Doing My Vatican Rag, by Doug Pollard, Star Observer, March 23, 2010

Doing My Vatican Rag

By Doug Pollard
Star Observer
March 23, 2010

http://www.starobserver.com.au/soap-box/2010/03/23/doing-my-vatican-rag/23124

AUSTRALIA -- I had one of those moments this week, where I quite literally could not believe my ears.

At the end of yet another report of child abuse by Roman Catholic priests, Anton Enus added, in an almost throwaway fashion, "Victim advocates estimate that up to half a million children have been abused at the hands of the Catholic Church over the last 50 years."

Pope Benedict, in his former role as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly called the Inquisition), banned anyone from speaking about the abuse outside the church. The criminals were protected and the victims silenced in order to safeguard the church's image.

In a letter to Irish victims he now says 'serious mistakes' were made by the local bishops, but still does not confess his own complicity.

The Holy See has 'permanent observer' status at the United Nations. It can't vote in the General Assembly, but has the same status as a member state at most UN conferences.

It has used that status to obstruct: the provision of emergency contraception; the promotion of condoms as protection against HIV/AIDS; sexuality education in school curricula; and the training and equipping of health care workers to ensure safe and accessible abortion.

The 2004 Jay Report on child sexual abuse in the US Catholic Church found that from 1950 to 2002, 10,667 people made allegations of child sexual abuse. Eighty-one percent of them were male, 78 percent between the ages of 11 and 17.

The Vatican tries to say it's a gay issue, not a pedophile one. Monsignor Charles Scicluna, of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that of the 3000 cases referred to his office over nine years, 60 percent involved adolescents of the same sex, 30 percent involved heterosexual relations, and only the remaining 10 percent were pedophilia 'in the truest sense'.

Here in Australia, Rome wields massive influence in both major parties.

Every hour of every day for the last 50 years, at least one child has been physically and/or sexually abused by this organisation. And our politicians go to them for moral guidance?