I haven’t written about Catholic matters in a while but the
priestly sex abuse issue just will not go away and especially the huge cover-up
of the scandal by the Church; new evidence keeps coming out.
This time it is the Los Angeles Archdiocese, the largest in
the country, and Cardinal Roger Mahony, now retired.
More than 500 abuse victims from around Los Angeles have
sued the church over the years and the church has acknowledged the abuse,
apologized and supposedly has taken steps to prevent future abuse but new
documents have surfaced giving inside details of a cover-up involving Cardinal
Mahony who led the diocese from 1985 till his retirement in 2011.
The new information could lead to criminal charges as proof
of a cover-up emerges.
The story is the same; no matter how many times I write
about it and still what infuriates me more and more are the decidedly “inhumane”
actions of church officials who cared less for the young victims but more for
the abuser priests and the reputation of the Catholic Church allowing abuser
priests to keep abusing…you cannot get more inhumane than that.
An article by Frank Bruni in today’s New York Times titled
CATHOLICISM’S CURSE takes on the church’s ARROGANCE & HUBRIS which has been
infuriating me for years. The Vatican will not admit to error and any challenge
to their absolute authority on all matters is treated by them, as a challenge
to God and really you cannot have a more asinine and arrogant position than
that.
Bruni talks about Rev. Tony Flannery (66) of Ireland who has
been very vocal about Vatican abuses of power but more importantly and very
interesting to me as a history nut is Flannery’s position that the Catholic
priesthood did not originate with Jesus and his followers but was “selfishly”
created by a privileged group in the Christian community who had abrogated
power and authority to themselves…now were’ talking!!!
In my reading of history, Jesus and his Apostles remained
Jewish and within Judaism till the end; they did not start a new religion and
did not think of Jesus as somehow divine but only as a prophet. This group of
Jesus followers did not become Christians in any sense of the word but died in
obscurity known as EBIONITES. Jesus’ Apostles followed James the Just (Jesus’
brother) as documented in the New Testament and rejected Paul of Tarsus as an
apostate from Jewish Law which they followed till the end.
Now were’ talking about some serious challenges to Vatican
authority based on history which the Vatican obviously has tried to re-write
throughout the ages.
GARRY WILLS a very Catholic and prodigious author of books
on Catholicism has written WHY PRIESTS? A FAILED TRADITION. I have already
pre-ordered the book which will be published next month.
This most Catholic of authors, says in his new book that
early Christianity not only didn't have “priests” but opposed the idea of “priests”.
The establishment of a hierarchy within the church was a later invention as was
the all-male, celibate priesthood which I have written about many times; it did
not come from God and is only a tradition, a tradition that has been decaying
throughout the centuries hitting its lowest point in our own time.
I cannot wait to read the book by Wills and I hope that the
book, coming from such a loyal Catholic, will have an impact on the problem of “Catholicism’s
Curse”.
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