The Pope visits Britain today and to mark the auspicious occasion I have posted a video of Tom Lehrer’s Vatican Rag.
On a more serious note, here is an article on the ongoing debate about pedophile priests which the Pope’s visit has highlighted.
Investigation: Many Convicted Pedophile Priests Are Still Priests
Just in time for Pope Benedict‘s taxpayer-funded trip to Britain, a Channel 4 investigation shows that at least 14 priests who have served time for molesting children remain in the clergy, and some even made it into the Church’s yearbook.
The report, which will air tonight on Britain’s Channel 4, is the result of an investigation into public records and court documents detailing 37 crimes involving child molesting priests in England and Wales. Besides the rampant sex abuse by members of the clergy, recommendations made by a judge that offending priests be “laicised,” or dismissed from the priesthood were ignored by the church. Of 22 priests who have served a year or more in jail for child molestation, 14 are still priests and 10 of them appeared in the latest edition of the Catholic Directory. But hey, they’ve been punished! And they’re probably very remorseful.
The Pope is due to meet victims of sex abuse during his trip, but if it’s anything like a 2008 meeting between Benedict and American victims, they will have to sign confidentiality agreements before meeting him.
http://gawker.com/5638525/investigation-many-convicted-pedophile-priests-are-still-priests
Yeah, I’d like to “laicise” these perverts my own way.
What would another European luminary, Martin Luther, have said about this pope’s visit to the United Kingdom? But I will not tread that holy ground!
The happenings at the Vatican only be explained by comparing the whole thing to a rat study. We can only hope that who ever is doing all this has good intentions for the shumans here on planet earth…G%