The Catholic Church: Let Us Prey

Bless me Father, for my client has sinned…


I generally avoid the subject of religion and Christianity, but expressing my frustration with the Catholic Church in secular terms is like trying to scream without using my lungs.

Last week, LA’s Cardinal Mahony publicly confessed to the archdiocese’s 75 years of child molestation and rape of their littlest and most vulnerable flock. His confession lacked the contrition that God demands, for he not only described the crimes in euphemisms, but he had a lawyer do it for him. In this way, Mahony rendered his confession meaningless.

The spectrum of the Church’s calculated pathology is so broad that it demands both the careful dissection by the world’s most dedicated scientists, and the patient reflection of angry mobs. No courtroom can competently render a just verdict, for anything lower than life-sentences to hard labor or medical experimentation doesn’t approach what is deserved in both human and spiritual terms. Anything less than the assignment of an ombudsman to direct the liquidation of Church assets is akin to brokering a deal to fix the going rate for the serial rape and the extinguished childhood of nine-year-olds. What price do we affix to rape - $100K per incident, $500K? What value do we place on a torn rectum or the suicide of someone who failed to turn the other cheek? Such determinations cannot be made without paying off these victims for services rendered like Judas, a call girl, or some clever street performer.

After all, we’re not talking about a business dispute. That the Catholic Church expects to pay off exploited children with their own parents’ offerings requires parents to accept their role as co-conspirators or accessories. NAMBLA has never devised a scheme as cynical.

My remarks should not shock or challenge those who did not participate in these crimes against humanity. Some pedophiles use clown suits to cultivate victims while others use vestments. For priests who accept celibacy and poverty, assets are as irrelevant as they were to Christ’s disciples – the liquidation of assets as simple as a promise to God. It represents nothing more than a start-over that allows the truly faithful to continue in their ministry unfettered and pure, leaving the rest to find other costumes to wear. I can’t think of anyone more suited to demonstrate the consequences of their pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, laziness, sodomy, or homosexuality. No pass can be assigned for those who exploit the poor, or who defraud the workingman of his wages. Ransacking the Catholic Church as Jesus did the temple affords true Christians a way to save themselves and their church. It will also ensure that the lawyers and the Church hierarchy won’t continue to profit from their ill-gotten gains.

When Humanity brokers mortal sin, we all become accessories. The Church’s assets cannot be legitimately protected, for they are the coveted wages of their mostly poor and middle class congregations; faithful members who hoped their goodness would translate into something other than the violent exploitation of their own children. Like any other criminal enterprise, the Church is not fit to control assets that can be directed to further exploit and silence existing and future victims. This cleansing is long overdue.