“every religion is a clamp on its followers arresting him from any aesthetic contemplation of divinity that there may exist. Catholicism is by far the most rigid in this...”

I wonder if Fra Angelico, Peter Paul Rubens, Georges Rouault, Raphael, Michelangelo Buonarotti, Salvador Dalí, Sandro Botticelli, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Giovanni Baglione, Titian, Leonardo da Vinci, Artemisia Gentileschi, Sigrid Undset, Amadeus Mozart, Francois Mauriac, Palestrina, Georges Bernanos, Henri Bergson, Leon Bloy, Graham Greene, Flanner O’Connor, Walker Percy, Evelyn Waugh, Alexander Pope, Joseph Hayden, Franz Liszt, Frederic Chopin, Antonio Vivaldi, Chaucer, Alessandro Manzoni, G.K. Chesterton, Hillaire Belloc, John Dryden, Giuseppe Verdi, Hildegarde von Bingen, Shusaku Endo, Gabriel Marcel, Czesław Miłosz, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Allen Tate, etc. would agree with that assertion.

"Let him help put rodents like Bernard Law and Roger Mahoney in jail instead of continuing to shlter [sic] them."

Where did this idea that Mahoney and Law are fugitives from the U.S. law enforcement come from?

Ratzinger is a destestable hypocrite. He and his policies are in large measure responsible for the unspeakable crimes committed by his psychopathic "holy" underlings. (Anyone who wants evidence for these claims should watch the 2006 BBC documnentary "Sex Crimes and the Vatican" (available on line), which brings to light the fact that a "confidential" Vatican document--reflecting the views of the "Grand Inquisitor" himself--outlined pricisely the procedures of covering up the sex crimes for which the Pope now tearfully professes shock and sadness. As if HE were not the one directing the show!
Instead of his unctuous prayers and pious babbling, let "The Holy Father" come clean about his own role in all this. Let him help put rodents like Bernard Law and Roger Mahoney in jail instead of continuing to shlter them. Let him make public a list of all the sex criminals still at large (or hiding in the Vatican).
The behavior of the Church in all this should put to rest, once and for all, the ridiculous canard that we somehow need religion to preserve and protect morality! Talk about the wolf guarding the henhouse.

every religion is a clamp on its followers arresting him from any aesthetic contemplation of divinity that there may exist. Catholicism is by far the most rigid in this...

Replying to Chris - Thanks for comment. I think Plato's discussion is still the foundational one, with its linked sense that religion may produce morally arbitrary results and that it is the only way we've found to avoid a painful split between morality and self-interest. I admit that I haven't attained to atheism myself.
That said, I think that Hitchens in his specific point is more correct than I (Christian prejudice at work?) acknowledged before. Pope Ben seems to be saying that he is surprised and ashamed by the existence of a certain kind of sinful behaviour among people who also have a certain kind of religious and moral idealism. This is strange: the existence of temptation and frequent human succumbing to temptation is one of the basic premises of the existence of the Church, and I don't think that even the Church claims that becoming a priest or even a pope makes you reliably resistant to sin. People who sin or do moral wrong in some way are not necessarily horrible, unprincipled, non-idealistic - or even generally dislikable - persons. The point, as Hitchens quite rightly says, is not the existence of personal sin but the existence of a self-protective mechanism within the Church, profoundly self-serving rather than other-serving. There is something horrible about this.

Why is everyone believing the lie that Bernard Law is wanted by U.S. law enforcement? What he did was terrible but not (in the legal sense) criminal.
Google "Why Isn't Boston's Cardinal Law in Jail?"

"You can not expect a natural function to be supressed. The results are now being revealed, and not being dealt with truthfully."

Are you suggesting that celibacy turns healthy, normal men into homosexual predators (statistically, over 80% of the victims were males between the ages of 11 and 17)?

YoYo:

I'm guessing the magic word "presto" derives from "prestidigitation". Another bit of triv...apparently the words "hocus pocus" derive from the words a priest says at the moment communion wafers are transubstantiated i.e. "hoc est enim corpus meum".

I'm bemused by Hitch's Pecksniffian posturing in this whole affair.

Recall Hitchens was a professional apologist for genocidal Bolsheviks for most of his career as a lefty screed peddler. His greatest hero was one Lev Davidovich Bronstein (a.k.a. Leon Trotsky) "People's Commissar of War" and founder of the Russian Red Army which was itself guilty of perhaps the worst atrocities known to man up to that date with the possible exception of the reign of Ghengis Khan's Hordes.

One can total all clerical depredations ever committed, throw in the Spanish Inquisition and a half-dozen Crusades, and one would still fall far short of the rapine, pillage, and wanton murder of the Marxists in the 20th century alone by a factor of more than 100.

Hello Chris Everett,

Us religionists doth tend to resort to our most inventive invectives that can get pass the blog censors in Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and Susan Jacoby's threads, don't we?

Makes for some spicy, tasty and testy posts but not rational, logical or reasonable ones. And it would be so boring for atheists if otherwise.:)

Cheers
"J"

Jihadist,

So I was being polemical - it's a Hitchens post, for goodness sake! I was responding to MHughes976 who couldn't see the intrinsic relationship between delusion and havoc. The pithy quotation is admittedly narrow. As you rightly point out, delusion encompasses more than just religion, and includes political utopianism as well. And mental illnesses like schizophrenia.

Hello Chris Everett :)

You : They say that good people do good things and bad people do bad things, but for a good person to do real evil - that takes religion."

Ahh...back to that again.

Because we are supposed to be good people after all. We got religion, so, we can't act like Pol Pot who is said by many close to him to be a "good" person in spite of being a non-religious sort incapable of real evil like molesting a child and getting away with it, only murdering millions, and just getting house arrest.

You are familiar with the phrase the "banality of evil" that originates from Hannah Arendt in her book, "Eichmann in Jerusalem".

Regards

"J"

Floridian, OK, I'll wait and see. Our eyes are on Law.

MHughes976,

You write "I don't see how belief in a superior being who is somehow concerned with our moral behaviour is likely of itself to produce immorality and filth."

In fact, to some extent this is the necessary outcome of a superstitious world view that thinks of morality as obedience to ancient religious strictures that were codified in a bygone era of ignorance and barbarism. Religious superstition blinds the believer to real morality, motivated by our natural ethical temperments and subject to rational analysis. Just look at Osama Bin Laden.

They say that good people do good things and bad people do bad things, but for a good person to do real evil - that takes religion.

Panner--

It seems reasonable to assume that since he's hammering on this issue much of his trip here this week, and has gone from talking about it to meeting with victims already, that he's on that path.

Anyone listening to him the past couple of days cannot help but feel that he's trying to remedy the situation as completely as he can and is taking accelerated steps to do that. For some people, however, it's clear that nothing--no action, no meeting, no words--will be enough to serve that purpose.

It's quite remarkable that this meeting has taken place, really. I doubt Hitchens anticipated it. And in the absence of anticipating further action, I suggest we all wait and see what else unfolds.

Floridian wrote: Benedict XVI met privately today with several victims of clergy sexual abuse from the Boston Archdiocese. That seems to go further than Hitchens imagined he would go, past remarks and regrets, to action.

Read Hitchens full views on Slate.com. He wants action, not meetings, including the return of Law to face charges.

Benedict should require that all priest child sex abusers be turned over immediately to civil authority for potential criminal prosecutrion. Absent that, his actions are a sham.

Carney,

You admit the Catechism has nothing on priestly child sex abuse.

You say it is covered by Canon Law, but that law is general.

You admit by your silence that the bishops, including Law, did nothing under canon law "to establish more specific norms" or "to pass judgment in particular cases."

Enough said.

The Vatican just issued a press release that Pope Benedict XVI met privately today with several victims of clergy sexual abuse from the Boston Archdiocese.

That seems to go further than Hitchens imagined he would go, past remarks and regrets, to action.

I don't see how belief in a superior being who is somehow concerned with our moral behaviour is likely of itself to produce immorality and filth. I do see that the creation of an institution that thinks itself sacred produces protection for the very un-sacred behaviour of individuals who are senior in that organisation, and for this the only cure is very courageous leadership, not clearly shown in this case. I have never had that kind of leadership responsibility so I can't say that I would have behaved better in such horrible circumstances.

Carney;

Check the stats.

Even the religious themselves are admitting concern with falling church attendence and falling enrollment in Seminaries and the priesthood.

Its not just the filth and moral squalor with which religion has always been tainted; the pedophilia no doubt goes way back to the beginning of the priestly profession; it's that religious thinking looks more and more the irrational superstitious nonsense that it really is - the smarter and more literate we become as a species.

Try as you superstitionists may, there's no stopping progress.

Anonymous writes:

"I agree, screw Hitchens, his war propaganda and his hair plugs!

Can't we deport this lout?"

Christopher Hitchens became an American citizen last year. Perhaps we should be asking if we could deport you instead?

The Pope is the most wonderful person on Earth. It's like having god among us. He is flawless, as is Catholicism.

Let's see if this post makes it through. Every post I've penned that express an opposite sentiment is being held by the blog owner.

Carney, with all due respect, and without intending to offend, but just asking, why is Law not up on charges in the Vatican for violating sub 3 of Canon 277?

Carney. No offense was intended, so do not be offended.

Nothing in the catechism. Okay.

It is in Canon law. Okay.

1983 CIC 277.

§ 1. Clerics are obliged to observe perfect and perpetual continence for the sake of the kingdom of heaven and therefore are bound to celibacy which is a special gift of God by which sacred ministers can adhere more easily to Christ with an undivided heart and are able to dedicate themselves more freely to the service of God and humanity.

§ 2. Clerics are to behave with due prudence towards persons whose company can endanger their obligation to observe continence or give rise to scandal among the faithful.

§3. The diocesan bishop is competent to establish more specific norms concerning this matter and to pass judgment in particular cases concerning the observance of this obligation.

Just what did diocesan bishops, like Law, do in this case?

Andrew, Yoyo, the Soviets once thought as you do. They're on the ash-heap of history.

People "love" religion for one main reason. It promises everlasting life. Trouble is the thoughtful among us are very skeptical of such promises. Anyone can promise anything. But reality shows that everything dies. Everything...without exception.

Once upon a time the only knowledge we had was told us through religion. Religion ruled the earth and would remove (or cure) those who doubted their "truth".

Those primitive times are long gone. Now we have science which shows that much of what the church told us over the eons was absolute nonsense; and universal literacy and worldwide education are spreading these realities, and now religion is on its knees praying for credibility and respectability when there is none for those who believe and promote irrational mumbo jumbo, the supernatural and magic that never actually works.

None of religions claims have ever been shown to be true. Only groupthink keeps religions alive; groupthink and childhood indoctrination; without which we'd all be atheists.

Neal;

Mmm...interesting word prestidigitation...had to look it up...conjuror. Yeah, I can dig it.

Religion's all about sleight of hand, you might say, and living with the cognitive dissonance, ie.'I know religion makes no sense but it's not supposed to make sense'.

I feel certain that religion will eventually go the way of alchemy and astrology, which also were marginalized by rationalism and post-enlightenment thinking, where once they had been extremely influential.

Panner, that's a vicious smear. I'll give you the benefit of a doubt and assume your ignorance, that you've just passed on a meme you picked up somewhere.

The Catechism is a document aimed at the wider world, both the Catholic faithful and non-Catholics.

For rules about how the Church is structured and how its clergy are to behave, you must turn to the Code of Canon Law, which in Canon 277§1 specifically forbids priests to engage in any sexual behavior whatsoever. Obviously that would include the underaged.

Yoyo the yoyo writes: "The recent awareness that children have been sexually abused by priests should have us all wondering if this is just a recent thing, or has this always happened in churches."

Or perhaps, just perhaps, it is a "thing" that has always happened in human society.

All are human, therefore, all sin.

You guys must have loved the Dan Brown fiction about the evil conspiracies of Catholics...

Do you also love the protocols of Zion?

Like they say, once a bigot....

Catholics, please check your 1988 catechism for priestly pedophilia and priestly child abuse, and report back to us. Take your time. There is nothing there.

But masturbation is in the index and is a seriously disordered act.

So, they are told that a victimless act is very wrong, but told nothing about permanent personal injury to an underage person.

Just great.

YoYo:

When dealing with an organization that has 1,970+ years worth of experience in mental prestidigitation under its sash, we are also perhaps well advised to keep our eyes focused, unblinkingly, on the hand that *isn't* being frantically waved about e.g. the recently touted "wider agenda".

The recent awareness that children have been sexually abused by priests should have us all wondering if this is just a recent thing, or has this always happened in churches.

Common sense should tell us that this has been happening all along, but it's only now - with the modern media everywhere all the time, that we understand anything about it. If we'd had an active media a thousand years ago, we'd have long been aware that pedophilia was endemic among cloistered men from the very beginning. But children in those days had nowhere to turn - except to the Church. (O the irony of "Suffer little children to come unto me").
And we know how the church has always reacted to bad and lurid accusations. Deny deny deny.

The last place to turn to for truth about anything is the Church; any church.

Hey Kenneth

Right on these apologists for abuse are so unchristian that I am puzzled why they are so intent on defending the RC Church, is it because the institution is itself long past being a Christian institution and simply a business.

Hey Mike:

Wow if I ever had a doubt about my departure from the RC church. A church to which my family had belonged to for over a thousand years, and in defense of they were forced to leave the old country your callousness and insensitivity removes any remaining doubt.

I like all of my siblings and most of my cousins have left that wretched insipid institution I doubt that it will survive the century.

It is no longer the institution of Aquinas, Becket or Moore, it is now the church of Bernard Law and the Nazi Pope.

To those of you who still believe in that faith try the Greek Orthodox church which is recognized as a true faith even by the RC Church, it has transubstantiation and all the rest, with out all the baggage.

The sex scandal in the Catholic Church was ,in my opinion,a crime on two levels.The first was the spiritual level in which a minister of God betrayed his trust and victimized the helpless who looked up to him as a role model and spiritual guide,and led him into the dark-side of life and sin.This made the spiritual life an ugly sham and a hypocritical lie.
The second level was, this was a Felony in secular Life and as such the Offender should have been turned over to the authorities.By the fact that he was not the Bishop who sheltered him also broke secular law and incurred that guilt as well.The fact that they were priests should not have mitigated this guilt.

Hey SPEED as priest abuse which was made up out of sodomy and rape was the whole point of the original post that is what I wrote about.

I could have like you been totally off topic and brought up the Popes service of the Nazi regime and his total inaction in helping out the victims of the holocaust as it occurred, but again that would have been off topic

You are so off point of the original blog in your attempt to divert the eyes of the reader.

Perhaps as you seem to be obsessed with public schools you have some phobia against public schools.

Perhaps you are simply in able to focus on the original issue because you have one of the new age disease which do not allow you to focus take a large dose of Ritalin read the original post and then perhaps you will see how all of your posts have been off the point.

Next time you post to a post blog as you can not stay on topic please try to find a blog that has something to do with your agenda.

Mike wrote:

I am no longer sympathetic towards the victims - I don't even respond during Mass whenever we pray for them...

I am sick of all the jokes I have to hear at work about rapist priests, I am sick of the Pope bashing, I am sick of anti-Catholicism in general, and I am definitely sick of people talking about this issue like they REALLY give a damn!

...And I swear, if I hear one more "used to be" Catholic talking bad about the Church... I think I'm gonna lose it. I love the Church, I love the Holy Father, and I love our Priests...
---------------------------------------------

Mike,

I used to be Catholic and I have to agree with you. People who were molested deserve only scorn.

It also sounds like you're in love with priests, I've heard they like it if their lovers dress up like an alter boys so you might have to do a little shopping.

Although you might be sick of Pope jokes, here's one...

Q: What did the dad say to the priest at the beach?

A: Please get out of my son!

I mean, with defenders like yourself around, it's just inconceivable that all those thousands of traumatized kids could have been abused and afraid to come forward, just cause of a few bishops, of course.

They must be making it up. Cause they hate you. Right. Good thing you don't really give em something to cry about, right?

Wow, Mike, speaking of 'systemic abuse.'

Mike,
Maybe if the Catholic Church would "behave" there'd be fewer jokes. And I'm sure the victims (and yes, the "victims", in scare quotes) will continue to hire lawyers and win their cases if they have merit.

As to Speed123's comments about secular teacher's abuse of students, I've yet to hear of a public school system or the U.S. Department of Education enabling and covering up said activities.

April 16, 5:27 etc. some other "Gerry" imposing. ("Reed...").
Not my style of writing.

Gerry, atheist.

Well your hunch is wrong Mr. Psychic. I AM a Catholic, my Parish DID merge and closed the building that my family helped build, and I AM sick of all the talk about victims. I am no longer sympathetic towards the victims - I don't even respond during Mass whenever we pray for them. YOU can say "Lord hear our prayer" if you feel like it, but I'm not praying for them ANY MORE. I am sick of all the jokes I have to hear at work about rapist priests, I am sick of the Pope bashing, I am sick of anti-Catholicism in general, and I am definitely sick of people talking about this issue like they REALLY give a damn! Especially non-Catholics! Stop acting like you care - you just hate the Church and this scandal just gives you something to beat us Catholics over the head with. And I swear, if I hear one more "used to be" Catholic talking bad about the Church... I think I'm gonna lose it. I love the Church, I love the Holy Father, and I love our Priests... I shouldn't have to put up with this garbage any more. You’re all lucky I'm not a Muslim - I'm just a bad Catholic who tries to be a "good" enough Catholic to not knock your teeth out of the back of your head.

(Just when I *needed* a post to *not* go through because of a glaring typo...)

*You guys may owe me.

I'd just wanted to point out that the blog's technical problems seemed to have abated somewhat since I wrote an open letter to the His Eminence...Immenseness(?)...whatever...on another thread beseeching his assistance. Coincidence? You guys owe may me.

PS - my guess is that "Mike" is an non-Catholic trying to cause trouble...just a hunch...

PS - Warren obviously has some mental issues here and a strange focus on the actions of sodomy and rape.

A therapist or someone to talk to would be much better for you than a WAPO blog, in my opinion.

Living with such hate inside is never good...

In all honesty, best of luck.

I am so far past the point of being sick and tired of hearing about the poor "victims." I couldn't care less about the "victims" anymore. Most of them are money grubbing selfish liars anyway, I figure at least half of the people who claimed to be abused were lying through their teeth. I was abused too - by my (public) grade school teacher. And like these "victims" it was years ago - you don't see me trying to force the county school system into bankruptcy. But here we have a bunch of morons crying to any other moron who will listen about crap that happened (or didn't happen) to them decades ago. Go ahead "victims" - go hire a lawyer and come get your money - just don't ask me to shed tears for you when you caused my parish to close down - and I can no longer go to Mass at a church that my Great Great Grandfather helped build with his brothers and cousins. These "victims" have become the victimizers.

You guys are sheep...

Read the AP report on abuse in public schools- don't take my word for it.

Abuse is wrong - horrible - but it is wrong in horrible in schools, as well as in churches.

PS - abuse occurs in families - by Jews, Buddhist, Catholics, Protestants and Atheists...

Get real - and think for yourselves (if you can get beyond your bigotry, that is)

Goggle "AP report on public school abuse" - 2500 teachers reported to have abused thousand and thousand of kids in only 5 YEARS!

Hitchens is such a bore.

He has nothing to say about the safety and welfare of children except when it is easy to kick the leader of a religious group that he dislikes. The other 364 days of the year, he is complaining about something else.

Well Mr. Hitchen, more people died at Chappaquiddick Bridge than have ever died in any church sex abuse scandal.

Speed:

You are in total denial. To even try to compare a school teacher in the public school system with a PRIEST? My god.

Speed:

Stop protecting your church by clouding the issue with non topical side arguments.

And I am not an atheist, I am a Buddhist.

Speed:

Again no specifics. Just obtuse un-substantiated allegations.

If it makes me a bigot to be against predator priests raping and sodomizing children (over 11,000 in the us alone,) then I will gladly be a bigot, rather that than an apologist for people like Chicago's Cardinal George a close friend of El Popa who allowed just recently a predator priest to remain around children.

If you allege abuse by the public schools
Name the School District,
Name the Superintendent
Name the School Committee

that allowed Sodomy, Rape, molestation of children to continue for generations.

Correction - teachers fired for sexual abuse were done so "without marks on their record"

How exactly do you think the guy was re-hired at a new school system, Warren?

Try to think instead of reciting "new" atheist propaganda about how religious people are evil and secular people are good.

Think and read, Warren...there is the same problems in the schools etc. that are in any church.

It is wrong to shuffle abusers from churches; however, it is ALSO wrong to do so in schools.

To pretend it doesnt happen - or to only focus on the catholic instance of it - either makes you ignorant or a bigot...

Warren babbles: "You mention one person who was fired, this person was not protected by his superiors and shipped around from school to school systematically raping and molesting his students."

Warren, you obviously didn't read the whole report - teachers who molested dozens of times were protected by unions and principles. They may have been let go - but they were done so with marks on their record...or bad references...because they were protected by the system.

In fact just last week a elementary school teacher was found in a hotel with a 14 and 15 year old smoking weed and naked...

Is this the secular teachers that are supposed to protect and teach our kids??

Stop protecting secular perverts and sodomites in the school Warren...

Benedict told reporters. "If I read the stories of these victims, it is difficult for me to understand how it was possible that priests betrayed in this way their mission to give healing, to give love of God to these children."

Excuse me pope, most of the priests believed they WERE giving the love of God to these children who were seeking to them for guidance and more.....

PS, your holiness, how many holes are you supposed to have before you are considered holy?

Benedict is just like John Paul.
A Bad Shepherd that cares more for the other shepherds than the sheep.

Speed
Your argument is again baseless and just a pathetic attempt to divert eyes from the issue of Sodomy and rape of children by perverts hiding behind the cloth.

You mention one person who was fired, this person was not protected by his superiors and shipped around from school to school systematically raping and molesting his students.

The fact that this person was rehired is not indicative of a complex conspiracy to enable child molestation as was with the Catholic church. It is not indicative of his being protected by a school system or superintendent just that he was fired and rehired by another system because of a lack of oversight and poor vetting of a teacher candidate.

There is a difference between a superior and organizations complicity in assaults on children and poor hiring practices.

Name the school system name the superintendent that has such duplicity in a teachers actions that come any where equal to what the RC church did.

How many school systems have gone bankrupt as a result of sexual misconduct that was condoned by higher ups, None

Now how many churches in Boston alone have closed so the land they sit on could be sold, The archdiocese even had to sell the cardinal's residence and the seminary grounds to pay for their transgressions.

Name one public school that had to be sold to pay for superior condoned sexual misconduct, again none.

Anonymous wrote:

--"I agree, screw Hitchens, his war propaganda and his hair plugs! Can't we deport this lout?"

Deport him because of hair plugs or for voicing an opinion against the Catholic Church? If it's the latter, then no...not since about the 16th century or so.

Hear, hear, Christopher! Well said. For too long the Catholic Church has had this problem, as you phrased it in your recent book, of 'No Child's Behind Left'.

The extent of the molestation of children at the hands of Roman Catholic clergy is astounding, though I need to add it is by no means an exclusively Catholic problem. Of course, almost as bad as the actual transgressions committed are the cover ups and opacity of the hierarchy in regards to their crimes.

Jihadist, Well Met!

You have given us the only bright spot on this whole damned blog. Please keep it up! Go get 'em!

Arminius

Jihadist,

Jesus the Zombie! Rowwrrrr!!!

Classic.

If one believes Bible stories and also believes that Jesus is an eternal, indivisible part of the Trinity, it would seem that a reasonable case can be made that Jesus was actually responsible for far worse in regards to Canaanite and Egyptian children. Perhaps that's why the Church initially failed to appreciate the seriousness of the actions of some of its clerics. After all, it's not like those clerics slaughtered babies or anything.

Still, it's odd that a religion ostensibly guided by an omnipotent and omniscient Holy Spirit would need to be schooled on morality by secular authorities.

Oh there "Reality Challenged" and Obfuscating Jihadist,

The global community awaits for the apologies from the president and ayatollas of Iran and also from the King of Saudi Arabia and his "wannabees" for supporting the 24/7 terror activities gripping the world today.

And since heaven is a spirit state as per Aquinas, there are no physical bodies there i.e. Jesus did not rise and ascend to heaven and there also were no flying chariots stopping by with any raving Moslems on board.

I agree, screw Hitchens, his war propaganda and his hair plugs!

Can't we deport this lout?

So true, Andrew, as are all the rest of the posters on this blog who see through Hitch's outrageous over-statements, and over-simplications of a complex matter of the many cases which were settled, in lieu of litigation, where probably well over half of those who "claimed" TO BE ABUSED, IN FACT WERE NOT, BUT THEY SURE WANTED THE MONEY, THOSE BOTTOMLESS POCKETS OF THE CHURCH, NOW DIDN'T THEY? AND THEY GOT IT, BECAUSE THE CHURCH SETTLED THE CASES, RATHER THAN GOING TO TRIAL-BECAUSE I CAN TELL YOU THIS MUCH, HITCH- IF THOSE POOR LITTLE EFFED UP YOUNG MEN WHO WANTED TO JUMP ON THE CATHOLIC MONEY BANDWAGON HAD TO ACTUALLY PROVE DAMAGES, THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO DO, QUITE APART FROM THEIR OVER-EXAGGERATION OF THEIR ALLEGED "ABUSE." I'm not saying there weren't a lot of legitimate cases, BUT THERE WERE WORST CASES THAT WERE COVERED UP BY PRIESTS IN CANADA AND IRELAND, AS WELL AS ITALY, TO NAME A FEW OTHER COUNTRIES-THIS COUNTRY HAS FACED UP TO THE PROBLEMS IN THE CHURCH AND ACTIVELY SOUGHT TO REMEDY THE SITUATION IN A MYRIAD OF WAYS ON MANY DIFFERENT LEVELS.

But Hitch is worthless on topics like this-the only reason he gets yet another, YET ANOTHER BLOG ON THIS TOPIC IS BECAUSE BFF SALLY QUINN ALLOWED HIM TO PUT IT OUT THERE AGAIN-SO HE COULD SHOW HOW SUPERIOR HE IS, IN HIS "LOOK AT ME, I'M AN ATHEIST, AREN'T I SUPERIOR? MODE.

Hitch is a lout and a lush besides-he doesn't quite so obtuse as long as he sticks to political issues, quite apart from his support for the carnage of the Iraq war, which although different from the point he is making in this blog, does show him to be more than a little hypocritical, and more than a little intellectually dishonest. But HITCH IS AN INTELLECTUAL, YOU SEE, SO OF COURSE THERE'S NO INCONSISTENCY, NO INTELLECTUAL DISHONESTY WHATSOEVER IN HIS POSITION ABOUT HOLDING THE CHURCH RESPONSIBLE FOR A COLLECTIVE COVER-UP OF WHAT I DON'T KNOW, AND BEING ALL RAH RAH FOR A WAR THAT HAS KILLED HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF MEN WOMEN AND CHILDREN -no intellectual dishonesty whatsoever in those two positions, now is there, you big prat!

And it IS true, Hitch your ugly statements do in fact border on libel, but it's easy to take a cheap shot at the church, because you know they won't respond, particularly when you're an INTELLECTUAL AND an ATHEIST-WOOOOO! TOUGH GUY WITH THE TOUGH WORDS!

Spiderman2,

Hello tiger. Oh ye believer of the true belief, I am almost embarrassed to read your posts comparing Catholics belief to the voodoo of Haiti and how they are mixed even though I am not a Christian.

In your zeal to denigrate Catholicism as a voodoo and "stupid" belief, perhaps you forgot that Haitians believe a rite associated with voodoo is capable of raising people from the dead and called zombies.

Going by your arguments and comparisons that voodoo and Catholics share the same "stupid beliefs", you have, quite breathtakingly, forgotten that Resurrection, as a core Christian belief, is also voodoo as insisted by Concerned the Christian Now Liberated.

You, whom I assume to be a Protestant (and a passionate one at that, unless you are really an atheist and all your posts are mischievous put ons) and Concerned the Christian Now Liberated (a former Catholic before he becomes a Crossanized Catholic Christian of Reality) seem to have agreed on something at last in spite of your differences here and there on this and that.

You are now both Christian heretics in being blasphemous? Burning at the stakes is too Dark Ages to pre-Enlightenment Age. We now have the electric chair and lethal injections. Chose one.

Oh yes, there was and is belief of voodoo in New Orleans and parts of the south. And variations of voodoo beliefs and practices in Latin America, Africa and Asia. It is called traditional beliefs and the practicioners are called medicine men or women. One do tend to dismiss them, but sometimes these so-called shaman can provide cures for some ailments better than doctors.

Oh, by the way, Catholics and Muslims are wholly responsible for all the mess in world right now. Protestants have absolutely nothing to do with that and is absolutely blameless, sin-free and crime-free.

In the Catholic-Muslim dialogue agreed on, we may even eventually forge a coalition for global domination and call the movement Catholislam. Protestants beware!

Cheers tiger :)

"J"

Christopher Hitchens is an anti-semitic bigot. The Washington Post should be utterly ashamed to give such an extremist a voice.

"But the great fault of the Catholic hierarchy remains: they protected the offenders, and did not help the victims."

I dont want to be a broken record; however, the same is true in the AP report on schools - "the system stacked against the victim."

Warren,

Here is a direct quote from the back page Associated Press story (if it was a clergy member it would have been page A1!)

"That got Gary C. Lindsey fired from his first teaching job in Oelwein, Iowa. But it didn't end his career. He taught for decades in Illinois and Iowa, fending off at least a half-dozen more abuse accusations."

The WAPO does not allow links on here - just google "AP report on abuse in public schools"

Are you a teacher Warren? Don't like getting stereotyped? What attempt to stereotype others? (I am not a clergy member, for the record)

SPEED

You continue to rant about how the abuse in public schools was equal or worse than that inflicted by the priests in the RC church,
(as somehow that excuses those vile pieces of dreck)
and yet of all of the thousands of school districts that you claim are engaged in conduct equal to the RC Priest Pediphists you do not name even one, as such your argument is totally baseless and without merit.

I challenge you to name just one school district where those in charge complacently allowed their subordinates to rape and sodomize the children under their care.

Name just one public school where teachers who were found out to have molested their students by parents were transferred to other schools, where the parents in those schools were not informed of the predilections of that teacher

Name one public school teacher who after being found to be a molester was promoted to a higher position.

Speedy,

I managed to verify your figure of about 5,000 priests accused in the past 50 years. I was unable, unfortunately, to access the AP report. So it is apparent that you have a definite point, but I could not get the numbers.

One thing I don't know is the comparison of numbers. If there are just over 100,000 Catholic priests, then how many teachers are there? Also, how many of these crimes go unreported in either case? Hell, who knows? It is known that many priests were multiple offenders, over long periods of time. It seems that teachers are caught quickly, but I could be wrong. I have not seen a comparison of victims. It is a problem worth pursuing, the truth is elusive. (Truth does seem to have that unfortunate characteristic.) I do remain skeptical, but am willing to be corrected with good numbers.

But the great fault of the Catholic hierarchy remains: they protected the offenders, and did not help the victims.

Arminius

Mr. Christopher Hitchens,

As a non-Catholic responding to what you wrote as a non-Catholic on the Pope's statement on the clerical pedophilia scandals, let us look, as you do on this, not from a religious perspective, but as a crime, and the Pope as as Head of State to be responsible for it.

The Pope has stated he is "deeply ashamed" for what has happened in the US - crimes committed by priests there who were "sheltered" and covered up by Cardinal Law.

As for other heads of states or heads of governments, we have come to expect them to apologise for crimes committed by their people before their time, and without their knowledge even with clear directives not to do so.

The Australian Prime Minister apologised for crimes against the Australian aborigines. The German Chancellor for crimes against Jews during World War II. The Japanese Prime Minister for crimes committed by Japanese troops against occupied people during World War II. All also seek to redress or compensate the victims of the crimes, some more sincere and tangible.

No one expect all the victims of the crimes to be fully satisfied by the apology, repentence, atonement and compensation offered by the current head of state or government on crimes committed by his minions in another time and in another place, under his watch or not.

The Japanese Head of Government's apology on crimes committed by the Japanese troops is never found to be satisfactory by many countries and peoples affected, especially those in China and South Korea.

The Pope's stating he is "deeply ashamed" may be a good first step as he is, after all a unique Head of State in also wearing the hat as the religious head of some one billion Catholics living in different countries with different legal jurisdictions, including the United States. He may have legal limits, and can only extend administrative, moral and ethical directives.

In this time and age, accepting confessions and atonements for sins is not enough for what are crimes under civil laws. All the Vatican can do, and rightly so if it does, is to issue directives to sack all priests known to have committed any crimes and let them be charged in courts like everyone else. The crimes by the priests are wrong under both civil law of countries and religious diktats of the Church.

I have no doubt the Pope is deeply ashamed on this as he stated and will do something about it as religous head of his Church. How fast and effective, only God knows, as the Catholic Church is also a bureaucratic behemoth. One billion people in a country is hard enough to govern with regional bureaucrats sometimes acting independently of headquarters or capital and doing things that capital or headquaters only knows when they read and hear about it in the media. Just ask China and India. One billion people all over the world?

Cheers

"J"

Haiti Troubles :

Aristide became popular as a PRIEST in the slum of La Saline, and was elected president in 1990. Ousted in a military coup the following year, U.S. troops restored him to the presidential palace in 1994.

After stepping down, he was re-elected in 2000 but was ousted again in a bloody 2004 rebellion amid charges that he broke promises to help the poor, ALLOWED drug-fueled corruption and MASTERMINDED assaults on opponents. "

An exponent of liberation theology, he became a leading figure in the more radical wing of the Catholic faith in Haiti and broadcast his sermons on the national Catholic radio station.

If you want to know why Haiti is in dire straits now, BLAME CATHOLICISM.

The foundations needed to make this a troubled land had long been planted by this deposed former president.

Everywhere around the world where Catholic or Islamic priests open their BIG MOUTHS and try to "SOLVE" problems, bigger problems result due to their STUPIDITY.

The BUSH ADMINISTRATION has been playing like a FOOL for ALLOWING religious (false religion) personalities like Shiite Cleric Muqtada al Sadr to be part of Iraq Parliament.

In one third world country where population explosion has become a major problem, Catholic chapels or centers offer free operation to untie the fallopian tubes of mothers after indoctrinating them that it's a SIN.

This devilish Church invent their own doctrines so parents would produce more chiildren despite their abject poverty.

They then teach these poor people that their government is the cause of their poverty due to corruption but lo and behold those same government personnel are usually "devout catholics".

Some revolt which cause more poverty and this has become a "CATHOLIC CYCLE" which I presume is routinely duplicated around the world.

To escape poverty, many go abroad adding more economic pressure to their host countries.

Arminius, how am I protect abusing priests (who should be removed and punished) by bringing attention to the abuse in our public school system.

This is a topic on abuse and, unless you simply have a slight against the Church, the topic should be brought into context.

2,500 teachers were accused in the past 5 years! Compared to 4,000 clergy in 50 years..

The media, which loves to enable the govt., even in war, will not come down on secular schools like a traditional church.

They wont allow links - so google ""AP report on abuse in public schools"

Wake up people!

Hmmm. An avowed atheist and a whole board of pagan lefties bashing the Church...

yawn...........

It is Crises not Crisis in the contemporary Catholic Church:

1. The inappropriate conduct of many priests, the emotional stress on the victims and the resultant two billion dollars in lawsuits.

2. The lack of talent in the priesthood.

3. The lack of Vatican response to the historic Jesus movement.

4. The Church's continuing cling to original sin and the resulting subsets of crazy ideas like limbo.

5. The denial of priesthood to women.

6. The restriction of priesthood to single men (unless you are former Episcopalian priests).

7. And the continued chain of Vatican "leadership" by old European white men.

Mr. Hitchens is restrained in calling the Pontiff merely wrong. Aggravating his solipsist theft of the victims' suffering and gratuitous gifting of it to the guilty Church, he can't even acknowledge whether he read the cases that, mere words before, he blamed for his own "great suffering".

This recalls his bizarre, counterproductive hit on Muslim sensibilities from safe within a German Church, hmm, circa 2006. His weapon was a single line, passed down from the Inquisition by an obscure cardinal, to be delivered out of context and off-topic, to the effect that Muhammad's use of violence to spread Islam was evil. It went without saying, as it seems it always must, that the Church did the very same, at the very same time. Jews, for some in Spain, had to convert or suffer death from their Inquisitors.

Speedy,

'...thousands of teachers' - ??? This is madness, name your source. And, in case you have not noticed, any teacher exposed in such a crime is instantly prosecuted, not protected. Why are you protecting the pederast priests?

Arminius

All of you Catholic Church defenders need to watch the Oscar-nominated documentary "Deliver Us From Evil" and then get back with the rest of us. Until then, you don't realize the evil that you're defending.

Carlos et al,

Pretty one sided argument you have there - one that neglects the Catholic hospitals, orphanages, shelters, universities, schools, and charities.

The Catholic Church is the largest charity and hunger relief organization in the world.

I wonder when the last time of you anti catholic bigots feed the poor, organized the workers or aided the dying...in Africa, Asia, the Americas etc.

"Which cities and school districts, which leaders of those districts, how many have been arrested and convicted of child rape?"

Tons of school districts and thousands of teachers...read the Associated Press report unless you wish to remain ignorant of the wider problems..

Snakeoil
Oily but wrong sell, bud. Right context. We were talking about the catlick church, not the english empire, boers, kuomintang or any other nefarious, oppresive species.

Add the eucharist to your list.

Benedict should feel ashamed about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. He has other things to be ashamed of. In the official biography of Benedict it states:
“His youthful years were not easy. His faith and the education received at home prepared him for the harsh experience of those years during which the Nazi regime pursued a hostile attitude towards the Catholic Church. The young Joseph saw how some Nazis beat the Parish Priest before the celebration of Mass.
It was precisely during that complex situation that he discovered the beauty and truth of faith in Christ; fundamental for this was his family’s attitude, who always gave a clear witness of goodness and hope, rooted in a convinced attachment to the Church.
During the last months of the war he was enrolled in an auxiliary anti-aircraft corps.”
If he had true faith in Christ, why didn’t he follow Christ’s example? Thousands of Germans, including women, went into Nazi concentration camps rather than support Hitler and the war effort. They put their faith in Christ. Some died. Some survived. But, they were faithful. Individual Catholics stood up to Hitler; but the Catholic Church and the then pope supported Hitler. Shame on them all.

POSTED:"I am a Catholic, and certainly not its strongest defender (particularly on issues of abortion, same-sex marriage, women clergy, integrating indigenous forms of worship into the Catholic Liturgy, etc.)..."

OK, just out of curiosity, what's the point?

I hear so many people (around the world) saying, "I'm Catholic, but I don't follow/believe in x, y, z".

So what's the point in being a "member" of a faith/organized religious institution, the core teachings of which you don't agree with and/or can't or won't follow?

I was rather happy with my religious upbringing and the teachings of that faith, but in the end, I knew I didn't believe. So I no longer call myself a member.

Are people so caught up in the "we're right, you're wrong" mentality of this world, that they feel they have to cling to the "we" for all the wrong reasons in order to save their self-esteem?

Or do they really feel that the mere status of "belonging" will "save their souls", even if that belonging is riddled with lack of observance of
(and in some cases disbelief of or even contempt for) the embodiments of that faith and institution?

Hey horrible snakeoil person,

Words matter. The pope says that the priests betrayed their MISSION. He didn't say that the priests betrayed the CHILDREN. There's a difference.

You call me sick and ignorant and then accuse me of spreading hate and lies. What irony. You buffoon.

Christopher Hitchens needs an exorcist and fast!

Hey SPED

Worcester, Manchester, Los Angeles, Louisville Dublin,Ireland just a few cities that shuttled and sheltered child rapists, which are the public school districts that you are speaking of that did the same thing?

Which public schools that had hired, protected, promoted, suborned and supported known child rapists, not the ones where they were found to exist and arrested but the ones where numerous sodomizing adults in leadership roles existed,

Which cities and school districts, which leaders of those districts, how many have been arrested and convicted of child rape?

Also just because someone is opposed to child rape does not make that person an atheist.

Choosing not to belong to an organization that turns a blind eye to child abuse also does not make some one an atheist.

Chris Everett you are a sick and ignorant person...

Get a life...why comment and read all of this Catholic stuff if you hate it so much? To spread hate and lies...

Reed: are you a moron because you were born that way, or did the doctor drop you headfirts?

Hitch is idiotic as usual - Brian Anderson is a liar.

The pope says "it is difficult for me to understand how it was possible that priests betrayed in this way their mission to give healing, to give love of God to these children."

In other words, the only betrayal the pope is aware of is the betrayal of the CHURCH and its mission to instill its particular brand of superstition into the populace. Upon hearing about the rape of thousands of innocent little boys and girls, the pope's first response is to turn to the priests and say "you idiots, you let them get away!"

To Marc,
It goes beyond the church and teachers. Protectionism is solid in the medical profession (doctors in particular) and law enforcement.

"If there was any other organization that committed the acts of the RC church that organization would have been destroyed through the use of RICO and other statutes."

Followers of Hitchens and Mahr (i.e. atheist blowhards) really are sheep!

Public schools are an organization with higher abuse levels but you dont see the govt doing anything about it...

Same goes for the abuse in Jewish congregations - or protestant..

Think for yourselves people - instead of having blowhard "new" atheists think for you.

Marc,

The stupid blog owners wont let me post a link...

google "AP report on public school abuse" for the info.

Teachers moved instead of fired...sound familiar?

If there was any other organization that committed the acts of the RC church that organization would have been destroyed through the use of RICO and other statutes.

The church instead of protecting its children put them in harms way by re assigning criminal child rapists to new parishes with no notice to the new communities, even making them youth pastors. As someone who was brought up in the RC church I can not ever see myself ever going back to this religion which is nothing more than a criminal enterprise, with the morals of NAMBLA and the mafia combined.

Cardinal Law and his predecessor Mederios are the filth of the earth, they should be reviled throughout history.

Hitchens may be wrong about many things in this world, but the Pope's complicity in this matter is not one of them. During the time that someone (the Pope would have been good) should up and shouted about the immorality basic to this scandal all we heard were the voices of those Bishops who wanted to deny Sen. John Kerry at the communion rail. And oh how the Bishop in Lincoln, Nebraska (Brusky) fulminated about Sen. Kerry but said nothing about the pedofile priests--certainly neither Bruskowitz or the Pope said anything about Boston's Cardinal Law. These are sad events. . .a visit from the Pope doesn't change this unredressed transgressions.

jim flynn

To, Try Again,
Youre trying to ride the fence.
I have to laugh at the fact that no one is mentioning the fact that John Paul was as guilty as Bernard Law!

Cardinal Law is hardly in an honored position at the Vatican. He was one of the highest and most powerful Cardinals in the United States and now he is nothing more than a pastor in a church in Rome.

If a priest rapes a boy, then commands him to remain silent about it, that is without question physical, emotional, and psychological torture.

The Pope has protected these torturers (Cardinal Law et al), which makes the Pope complicit in torture.

And according to George W. ("anyone who harbors terrorists is equally guilty of terrorism and we won't distinguish between the two") Bush, the Pope is a terrorist himself.

If you can't make this connection, you are in deep denial.

I think endemic in all Church teaching is the inherent belief in forgiveness. This belief for many years had hindered the clergy from recognizing pedophilia as a problem. Offending priests were “forgiven” only to move on to other offenses. I hope now that it is out in the open, it is being addressed intelligently from the victim’s point of view. Then, I can move on to the more uplifting message of the Catholic Church .

Hey Speed123
So you claim that there is all this abuse going on the public school system? And your source for that is what? Or are you pulling numbers out of thin air like you do when you claim that condoms don't prevent the spread of AIDS and other STDs?
Secondly, comparing the public schools and the church is rather silly, no? The Catholic Church is an international institution that gets it's policies and rules straight from Rome. Public schools are controlled by local counties and cities, with limited input from the State and very litte imput from the federal government. I know of no schools in the state I live in (North Carolina) that tolorates teachers that abuse kids, nor do I know of any school that has discovered sexual abuse and quietly moved the abusing teacher to another school without warning parents.
You lose again :-)
Better luck next time!

Agree to all points to the max! In addition, my expectations regarding the papal visit are that he will advise the cardinals and bishops that their unwillingness to take responsibliy for the actions of their priests is reprehensible. For example, moving child-rapists from parish to parish, etc... Will this happen ? Being a Catholic, I hope so. If not, unfortunaly it means that Cardinal Law will remain unscathed and honored, and I will continue to loath the men who rule the church.

Yes Hitchens is completely correct. After all, George Bush himself said, "you're either with us, or you're with the terrorists." And then he said, "anyone who harbors terrorists is equally guilty of terrorism and we won't distinguish betwee the two" (ok paraphrasing here but that's the gist of what he said). So if we are to believe Bush, and I'm not saying I do, but if we are to go along with his logic, rare as it may be, then that logic applies here too.
Hitchens is correct in saying that harboring the guilty makes one an accomplice. To allow Cardinal Law a high place in the Vatican after he spent years covering up abuse in his parish is a shame and smacks of hypocrisy. But we all know that the Catholic Church power structure is concerned with power, not with honesty. Power corrupts all, even (or perhaps especially) those who are in power in a religious organization.

I think Mr. Hitchens misses the target. The American bishops have failed to step up and defend the faithful. Instead, they have behaved in an all-too-American fashion by listening to their lawyers and paying out lots of money.

I think it's important to remember that very few of these cases were ever fully investigated. The vast majority of abuse incidents will remain forever in the shadows of unproven allegation. This does not change the truth, but it might change one's perception of the appropriate institutional response. To my mind, the American bishops were simply wrong in not demanding Rome's blessing of a policy that spells out very clearly how and when these allegations will be handed over to law enforcement. We are supposedly a nation founded on the rule of law. Surely, the U.S. bishops can see that, in this time and place, there is no other adequate response.

I do not like Christopher but what he says is true.
Furthermore, the United States is at the very least an attempt at an open society. Most countries that are mainly Roman Catholics are not near as open. One can only speculate whether the frame work for allowing abuse exists in them.

Thank you Mr Hitchens, thank you. When i talk that way to people, i'm treated the same way as i was when i spoke against the invasion of Iraq. I was "unpatriotic".
The Pope is a hypocrite, Law is a criminal, and the Vatican is as corrupt as our politicians here in the great U S of A.

Christopher,
You remind people not to expect rational response from those engaged in a thoroughly irrational profession.

We all agree that the clerical pedophilia scandal has left a horrendus mark on its victims, their families and their faith communities. The Church has responded to what was in deed true: their knowing protection of the clerics and their re-victimizing the victims.
One might say that Cardinal Law has been “promoted;” it is more the case that he has been exiled and brought low.
This has been a shameful period for the Church, His Holiness admits this shame. There will never be “closure” for the victims; there is no “moving on” from the experience. It leaves a sad legacy to future generations.
The Good News still must be proclaimed by the laity, the religious and clergy. The whole Church must continue its mission: He said to them, "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.”

I'm afraid this is true. It's not the seminaries' fault that the Pope's direct reports, the bishops, protected the abusers and tolerated the abuse by shuffling problem priests around.

Now, had the Pope made the same comments when the scandal first broke, I would give him the benefit of the doubt, figure maybe he's just still confused, and hope he would get up to speed soon on the problem.

But the scandal is now years in the open. The Pope has had plenty of time to get clear on the nature and scope of the problem.

So the Pope's comments cannot be excused. This is merely passing the buck. Since the Pope is clear head of his organization, the buck stops right at his desk. Pointing his finger at anyone else is ugly and wrong. With great power comes great responsibility.

It's time for him to stop passing the buck. A good first step would be to set an example with Bernard Law.

Either Law has no place in the Vatican, no position of responsibility and trust in the church, and no further right to represent the church in any way, or else the Pope is passing the buck. The Pope can't have it both ways.

And that is merely a first step. If the Pope cannot take the first step, nothing will change. As Jesus said, if I can't trust you in small things, I can't trust you in large things.

A good second step would be a message to all bishops that priests who abuse cannot be shuffled around and the matter hushed up. Bishops unclear on this should ask Law if the Pope is serious. Priests unclear on this should ask their Bishop. See how this second step would follow nicely from the first?

This is not rocket science. This is management 101.

And it turns out the Roman Catholic church is ideally set up for exactly this sort of management. There are clear lines of responsibility that go in a hierarchy directly to the top. There is exactly one man at the top, he's the Pope, and this gives him all the tools he needs to fix this problem.

So it also follows that the Pope cannot dodge responsibility here. It's his job and he has everything he needs to do it. If he doesn't do it, it's his failure and no one else's.

God may work in mysterious ways, but it is a little difficult to believe that He has chosen as His instrument on earth a church whose priests have buggered so many innocent boys.

so CARNEY says, ".....the vast majority were with young adults or teenage youths." Oh, OK, that makes it all better.

My question is why is the Pope allowing all this hoopla with President Bush? Why would he put his hand in the hand of a torturing, war criminal and then talk of peace? Why would he encourage priests to intervene in the American elections, as he did when he allowed priests to broadcast their denial of the sacrament to Kerry? As far as I am concerned, since it was particularly he who allow this interference, the Pope is complicit in the carnage of the Iraq war. The blood of Americans & Iraqis is on his hands, as well as on the hands of Bush, Cheney and his cabal of war criminals. Even now he is aiding and abetting the crime of "pre-emptive" war, with another war with Iran on the horizon. Unlike Hitchens, I am a believer, but many religions have become very poor representatives of God. It is no wonder the atheists are currently spilling out such vitriol against religions. It is sad, too. I have lived as an atheist and I have lived as a believer, although as one who hasn't much use for religion, per se. However, I would much rather be a person who feels a connection with the Divine. I'm afraid the behavior of many of the leaders of religions are driving people away from the Divine, abetting wars & hatred, instead of promoting peace, harmony and the love of our brothers and sisters. What really do these Christian leaders have to do with the teachings of Jesus?

testing

Add Cardinals Mahony and Rivera to the list for their complicity in hiding Father Aguilar from US justice. The Pope is "ashamed" of the perpetrators but not the protectors.

I don't expect Bill O'Reilly or Hannity to do an update story on this real soon.

I AGREE.
PATRICK KELLIHER
DETROIT MI.

John Collony wrote: "The abuse cases in the Boston archdiocese were nearly all old cases because the Cardinal had taken action, albeit quietly."

Yes, very quietly. That is the point!

If you had been abused by a priest and Cardinal Law knew of it and had quietly moved your abuser away from you, without telling the police, would you be ok with that? Its time the church learned that it may be above tax law, but not above all law. The church clearly protected its own priests over its children. How can you in anyway agree with those actions?

Mr. Mahoney is ill-informed, or delusional, if he thinks the Catholic Church is a democracy with leaders who rule by the consent of the governed. Lay members don't pick their priests; they don't choose the cardinals; they don't vote for the pope.

This comment thread is rife with ignorance, conspiracy theories, false assumptions, wild speculation, misconceptions, lazy logic, and faith-resentment.

It's the very manure that Christopher Hitchens loves to bathe in.

I guess everyone needs their myths to justify their uncertainties, even those who claim not to have any.

Christopher Hitchens is well known for his anti-Catholic bigotry. Hitchens picked Cardinal Law as a soft target. The truth is that Cardinal Law corrected problems he inherited long before 2001 when lawyers and reporters sensationalized a scandal. The abuse cases in the Boston archdiocese were nearly all old cases because the Cardinal had taken action, albeit quietly. Giving Hitchens bigoted views prominence suggests the Washington Post has an agenda similar to that of the Boston Globe...

As an altar boy for the infamous Father Porter, I forgave the church for allowing many of my friends and relatives to be abused by this devil.

I have studied at Catholic schools and universities my entire life and still consider myself deeply Catholic in how I lead my life from earlier days as a high school teacher, then peace corps volunteer and business owner for the past 25 years.

My wife is sad that I stopped going to church the day that Cardinal Law was allowed to hold one of the nine funeral masses for our last Pope.

Cardinal Law should be in jail as he was in charge of an organization that allowed young children to be molested over a long period of time even as he knew of these abuses.

Hard for me to look at this new Pope and to think of him as anything but an accomplice.

dd

Can't Hitchens be sued for this libel? "Secret and organized rape/torture" - that is a clear lie and piece of anti catholic propaganda...

PS - I wonder if he also perpetuates "blood-libel" against the Jewish people?

Not to mention his propaganda for Iraq.

Those who cheer this bigot and propagandist really need to reevaluate your motives...

To say that the abuses of certain Catholic clergy is in fact "the institutionalization of child rape" is, I believe, an outrageous comment and one that needs to have a second look at. "Institutionalizing" sexual abuse within the Catholic Church would imply that these actions were organized and implicitly agreed upon by the larger body of Catholic priests and ministers, and subsequently carried out through US parishes. Yes, Cardinal Law was a major figure in the cover-up of abuses in the Diocese of Boston, and his actions were in fact condemned by the higher-ups in the Vatican (he is now a resident - or, more or less, clerical prisoner - at St. Vincent's University, a rural college outside of Pittsburgh...is that evidence of the Vatican's "praise" of his work?)

I am a Catholic, and certainly not its strongest defender (particularly on issues of abortion, same-sex marriage, women clergy, integrating indigenous forms of worship into the Catholic Liturgy, etc.), but now that the Church has continued to apologize, recompensate victims of abuse, and continue the healing process, these accusations, like those made by the atheist Mr. Hitchens - who perhaps finds all religious belief and practice to be intolerable, either institutional or not - must be stopped.

That said, the truth has been revealed: let us wrestle with these issues with the utmost seriousness, excommunicate all offenders from the Church, and openly advocate that they be tried and fully punished in a court of law.

Thanks to the lack of reporting integrity in articles like Time Magazine's April 14th cover story about Pope Benedict and now hundreds of newspaper articles about his U.S. visit, many people still don't know that President Bush gave the Pope immunity from prosecution in a 2005 lawsuit that accused him of conspiring to cover up the molestation of three boys in a Texas parish. Before he became Pope, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was also implicated in other sex abuse cover-ups. One of the most heartbreaking stories was that of Ratzinger's harboring knowledge of the sex abuse crimes of California priest Oliver O'Grady whose rapes, including that of a 9 month old infant, were covered up by Roger Mahony, then Archbishop of the Los Angeles diocese, who later became a Cardinal. Sound complicated? It's all really simple; a Bishop wanted to become a Cardinal, a Cardinal wanted to become the Pope and they thought that bad press would quash their chances. These criminals got what they wanted and magazines like Time, and people in power, like G.W. Bush, continue to cover-up their crimes in spite of the Oscar-nominated documentary, Deliver Us From Evil, that has exposed it all. What about the hundreds of destroyed lives who cry out for a modicum of justice; shouldn't they be mentioned when any media publication runs a major story about this criminal, aka the Pope?

To say that the abuses of certain Catholic clergy is in fact "the institutionalization of child rape" is, I believe, an outrageous comment and one that needs to have a second look at. "Institutionalizing" sexual abuse within the Catholic Church would imply that these actions were organized and implicitly agreed upon by the larger body of Catholic priests and ministers, and subsequently carried out through US parishes. Yes, Cardinal Law was a major figure in the cover-up of abuses in the Diocese of Boston, and his actions were in fact condemned by the higher-ups in the Vatican (he is now a resident - or, more or less, clerical prisoner - at St. Vincent's University, a rural college outside of Pittsburgh...is that evidence of the Vatican's "praise" of his work?)

I am a Catholic, and certainly not its strongest defender (particularly on issues of abortion, same-sex marriage, women clergy, integrating indigenous forms of worship into the Catholic Liturgy, etc.), but now that the Church has continued to apologize, recompensate victims of abuse, and continue the healing process, these accusations, like those made by the atheist Mr. Hitchens - who perhaps finds all religious belief and practice to be intolerable, either institutional or not - must be stopped.

I heartily agree. Cardinal Law was basically given a promotion and moved to the Vatican. Anyone who has looked at previously-closed court files can attest to the overarching cover-up and obfuscation that was a standard operating procedure throughout the Catholic Church in regard to these abuses. It was deemed far more important to protect the Church than to protect its sheep.

“Christopher brings his usual bag of hot air with his poorly considered comments. WE the people are the Church; the clergy (including the bishops) are the hired help. It’s moronic to say that the Church has “institutionalized child-rape.” WE the Church suffer many things – including hired help that fail in their personal conduct and in their duties to us. Despite those failures (and silly comments from Christopher), the Church has not institutionalized that conduct.” - John Mahoney

“WE the people” do not get a vote. Nominations take place behind closed doors. All “WE the people” get to see is smoke.

Zeus, Quetzalcoatl, & Thor.

Know what those "gods" have in common w/ the Judeo-Christian god?? They are all figments of people's imaginations. To translate, for the slow ones, they are not real.

Instead of bashing this old Nazi-& believe me, he deserves a lot of that for being the leader of a church that historically has "converted" people through fire & sword-should we not be questioning the existence of this fictitious being that has incarcerated our minds by people telling us to obey "X" book??

I think, Hitch, in writing this libel was simply expanding on his fantasies - organized rape and torture....much like in Iraq.

How has your recent plastic surgery gone - Hitch - you vainglorious lout.

What about the Church in other nations where the rights of children aren't a priority. In America we teach our children about "good" and "bad" touching and we counsel them to go to a trusted adult when they suspect someone of doing them harm. Is it any wonder that the scandal broke in America, but what about other countries? Are you going to tell me that this only happened here? I don't think so!!! What is the Church doing about this especially in light of the fact that NO bishops have been fired!!

I wholeheartedly agree with Christopher Hitchens. The Church's "problem" is in the institution: heriarchical, self-protective, change-adverse, inability to examine it's own short-comings. The Pope's words ring hollow; the world, particularly the victims likely care little for words. Rather, a demonstration of thorough change of heart on the part of the Church is the only answer.

Tony writes:
"You are correct to bring out the complicity of Msgr Law and Pope Benedict in the LA and Boston scandals. However, you leave out the fact that the church has recently come out against the war in Iraq, which is how it should be."

Tony,

Mr. Hitchens also neglected to mention the Pope's favorite color and what he got for his birthday.

This is no way to conduct a dialog; your paragraph is a bold example of a red herring.

Mr. Hitchens,

Very concise statement of the facts, and what needed to be said. Thank you.

It is interesting to read the comments here of so many catholics who are STILL DEFENDING the preists who have raped children or allowed children to be raped by other priests. How disapointing that these people can be so blinded by their own faith that they are not able to recognize that trust has been given to very bad people among their ranks. To argue that, well, most of the victims were not exactly children they were teenagers, or to say that, well, other institutions can be worse, is all semantic noise which no OBJECTIVE observer would find a need to differentiate. After all, a 14 year old boy who is raped by their catholic preist is still a victim regardless of weather it didn't happen to him when he was 7 years old and regardless of what other institutions produce rape victims!

You have a platform, Mr. Hitchens, speak up and avail yourself of the opportunity to pressure this Pope to make amends for the crusades, the dastardly killings during the reformation in Europe and the image of the church as an ill-suited entity unable to act on speak on behalf of its own teachings. -Tony Gillotte

He actually did just what you ask by writing the book “God Is Not Great.” Now, let’s see the Catholic church write a response to Mr. Hitchens in as much clarity and logic…
______________________________________

To STANTHEMAN:
Your education is not Mr. Hitchens’ responsibility. Google him or better yet, buy or borrow his book and you will get all the information you are missing.

Dear Christopher,
As a proponent of the slaughter of countless innocent Iraqi men, women and children, which continues daily simply by our presence there, your comments on the rape of children in church by priests seems self-serving. Decry Bush or be quiet.
Best regards,
J.

To CARNEY:

You are stating FACTS – where are you getting these FACTS?
Are they from court documents in this case?
You claim that the sexual abuse victims were in the “vast majority young adults or teenage youths”.
Please source this claim (and incidentally, a teenager is a CHILD until s/he turns 18).

Media Bias – the mainstream media is hostile towards SEXUAL ABUSE whether conducted by members of the Catholic Church or any other member of society. And rightfully so.

You are obviously in denial on this issue and attempting to limit the full responsibility that the Catholic Church has in this child sex abuse.

An organization that makes men wear dresses and expressly forbids them to use their equipment for procreation as God intended is a joke.
Celibacy is almost impossible for the majority of men anyway.

Catholic Church:
Italian origins
Male leadership
Hidden wealth
Fancy dressers
Fear based extortion
Secrecy
Strict loyalty to organization
Subjects obey or face punishment
History of callous cruelty
History of pedophilia

Mafia:
Male leadership
Hidden wealth
Fancy dressers
Fear based extortion
Secrecy
Strict loyalty to organization
Subjects obey or face punishment
History of callous cruelty

Christopher has hit the nail right on the head with his concise and to the point comment.

Catholic church is now riding on the wave of immigrants from Latin America because the mainstream membership and attendance is obviously dwindling.

My question is, in this 21st century of individualism, what does the POPE really have to offer? Can't people simply read the bible and take their faith in their own hands?

I have.

Mr. Hitchens:

You are correct to bring out the complicity of Msgr Law and Pope Benedict in the LA and Boston scandals. However, you leave out the fact that the church has recently come out against the war in Iraq, which is how it should be.

But, the question that needs asking from your highly visible platform is whether this socalled Pope will bring up his churchs pronouncements on that war, one in which hundreds of thousands of innocent people were slaughtered in the name of this war.

When Bush asks Americans to remember that the Pope's visit should remind people to distinguish between simple right or wrong, he risks making a fool of himself again. The war in Iraq has been the wrong decision from the beginning. It was the wrong thing to do and nearly 80 percent of American people know the truth about this shameful episode.

Kindly get off your pedestal long enough to recognize that in comparing the two infractions, the war is far more heinous than the episodes in LA and Boston.

That would be a real distinction between right and wrong.

Tony Gillotte

"The pope and Bush are very similar in their authoritarian ,black and white view of the world"

It is entertaining that the anti cathoics on here parade their ignorance as fact...

...the pope and the president have quite different world views - he was only received by the president because the pope is a "head of state."

Hitchens and the president have more in common than Benedict.

PS - the reference to Hitchens' accusations and their similarity to blood libel is very true.

Everything people think they know about this mess is wrong.

Myth One: It's about pedophilia or "child rape" as Hitchens calls it.

Fact: Only a small portion of cases involved pre-pubescent children; the vast majority were with young adults or teenage youths.

Myth Two: It's a Catholc scandal.

Fact: Sexual misconduct is rampant in all denominations, and in secular institutions such as public schools and among psychiatrists, with evidence strongly suggesting that it is lower in the Catholic Church. Furthermore, the abuse rate among priests is substantially lower than among the general population. So if you had to entrust your vulnerable offspring to one of two people, and the only thing you knew about them was that one is a Catholic priest and the other is not, it would be perfectly rational to deliberately entrust your child to the priest.

Myth Three: It's caused by celibacy. Sexually frustrated priests turned to preying on altar servers.

Fact: Again, denominations which permit married clergy have as much or more sexual misconduct.

And normal males who seek to engage in illict sexual conduct do so with females, except when physically isolated from females such as when imprisoned or in long sea voyages - and even then they immediately resume pursuit of females when availability resumes. Priests, far from being physically isolated from females, are constantly in their presence; women dominate parish life and fling themselves at sensitive, unattainable father figures all the time.

Thus, the problem is one of recruitment - enforcing Church rules that forbid men who'd be tempted by adolescent males from joining the priesthood in the first place.

We need to return to the era of masculine priests, such as Jesuits, once called the "Pope's Marines" who waded ashore at D-Day to comfort the dying, and when Spencer Tracy's portrayal of a rugged priest who taught boys to box fair instead of fight dirty was unremarkable.

Myth Four: All the media attention and popular beliefs about Catholics and the priesthood must have a valid source.

Fact: Not really. The greater attention on the Catholic Church stems from several sources:

1) Its centralized nature. 10,000 Catholic parishes form a pool of money much more attractive to plaintiffs' attorneys than 10,000 separate Protestant churches.

2) Higher expectations for the Catholic Church compared to other institutions, including other denominations. In my opinon, many, regardless of their denomination or upbringing, see, at a sub-verbal, unconscious level, the Catholic Church as the authentic and real Christian church, with others as mere imitations or break-away sects. As such, any scandal or misconduct from it is inherently more newsworthy.

3) Media bias. With overwhelmingly socially liberal staffing, the mainstream media is hostile to the Church's teachings on sexual morality, and relishes the chance to embarrass the Church. Furthermore, the real nature of the scandal (males and young adult males) is covered up with misleading talk of "children" in order to avoid "scapegoating" a minority favored by Political Correctness. (A similar dynamic is at work when 17 year old gangsters who murder each other are lumped in as "child victims of guns" - as if they are 2 year olds who found Daddy's handgun).

Of course the pope is going to say he's ashamed ,could he say he was proud or sad they got 'caught" costing his "company" a lot of $ that could be used for a new summer palace.
The CHURCH is a political and financial institution selling themselves as "god's" representatives on earth which you cannot prove or disprove so it's a safe slogan.
The pope and Bush are very similar in their authoritarian ,black and white view of the world where they cannot be wrong about anything having infalliabilty and were appointed by god so they claim.

to admit to that, would be to admit that the church has utterly failed and needs a total restructuring. No sane person would expect the Vatican to remotely admit that outside of closed doors. Rather, embrace it as a propagation of degenerates in their ranks they are now cleansing. It's surprising enough they admitted to it.

Mr Hitchens - I wish you would provide more backing for your recent statements that the child abuse scandals in the Catholic Church constitute "the institutionalization of child rape" and "organized rape and torture" or whatever it was you said a couple of days ago. I am no defender of the Catholic Church and I am quite prepared to believe you; it just seems to me that such provocative statements require some amplification and presentation of evidence. Please elaborate. Thank you.

To those making specious comparisons between the actions of the Catholic church and other random groups, I say the following.

To chastise an organization is not bigotry, even if that organization has a religious focus. No one here is expressing outrage at Catholics. Rather, they are expressing outrage at the institution of the Catholic Church. Further, the outrage is not because of the "relatively small number" of child-abusers among the Priesthood. Instead, it owes to the institutional protection of known abusers. This is what differentiates the Church abuse scandal from other groups who have scandalous characters in their midst.

It's also a bit disturbing to read the quote and not see any reference to the true victims of the crimes. The worldwide Catholic Church, the US Catholic Church and the Pope himself feel great suffering? How about the children that were abused?

Benedict has refused to meet with victim's groups on this trip. Doesn't sound like someone who wants to right wrongs or admit to failings or seek to comfort the aggrieved.

Indeed, when an ABC reporter approached Cardinal Ratzinger about the unfolding Church scandal earlier this decade, Ratzinger actually slapped the reporter's hand and reprimanded him for raising the issue. The act of a deeply ashamed person?

Got news for you, Tony...

The pope has spoken out against the invasion and conflict, and it is your hero Hitch, that is one of the BIGGEST supporters of the war...

The ignorance and irony on here is amazing!

Everyone join the Christopher Hitchens lovefest.
Kum-by-ya my Lord, Kum-by-ya

Well said, Mr. Hitchens. But, you have overlooked the far more egregious sin that this Pope could committ if he doesnt mention that the Catholic church is against the war in Iraq. That the killing of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi's and American and other troops is far more damaging to the image of the Catholic church than the disgusting episodes in Los Angeles and Boston area churches.

Why hasnt the media, and you in particular Mr. Hitchens, focused on the churchs positions vis-a-vis the killing of other innocent members of the Iraqi society. Surely the silence is as deafening as the shame this Pope claims to feel over the recent unseemly behavior of a few hundred of its priests.

You have a platform, Mr. Hitchens, speak up and avail yourself of the opportunity to pressure this Pope to make amends for the crusades, the dastardly killings during the reformation in Europe and the image of the church as an ill-suited entity unable to act on speak on behalf of its own teachings.

Tony Gillotte

Exorcism: Religiously institutionalized sadism and torture.

Exorcists = thugs, torturers, criminals, according to law all over the civilized world - except medieval Vatican.

PS - where is the author's shame for the war he prostituted to the masses?

(similar to his anti-religious propaganda)

Seems to be that he likes to call out others; however, if anyone should be ashamed it is him - for the death and destruction reaped...

I wonder if the Pope confronted Mr. Bush on his approval of the cabinet meeting which created the legal and procedural framework for torturing POWs.

Also, did he say anything about the number of Iraqis killed as a consequence of the US invasion?

I would be interested in knowing.

Once a Nazi, always a nazi.

"How do you excuse the cover-ups and continued honoring of those who did the covering up?"

There is not excuse! But there certainly is no honoring" either.

Also, presenting this as deliberate, secret and wide-spread child torture is really libel and bigotry.

It is like saying that the Jews kill children for passover...complete libel - blood-libel.

Abuse occurs in all society - it was mishandled by the Church and the church has paid a dear price.

Time to move on unless you happen to be a bigot, like the author...

Speed 123,
My friend, you are very quick to take offense and cast aspersions on others' motives. Nothing in my post constitutes a smear. It states a query and an opinion. Indeed, all I requested was disclosure -- something that is far easier to come by in US public schools and from most governments than from the Church.
Moreover, few institutions outside the Holy See and some centralized authoritatian regimes (and certainly not public schools), purport to exert world wide monolithic authority over adherents and demand allegience to that authority.
In short, the Vatican, as a religious instiution and as an independent state, is a unique enough institution that your comparison is invalid. Peel away the layers. Let's see if my suspicion about the extent of the barbaric conduct is incorrect. The history and patterns of behavior surrounding the Church provide enough reason to demand transparency and accountability to all Catholics, believers and atheists.

As always, I agree with Mr. Hitchens. Going one step further to get past the constant barrage of diversions (or delusions). He is one of the few outspoken voices of reason in a world that wants to cling so tightly to the Dark Ages. And there the world may remain if we don't acknowledge the thoughts and ideas presented by him, Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins.
I would be VERY interested in hearing Mr. Hitchen's opinion/response to Hillary Clinton's comments and "answers" to questions of faith and god earlier this week as well.

Here’s something I said way back in 1784, which seems appropriate to today’s discussion. I was hoping by now you people would have grown up a bit! -- Kant

“Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's understanding without guidance from another. This immaturity is self-imposed when its cause lies not in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! [dare to know] ‘Have courage to use your own understanding!’…Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why so great a proportion of men, long after nature has released them from alien guidance, nonetheless gladly remain in lifelong immaturity, and why it is so easy for others to establish themselves as their guardians. It is so easy to be immature. If I have a book to serve as my understanding, a pastor to serve as my conscience, a physician to determine my diet for me, and so on, I need not exert myself at all. I need not think, if only I can pay: others will readily undertake the irksome work for me.”

from, An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?

Is it not the practice of clerics to skate, dismiss or dance around such things. Cardinal Law should have been dismissed or retired somewhere in the great unknown for his participation in the hiding, sweeping under the rug, etc. with the known priest. Moving them from one parish to another or retiring them to some out of the way home. I just can not think of this pope as a spiritual leader in any sense of the matter.

Have we all not forgotten than being catholic means we are supposed to forgive? I am in no way defending their actions, and think that the church should excommunicate them. Once that happens they should be jailed.

Your article seemed to vilify the new pope and attribute him to sins of the previous administration.

He without sin cast the first stone.

Mr. Hitchens couldn't have said it any better! I completely agree. As an American Roman Catholic at middle-age, the Roman Catholic Hierarchy in this country and in the Vatican need to go back and take a serious look at the Gospels, particularly that of St. John: "The Son of Man came to serve and not to be served". Over the centuries, sadly, the message of the Gospel has been systematically snuffed out by Bishops, Cardinals, the Curia, and many Popes as the trappings of their own tassels and phylacteries (and Red Prada shoes)" blind them to the truth that Jesus warned the Pharisees about in St. Matthew's Gospel. The United States puts a lot of money in the coffers of the Holy See, yet the transparency, humility, and dignity of women and many other minorities is sorely lacking. Certainly based on Benedict XVI comments yesterday, it doesn't look like the Light His Holiness so profoundly professes will be shining anytime soon in the American Catholic Church.

I think whenever I write the authors name the censors block my post....

Thin-skinned isnt he.

To all those who disagree with Hitchens: How do you excuse the cover-ups and continued honoring of those who did the covering up?

To Stella Glodek:

Next time, just press the "Post" button once. Pressing that button multiple times quickly is what caused the "too many in a short time" message. A "short time" in this context is a minute.

Ratzinger: Inquisition! He just announced that he will provide schooling for 3000 new exorcists!

Not Hollywood ones: "real" ones!

The hierarchy of the Church makes the clerical abuse problem worse than in other denominations where pastors are picked locally (and sometimes abuse as well) and magnifies it in protection of an organization by transfer rather than ending the problem. I have not read all the blogs yet, but the ones about absolute power of the papacy if they haven't already noted should reflect that when the quote was made by British Catholic Lord Acton ("Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely") the context was the adoption by the First Vatican Council of the doctrine of papal infallibility.

I agree with Ellen Wittmann, above. And, though "two" wrongs don't make a right, the Catholic Church and its relatively few priests who commit this heinous act is not the only institution or individuals who are complicit in "evil." Doesn't anyone here have sexual abuse in their family? Hasn't anyone here heard family stories about an abusing grandfather or father, whose wife -- a child's own grandmother or even mother -- who not only looks the other way during this behavior, but actually helps facilitate it? There is clearly something going very wrong in any such case -- learned aberrant behavior, denial, a deep need to maintain the appearance of normalcy, etc. And the wrong is not attributable to sole factors such as belief in God, trying to raise money, etc. Let's not reduce these very complex issues to huge egos, fundraising motives, etc.

I am a committed Catholic. I find clergy sexual abuse appalling and inexcusable. I think it's something that needs to be dealt with from the highest levels, and its roots examined and addressed systemically. But if I made it a rule never to enter a church again due to the (heinous) acts of a relatively small percentage of people who serve as priests, I might also have to make it a rule not to associate with or support other people or institutions or who do serious wrong. You know who'd be my company if I lived my life this way? I wouldn't have any.

Mr. Mark,

"the man now heading this institution of rapists"

You, sir, are a bigot...

Any institution experiences this human failure - public schools (highest abuse of all), jewish groups, protestants, etc etc.

To say that this is a Catholic problem - although mistakes were made - is truly to be a bigot with ulterior motives - that of spreading your bigotry/hate.

As it is said, anti-catholicism is the anti-semitism of the Left...

OH SHUT UP HITCHENS! HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU GET TO POUND AWAY AT THIS SUBJECT, HUH? JUST BECAUSE YOU AND SALLY QUINN ARE BFF, AND COOKED THIS TOPIC UP DURING SOME COCKTAIL CHATTER AT HER GEORGETOWN "SALON" DOES NOT MEAN ANYONE GIVES A BLOODY DAMN ABOUT YOUR PRATTLING WAYS, YOUR "LOOK AT ME, HOW COOL AND INTELLECTUAL I THINK I AM, 'CAUSE I-AM-AN-ATHEIST!" BS! NO ONE GIVES A TOSS, HITCH, OTHER THAN TO SAY, YOU ARE A FIRST-CLASS PRAT!

Yes, Hitch states the obvious and incurs the wrath of the willingly ignorant.

Compare the media outrage that fed WEEKS of stories about Obama's pastor to the deafening silence emanating from the same media in regards to the Pope harboring a man who aided and abetted child rapists for decades. One man spoke a few outrageous words. The other man heads a religious institution that knowingly and systematically shuttled child rapists around the country for decades on end, allowing them to commit their crimes again and again with new defenseless victims.

More importantly, the man now heading this institution of rapists was instrumental in covering up the scandal by threatening whistle blowers with excommunication if they dared take knowledge of the problem outside of the cozy and crime-enabling walls of the church.

And the faithful continue to make excuses for the inexcusable, fawning over a man who is JUST A MAN, and who just happens to be an willing and knowing accomplice in criminal activity as well.

Dont be ignorant, Carlos -

You can create a list of atrocities for ANY group...watch:

Atheists for their role in the 100 million deaths due to communism in Russia and China.

Blame the Americans for delaying entry in WWII, slaughter of Indians etc.

Blame Jewish intellectuals for involvement in the leadership of neo conservatism

Protestants for the horrors of the English Empire
Blame Africans for enslaving their own and selling them to Europeans.

Muslims for 9/11

ETC ETC ETC

Very easy to play that game.

Michael D. Houst: I remembered this story on Ratzinger's letter.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/apr/24/children.childprotection1

I remember finding a copy in English of the actual letter after I read the story, but could not track one down this afternoon. Coincidence???? I don't think so!!! Or actually, LOL, it probably is just a coincidence.

In any case, Ratzinger's letter was a clarification of and reminder about an earlier letter from 1962 on the investigation and punishment of priests using the confessional to "solicit" sex from adults and children.

Shades of Henry II of England and St. Thomas Becket (why was he canonized?) this claimed the church had sole authority to investigate and punish these kinds of transgressions: fair enough in the case of consenting adults, odious in the case of children.

A number of earlier posters suggested that it was simply difficult to get rid of the offending priests: I would think jail would do the trick.

It should also be added that the Catholic Church is by no means the only one with these sorts of problems, mostly I think it is just richer than others, and perhaps, in part because of the bans on marriage and the ordinations of women, has a real staffing problem: just not enough priests to go around, so make do with the ones you have...

Why is everyone surprised by any of this? Catholic Church leadership has always been more or less as corrupt as any absolute, uncontested power. Witness:
- this repugnant issue
- acceptance of Nazism, deaf/mute toward the holocaust(and 75 + years to "apologize" for it)
- supporting malignant dictatorships (e.g., Pinochet, Somoza, Batista, Mussolini)
- the Inquisition
- the slaughter of 20MM + indigenous americans who would not convert or crawl to the virgin on their knees (still a tourist sight in Mexico)
- on and on ad nauseum

Mark,

What faulty logic you use - let me try the same smear using public schools:

There are millions in public schools all over the nation (and world). There is child abuse in these schools in every state - therefore, all teachers and principles are child molesters...

(schools have a higher rate of abuse than churches, btw, with 2500 accused teachers in the past 5 years alone - many were transfered and protected by higher ups)

Child abuse is a societal (and universal) problem, it is not restricted to one group.

To say otherwise is to show your bigotry and ulterior motives...

Good thing that Hitchens makes a characiture of himself and his own extremism on this piece.

"institutionalized torture of children" - wow! that is some attempt at a smear of an entire people.

Only hardcore bigots and extreme atheists will agree with this one...

The Law situation is revealing. But what really needs revealing is the extent to which the scandal is repeated world wide. We are familiar with the Boston and LA headline producing abuses. Given the Church's reach, this must be only a very small drop in a very, very large bucket. IMO no Vatican regime can have any credibility on any issue until this travesty is dealt with in a comprehensive and transparant manner.
Peace.

Your bigotry is showing!

Love the comment from WJS. Such a typcial response from a defender of the status quo. Totally ignores the issue of Cardinal Law and only disparges Christopher Hitchens instead.

"This expression of contempt [!]for the victims makes the Pope himself a direct accomplice [!] in the very atrocity that he affects [!] to denounce."

Slanderous, nasty, hysterical nonsense.

Keep letting that anti catholic bigotry on the forum, WAPO...

...it wouldn't be admitted if they called Judaism a cult of the devil, that all Jews are guilty of child torture etc.

I agree with Hitchens, but don't think he goes far enough. People who are used to the whole framework of the Catholic hierarchy don't find it troublesome that the system promotes the notion of obedience to authority above all else. The priestly hierarchy is all about dominance of power over ordinary people. This permeates the whole system -- the "respect" that is supposed to be expressed by people's obedience is simply submissiveness to power. What flows from this dominant/submissive model? Gestures like kissing the ring of the pope to signify how important he is. The lower status of women. The use of children as "altar boys". The lower status of lay people in ordinary churches. The wealth of the Vatican. The protection of the priests from poverty, harm, or retribution.

When we see this culture of domination in a foreign setting, such as North Korea or Baathist Iraq, we find it unsettling and wrong. It is truly disturbing that in the setting of a familiar religious system, we find it tolerable. It is not.

Hitchens is just saying the obvious, but since most commentators are ignoring the obvious here, it's important that it be said again and again. There are good people in the church but it has become the Rome-based child molestation cult. As long as Law is honored instead of condemned the church leaders deserve no respect.

Hitch tells it like it is. Far too many Americans can't handle that.

Hitchens is just saying the obvious, but since most commentators are ignoring the obvious here, it's important that it be said again and again. There are good people in the church but it has become the Rome-based child molestation cult. As long as Law is honored instead of condemned the church leaders deserve no respect.

Hitchens?! They got HITCHENS to write this? What next, asking Ahmadinejad to provide the obit for Billy Graham when the day comes? This is just sensationalism at best. Couldn't they come up with a respected Psychiatrist? Or a prominent attorney? Someone other than the man who's only claim to fame is throwing ideological bombs at people?

Christopher brings his usual bag of hot air with his poorly considered comments. WE the people are the Church; the clergy (including the bishops) are the hired help. It’s moronic to say that the Church has “institutionalized child-rape.” WE the Church suffer many things – including hired help that fail in their personal conduct and in their duties to us. Despite those failures (and silly comments from Christopher), the Church has not institutionalized that conduct.

As usual, Mr. Hitchens is right on the money. I can't believe that Law is still an honored member of any institution other than a Boston jail.

Bingo.

The sad thing about the Church is its inability to recognize that priests are human and have the same sexual urges as other people. By not allowing a healthy outlet for these urges, the Church breeds unhealthy actions by its priests. Other religous groups, including the Eastern Orthodox Church, do not have this problem because they allow their clergy to marry. The great Catholic Church could be even greater, and more relevant, if it acknowledged its error as regards sexual mores. But it appears unlikely that this Pope or his successors will be able to deal rationally with this issue.

Let us remember:
Ratzinger's former post as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith made him the head of the contemporary outgrowth of the Inquisition.
What's with the 21-gun salute? Isn't that reserved for heads of state? Doesn't the United States have separation of church and state?
For once, Hitchens gets it absolutely right.

Until the Pope and the Vatican remove and return Cardinal Law back to Boston to face what should be charges of accomplice to child rape, it's impossible to take the Catholic Church serious. There is nothing more duplicitous than the presence of Cardinal Law as an honored figure at the Vatican.

It's the same old thing. God's Rotweiler is no different than his new best friend, G. Bush. Just as with the outrages of Abu Ghraib, it's simply a matter of a few bad apples. Nothing wrong with the leaders, you know, it's just that these things happen, and when they do we must focus all of our anger on the few who sully our own moral perfection.

Hitchens is absolutely correct. The Roman Catholic Church scandalizes itself with every day that Law is tolerated. The horror of child-rape that his presence in the Vatican validates is an outrage, and he ought at the very least be excommunicated.

It's high time the Pope and his leadership practice--not just preach--absolute intolerance for the wolves in the flock.

Chris is a smart man. I'm sure he knows how evil flourishes in the absence of religion and faith (Nazi Germany, Communist China, Communist Russia, Pol Pot regime, etc. etc. etc.)

I agree with Hitchens!

I don't know about the truth or falsity of Brian Anderson's statement that, "Ratzinger, as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote a letter forbidding, on pain of excommunication, priests from reporting these crimes to the police, and instead demanded that the reports be sent exclusively to him in Rome, where he apparently did little or nothing about any of it."

But if true, Ratzinger has been reading these stories for years and deliberately promulgated a coverup of atrocities worthy of the 3rd Reich. Dare I mention early influences on an impressionable man?

For an intelligent man, it's very easy to see how these "priests" betrayed their mission. Instead we are faced with a man as pope who is either incapable of understanding human nature, or incapable of acting in an ethical and moral manner to resolve an institutional problem.

However, in reading some of these posts, it seems that there's more pure hatred of religion than there is real concern for those who continue to suffer.

Makes me think if there weren't a sex abuse scandal, the Hitchenites would have invented one.

APRIL 16, 2008 11:31 AM

________

Q: Why do they continue to suffer?

A: Religion.

Good logic, yet you try to argue it away.

There is so much criminality in the history of the Catholic church (and all others), Hitchens wouldn't have to invent anything. We could use any of the following to make a truthful argument against the "Church": murder, torture, theft by violence, theft by deception, genocide, matricide, patricide, pedophilia, war, fraud, and buggery, with a capital "B".

It's not hatred of the church. It's hatred of evil.

The problem is that there was no effective mechanism in place to oust the perv perps. They could be fired from various parishes and even kicked out of dioceses but still get clergy jobs elsewhere. Plus, the attitude at the time was that these guys were mentally ill and needed counseling.

The Catholics and their supporters here miss the point entirely, and that point is:

The "church" has nothing to do with god (even if there were such a being). Take a good hard look at the long history of politics, murder, torture, and theft perpetrated by this organization and then try to explain to yourself how this history squares with the teachings of its ostensible messiah, Jesus of Nazereth.

The church and its teachings are lies. The church is a continuing criminal enterprise. The church's followers are guilty through their association with and support of the criminality, as well as being guilty of the self-crime of intellectual dishonesty.

I'll go even further than Mr. Hitchens did. It's the very secrecy that lies at the heart of the priesthood -- the aversion to true transparency and openness, the deeply institutionalized mechanism of denial -- that attracts pedophiliacs to the priesthood in the first place. Those with secrets to keep will always be drawn to a place that thrives on secrecy. THose who are in denial about the acts are complicit in the acts, and the fact that Bernard Law has been rewarded with his big Vatican job is an obscenity of the first order. And the fact that Catholics are not out in droves protesting in front of every church is further proof that the denial exists on every level, even in the very people the church purports to serve.

I agree with Hichens' comments. From the Pope on down through the hierarchy, every effort has been made to conceal and even deny that pedophilia was endemic among priests. The Church's response to Cardinal Law's perfidy was outrageous and showed the its indifference to the suffering of the victims. Notwithstanding Pope Benedict's comments, the Church hierarchy continues its passive, rather than proactive, role in dealing with this horrific situation.

With Hitches' definition of accomplice liability, who isn't going to hell?

I agree with you 100%, Mr. Hitchens. He's over here for one reason and one reason only - fundraising. Since the RCC membership is drying up in Europe, he needs to connect with the "American Catholics" he has in the past denigrated and strictly to increase membership and therefore to increase funds.

He's so transparent.

Pope Benedict certainly missed a great opportunity by not coming up here to Boston, where the sexual abuse scandal exploded in the face of Cardinal Bernard Law. The pope could have offered a healing presence to survivors of this unforgivable betrayal. Demoting Law from his current position would also be a good move.

Lay Catholics have formed groups like Voice of the Faithful and SNAP to push for reforms. We won't forget the victims. We will do everything we can to make sure it does not happen again. We have not and will not give up.

However, in reading some of these posts, it seems that there's more pure hatred of religion than there is real concern for those who continue to suffer.

Makes me think if there weren't a sex abuse scandal, the Hitchenites would have invented one.

Thanks for so articulately expressing the outrage due this man.

Y0U GO, CHRIS!

How can the faithful allow this climate to exist? The cries are from the abused and the groups that advocate their cause, not the faithful. I am sure they denounce this and find it reprehensible, but with 'institutionalized child rape', the Catholic faithful should demand wholesale changes to the church that parallels the reformation.

I would hate to think that child rape is permissible as long as it is under the umbrella of religion, but without a mass outcry from good Catholics the world over demanding accountability and change, I can see no other conclusion.

How exactly does a "Church" suffer? Is he refering to a financial portfolio that's a little lighter? What exactly has Benedict publicly stated regarding the "deny everything and admit nothing" policy of "TRUTH" expoused by the "Church" BEFORE stories went public and judgements started being rendered? Where was the accountability then, Pontiff?

Stella Glodek - Get used to it. The Post's website site needs serious work. Lately my postings seem to vanish down a black hole, never to be seen, despite the fact that they're on topic and in no way abusive. I'll be surprised if this gets posted.

Thank you Mr. Hitchens for a much needed reality check.

Ms. Wittmann: Catholic moral theology has strict standards about moral cooperation to describe complicity in an immoral act. I encourage you to look into the cooperation distinctions, and you’ll see that the Pope, as with all the Church leadership, insofar as they knew about the abuses, were arguably in formal cooperation (the strictest standard). Its time that Church leaders apply their own moral standards, set out so strictly upon others, to themselves.

Alice: You might consider backing up your claim.

I wrote a comment regarding Pope Benedict. Two paragraphs. I wanted to submit it. I PRESSED POST and it didn't seem to accept.I pressed it several more times.

Shortly after a message came (approximately)"Your comments were not accepted because your (me) submitted too many in a short time. I HAVE NEVER POSTED ANY COMMENTS ON YOUR WEBSITE before today.

Stella Glodek

Another very critical issue here is that the Catholic organization has not been active in calling in the police when such perversion is discovered.

Actually, that group seems to want to hide the offenders rather than obey the laws of our country.

What is striking about the Pope's statement is that he apparently has no feelings for the actual victims--to wit the children who were forced into intimacies by their trusted priests.

Hollow words is what I hear when I listen to Benedict. Actions speak louder than words and his actions are dripping with criminality!

to nick:

don't need to pray for my soul, my mum does and she knows that i dont believe in god, god lovers are for the smallminded people. who do you think that brings food to your home or gives you the power to face life, ITS YOU, not god. and why is your god the only one and not the gods from other religion? its all a farce and people are still making fools of them selfs so the church and the vatican can laugh at your stupidity with the money that worshipers give to them

Mr. Hitchens- you are always so negative when it comes to the Catholic Church. Can you ever say anything nice or upbeat?

"As a Catholic, I find the priest crisis appalling as do many others. I find it more reprehensible all the Catholic Haters that actually are always looking at things to bash the Church."

There you have it folks. Another Catholic who deems criticism of Catholic pedophilia worse than Catholic pedophilia.

There were times in which any criticism of the Chuch or display or rationality would get you a slow, agonizing death at Catholic hands.

Those hands can only wield expressions of reprehension today, instead of the instruments of pain.

Let us rejoice that they are a dying breed.

Amen, Brother.

Luke 4:38 reads, "And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her."

The mention of "Peter's wife's mother" proves that Peter was married. His wife was likely still living, as Paul later asks in I Corinthians 9:5, "Do we have no right to take along a believing wife, as do also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?" This indicates that several of the apostles were married during their ministries.

Erroneously, Roman Catholics claim Peter to be the rock on which the church was built, the vicar of Christ, and the first Pope. How can they maintain, then, that it is wrong for "priests" to marry? If this were a sin, why did Christ not immediately reject Peter as an apostle, since he had a wife? It seems incredible that the Catholic Church would teach that Peter was its "first Pope," a model to all his successors, yet forbid its priests to marry despite his being a married man!

Priestly celibacy is specifically contrary to New Testament teaching (I Timothy 4:1, 3). Paul instructs, "A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, . . . one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?)" (I Timothy 3:2, 4-5). Scripture makes no objection to God's ministers having a wife. As Hebrews 13:4 declares, "Marriage is honorable among all."

Dwight:
You are, of course, wrong. Most pedophilia is by straight men- not gay. As a homophobe yourself- it is so much easier to blame this crime on gay men instead of facing the facts.

As a Catholic, I find the priest crisis appalling as do many others. I find it more reprehensible all the Catholic Haters that actually are always looking at things to
bash the Church. If it wasn't this it would be something else. Just like Jew haters, they look at life through their preconceived beliefs.

I pray that hate be removed from their troubled souls and we can find a real solution to this.

Can we please have Christopher Hitchens write this whole page? It is so nice to have some real intelligence on religionism in the WaPo.

No doubt Mr. Hitchens will be attacked because he rightly points out the current pope's complicity in the abuse of children. I cannot understand how Christians and Catholics in particular are so willing to turn a blind eye to such obvious corruption. Do the people who defend the current pope and his role understand anything about the words of Jesus? How can you claim to be a Christian and support a church that has worked so hard to deny recognition and even making payments to the victims to this abuse?

I think that Jews and athiests should stick to criticizing their own.

If Christopher Hitchens applied the same level of accountability and culpability to his co-conspirators in the Bush administration George Bush would be in chains in the Hague by now.

Go figure.

The sex abuse problem in the church is not new, and comes mostly from the unnatural imposition of priestly "celibacy." This is how the Lutheran reformers reported the situation to the Holy Roman Emperor in 1530:

"Among all people, both of high and of low degree, there has been loud complaint throughout the world concerning the flagrant immorality and the dissolute life of priests who were not able to remain continent and who went so far as to engage in abominable vices. In order to avoid such unbecoming offense, adultery, and other lechery, some of our priests have entered the married state."

(First two sentences of Article XXIII of the Augsburg Confession (from the German version).)

I was waiting all day yesterday for some newsperson to bring up the Cardnal Law issue.
After watching many news programs I never heard one word. And my guess is that I won't hear anything about it from the corporate dominated news.I had the feeling Hitchens would mention it even before I read the article. Now the question is, how do we get Hitchens on CNN,CBS,NBC and ABC ?

The Pope's problem is that he cannot allow people as important as Law to be dragged into the public square and dealt with as criminals. The Catholic church's whole schtick is predicated on the godliness of its minions, their role as interlocutors with the Great Pumpkin in the Sky. As a politician his holey-ness can't allow this fantasy image to be undermined.

Yes, Mr. Hitchens got it exactly right. I have always wondered how it was that not only could the Catholic hierarchy protect the perpetrators but also that the larger community of Catholics could simply pretend that the abuse was not going on. That feigned and studied ignorance was tantamount to complicity.

I wrote a comment regarding Pope Benedict. Two paragraphs. I wanted to submit it. I PRESSED POST and it didn't seem to accept.I pressed it several more times.

Shortly after a message came (approximately)"Your comments were not accepted because your (me) submitted too many in a short time. I HAVE NEVER POSTED ANY COMMENTS ON YOUR WEBSITE before today.

Stella Glodek

Victor wins!

I am also unclear on what Hitchens was expecting the Pope to say, and think he does not go far enough when he suggests that "this expression of contempt for the victims makes the Pope himself an accomplice," though I agree with the gist of Hitchens' argument.

Normally, one would say that anyone who became aware of child rape would be morally obligated to report it to the police.

Not, apparently if one is a Catholic Priest, or "God's Rotweiler" and the future Pope.

Ratzinger, as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote a letter forbidding, on pain of excommunication, priests from reporting these crimes to the police, and instead demanded that the reports be sent exclusively to him in Rome, where he apparently did little or nothing about any of it.

John Law is just the tip of the iceberg, and this was by no means limited to the US. In fact, if one goes by the testimony of a number of repentant Priests, it seems to be endemic, and widely ignored or hidden.

Lest anyone be delusional or ignorant enough to take this as an attack on Catholics in general, or their faith, it is not, at all. Faith is one thing, the actions of fallible humans in a large organization is something else entirely.

Dwight: Raping a child (and this odious criminal conspiracy was by no means limited to abusing boys) is different from having consensual sex with an adult. One is a grave crime made graver in this case by the abuse of trust at all levels of the church. The other is a normal human relation.

this is wrong to gange up on someone just because of an opinion.It's a free country

Thanks so much for exposing the arrogance of the

so called holy church

Larry

Christopher Hitchens uses clarity and common sense when he passes on an opinion, and i admire him for this ... it boggles the mind of a sane and rational person as to why ANYBODY could even allow themselves to pass through the doors of a church, and personally contribute to ANY type of religious lunacy ... the very thought of a "god" that needs to be worshiped, promoted and killed for, is indicative of the mass insanity that still rules on this planet, which we are destroying incrementaly, and rapidly, every day that humans continue to exist ...when at last we have wiped ourselves off this eden, with nuclear war, or some super-virus, whichever comes first, then and only then can mother earth begin to heal.

Thank you, Chris Hitchens. The subtlety of the Vatican's hypocrisy, both on pedophilia and homosexuality, is lost on the average person, including most reporters.

To Ellen Wittmann:
Christopher Hitchens is not specifically against Catholicism, he is against religion. I encourage you to read his book "God Is Not Great" and to argue against his point of view. As far as I know, and hope to be corrected if I'm wrong, no one has endeavored to prove him wrong. Pope Benedict may not be personally a child rapist but he is most definitely a conspirator in child rape, aiding and abetting Cardinal Bernard Law.

Abstinence makes the Church grow fondlers...

Good Morning, Christopher Hitchens!

You are jumping to a wrong conclusion that just because Benedict loves his priests he hates little children. Don't you see that beatific face, the beautiful white hair and robe? I doubt if the Pope considers himself complicit in child rape. Can't you just take him at his WORD: "it is difficult for me to understand how it was possible that priests betrayed in this way their mission to give healing, to give the love of God to these children"? IT IS DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND (but I'm trying). Yet is was obviously possible and actual that quite a number of priests couldn't keep their members in line, so to speak. There ARE priests (I know some) who gave and give healing and the love of God to everyone around them, including children, including me, and I haven't been raped or even kissed (well, not in a sexual way anyway) by a priest.

"You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." one of the first commendments, one of the first to be broken by the church and the vatican... whats the idea of selling pope images so people can adore. the vatican and the pope are a joke, religion is a joke and its because of it that are so many wars in the world. the vatican its one of the most richest states in the world and one of the most powerfull and currupt organizations, they keep all the money to themselfs so the pope can dress in stupid gold outfits and give nothing to the poor

The clerical scandal in the Church was not a problem of pedophilia. The problem was homosexuality. That's still a problem, and until the Church cleans house, it won't change.

Hitchens hates the Church for numerous reasons, not least of which, of course, is that he's an atheist. Nor is he happy about the position of the Church on the war in Iraq.

First of all, posting next to nothing because the eloquent paragraph I whipped off just disappeared into the "ether" because I screwed up my new e-mail address. More to come if I manage this time.
Good Morning!

I've studied history for most of my 62 years and one of the lessons I've learned is that institutions never really outgrow their origins. For just one example, when Lenin took over Russia he became the Czar. The "party" replaced the aristocracy. Party members became the new priesthood. Serfs became "Workers". The changes were cosmetic. Autocracy is autocracy is autocracy.

The Roman Catholic religion grew out of the ancient Roman religion. In many cases only the names were changed. Vestal Virgins became nuns. Saturnalia became Christmas. The Supreme Pontiff ("Supreme Bridge Builder", one of the emperor's titles) became the Pope. Etc, etc, etc, etc.

In ancient Rome pedophilia was not a crime. Yes, it has been a very long time since Constantine, but pedophilia is very often passed down from elder to younger. If you count generations (40 years) instead of years, the Catholic church has only been around for 40 generations or so. My goodness, there are ethnic traditions that are older than that!

When Constantine made Christianity the state religion some 1700 years ago, many pagan priests became christians with a small "c" because they converted under duress. Their practices remained largely unchanged. Only the names changed.

The Catholic Priesthood is an ancient "good ol' boys club". They look after their own, they guard their secrets, and everyone know someone else's dirt.

A mutual corroboration society.

Gay and pedophilia are not the same thing! That is like saying married men cannot abuse children. Get Real! The issue is that the Catholic church (i.e. the Pope) is just as guilty as the men the Catholic church just moved around for so long.

I have no idea what motivates Hitchens' strong dislike of all things Catholic, though I certainly understand the bitter (yes, bitter) anguish of many present and former Catholics regarding the Church's unjust treatment of its own. As Paul Lakeland and others have carefully analyzed the situation, the larger institutional problem is systemic, however, and not the fault of any one individual. Of course everyone is responsible for his or her actions within the system, but as far as I know, Benedict is not a child-rapist or a collaborator in child-rape. So let's tone down the hate and look a bit more clearly and rationally at what isn't working in the Catholic Church so that we can fix it.

and what exactly did you want the church's response to be? there was not any institutionalization of child rape but the acceptance of gays in the clergy. clean out the gays and most of these problems dissappear.

Though a committed Christian and someone frequently in disagreement with Mr. Hitchens' views on organized religion, I could not agree with him more in his above statement.
The Roman Church must allow parish priests to marry. Only those priests who care to go through the hierarchical chairs should be required to take an oath of celibacy.

The what?

Carol, thankfully most of us don't need to refer to an irrelevent collection of out-dated musings by people dead for millenia! It you and others insist on this being your moral frame of reference then we are surely destined for demise.

Now, are you going to stone me for my opinion as Leveticus would have you do?

:-P

I rarely agree with anything Mr. Hitchens has to say (at least not since he abandoned us and slipped over to the "dark side" through his support of the Bush Administration) but on this count he couldn't have spoken a more evident truth.
I was raised as an altar boy in the Catholic Church and have few fond memories of those experiences, but feel fortunate not to have been a victim of this kind of abuse. For the Church to actively hide and protect known child abusers from criminal prosecution is an affront to us all and should be roundly condemned.

What do you expect from a religion that practices symbolic cannibalism once a week?

All you have to do is read the book Betrayal to know that Christopher Hitchen, not the pope, is ABSOLUTELY correct.

Alice, you are either naive or in denial; a result of your Catholic upbringing?

Hogwash. Waste of good print.

Mr. Hitchens is correct in this case.

The Catholic church is not recognizing the truth, about these terrible invasions on their youth. It is not natural for man to live alone.This is from the Bible, Adam was given a helpmate Eve,she completed Him. You can not expect a natural function to be supressed. The results are now being revealed, and not being dealt with truthfully.