We have a new Pope!

Notice how so many male-dominated clubs tend to favour interesting head-wear....?

I know this is supposed to be a cottage blog but the appointment of the latest Pope cannot go unmentioned. It has been all over the media throughout the week; crowds have gathered around the world waiting with bated breath to see who will become the next leader of the Roman Catholic Church. 

A few critics have said, "Who cares?"  That is not my feeling at all. We should care. We should care that this "church" - this powerful organized crime ring - is still able to generate media respect. Despite the fraud, despite the corruption, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars paid to victims of abuse, somehow the Catholic Church is still granted world-wide acknowledgement. It is still deemed a legitimate entity that deserves courtesy and consideration. All the major news stations have been reporting on this story - not with cynicism, not with incredulity - but with something akin to reverence. As if it actually matters.

As a former Catholic, I feel that the best thing the church can do at this point is implode. It is corrupt from the top down and from within. If evil truly exists, it is personified by the Catholic Church.

This is a church that has long functioned in a state of criminality - aiding and abetting pedophile priests and clergy for over a century. A bunch of men who disdain women, who dare to condemn homosexuality, and who enjoy the protection of "infallibility," have been allowed to commit rampant and continued atrocities. And the media always refers to it as "abuse." 

Let's call it what it really is: the systematic rape and torture of children. Parents bring their innocent sons and daughters into a church that has no regard for them, despite being champions of "human life." The hypocrisy. This church not only fails to be outraged by these crimes, but makes every effort to protect the abuser, transfer the abuser to another location, deny the accusations, undermine the victim, and close rank in order to protect the entire fetid dung-heap that it is.

But the media is saying, "Maybe this will be a new chapter in the Catholic church." Would we say this if the Ku Klux Klan were appointing a new Grand Wizard? What possible difference can a new Pope make when the entire system is rotten to the core? It's like having a dish of festering diseased meat and pondering whether a garnish of parsley may somehow turn it all around. Maybe if the Nazis had ousted Hitler and instead appointed Himmler or Goering, everyone could have breathed a huge sigh of relief. 

Recently, the archdiocese of Los Angeles paid out ten million dollars in claims to yet another group of victims. Ten million dollars. Who gave them this money? The parishioners. They enjoy tax-free status and until recently, their books were closed to revenue agencies. They have long been exempt from the kinds of legal investigations to which any other group would be subjected. They are the Untouchables. 

Watching the news coverage of this appalling spectacle I wonder what's happened to journalistic teeth. Another geriatric Pope with one foot in the grave and the other foot on a banana peel shuffles to the podium in a ridiculous hat...to say what? 

I wonder how the millions of people who have been harmed by this church are feeling when they turn on the news and see this celebration unfolding.

I'll talk about what I did at the cottage tomorrow...