Wednesday, March 17, 2010

The Three Letter Word



I imagine we’re all pretty much immune to further shocks in the continuing saga of the Catholic Church and the systemic abuses which have been ongoing for centuries I would imagine with only the victims of the last fifty years coming forward to shout the truth.

We’ve all been reading the staggering but unsurprising revelation of the child abuse scandals in Germany one literally touching the pope with his brother, Georg Ratzinger, the choirmaster of a group of boys who have now alleged abuse.

Paedophilia charges against church officials continue to surface across Germany, and allegations have included the Regensburger Domspatzen boys choir, which was led for three decades by Rev. Georg Ratzinger, the Pope's brother.


Read more here

But a tiny word caught my eye in the latest church saga in Ireland. Cardinal Sean Brady is now implicated in the massive cover-up of the abuses – you can read about the Irish scandals in a previous post here.

Cardinal Sean Brady was a priest in 1975 when abuse allegations were raised against another priest, Brendan Smyth. At a meeting at that time, Brady asked two victims — boys aged 10 and 14 — to sign letters agreeing they would remain silent. The church did not share the information with police.

Cardinal Brady ASKED two abused children, victims of horrific paedophilia, aged 10 and 14, to sign letters agreeing they would remain silent about their abuse.

ASK, such a tiny word, such unconscionable implications.

Think about it, look at the definitions below.

(1)to make inquiry; inquire: to ask about a person.

(2)to request or petition (usually fol. by for): to ask for leniency; to ask for food

And ASK yourself if they were his equals. ASK yourself if they had a choice.

13 comments:

  1. In the Netherlands there is now a lot of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy coming to the surface. People are finally speaking up and being listened to. This is all due to what was started in the US and Ireland. Thankfully it is now being dealt with and the victims are being taken seriously.

    ReplyDelete
  2. No nitpicking. I mean it.

    These fucking priest are no paedophiles.
    I am a philosopher (A friend of wisdom), and I am a paedophile (A friend of children).

    The hypocritical bastards we are are talking about, are paederasts!

    And those, who cover(ed) their crimes, are criminals, too.

    May they become at least 200 years old, while their testicles are slowly wrotting - and painfully.

    ReplyDelete
  3. GSW:
    The thing is these victims never do recover, I have known a few who have suicided. Their one and only precious lives stolen forever. This stuff literally makes me ill. And I couldn't go through more than 2 pages of the Ryan Report out of Ireland. I knew some of those victims.
    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sean:
    The following are the definitions from Wikipedia~

    Pedophilia (or paedophilia) is the sexual preference for prepubescent children by adults or adolescents.

    Pederasty or paederasty is a (usually erotic) relationship between an older man and an adolescent boy outside his immediate family. The word pederasty derives from Greek (paiderastia) "love of children" or "love of boys",[1] a compound derived from παῖς (pais) "child, boy" and ἐραστής (erastēs) "lover".

    The only difference from what I can glean is that while both are a prurient interest of a sexual nature in minor children, the first is in pre-pubescent and the second is in post-pubescent.

    I would not run around, if I were you, announcing you were a paedophile.

    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm just amazed that the Catholic church isn't by now utterly discredited and I'm amazed that it still has supporters. The stink of hypocrisy and corruption is overpowering.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ah, WWW, looking at my typos, probably I ought not to write comments when I should already lie in Morpheus' arms.

    My point was to show that mentioned terms are a nice example for the development of language.

    Philosophy is composed of φίλος (friend) and Σοφία (wisdom).
    Thus, taking the literal sense, I do not need to study (philosophy) to become a friend of wisdom. Would you agree?

    Paedophilia is composed of Παιδί (child) and φίλος (friend).
    So, again in the literal sense, s/he who is a friend of children, is not the worst (wo)man on this planet, per se.
    Would you agree?

    Well, and re paederasts and what wikepedia obviously does not tell:

    The Greek word for child abuse (currently) is ... Παιδεραστία.

    ...

    Ha ha, and as our philodendron is just catching my eye: I'd not call him/it a rapist of trees.
    Alas, who knows? I might be wrong.

    And off I am, knowing that I have been running the risk of getting diagnosed with logorrhoea - which itself is another interesting tiny word.

    Have a lovely day.

    ReplyDelete
  7. "And ASK yourself if they were his equals. ASK yourself if they had a choice." -

    Yes, of course they had a choice. And it would have been made clear to them:

    Agree, or burn in the Fiery Pit for eternity.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Nick:
    And I just read in our provincial newspaper an article by a professor of theology, who reiterates how wonderfully enlightened the catholic church is in leading us all of the darkness of the spirit. Seriously.
    I give up. The brainwashing is complete.
    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sean:
    I was wondering, to be honest, if a drop of the craythur had had its way with you.
    XPO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  10. RJA:
    Yes, I can imagine, to my horror, how those conversations went.
    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  11. Ha ha, no craythur in my venes last night, WWW.
    What stands 'XPO' for?

    ReplyDelete
  12. There is not much I can add after reading all the comments, except... THANK GOD I AM AN ATHEIST! :):):)

    But of course that doesn't take away from the horrific abuse others have and continue to suffer under these bastards... Damn with all organized religion!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Religious leaders, corporations, dictators - they all do as they want to do, with whom and in what way they wish, and take no note of what ordinary people, whom they are supposed to represent, succour and lead, think about their actions. They get a bye for their bad deeds, and a bonus too, in many cases.

    It's becoming clearer to me every day after trying hard to look on the bright side - there ain't one.

    Vive la revolution!

    ReplyDelete

Comments are welcome. Anonymous comments will be deleted unread.

Email me at wisewebwomanatgmaildotcom if you're having trouble.