The HRCC Inches Towards Relevance

Today the Vatican issued a a new list of sins, or at least conduct they consider sinful. Surprisingly the list was not just about sex and microscopic organisms, the sole targets of Catholic moral thought in my lifetime. Included on the new list are drug abuse, genetic modification, and the the gap between rich and poor.

Number one is rather silly considering I have yet to meet a tea totalling Catholic who is not in a program. Number two seems partially rooted in the usual Catholic fetish with unborn life, but may also lend some valuable insight into issues like genetic testing and cloning. So there may be something there for everyone and I, for one, am willing to reserve judgment. Number three I am all on board with, but good luck getting American Catholics to go along with any social justice program. They have been part of the Republican coalition for twenty years and that coalition has almost made their disdain for the poor and its assault on social justice legislation a calling card.

Later in the Vatican's statement, the Cardinal said that coverage of child abuse within the Church must be denounced because "it detracts from the Church." No. Committing sodomy with young boys and then covering it up by moving pedarests from parish to parish detracts from the Church. It showed the Church had a lot of sick men in positions of authority and a lot of twisted men who tried to deny it, hide it, cover it up and when it was discovered, do anything to avoid responsibility for it. Publicizing their actions -- and by actions I mean pedastry and pedophilia -- just made them stop. I find the fact that the Church attempts to make itself the victim in this circumstance to be contemptible.