Horrifying news from the Netherlands: the depravity of the Catholic church reaches a new low. In the 1950s, the church had a cunning tactic for dealing with pedophilia scandals. Rather than just paying off the victims and shipping the offending priest to a new hunting ground, they had a rather Jesuitical solution: the boys who were raped were clearly homosexual — after all, they had sexually gratified a person of the same sex, which is all a homosexual is, right?
And then what do you do with homosexuals? Why, you institutionalize them. Lock them up somewhere where they can’t complain about some man of god raping them.
And then, to make it all absolutely perfect and biblically excessive in its justice, what do you do with institutionalized homosexuals?
At least 10 boys who were abused by Catholic priests were transferred to a Catholic psychiatric hospital in the Netherlands, and then physically castrated.
Two clergymen were convicted of abuse but Mr Heithuis, a victim, was nonetheless transferred by police to a Catholic psychiatric hospital before being admitted to the St. Joseph Hospital in Veghel later that year.
There, court papers confirm, he was castrated “at his own request”, despite no submission of his written consent. Sources told Mr Dohmen that the surgical removal of testicles was regarded as a treatment for homosexuality and also as a punishment for those who accused clergy of sexual abuse.
Furthermore, this was done with the complicity of the government.
Evidence emerged on Monday that government inspectors were aware that minors were being castrated while in Catholic-run psychiatric institutions.
Minutes of meetings held in the 1950s show that inspectors were present when castrations were discussed. The documents also reveal that the Catholic staff did not think parents needed to be involved.
If you can read Dutch, there’s much more. As you might guess, this is a major scandal.
It’s also a truth. Catholicism is a horror, a nightmare, a medieval monstrosity that has ruined far too many people’s lives. It’s about time people woke up to it. You can tell me that there are good people who become priests, and I’d agree with you…but when do good people stop colluding with an evil institution, tear off the clerical collar, and refuse to further a cause so tainted with corruption and wrongness?
It amazes me that the Catholic Church still has the chutzpah to pretend they are THE moral authority on Earth.
Damn.
Every time I think that we have seen the depths of Christianity, something like this comes up.
Why do I picture Santorum nodding like a bobblehead at this news?
We keep discovering that we have yet to plumb the depths. Apparently it is a bad thing to allow certain men to think of themselves as God’s representatives on earth. They end up behaving as arbitrarily, capriciously, and cruelly as the God they think they represent. We shouldn’t be surprised.
I know two good men who are now former RC priests, but they don’t advertise the fact.
Excuses, excuses.
What stands out is that the RCC tried to get this example of their beneficent ‘lurve…struck from the record and not entered into evidence in the various inquiries about clerical abuse in the netherlands.
There is an inquiry urged on that very point…why was it suppressed when it was extremely relevant.
That speaks volumes…the fuckers know they are caught with their dick in the choirboy and still they pretend it was nothing to do with them as an institution which incidentally fostered the atmosphere and provided sanctuary for their perverted ju ju men.
They know they are guilty as sin, they are shitting bricks and shredding …stalling, procrastinating, blocking and subverting justice…and as usual lying their black shriveled hearts out…
after all it is all they can do…and that they are…in spades!
Yes…castration of the Catholic priests just above the neck would likely fix the issue…
Or maybe parents could smell the coffee, quit the church, and never ever again leave their children unattended within a hundred metres of a priest.
These cases of abuse may not extend back to just the recent past. What if they extend back centuries? Perhaps the pedophiles in the RCC realised a thousand years ago that the babble was complete bullshit, but kept the whole show rolling for the sex it provided.
Castrate the priest? Sure, but I don’t think that it would do much good, since abuse is more about power than sexual gratification. I say hit the church were it hurts. Tax them. Sue them. fine them. Bleed the organization dry.
Only the other day on my Facebook, a Catholic told me that supporting gay marriage was bad because marriage between a man and a woman is a tradition and blah fucking blah.
When I asked her how she could possibly support an organisation that enabled and covered up child abuse, was so patriarchal, and so on, she told me to ‘calm down’.
For fuck’s sake, calm down?
There is truly no end to the horrors church can come up with.
As usually, police worked with the good brothers. *spits*
All the stories I can read (English) mention the one person was institutionalized after reporting abuse. Do we actually have evidence the at-least-ten-others were also institutionalized for speaking up about abuse?
I’m not trying to minimalize what was done, but a clear pattern of locking up and castrating abuse victims is even more shocking than the castrations alone. And it’s freakily biblical (what’s that line about punishing rape victims again?)
@Jaranath
Cynically: You only need one to send a clear message to the others.
I don’t understand how anyone could still call themself a Catholic. I just don’t understand it.
Like I said the first time this was mentioned on TET, there is very little the RCC can do, or has done, that will surprise me anymore.
jaranath@13
from the Nieuwsuur (Newshour) link : “In de boeken noteert de instelling na zijn vertrek dat Heithuis is ‘geeugenatiseerd’: gecastreerd. In zijn brieven spreekt Heithuis van ‘verminking’. Er zouden die dag meerdere jongens zijn geopereerd.”
Translation: “On the books the institution notes that after he [Heithuis] was discarged, it said he was ‘eugenatisized’: castrated. In his letters Heithuis speaks of mutilation. It is alleged that several boys where operated that day.”
From the same link, lower down: “De officiële verslagen aan de overheid maken geen melding van castraties in het ziekenhuis. Maar een oud-verpleger zegt tegen NRC: “Ik weet dat het gebeurde, dat castreren. De geneesheer-directeur was medisch verantwoordelijk. De broeders waren verpleegkundig verantwoordelijk.””
Translation : “The official reports to the government don’t mention castrations in the hospital. But, a former nurse tells NRC: “I know it happened, the castrating. The healer-director was medically responsible. The brothers were responsible for nursing.””
I’m dutch, and yes this shameful stuff is for real, no hard evidence for multiple victims, yet. Give it time and more will turn up, garanteed.
Something else to note; the silence coming from the catholics is deafening, again. Sometimes I feel like I’m just one of a few who stand there screaming and pointing at the wrongness.
Barbaric doesn’t even begin to cover this.
I read that and… I just want to cry. Human beings perpetrate such wickedness. How can they live with themselves? How can they not know that they are doing wrong?
@15, SallyStrange: I wonder the same thing. I was born in Northern Ireland and my family got us out of there and shipped us to America by the time I was five. I am forever grateful for having escaped the literal religious war that was being waged there, but I don’t think my mom got out free of emotional scars. She still goes to church every Sunday, had my siblings and I baptised and had us attending all the way through to confirmation. It seems to me that her faith feels more of an earned burden for having not been killed for it. *sigh* I don’t know, I would think that every new (yet expected) horror of ye olde RCC would drive her further away. I love my mom fully, it just makes me a little sad. /rant
Check out the Volkskrant too (Link – In Dutch)
There was an investigation into abuse into the RCC by Wim Deetman (on behalf of the Dutch Parliament’s Second Chamber). As part of this there where suspicions of castration but insufficient technical evidence was available to include in the report:
in
tothe RCCYES! To think that I’ve lived to the day to read someone else saying it. Prof. Myers, You’ve made my day.
@#11
Do not.
“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality”
Dante Alighieri
@#20
Fallacious assumption, my friend. They know. They are just
functionally sociopathic. Do not make the mistake to thing that everyone else thinks or feels like you.
11 @ Loud
“For fuck’s sake, calm down?”
As fabianocaccin advised…Do not!
They have relied on that little gambit for many years…trying to infer that criticism is only from red faced vein bulging incoherent hater’s of god…
It is way past time that such pathetic tactics were called for what they are…posturing and shielding.
Tear it a new one…they deserve nothing less!
Unlike his position on modern Dutch policies, like treating people equally or allowing someone to die in peace instead of extending unnecessary suffering, I’m sure the frothiest catholic won’t have any problem with the idea of the church mutilating rape victims.
Oblivionmachine: Thanks. Yeah, as you suggest, I’d like to see a little more detail. This is horrible enough, or ought to be. But the main reason I’m so interested in seeing whether there was a pattern of doing this to abuse victims is that I suspect it ISN’T enough, at least for the Americans who most need to hear it. Despite our recent progress, I suspect that “Dutch RCC castrated gays” will be seen by far too many as a lesser issue, because hey, they were gay. We still have too many bigots, and even the “moderates” can brush it off as an unfortunate overreach made by an imperfect and paternalistic medical community, and that Today We Know Better, even if we’re still not so sure gays are OK.
But if this was done systematically to punish and/or silence abuse victims, even many of them won’t be able to keep their heads in the sand.
Some Catholics have woken up.
In recent years, 22 million US Catholics have left, 1/3 of their membership.
It’s not all good news though. Half of them joined Protestant churches and 2/3’s of those were “evangelical”. Out of the frying pan, and into the fire.
@ theoblivionmachine #17 — Thanks for the translations. This is so horrible it’s rather difficult to accept, so the more evidence the better. I’m surprised at government duplicity given that the Netherlands is so secular. (I’m also surprised to learn that the RCC is the largest church in the Netherlands given all that Reformation, Eighty Years War and stuff in the Dutch past…my ignorance is my bliss, I guess.)
It seems only natural that Catholic priests would believe that castration would deter sexual behavior, stupidity apparently being such a hallmark of theirs. If they believed and practiced such horrors in the Netherlands, you have to wonder what has been going in countries that are even more staunchly Catholic, e.g. Spain and Italy. Belgium has a enormous priest molestation scandal going on and they’re right next door.
Every time I think that the Catholic Church has sunk as far into the mire of depravity, inhuman cruelty, and horrifying evil as is humanly possible, they demonstrate to me once again that my imagination is woefully inadequate to encompass just how monstrous their religion really is…
… But castratimg the victims of child-rape as a ‘treatment for homosexuality’? That is beyond evil.
Then again, what else should we expect from a church that already has the blood of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people on its hands in the modern age courtesy of its lies about condoms? And has killed countless more due to its medieval stance on abortion and broader sexual health and education?
The Catholic Church really does surpass any fictional villain or monster in terms of utter disregard for human life and suffering paired with an insatiable lust for power over the lives (and in particular the sex lives) of ordinary people.
Yes, I can read Dutch. These stories are not amazing to me. It’s just all part of a culture where the domineering elite goes scot-free and where the hapless underling is being accused. It all fits perfectly well into the Catholic tradition where committing an atrocity is perfectly acceptable. The only punishable crime is being found out.
@ Bartholomeo B. of Goat’s Steel
My concern is that a big issue is made of this and that the evidence has been covered over. Liars-for-jeebus will claim that every accusation against them is equally “weak”. Their followers are primed for such flaccid defense.
Raises a question of why Catholic Priests do not get themselves castrated? Oh sure you could make an argument about pain in the old days (thought hey had flagellants up to say the last Pope so OUPS) but now a days they can do it painlessly with surgery or even drug treatments.
Since they’re already expected to give up use of their genitals why ISN’T voluntary castration part of the taking of vows?
theophontes 777:
Indeed.That would be consistent with their Christian morality and loving practice. First you force the victim in such a position that he/she helps you to destroy the evidence, and then you claim that there is no evidence. The fun part is that they are also the first ones to claim that evidence is unimportant when it comes to substantiate their godly claims.
Ing:
Not only that, but they have been castrating people for centuries. Remember, they wanted angelic voices to sing their music, but they couldn’t have those lowly women doing that, no-no, they had to castrate hapless children.
They could try to justify it as citing the OT rule about castrates and cripples not being allowed before God (doubt that would go over well) but they’d have to throw some very influential church founders and philosophers whose works they still site under the bus…also Jesus himself may imply that they should castrate themselves rather than feel temptation. Two different times at least.
We’re not done with the Horrible(tm) yet.
http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2012/03/17/jongens-binnen-r-k-kerk-gecastreerd-wegens-homoseksueel-gedrag/
That’s part of what started this story off, NRC dead tree edition has a weekly magazine (paywall, sorry) which features the story.
Some points:
-allegedly, KRO (catholic radio broadcast) reported 1 finding of a castration in 1997, can’t find anything to prove this though.
-there’s a commision of inquiry into abuse, they were told this and did nothing with it, linky to commisions findings: http://www.onderzoekrk.nl/english-summery.html
-a former prime minister seems to have been involved in pleading for amnesty for convicted abusers/rapists/molesters clergymen. Victor Marijnen, KVP (catholic peoples party, now rolled up into CDA (christian democratic appeal) party).
-the author of the first article, Joep Dohmen (linky above) says he found evidence of at least 9 other cases, but couldn’t find connected names for those.
-There’s ‘trouble’ in the government: folks are asking for a commission of inquiry, guess which party is actively working against that? (yeah, CDA, ofcourse.)
You’re welcome, anytime.
Now for a smoke, a drink and a handkerchief. (FUCK.)
Just last week, the news in my country were echoing a tragedy in Morocco, a teenager girl who committed suicide to escape having to wed her rapist.
Cue all the self-righteous guys “barbarous Muslims, this will never happen to us [white Catholic guys]”
(on a positive note, the story was making quite a stir in Morocco. Some hope for progress?)
I was just thinking, do you really believe that Christian culture is really better at helping victims of rape? Not so long ago, we will have forced the victim to marry her aggressor, too. And this wicked mentality is still around.
I’m tired of being proven right.
If they believed and practiced such horrors in the Netherlands, you have to wonder what has been going in countries that are even more staunchly Catholic, e.g. Spain and Italy.
I’ve always said that when the stories come out of Latin America and the Philippines, it will make heads spin.
We still haven’t heard from them.
Your title is the exact thing I thought after reading that article. Castrate them all.
I feel sick.
It wasn’t that long ago where gay men were being castrated and lobotomized right here in the United States. When the US went into Germany to free Jews after the holocaust, they just dumped all the gays back into jails or concentration camps. I’m not trying to excuse the catholics here (hah!), but the issue is not endemic to just the catholics. The straightwashing of history has pretty much covered up most of the atrocities the rest of society has sanctioned.
And these are the assholes who want to decide what medical insurance pays for.
i am thinking that the war on terror might have been attacking the wrong target
and should be more towards the Vatican
beergoggles:
Indeed. While xtianity is certainly at the distant root of it all, this happened in the context of a wider homophobic society that medicalized and pathologized gender diversity even in secular settings. Two links from the Americablog thread on this.
I’ll be interested (revolted?) to hear what the despicable Bill Fucking Donahue has to say about this latest revelation. How will he blame the victims this time?
As I mentioned on Cuttlefish’s post — we should stand in front of local Catholic churches with copies of these news articles, and hand them out to anyone who will take them. You may also want to include copies of Greta’s essay Why are you still Catholic? Do it.
If you do, please post reports of how it went.
I too feel physically ill. I hate the bastards, but that doesn’t express the depth of my emotion. I feel about abusive priests the same way I felt about Nazis while I was watching Schindler’s List. I am horrified and sickened. After watching this continuing story since I went to catholic high school back in the late sixties, I have to say that I feel there is no hope. It seems impossible that with all the evidence out there it is still allowed to continue. How can people that I know fairly well, who otherwise seem relatively intelligent and normal, continue to show up for mass every Sunday? How can they continue to deny? Why do they always trust their priest? How can they believe the church when it says it is addressing the issue and it’s a thing of the past? Why do they continue believing all the lies? And after all the horror I have seen and heard about and read about, how can this story surprise me enough to make me feel so sick in my stomach? There is no hope that this horrific abuse will ever end.