An Iron Fisting

I'll bet many of you out there will be shocked to hear a story involving rape and the Catholic Church as this notion seems inconceivable. I mean, a man of the cloth raping and beating young children? No way! Did I lay the sarcasm on thick enough here?

Well, it just so happens that yesterday, a News story unfolded about a Catholic "reform" school in Dublin where the priests were re-forming more than just the little boys minds. After a 9-year investigation, a 2,600 page report was released detailing decades of rape and physical abuse, allegedly perpetrated by the priests running the school, on the students (many of whom are now between the ages of 50-80). Furthermore, the report implicates the Catholic religious orders as knowingly covering up crimes committed by these priest-o-philes.

I am sure that some of you out there are not going to appreciate the cynicism in today's blog, but let's be honest; there are a lot of child molestation cases involving priests out there and, in them, the priests are not looking much like angels. It isn't my intention to vilify any religion or its followers as there are many important lessons to be learned from them. Unfortunately, the only lesson I can learn from a story like this is that Pedophiles Eat For Free At The Tabernacle.

I feel horrible for these people who have had to live with this shame. And due to the whole Irish Guilt thing, many of them probably felt like it was all their fault.

The thing I don't understand about this is how a priest can feel justified in offering a child morality and ethics with one hand and a handjob with the other hand. Is it just me or does that seem conflicting? I understand that the religious doctrines supersede the actions of man in the laws of faith and, therefore, should not be the main focus of scrutiny (for now); but priests with holy hard-ons make it that much harder more difficult for kids to find faith. How can we expect children to believe the mantras "God is good” and "God watches over us all" if that then means that God is watching them be beaten and molested? Whether you are a believer or a non-believer, it doesn't take divine knowledge to understand that this is a serious problem that needs to be addressed to restore faith, whether that be in faith in God or faith in humanity.