I was born to parents who had converted to Catholicism. They had done so for practical purposes, as the small mining town they moved to, which had just been built to mine the taconite of the Mesabi Iron Range, only had a catholic church. I was christened by Father Crispin, who was a friend and golfing buddy of my father, and later in Chicago at a different parish I was confirmed.
I left church – broadly speaking – in my early twenties, as doubts about the claims of the church filled my mind. And though I held onto a belief in deity and the power of prayer for several years, these too failed to stand up to reason. Religion, it seems, was created to give power over the many by the few.
At its most sincere, the church has fed some of the poor and consoled the suffering of many. But it has done so at the expense of reason. And it has done so at the expense of the innocence of countless children.
At this point I should make it clear that I was never molested by a priest or any other church official or member of the congregation. It should be a shock that such a declaration is necessary, but here we are. Here we are reading of another horror of widespread abuse of children by clergy in the Catholic Church. This time in Maryland.
More than six-hundred children.
And this is after decades of complaints, investigations, and criminal charges. Still, after all the public awareness and attention the Church has received. With regular news coverage, films, and television stories it continued – and continues.
This is more than a few bad apples here and there. The church had (and seems to still have) a program of systematically protecting the child abusers in their midst. If parents became suspicious or complained, the priests were simply transferred to another parish, where an unsuspecting population awaited them, and new, fresh children were lured into sexual abuse. And all too often where they would find sympathetic fellows who help them identify vulnerable children.
The conspiracy to hide guilt of these crimes, and to facilitate the furtherance of these despicable crimes was and remains widespread in the church. At each major finding of evidence we hear about how serious they are in their quest to end the abuse. But later it is found to continue. Those who abuse are not deterred by the illegality of the acts, nor the harm done to these children, and not even by the teaching of the Christ who is supposed to be their guide and God.
At this point in time we should stop looking at the Catholic Church as a beneficial body, or as helpful to the masses. The Church is a child sex trafficking organization masquerading as a conduit to a god, and no one should continue as a member. No one.
The church itself (at least in America where my familiarity lies) should recognize itself for what it is and close their doors permanently. And they should do so in response to empty parishes.
I know this won’t happen, as people are all too inclined to pretend like this is isolated and that it won’t happen in their parish. The true believers can’t (or won’t) see the church for what it is, and will continue to support it with their money and time. All the while gambling that their children won’t be ruined by the abuses of the clergy. A clergy that is protected by secrecy of an organization crafted to foster such abuses, and to a degree protected from the application of law by their entitlement to secrecy.
I don’t have any use for any religion myself. But I fully understand the need for community that churches bring. But people need to find a way of creating these beneficial organizations without allowing pedophiles access to their children. The church cannot be trusted, and has utterly failed in stopping sexual abuse of children. And they have failed because it is the nature of such an organization to foster these monsters.
It is a wonder to me that people don’t better scrutinize the adults who have access to their children. And it is mind boggling that people fail to understand that people who want to sexually abuse children seek out opportunities to do so. Pedophiles become priests so they can have unfettered access to children. Some may believe that a vow of celibacy and life in a cloister will keep them from such actions, but when they get there they find a body organized to aid them in their darkest leanings.
This isn’t a problem that can be solved by the church, as it is made up of a significant number of people intent on continuing this abuse.
People should be quitting the church enmasse. To remain in the Catholic Church today is to support this abuse. You are, with your donations and presence, aiding monsters in their quest to find children to sexually assault.
Those who are in the church and are not abusing children (most people probably don’t abuse children) should recognize that they are still supporting an organization which fosters this abuse. They are helping the pedophiles do their evil. They are like the administrators of the Nazi regime, hiding behind plausible deniability. But though not guilty themselves, they are supporting the horrors that occur all too often.
Quit now.