Current Events: February 2004 Archives

Again, I am not jumping on a bandwagon to bash my Bishop-at least not in this case. He says he is innocent, and I will back that (like my opinion means anything if I did not). We know it is not uncommon for people to use situations like this for whatever reason in their own agenda. I also have some other thoughts I will keep to myself.

Yesterday I had the privilegde to listen to a local radio talk show host personality whining about how they could do this to "his Church" and "ecclesiastically rape him" for an hour as we sat in the car taking the kids to their bowling league. He presented the question "call in and tell me what you think, should priests get married?" Like a Dodo, I called in.

"Pansy calling from her cell..."

"Hello Mr. Martin. I am calling regarding the question 'If priests should marry?' No."

"Well. why don't you think they should marry?"

"My father is clergy, and it is very hard on the family. There is so much to do and be done, and he does not nerely have all thre responsibilities of a priest. It would be too hard, either the Church or the family would suffer."

"Your father is a priest?"

"No, sir a deacon."

"A deacon? What faith is that?"

"Roman Catholic, Sir"

"St. Peter was married and that's good enough for me. Anglican priests are married and their families do not whine that they feel neglected."

"I am not sure 'neglected ' is the term-"

"Let me talk! In the early Church, they stopped priests from getting married so they could not pass land on to their families and so they could control the priests. What other reason could you possibly have tpo believe priests should npot get married?"

"Because a priest stands in for Christ who is the Bridegroom of the Church-"

"THESE PRIESTS THAT ABUSE LITTLE CHILDREN ARE EVIL! EVIL! A PRIEST CANNOT GET UP AND PREACH HOW TO ACT RIGHT AND PERPETRATE THESE CRIMES-"

"Well of course their actions are evil-"

"I DON'T BELIEVE YOU OR YOUR EXPLANATIONS ANYMORE! THE CHURCH IS EVIL >click< BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!"

This is actually the typical Albany Catholic, and ofr a moment I forgot before I called that this was about Church bashing because he talked about how he was a reader at his parish, the local Catholic High School his son attends, his son's confirmation last year. Any time you talk Church anything. be it the sex abuse allegations, or a simple Parish Council meeting, all it is is a frenzy about how the Church is horrible, it needs to change. Why do people bother calling themselves Catholic? Oh well.

In the meantime, someone on the homeschool email list sent an email stating that the Bishop has a letter to be read in graphic detail (i.e. cover your children's ears) denying the allegations. Why can't you ever just go to Mass in this diocese? The driveway might be closed anyway...
Update: I thought the letter was not that bad graphically, and was timely. It also set my mind at ease. The fact that we must hear about "sexual abuse" from the pulpit more and more probably has more to do with the times than just the fault of the Bishop.

I have no opinion, well maybe a small one about the truth to these allegations. Either way, the ramifications are quite scary.

Heard a John Kerry speech today: ended with "Purple Haze", I think. As a Hendrix tune for the campaign, it's better than "Let Me Stand Next to Your Fire," which would be the most inapt Kerry tune imaginable. He has no fire. He wouldn't catch fire if you doused him in kerosene and shot Roman Candle balls at him. He's a sopping-wet asbestos poncho. But it was the 60s music that made me shudder. It appears that in the middle of the new war we're going to revisit the most important war ever, Vietnam.

God no. Please no. I think I speak for millions when I say that I am deathly sick of the counterculture sixties. The music, the war, the protests, all the hagiography - it's not a reflection of the era's importance but the self-importance of the generation who hung on the bus as it trundled along down the same old rutted road of history.. I'm tired of hearing about the boomers' days of whine and neuroses; I'm weary of ritual genuflection to their musical icons; I'm utterly disinterested in most of the pop-cult trivia they hold so dear. We'll probably be better off when that demographic pig has been excreted from the python so we can see the era clearly without choking on the smoke.

Read the rest here.