On The Crumbling of The Catholic Church

When I was a kid, I was sent to a Catholic boarding school in Macau. It was an all-boy's school and there were lots of priests. I liked them, some are grandfather types, they were all very kind. Even though I was pulled out in half a year having contracted bronchitis after sleeping right in a bed right next to the drafty exit door of the large dormitory hall, I loved the experience so much that I wanted to get baptized and become a Catholic. My grandmother told me that life choices like these should be waited out and see how I feel a little later and it waned, I wouldn't have endured Sunday school anyhow.

I haven't been molested. Not in my Anglican primary school or the Catholic high school. If I were, maybe I would change my whole view of sex. A Mexican acquaintance told me once that he was molested but his priest asked to be fucked, so he didn't feel too much like a victim. Even though I have heard of these molestation stories throughout the years, I have no idea on the extend of it. In the recent news circles, molesting children sounds almost like it's one of their under the table privileges. Other than Dan Savage posting his Youth Pastor Watch segments on Slog, Joe posts his Holy Crimes segments weekly; It's a horror show full of child molestation, extortion, embezzlement, fraud and the occasional drug dealing and murder. It almost seemed that people with inner struggles are more proned to become religious or maybe folks just join the clergy for the tax breaks and the free housing.

How does an organization who aimed to be doing good cash in their good reputation and turn a blind eye to all these life-altering misconduct? Surely they know that just relocating a child molester and a few hail marys are not going to change a person. Are they just praying and hope god will change these people? In the recent scandal, a cleric who worked under the current pope in 1979 took an 11 year-old to a vacation trip. He was then administered alcohol, locked in his bedroom, stripped naked, and forced to suck the penis of his confessor. The current pope's deputy decided to transferred the person to Munich for therapy, then returned him to "pastoral" work, where he soon enough resumed his career of sexual assault. The pope, of course, denied to have knowledge of this incident.

Another scandal involved REv Lawrence C. Murphy in Wisconsin who had raped more than 200 deaf boys in a school for the hearing impaired. The incidents happened between 1950 to 1974. He was going to be on a secret canonical trial that will potentially dismiss him but he wrote two letters to the current pope protesting that he should not be put on trial because he had already repented and was in poor health and that the case was beyond the church’s own statute of limitations. He got his wish. Apparently, Father Murphy not only was never tried by the church, but also got a free pass from the local police and prosecutors who ignored reports from his victims. I mean, Wow! When you're fucking 200 boys, deaf boys at that, it's practically a buffet.

The pope, as we know, is infallible. He's the head of the church and the head of Vatican City, so he cannot be prosecuted. The one thing that drives me mad is how backward the church is and instead of addressing the issues. They will just close their eyes and hope to pray the scandal away. Child molesters will just be transferred to a different location and not prosecuted or discharged. Worse, they will dismiss it as part of homosexuality and blame it on us. The pope cannot look more evil if he tries, I don't think he would even resign and I don't think reverting the celibacy requirement will do any good since Catholicism is now quite synonymous with child molestation. All this would do is probably making people less likely to go to church or join the clergy, or maybe it'll make child molesters more likely to join them. Maybe people would realize that believing in Jesus and God does not necessarily mean you have to go to church, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.