Hitchens on Catholic child-rapists and their protector pope

Also — newly available — a book review

John in Cincinnati
Tuesday 15 April 2008 at 1:55

Love the Slate — haven’t looked at the VF piece yet.

Love it when Hitch goes after the Catholics.

And I love this hit piece.
Will
Wednesday 16 April 2008 at 13:26

Christopher Hitchens
My Response to Benedict

Tuesday, Pope Benedict said he is “deeply ashamed” of the scandal and assured Catholics that seminaries will not tolerate pedophiles. “It is a great suffering for the Church in the United States, for the Church in general and for me personally that this could happen,” Benedict told reporters. “If I read the stories of these victims, it is difficult for me to understand how it was possible that priests betrayed in this way their mission to give healing, to give love of God to these children.”

In his response, the Pontiff has utterly mis-stated the nature of the clerical pedophilia scandal. The scandal is not the presence of pedophiles in the church, but the institutionalization of child-rape by the knowing protection and even promotion (by non-pedophiles) of those who are guilty of it. The most grievous offender in this respect is Cardinal Bernard Law, currently an honored figure at the Vatican. This expression of contempt for the victims makes the Pope himself a direct accomplice in the very atrocity that he affects to denounce.
Will
Thursday 17 April 2008 at 10:09

Secular society to blame for child-fucking catholic priests claims pope-on-a-rope.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7351742.stm