I may need to stop reading the paper. It’s not good for my blood pressure.
This time it is not because of a Savannah Morning News error, but rather an article that is printed on page 12A. It was a small piece, but it had a large effect on me.
Warning: If you are Catholic, or a pope supporter in general, you might want to stop reading now. I’m about to write some not-so-nice things about the pontiff.
According to the SMN article (The New York Times has a larger, better overview), Pope Benedict XVI told Catholic social workers, health providers and some others assembled for a Mass in Fatima, Portugal, that abortion and same-sex marriage were two of the most “insidious and dangerous” threats facing the world today.
Really? Happy gay people are a threat to the world?
Not child abuse? Really?
Ben, let’s talk. I know you are in a world of hurt trying to pretend that you don’t need to deal with your big, fat scandal, but you cannot throw us off the scent.
I know you don’t have kids, so you might not get it, but children are sponges. They soak up all the good and bad that they see, hear and feel. So if a bishop is letting his little bishop run free all over 10-year-old hide, there is a problem. And that is going to affect that child forever.
If you believe that killing children (even still as a fetus) is wrong, then how could you not see abuse as one of the biggest threats to the world? There are thousands and thousands of children who have been abused by priests and others in the Catholic Church and likely will suffer psychological, emotional and physical effects. According to the American Psychological Association, children who have been abused have an increased risk for:
- Depression
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Dissociative and anxiety disorders
- Eating disorders
- Poor self-esteem
- Somatization (the expression of distress in physical symptoms)
- Chronic pain
- Behavioral problems including sexualized behavior, school/learning problems, substance abuse, destructive behavior, sexual dysfunction in adulthood, criminality in adulthood
- Suicide
Barbara E. Bogorad, Psy.D., founder and former director of the Sexual Abuse Recovery Program Unit of South Oaks Hospital in New York wrote:
Abused children are 53% more likely to be arrested as juveniles, and 38% more likely to be arrested for a violent crime. During preschool years, abused children are more likely to get angry, refuse direction from teachers, and lack enthusiasm. By the time they reach grade school, they are more prone to being easily distracted, lacking in self-control, and not well-liked by peers.
But it is same-sex marriage you choose to target as the problem?
Yes, there is a problem. And he is wearing a pointy hat.
Observe and report 
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I was hoping this was a joke. I’m so very sad it is not.
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Preach it, Rev! Of my beefs with the Catholic church, this is the beefiest. Followed by their knack for instilling a sense of guilt so deeply in children that, as adults, they never fully shed it. Even as an atheist, I know that isn’t what religion’s about.
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No, I don’t think Jesus thought it was a good idea to rape the young.
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I love you my dear friend Beth. No one could have said it better.
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My mother (tried) to raise my brothers and me Catholic, but she kept us far away from priests. Two of her sisters were molested as girls. I am more and more disgusted by the Catholic church as I get older, and more disgusted with the Catholics who ignorantly believe that this is all cooked up by the media.
Bleh. You definitely got me going, now.
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The media? The media is inventing a story about thousands of priests molesting folks? “Bleh” is right.
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Things like this always make me so mad that I almost bust a vein in my forehead.
When the Catholic church pulls out its usual rhetoric, and other groups use their standard arguments against homosexuality (it’s unnatural, it’s a choice, it will undermine marriage, it will lead to pedophilia being accepted as “normal” behavior) I have to sit back and wonder just how far humanity has really come.
What really makes me disgusted is that it’s so hard to fight back against these ideas. It always seems that the people who take things to ridiculous extremes shout out those with more reasonable ideas.
I’m not blaming the media, it’s just an observation.
*sigh*
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In the Catholic Church, apparently, pedophilia IS considered normal behavior.
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Duh guys, they don’t want same sex marriage because gays aren’t supposed to get married. They’re supposed to become priests so they can molest little kids.
(Wha? Did that just come out of my conservative mouth?)
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Ha! But there’s a huge difference between “gay” and “pedophile.”
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