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Photo of the Day, November 24, 2009: Hook, Line, and Sinker
Photo of the Day, November 25, 2009: Boston as seen from the harbor
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First there was the NPR listener support drive, then the Girl Scout cookies appeared. Now it's time for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston to start their annual fund drive, in which they hope to raise $15 million without giving away so much as a tote bag or a box of chocolate-covered Eucharists.
This may be tricky for them, considering the recent study indicating the number of New Englanders calling themselves Catholic has dropped to 36% from 50% in 1990. The study's authors attributed the decline to various factors, including that nasty clergy sex abuse scandal that tore through the Catholic Church throughout the past twenty years and which continues today.
Coincidentally, that very scandal features prominently in the Boston Archdiocese's fundraising concerns. Up to 2007, they admitted to spending around $136 million just to settle sex abuse lawsuits, and in 2007 they claim they spent a bit more than $6.6 million to settle 34 cases, including legal costs and money spent on abuse prevention and training. Fewer faithful adherents and more lawsuits mean that the Church may have to amp up the pleas for money, or maybe go back to selling indulgences, in order to keep the Pope swimming in satin robes.
The Archdiocese's call for money comes immediately on the heels of a horrific story from Brazil in which a 9-year-old Roman Catholic girl was raped by her step-father, impregnating her with twins. Doctors examined the 80-pound girl and determined that she was far too small to survive giving birth to the twins, so the fetuses were aborted in the 15th week.
Upon hearing of this case, a Brazilian archbishop excommunicated the mother of the girl for authorizing the operation, as well as the doctors who performed the procedure. He did not excommunicate the rapist step-father, saying that “God’s law is above any human law.” Luckily for us, Brazil is ruled by the much fairer of the two laws, as the stepfather has since been jailed.
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, head of the Roman Catholic Church’s Congregation for Bishops, defended the move, saying “the real problem is that the twins conceived were two innocent persons, who had the right to live and could not be eliminated.” Left unsaid is the assumption that while the twin three-inch-long fetuses had the right to live, the nine-year-old raped girl does not have that right, since she most likely would have died without the abortion.
All of that brings us back to the Boston Archdiocese's call for funds. Those of you who are concerned about giving financial support to an institution that has for decades fostered and protected rapist pedophiles should carefully consider the Church's stance on this issue: "Hey, at least we're not performing life-saving operations on children, amiright?"
Author William Lobdell is visiting Boston next week to promote his new book Losing My Religion, which details his experience as an evangelical-turned-Catholic covering the sex abuse scandals for the LA Times. Perhaps members of the Boston Archdiocese will show up to get some insight into why, exactly, their numbers are plummeting.
"Beloved" photo tagged "Bostonist" courtesy of Flickr user kke227
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I know how Rome can recruit more Catholics. Start hiring retired beauty queens as priests.
Male parishoners would most likely have to go to confession more often.
MJG: Hilarious! What a well-timed article.
I'm still disappointed that none of the Boston area cathedrals where sold to goth club promoters.
Ethic Soup blog believes that the reason the Catholic Church did not excommunicate the rapist (stepfather who is also accused of sexually abusing the girl's 14-year-old physically disabled sister)is because the many pedophile priests in the Catholic Church must feel a bond with the rapist. Most of the sexual abusing priests are never excommunicated themselves by The Church, which has spent millions of dollars (probably billions) to settle sexual abuse cases for priests, who seldom are jailed. To read more, go to:
http://www.ethicsoup.com/2009/03/abortion-saves-raped-9yearold-girls-life-vatican-excommunicates-furor-among-brazils-catholics.html
Ethic Soup blog believes that the reason the Catholic Church did not excommunicate the rapist (stepfather who is also accused of sexually abusing the girl's 14-year-old physically disabled sister)is because the many pedophile priests in the Catholic Church must feel a bond with the rapist. Most of the sexual abusing priests are never excommunicated themselves by The Church, which has spent millions of dollars (probably billions) to settle sexual abuse cases for priests, who seldom are jailed. To read more, go to:
http://www.ethicsoup.com/2009/03/abortion-saves-raped-9yearold-girls-life-vatican-excommunicates-furor-among-brazils-catholics.html
Ethic Soup blog believes that the reason the Catholic Church did not excommunicate the rapist (stepfather who is also accused of sexually abusing the girl's 14-year-old physically disabled sister)is because the many pedophile priests in the Catholic Church must feel a bond with the rapist. Most of the sexual abusing priests are never excommunicated themselves by The Church, which has spent millions of dollars (probably billions) to settle sexual abuse cases for priests, who seldom are jailed. To read more, go to:
http://www.ethicsoup.com/2009/03/abortion-saves-raped-9yearold-girls-life-vatican-excommunicates-furor-among-brazils-catholics.html