liz_marcs | Why the Pope and All Bishops Are Nothing More Than Pointy-Hatted Fucknuts: Part 2,413

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Why the Pope and All Bishops Are Nothing More Than Pointy-Hatted Fucknuts: Part 2,413

I swear to God, there is no creature more pissed off in the universe than an ex-Catholic

Except, perhaps, and ex-Mormon.

No, wait. Let's split the difference. Ex-Catholics are infinitely more pissed off in the first, oh, 7 years. What ex-Mormons lose in short-term heat, they more than make up for it in time and distance. It's a lot like sprinters vs. long-distance runners.

Unless you bring up the massive sex-abuse scandals and cover-ups. Then it's eye-bleeding rage all over again for said ex-Catholic. And the the outrages just never, ever stop.

I don't need to get into the history of the pedophile priest scandals, right? Nor do I need to talk about my own brush with it, right?

And how, when the whole thing exploded out in the open during the 1980s, American bishops were shocked — just shocked — that there were priests sexually abusing children.

Naturally, Rome and the Other Fucknuts in Charge blamed "teh gheys" for the whole problem, even after courts handed them their asses. How "teh gheys" were at fault, by the way, was never explained to anyone.

Now, to be fair, I knew about the Servants of the Paraclete at a fairly young age. Somewhere between 12 and 16 anyway. And I certainly knew that Paraclete House in New Mexico was where they sent priests who "had problems." It was explicitly stated that said "problems" were either substance abuse or "sexual" in nature. (To be fair, the order was originally started to help alcoholic priests dry out and reform. The mission kind of drifted from there.)

Ummmm, yes. The nuns explained this to Catholic school students. In religion class. Seriously.

Now, I mention Servants of the Paraclete and Paraclete House for a very important reason.

You see, National Catholic Reporter today broke the story that in the mid-1950s Fr. Gerald Fitzgerald — who founded both the Servants of the Paraclete and Paraclete House — started kicking up holy hell about pedophile priests in letters to bishops and the Vatican.

Yes. You read that right. Father Fitzgerald was exchanging letters not just with various and sundry bishops about this issue, but the Great Pointy-Hatted One Himself, His Popeness.

And. He. Sounded. This. Alarm. For. More. Than. A. Decade.

The National Catholic Reporter has both the letters and the proof that at least one priest was on the case and at least trying to do something about it, and that the whole "sorry, didn't know" story the Catholic Church was spouting off was utter bullshit.

Well, every Catholic in the U.S. pretty much knew it was utter bullshit. But what we have here is what we call hard-core proof.

The ending (as you can guess) was not a happy one. Father Fitzgerald was so desperate to get these priests defrocked, he even put a down payment on a Caribbean island so he could ship these pedophile priests off the mainland and isolate them from all temptation. The plan was for it to be a lifetime sentence, because he was convinced that letting any of these guys stay active priests would only end in tears.

He was right. And he was punished for it.

By the mid-1960s, Father Fitzgerald was forced from the leadership of the very order of priests he founded. He died several years later.

Fucknuts. Pointy. Hatted. Fucknuts.

I hope the lot of you burns.

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Hahahaha, you knew I'd have to comment, right? And I don't know, ours is also a slow burn. Going on 12 years, here. :D

And I'll have you know that I came thiiiiiiiis close to putting in a pedophile Catholic priest joke in my book, but I took it out, because that shit still hurts people.

Bah to the lot of 'em, I say.

Hahahaha! I think it's gotta be a cultural thing.

I've known other ex-Mormons and let me tell you, I've never known one to get into fist-shaking rage...but Holy Toledo! A grudge until the sun goes cold! I'll be honest: I've always been awed by the sheer beauty of it.

Ex-Catholics will get to breaking shit right away, but eventually calm down to "talk to the hand." Hell, I at one point I had a Very Cunning Idea to get myself Officially Ex Communicated — complete with letter and everything — until the day came when I realized that I just didn't give a flying fuck anymore.

Unless it's this pedophile priest thing. Then just about everyone — ex-Catholic and Catholic alike — that I know goes HULK SMASH! HULK SMASH NOW!

Which *ahem* you can kind of see in my post above. That was quite the spike of sheer rage there.

*yikes*

Something tells me I'm a-gonna pay for it in wank.

"I've never known one to get into fist-shaking rage"

Hahahaha, you've never met an ex-LDS from Utah, then! :D

I love it when you rage, because it's still thoughtful and with purpose. Trust me, anyone that brings wank here against you and your post will get raked over the coals. There's no opposite mindset to hold on to, you know? IT'S WRONG, someone tried to make it right, and they were punished for it. WHA??

I find it nearly impossible that anyone can be a faithful, trusting Catholic after this. The RC church has repeatedly demonstrated, in the most brutal way, that its raison d'etre is to maintain and consolidate its power and wealth, and that it doesn't give a rat's arse about the spiritual or practical needs of its membership.

In other words, the Roman Catholic Church makes the Baby Jesus projectile vomit.

(Why yes, ex-Catholic here, can't you tell?)

Because of her very ugly experience as a child my mother wouldn't let me anywhere near Catholic priests as a kid. But she worried about my soul, so she used to lock herself in the bathroom with me and quiz me on Catechism and make me repeat Our Father, and the Hail Mary. So yeah. This makes me want to set them on fire and not bother waiting for the eternal hell fires to start roaring.

(My mother was also bipolar, but the priest abusing her didn't fucking help.)

Thanks for pointing this out.

I'm ex-catholic too, and I occasionally find myself wanting to scream that the whole celibacy thing was to consolidate property, and prevent churches from being inherited by Priest's children. It had nothing to do with spirituality.

I have to hope that some of these bastards are being reincarnated into those countries where women are treated as less important than cattle. Because to claim to be speaking for God and covering this kind of crap up is worse than hypocrisy.

It amazes me that anyone with a conscience can still belong to that church and give them money to keep protecting these sons of ... sorry, I won't insult my dog. There isn't any animal vile enough for the comparison.

One of my best friends is SO ex-Catholic that she can barely even talk about the experiences in her church. This has all just made me so sad and angry... spirituality is supposed to be uplifting, enriching. I kills me that these monolithic religious structures can pervert that so completely.

Thank you for these open, honest posts.

What a sad story. And it shows what happens when any institution is more interested in maintaining power than in hewing to its original mission.

I think a lot of folks would argue that "maintaining power" *is* the RCC's original mission.

Not being Catholic I'm not touching that with a ten foot pole.

My immediate, visceral response is that Fitzgerald could have saved the cost of buying the island by just getting a boat. Repeatedly stocked with chains, cinder blocks, and ocean charts to deep water. Mind you, he might have fallen afoul of maritime pollution laws.

That's horrendous but the only real surprise is that now there is proof. I'm currently mad as hell over the church's reaction to the little girl's abortion in Brazil and the Pope condemning the use of condoms in Africa.

According Malachy O’Morgair's prophecy this pope is next to the last. Not that I really believe in prophecy but ...

Shakatany

And I feel assured Father Fitzgerald got, "Well done good and faithful servant," from the only authority he cared about.

When I watched Doubt your post kept playing through my head.

And now the Pope looks for Africa to fill in the ever-depleting ranks of pirests and missionaires.
honestly, after fucking up for so long and so thoroughly, is it any wonder that the church is a. emptying in both numbers and fervor level (most ppeople who 'call' themselves catholics in my country, Brazil, not onlly arent practitioners but thing more than half of what RCC says is bullpoopie)and b., increasingly demoralized? We have a pope who unofficially enouraged the holocaust, one pope who (among wiith several bishops in america) who turned deaf ears to pedophiles and helped hide the evidence and the current ope tried to give back to priesthood a bishop who said the holocaust didnt happen (or that it had been an exageration - the actual words escape me. I tend to get my mind blurred went i get mad).

I am looking forward to the day when these sons of guns will actually go to jail with the other criminals.

This isn't at all surprising. Most of the priests I've known are at least well-intentioned; they may be almost universally unable to function properly in society, but very few are really evil. Given that x percent of priests are molesters, then y percent are guys who will get really pissed off at molesters and y - z percent will have the balls to raise holy hell about them. It's horrible that z is so close to y, but not at all surprising. Seminaries don't exactly select for independent thinkers, after all, and Catholic theology puts an extraordinary emphasis on obedience to the Magisterium as well.

Well thank the stars they don't have anywhere near the power they had in the days of the Inquisition! But this is hideous! But they're men of Gawwwd don'tcha know? *Blows raspeberries*

I hope there's a special spot in hell just for these bastards. Sons of Gaaawwwd my ass! Makes me wonder what 'God' they're talking about.

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