Sunday, May 16, 2010

The Truth Is We Can't Trust Them

The spiritual energy of Benedict IX is still alive and well in recesses of the Vatican. The conveyances of mobility may have changed, but not much else. Even the cappa magnas are more than large enough to serve as convertible tops.


I think it's very important for Catholics to really understand what we are attempting to deal with in reforming the Vatican. Cardinal's like Sodano didn't hatch on their onesie or come to power in some sort of vacuum. When I write there is old old entrenched energy behind the current scandals the following illustrates what I mean.

Vatican Hall Of Shame
The Smartset - Tony Perrotett - 5/13/2010


“Lord, give me chastity and self-control — but not yet." — Prayer of the young Saint Augustine, c.380 A.D.

The scandals may be coming thick and strong from the Vatican at the moment, but the Church has always waged a losing battle with its own vice-ridden staff. (At this point in history we truly need to win this battle. For the first time in the history of the Church the laity is equipped to be an equal voice. The question is, do we choose to accept this challenge or will we believe a few ill defined statements concerning penance and conversion from Benedict will do the trick. The Church has been down this road before and it's never worked to trust that the power structure will experience 'conversion'. )

The problem was that transgressions from official policy often began at the top. Fellow priests put one of the first popes, Sixtus III (432-40), on trial for seducing a nun. He was acquitted after quoting from Christ in his defense: “Let you who are without sin cast the first stone.” In the centuries to follow, political skullduggery and a corrupt election process thrust one improbable candidate after another into the position as god-fearing believers looked on in impotent horror. In fact, so many Vicars of Christ have been denounced as the “Worst Pope Ever” that we have to settle for a Top Ten list. (If the laity look on in impotent horror this time, it's because we've chosen too.)

1. Sergius III (904-11), known by his cardinals as "the slave of every vice," came to power after murdering his predecessor. He had a son with his teenage mistress — the prostitute Marozia, 30 years his junior — and their illegitimate son grew up to become the next pope. With top Vatican jobs auctioned off like baubles, the papacy entered its “dark century.”

2. The 16-year-old John XII (955-64) was accused of sleeping with his two sisters and inventing a catalog of disgusting new sins. Described by a church historian as “the very dregs,” he was killed at age 27 when the husband of one of his mistresses burst into his bedroom, discovered him in flagrante, and battered his skull in with a hammer.

3. Benedict IX, (1032-48) continually shocked even his most hardened cardinals by debauching young boys in the Lateran Palace. Repenting of his sins, he actually abdicated to a monastery, only to change his mind and seize office again. He was “a wretch who feasted on immorality,” wrote Saint Peter Damian, “a demon from hell in the disguise of a priest.” (Kind of reminds one of Fr. Maciel--except for the repentance part.)

4. After massacring the entire population in the Italian town of Palestrina, Boniface VIII (1294-1303) indulged in ménages with a married woman and her daughter and became renowned through Rome as a shameless pedophile. He famously declared that having sex with young boys was no more a sin than rubbing one hand against the other — which should make him the patron saint of Boston priests today. The poet Dante reserved a place for him in the eighth circle of Hell.

5. All pretense at decorum was abandoned when the papacy moved to Avignon in southern France for 75 years. Bon vivant Clement VI (1342-52) was called “an ecclesiastical Dionysus” by the poet Petrarch for the number of mistresses and the severity of his gonorrhea. Upon his death, 50 priests offered Mass for the repose of his soul for nine consecutive days, but French wits agreed that this was nowhere near enough.

6. Decamping back to Rome, the papacy hit its true low point in the Renaissance. (Church historian Eamon Duffy compares Rome to Nixon’s Washington, “a city of expense-account whores and political graft.”) Sixtus IV (1471-84), who funded the Sistine Chapel, had six illegitimate sons — one with his sister. He collected a Church tax on prostitutes and charged priests for keeping mistresses, but critics argued that this merely increased the prevalence of clerical homosexuality. (Perhaps this explains why rape and incest don't mitigate abortion. This is however, classic Imperial Roman behavior.)

7. The rule of Innocent VIII (1484-92) is remembered as the Golden Age of Bastards: He acknowledged eight illegitimate sons and was known to have many more, although he found time between love affairs to start up the Inquisition. On his death bed, he ordered a comely wet nurse to supply him with milk fresh from the breast.

8. The vicious Rodrigo Borgia, who took the name Alexander VI (1492-1503), presided over more orgies than masses, wrote Edward Gibbon. A career highlight was the 1501 “Joust of the Whores,” when 50 dancers were invited to slowly strip around the pope’s table. Alexander and his family gleefully threw chestnuts on the floor, forcing the women to grovel around their feet like swine; they then offered prizes of fine clothes and jewelry for the man who could fornicate with the most women. Alexander’s other hobbies included watching horses copulate, which would make him “laugh fit to bust.”After his death — quite possibly poisoned by his pathological son, Cesar Borgia — this pope’s body was expelled from the basilica of Saint Peter as too evil to be buried in sacred soil. (Which begs the question as to why such evil ever gained access to the Sacred soil.)

9. Julius II (1503-13) is remembered for commissioning Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling. He was also the first pope to contract “the French disease,” syphilis, from Rome’s male prostitutes. On Good Friday of 1508, he was unable to allow his foot to be kissed by the faithful as it was completely covered with syphilitic sores.

10. Incurable romantic Julius III (1550-55) fell in love with a handsome young beggar boy he spotted brawling with a vendor’s monkey in the streets. The pope went on to appoint this illiterate 17-year-old urchin a cardinal, inspiring an epic poem, “In Praise of Sodomy,” probably written by a disgruntled archbishop in his honor.


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One should not think just because the top ten in the Hall of Shame ends at the period of the Trenten Reformation, that anything really changed. It didn't change. The immorality went further into the closet as the Vatican became preoccupied in trying to maintain some semblance of secular power in the changing secular landscape of the Reformation and Enlightenment.

The Hierarchical structure of the Roman Catholic Church is the only major Western institution which has not undergone radical transformation in how power is shared and exercised. It has maintained the same power structure for 1700 years, virtually untouched by any evolution in secular governance or notions of human potential. It has managed to maintain sole control of a vast amount of wealth with no transparency and no accountability. It has protected it's own interests far and away above the laity it supposedly exists to serve or the teachings of the God it professes to believe in.

Over and over Catholics have been given the excuse that all of the excesses happen because the institutional expression of Catholicism is still after all, composed of mere flawed men. The Church is a human institution (but it has a Divine insurance policy). Mistakes will be made. A true Christian neither condemns nor judges, but forgives seven times seventy---and oh by the way, your salvation depends on your forgiving us, and believing in our sacramental magic. One of the truths of our faith is that your personal salvation is not dependent on us changing anything. It's the exact opposite. Why if we changed something this might harm our ability to give you your salvation, the magic might not work and then you would surely go to hell. Trust us.

And so Catholics continue to trust them. We have pored all kinds of prayer and energy, money and deference, blind loyalty and uncritical obedience into an upside down funnel which eventually spills onto the hands of the Papacy and through them the Vatican bureaucracy.

Unfortunately there was usually no room for the Holy Spirit in that funnel and so the Spirit blew Her winds into Western secular society. It was secular institutions that became more transparent, more equal, more accountable, less discriminatory, and more committed to extending human rights to every human person. It was the official church who railed against this progress and supported the forces marshaled against these changes. We were told that although we couldn't always trust our leadership, we could trust ourselves even less. Trust us, we know what's better for your salvation than you do. A Pinochet is better than an Oscar Romero. Latin is better than English, but a Latinized English is better than no Latin. It is better for both the mother and child to die, than to purposely choose to save the life of the mother. It is against life to extend the theology of self defense to any issue involving women. It's better to receive your Lord from an unrepentant clerical pedophile than from a married priest, or God shudder, a honest gay priest. As for women, fuhgeddahaboutem. Trust us.

Not any more. Not this kid. I will not pore any more energy, prayer, money, or uncritical obedience into maintaining a Vatican culture which is rooted in the worst of human impulse and has never purified it's act. While it's true John Paul II was hardly Benedict the IX, he was still involved in the same energy every time he supported, promoted, or extolled the virtues of Maciel. To me this says he either knew about Maciel and chose to support him anyway, or he was incapable of seeing the kind of energy around Maciel. In either case the end result was the promotion of the ages old evil with in the Vatican itself. On a spiritual level there is no practical difference between enabling through naivete or enabling through purpose. Evil is served.

If even the best of our leadership can't see the evil they actively support through their naivete, it's time Catholics admitted: We can't trust them. It's past time we started poring our energy into changing this system once and for all.









6 comments:

  1. That's telling it like it is Colleen. "The Truth Is We Can't Trust Them."

    Trusting them is like trusting that Wall Street will clean up its own act, convert to Jesus Christ, that they will become like Angels and really repent for their greed and ignorance, that they will act responsibly and be accountable, that they will reform themselves. It is like putting trust in a group of adolescent children who are selfish, greedy, ego-centered and naive spiritually and politically, sexually and psychologically blind and in adults allowing these children to rule and make laws for the adults, denying any questioning of their "authority."

    What kind of an adult would allow children to run the world or a Church and allow them to create laws for the adults, while the children engage in adolescent destructiveness? It would be insane. Yet, this is what adults in the RCC allow to occur, being sweet-talked, baby talked into believing they are going to be "saved" by them.

    It becomes psychotic or delusional to defend such a hierarchy that for all of these years has done more to create destructive tendencies in the world than it has in saving souls.

    At NCR, the evidence of the effect of psychotics filling the minds and hearts of youth into hateful persons is so evident in their mindless and evil comments towards mature adults who question the authorities in the Church. The hatred from these people and the ignorance they convey are a direct reflection of the filth permeated and perpetuated from the ignorance of evil itself pouring out of their senseless comments that totally lack any grace.

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  2. What a great article!

    Why stop with the top 10 I could read these stories all day?

    I am reminded of Mrs. p2p's observation about morals being for the middle class. The upper class doesn't abide by them, they don't have to. As for the lower classes, Mr. Doolittle says it better than I in GB Shaw's Pygmalion:

    "I think you should know, Doolittle...

    ...that Mr. Higgins' intentions
    are entirely honorable

    Of course they are, Governor.
    If I thought they wasn't, I'd ask .

    You mean, you'd sell your daughter
    for pounds?

    Have you no morals, man?

    No, I can't afford 'em, Governor. Neither
    could you if you was as poor as me.


    p2p

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  3. Colleen -

    Previously, I cited the case of Sylvester II, who: "he took energetic measures against the widespread practices of simony and concubinage among the clergy, maintaining that only capable men of spotless lives should be allowed to become bishops...."

    That he personally (literally) studied the occult & is widely reputed to have practiced it is beside the point. Yet he was 'infallible'.

    ....got that now?

    Here is a better question: come up with the names of 10 GOOD popes.

    ...I'll wait......

    *plays Jeopardy theme*

    Tough, ain't it?:)

    "...the Church is INFALLIBLE, holy & pure as it was established by Christ Himself, having the sole teaching authority in matters of faith & morals, and outside of which there is no salvation, as it wields the Keys to Heaven..."

    Anybody could very easily demolish the above assertions. None of the above is supported by the Gospels (not even the 'forbidden ones'). And then there is the use of pure logic, within the framework of the Gospel.

    "Flawed men"? That is a massive coverup. For it is the institution itself - the Vatican, founded AD 325 - which is completely man-made. Completely human in origin. And thus, utterly flawed to the core.

    By the Vatican, werefer to organizational infrastructure of the church organization & its Administrators/Administration. The buildings & make-believe country are merely a subset of this.

    Christ DID NOT found the Vatican; men did. Men who conspired with the pagan Emperor Constantine to sell the Ekklesia of Christ to Mammon. For Mammon; to become its servant. Between 270 and 300 bishops attended the Council of Nicea at which this was done, called & chaired by Constantine. Where were the other 1500 bishops?

    No sane entity convenes a legislative meeting, whose decisions are binding upon all with nominally 15% attendance. Not unless some treachery is afoot.

    ...rather like the midnight trials of Christ before the Temple Masters.....many of whom were unaware of the proceedings until it was too late. Of course the Bishops of Nicea were of the same spirit........!

    Those in Jerusalem in 33AD made their deal with the devil; those in Rome in 325AD did likewise. What the Devil was not able to tempt Christ with (...all the kingdoms of the world & their power is mine to give...), he succeeded with at Nicea.

    It was a palace coup. A 'bait & switch'. From 325 to today, they have used the Most Holy Name of God as a medium of control over nations. Jesus became the corporate logo. "Obey us and maybe....if we wanna....we might let you into heaven". Heap powerful medicine!

    Thus, with such a 'spirit' as the foundation stone (and not Christ) it is no wonder that most Prelates have been scoundrels. Ditto for most popes. Look at what they were serving; what they were 'sitting upon'.

    If you go to the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the official Cathedral of Rome, you are where the Cathedra of the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) is located. And if you go there, I highly recommend observing two things:

    1) the Baldachino over the high altar, which houses - in a literal cage with prison-type bars - the heads of Sts. Peter & Paul. The founders of the correct evangelization in the spirit of the Gospel....are kept 'prisoner'.

    2) Rather then an altar, the Apse contains a throne; the Cathedra of the Bishop of Rome. It dates from the 1400s; but the base it sits upon dates from the 4th century,when Constantine originally built this church. This base has some interesting features:

    It displays, in marble bas-relief, the four ancient symbols of evil:

    A snake, bull, basilisk, & dragon.

    That is their 'foundation'.


    Anon Y. Mouse

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  4. In one sense you have to give 'Mammon' some credit. Rome the secular empire was in it's death throes, it was time to possess a new human creation---and one with inherent long term possibilites to manipulate.

    When Fr. Tiehard talked about the concept of noosphere, he missed part of the boat. There is such a thing as a collective consciousness and this collective is just as susceptible to demonic influence as any individual.

    In the Catholic collective there is much much beauty, but there is also a darkness right in the center of the core and it spreads out like chocolate marbling in vanilla ice cream.

    I think people sense this on some level. It is now time to recognize it's very real existence and do something about it, even if it means creating a new batch of collective ice cream.

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  5. Butterfly, you ask:

    "What kind of an adult would allow children to run the world or a Church and allow them to create laws for the adults,"

    The answer is adults who have grown up in a religious system which has taught them to think of themselves as lesser children than the children promulgating all the teachings.

    There are concrete reasons for why bullies run school yards.

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  6. Colleen -

    "There are concrete reasons for why bullies run school yards."

    OK...so who has trained, encouraged & bred the bullies? Where did they learn this behavior?

    ...from the guys who wear the pointy hats.

    You must surely have observed by now that the Church has encouraged & conditioned a culture based upon abuse. Call it the 'bully system'.....Church Hiearchy....Mafia.....Law Enforcement/Judicial system....these are all built upon & thrive upon...abuse.

    This is an essential element of the 'world/world system' which Christ came to free men & women from. To bring them out into the true light. That they do not need bully - or be bullied. That all are equal;which means bullying does not compute.

    If we wish to go back to the schoolyard, then ask yourself this:

    Why was the bully never punished? The victim was always double punished,if not triple (by the bully, the teacher/principal,other kids, his parents). He was utterly humiliated, while the bully was either not chastised or only in a token way. In reality, this gave his function 'street cred'.

    Because the bully & bully system are essential to the Catholic authority system & its implementation.

    Anon Y.Mouse

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