries, where the priesthood is still seen as a respectable, even prestigious profession.
Pathetic that the Catholic priesthood has become one of those “jobs that Americans won’t do.”
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7 comments:
I've said it before and I'll say it now: the RCC is its own worst enemy. The fish rots from the head down. Until bishops and in this case provincials are held accountable for the misdeeds (to put it lightly) that happen under their watch, nothing, I repeat nothing will change. If people like Fr Smolich were to be dismissed from the SJ and left without salaries/benefits for the rest of their sorry lives, they'd be singing a different tune. But this way, there is no reason they should act differently then they do. Shame on them. The RCC is going down the tubes because so many priests turn their heads and don't call the police when they should. And the RCC should hand these bastards over to the authorities instead of covering for them. I just wish the so-called orthodox Catholics would focus on cleansing the RCC of these bastards instead of worrying about getting the Latin Mass back, and whether a priest wears a collar or not. -- sheAnon
The dynamics of bureaucracies are very strong. Careerism is very strong.
I've visited, is it "Alma"?, down there in Los Gatos (I'm in San Francisco), which must be in the same area as the retreat house in question. A boyhood friend of my dad's, Bill Rice S.J. was a retreat master down there, I think.
I'm surprised I didn't hear about this case until now.
RCC is stuck on this pastoral metaphor: the priests and hierarchy are the shepherds, the laity are the sheep. They still talk that way (amazingly!).
Just as the highest office in a democracy is "citizen," so the highest position in the RCC is "lay person."
Priests have retreated from the challenge of being Christian in the real world in order to play a support role to those with the courage to try--the laity.
Priests have to understand that they occupy a place below, not above, lay people on the Great Chain of Being.
Thanks for commenting.
you should spend some time hangin out ina jesuit comunity, you would probably like them and see that they are more normal then you think
All the Jesuits I've known in my life and know now are extremely normal, hardworking, compassionate, etc. That's not the point. The point is that in many instances the RCC and in this case the SJ covers for those who shouldn't be within a light year of a child or other helpless individuals, in this case retarded men. And, despite the fact that I'm a fairly conservative person politically, and traditional, if I were in a pinch spiritually and needed guidance, I'd rather be ministered to by an excommunicated woman priest than a registered sex offender Jesuit any day of the week. Unfortunately, the 5 registered sex offenders in this article ruin it for all the good Jesuits out there, and the SJ has only itself to blame for covering for them. sheAnon
sheAnon: The orthodox Catholics have been working for years to get rid of the "scumbags" in the Church. I am sure that most othodox Catholics are neutral on the whole entire Latin Mass issue, and pretty much despise their Bishops for their laxity on the homosexual predator\sexual abuse scandal in the Church. So, your remark regarding the Latin Mass is misplaced and a real non sequitur, to say the least.
And, ahem ..., there is no such thing as an excommunicated woman priest. Didn't you get the memo? - women cannot be priests, although they cab be excommunicated.
God bless.
OrthoCath
The church of the endless hidden molestation of children.
I thought the Jesuits were better. this is a whole new line of crimiality being exposed by a catholic organization..
Time to ban non-citizens from being religious leaders, and ban religious people from migrating to the USA
Thee end of the church of the endless hidden molestation of children and the church of the sttill unexcommunicated hitler
www.nobeliefs.com/nazis.htm will tell you all you need to know about the worst monster on the face of the earth.
why is it so horrible - because if the people begin to ask the hard questions about jesus divinity, the whole Bs will fall apart.
btw Osirus was a son of some god in Egyption MYTHOLOGY
Alexander the great was pulled out of the forhead of the god zeus.
He conquered the whole known world, in other words he was a mass murdering son of god.
Son Of God was actually a Jewish concept - defining people who were godly, in other words honest, in their dealing with others.
Jesus was Jewish, he also "upset the tables of the money lenders at the temple gates" the whole thing all fits together, but he wasn't deity. Just a jewish rebbe
BTW the vatican has its own bank, involed in a scandal where it laundered money for the mafioso.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2010-12-11-vatican-bank_N.htm
(includes info on a murder re the bank scandal)
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