I couldn't have said it better myself! I am in complete agreement

The present pope has taken the church back to the middle ages. And he, as Cardinal Ratzinger (perfect name for him), was one of the high prelates of the church who for years hid from the public the abominable sexual abuse of children by priests. A friend once told me her mother referred to the Catholic Church as "that black brood." When one hears the latest pronouncements of the pope, her assessment seems very appropriate. For an understanding of how innocent, trusting people have been betrayed and abused by the church, I highly recommend a documentary called "Deliver Us From Evil." It is out on DVD and can be rented through Netflix or Blockbuster.

LEGION OF DECENCY? THE CATHOLIC CHURCH COULD USE ONE FOR ITSELF!
by Jaime O'Neill

When I was a kid, I used to read movie reviews in one or another magazine when I was killing time over at my aunt's house. Those reviews linger in my memory because most of them had a code indicating whether or not the film under review was considered acceptable by the Catholic Church. The ratings were offered under the rubric of The Catholic Legion of Decency, and those guardians of public morality found lots of things to be indecent, even by the standards of the rather prudish 1950s.

It might be good if we had another Legion of Decency to rule on the actions of the Catholic Church itself these days because a lot of rather indecent things are being done in the name of Catholicism.

Perhaps you heard the outrageous story of the nine-year-old girl in Brazil, impregnated by her stepfather, whose family was informed by the Catholic Church that the girl's mother and her doctors would be excommunicated from the church for making the decision to abort the twins the child rape victim was carrying. The little girl was four months pregnant when her condition was discovered, and that discovery was made only because she had been complaining of severe stomach pains. At nine years old, the pregnancy was considered a threat to her life. Police in Brazil believe the girl had been sexually assaulted for years by her stepfather, probably since she was six years old. Declaring that "life must always be protected,‰ a senior Vatican cleric has defended the Catholic Church's decision to excommunicate the child's mother and doctors.

Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, the conservative regional archbishop who presides over the diocese where the little girl lives, has said that the child-molesting stepfather who impregnated the girl would not be thrown out of the Church. Although he had allegedly committed "a heinous crime, the Church took the view that "the abortion, the elimination of an innocent life, was more serious.

Now if I'm not mistaken, that nine-year-old girl was „an innocent life, too, had it not been for the stepfather who stole that innocence from her. But that child molester is still a member in good standing of the Catholic Church, and the girl's mother and her doctors are not.

If you're seeking spiritual guidance to help you make good moral choices, could you do much worse than an outfit that would come to such an astounding judgment in such a case?

Coming from a powerful organization led by men who are presumed to be celibates, this is a disgraceful act. And yet their moral judgment is so cloudy they rule that a pedophile is less a sinner than a child's mother who acts in the interest of her abused child's health.

But then the Catholic Church has a history of looking the other way where pedophilia is concerned, turning a blind eye on far too many predatory priests who treat acolytes and altar boys as sex toys, then protecting those molesters after they've been caught out.

This Brazilian case is evil itself, disguised in expensive robes, mitres, slippers and gold rings, supported by the Vatican in Rome, with the full majesty of the church brought to bear on a little girl's mother. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church makes ostentatious display of its wealth, much of it extracted from people like the poor of Brazil.

In its brutal indifference to a young girl's trauma, and to her mother and the doctors whose medical judgment they chose to ignore, the Catholic Church seems uneasily similar to the ruthless Taliban in its oppression of women. And in its overweening concern for the unborn over compassion for the living who are already here, the Catholic Church continues to show a hard heart for the flock it tends--and shears.

And, if the Brazilian case isn't outrageous enough, consider the recent episode surrounding Argentinian Bishop Richard Williamson, who denied the Holocaust in an interview with Swedish television. The Bishop's cavalier dismissal of the historical evidence of one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century generated a storm of anger.

In the interview that raised the storm, Williamson said that no more than 300,000 Jews "perished in Nazi concentration camps ... not one of them by gassing in a gas chamber."

Williamson is one of four bishops from the ultraconservative Society of St. Pius X whose excommunication was recently lifted by the Vatican. Years ago, while a rector in the U.S., Williamson was quoted as saying: In the Catholic Middle Ages the Jews were relatively impotent to harm Christendom, but as Catholics have grown over the centuries since then weaker and weaker in the faith... so the Jews have come closer and closer to fulfilling their substitute-Messianic drive towards world domination. He also said: There was not one Jew killed in the gas chambers. It was all lies, lies, lies. And, according to Bishop Williamson: ...the Jews created the Holocaust so we would prostrate ourselves on our knees before them and approve of their new State of Israel.

That anti-Semite in the fancy robes was sanctioned by the Pope, who withdrew Bishop Williamson's ex-communication.

And let's not forget how the Pope used his Christmas message last year to broadcast the idea that saving the world from homosexuality was just as important as saving the rainforests, thus continuing the long-standing tradition of spreading fear, ignorance and bigotry.

To put a capper on all this, the Pope recently traveled to AIDS-ravaged Africa to carry a message AGAINST the use of condoms. This is not moral leadership, it is not spiritual guidance, it's criminal insanity cloaked in silk and satin surplices. The Pope was flown on his private jet from Rome to that poor and death-stalked African continent where he offered lethally bad advice about a disease that kills 6,000 people there every single day.

Papal infallibility? You bet your life.

If I did not love my country, I would not loathe George W. Bush.