The Catholic bishops haz a sad again. This time it’s the Catholic bishops in the Netherlands. Not the ones in Belgium, nor in Bavaria, nor in Ireland, nor in Alaska, nor in Boston, nor in New York. No. These are the ones in the Netherlands. They haz a sad because
Tens of thousands of children have suffered sexual abuse in Dutch Catholic institutions since 1945, a report says.
Oh dear oh dear, say the Catholic bishops in the Netherlands. That is sad.
The report by an independent commission said Catholic officials had failed to tackle the widespread abuse at schools, seminaries and orphanages.
“This episode fills us with shame and sorrow,” said a bishops’ statement.
Does it? Why? Because it’s not a secret any more?
It’s hard to believe it fills them with shame and sorrow because of the nature of the abuse and sympathy for the children who were abused. It’s hard to believe they haz a sad about anyone but themselves. The reason for that difficulty is the date cited: since 1945. They didn’t haz a sad from 1945 until the present. The fact that they have one now, after the report has been published, seems to indicate that they could have continued with equanimity if only the whole matter had gone on being an ecclesiastical secret.
In before the Pope blames abuse on secular society again, pointing out that there was just as much abuse in non-Catholic Dutch institutions, as if that makes them look any better when they claim to be the ultimate moral authority and that they have been repeatedly found to be systematically covering this up.
Argh I hope we can hurry up and try the Vatican at the frikkin Hague :C
I want priests who assaulted kids to go to jail for a long time, preferably life. But what I want even more is for these sleazy mother-fuckers to PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE OF TAXES.
It is time to start a serious push for the removal of tax exemptions, especially on property taxes.
And I expect that before 1945 there was no abuse at all, so they’re really quite lucky that they only have to feel sad for 66 years-worth, not 2000.
It fills them with shame and sorrow. So of course everyone who hears a confession about anything remotely connected with the scandal is going to require penitents to submit to secular justice. Aren’t they? Oh.
“The fact that they have one now, after the report has been published, seems to indicate that they could have continued with equanimity if only the whole matter had gone on being an ecclesiastical secret.”
Yeah, and they would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling kids and their dog.
It just staggers me that there are still decent people, including clerics, within the Catholic Church who still think – apparently without irony or nausea – that it can be considered a moral authority about anything. What would the church hierarchy have to do or condone for people to recognise that it is corrupt as an an organisation? Blow up a freaking children’s hospital?
Just in time for Jul – the gift that keeps on giving!
The “Cloyne Report” is being re-released today with its missing content included–approximately 25% of the total.
This is a deeply horrifying document of atrocities committed against children in Ireland with the complicity of (and subsequent cover up by) Irish bishops and police. The original publication resulted in a breakdown between the Vatican and the Irish government.
I’ve been following this story since you first brought it to our attention back in July(?)
Ophelia. Thanks.
Didn’t the Pope say the abuse was caused by waves of hippie-tude emanating from the sexual revolution?
Did all the Dutch Catholics stay away from church yesterday and withhold their tithes as a protest against the way their children have been treated?
My guess is no. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a bigger than normal turnout as the parishioners expressed their solidarity with the molesters.
What good Catholic is going to give up the chance of a free trip to heaven just because ten or twenty thousand children got themselves into a difficult situation?
Ah, good about the Cloyne report. Thanks, Marta.
“Episode!!” since 1945 !? … do these guys work on a geological time scale? No, of course not … the episode that fills them with shame is the episode of being caught.