Freethought Papers, Essays & Letters

Thoughtful Activist Opposition to Religion

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH VIOLENCE 

 

 

The Roman Catholic Church has developed an environment which promotes, supports and encourages perverted and violent  psychological and physical behavior in its priests, bishops, cardinals and congregants.  This environment is the result of eleven well-defined and fully documented problems (See the books and publications refered to in this essay).  These problems include: 

 

• The Pope’s, the Curia’s and the Holy Office’s (was the “Inquisition”)  intervention, regulation, and encyclicals supporting violence: e.g., “The bulk of cases involving religious violence are, however, motivated by religious doctrine, and sacred fury.” (From: “Sacred Fury - Understanding Religious Violence” by Charles Selengut.)

“Francisco Ferrer developed forty non-religious schools in Barcelona starting in 1902.  They adhered to the scientific outlook and championed women’s rights.  “The all-powerful Catholic hierarchy deemed Ferrer and his ‘godless schools’ to be agents of satan....[in 1909] A military tribunal accused Ferrer and three other men of fomenting the riot [....women demonstrated against conscription - the riots followed...a prominent clergyman declaired: ‘The partisans of the godless schools must be suppressed if peace is to be reestablished and Spain returned to God.’]  Their trial was a travesty of  hearsay and innuendo with defense witnesses excluded.  Ferrer was shot in a military fortress on October 13, 1909.  His execution caused shock and anger around Europe.  When parliament reconvened, Liberal members denounced the Conservative administration so furiously that Pemier Antonio Maura was forced to resign.”

However, Pope Pius X sent a gold-handled sword engraved with his felicitations to the military prosecutor who had obtained Ferrar’s death.”  (From: “2000 Years of Disbelief - Famous People With the Courage to Doubt” by James A. Haught).

 

“As John Paul leaves the stage, the extraordinary achievements that ensure his role as one of our greatest popes must be weighed against the human suffering wrought by internal corruption on his watch.” (From: “Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II.” by Jason Berry and Gerald Renner.) 

 

• Adherence to a “holy” book, the bible, which encourages horrible and perverted violence of all kinds:

 “If thou trusteth to the book called the scriptures, thou trusteth to the rotten staff of fables and of falsehoods.” (From: “The Age of Reason” by Thomas Payne.).

 

The “X-rated Bible”, by Ben Ackerley, lists the sexually-based writings in the Bible.  They are widespread and found in both the old and new testaments and  include incest, menstruation, masturbation, venerial disease, homosexuality, rape (individual and group), adultery, indecent exposure, group sex, exhibitionism, nudity and striptease, prostitution, phallic worship, abortion, surrogate motherhood, sex and drugs, husband swapping, the low state of women, bestiality, castration, illegitimacy, sexual potency, praise of love, devil sex and witchcraft.  The Vatican has its own list of  banned,“black books”, but if censorship is to be applied to various books that priests find repugnant, the first book that should be banned from children’s reading is the Bible with these detailed and, sometimes obviously very attractive, sexual references and descriptions.  And this is without references to often hidiously described, and to children, frightening violence in this “holy” book.. 

 

• Perverse intervention by the all-male, celebate Catholic hierarchy, including Popes, in the definition of the religiously correct sexual behavior: e.g., Pope Paul VI’s encyclical, “Humanae Vitae” (1968) 

 

• A lack of careful attention to priest acolytes’ background checks because of a serious decrease in priests and priest signups for Catholic Church service and a “signup any man who applies” policy: e.g.,  the official definition of the church as, “a society formed of living men, not a mere mystical union of souls (From “New Advent” the Catholic Encyclopaedia online: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/ 03744a.htm).”  

 

“The imbecile priests! The best destiny they can look for is that they and their vile artifices will forever remain buried in the darkness of oblivion”. (Quote from Frederick the Great, From: “2000 Years of Disbelief - Famous People With the Courage to Doubt” by James A. Haught).

 

• The church’s procedures to send perverted priests to other dioceses to hide their perversions even though they are a serious threat to children and women in those new diocese:  ”The sex-abuse crisis that engulfed the Roman Catholic Church during the past 12 months has spread to nearly every American diocese and involves more than 1,200 priests, most of whose careers span a mix of church history and seminary training.  These priests are known to have abused more than 4,000 minors.” (From: “Sex Abuse By Priests Found To Be Rampant”, by Laurie Goodutein, New York Times News Service.). 

 

• Historically developed control factors which subordinate and belittle women and children: e.g., “Augustine was not the first child to suffer a beating at the hands of an adult who felt he was acting in the child’s best - future - interests.  Nor is he the first adult to have written about his experience of being beaten as a child.  But he was enormously influential as Christianity’s greatest theologian since Paul.... One wonders what life in the Christian world would have been like had Augustine instead offered a powerful theological indictment of the beating of children by adults.” (From: “The Childs’ Song - The Religious Abuse of Children” by Donald Capps.) 

 

• The Church definition of women as “dirty” and subordinate to men because of menstruation and excluding them from from the church hierarchy and priesthood: ”.....women and young girls who took church vows have been sexually victimized by priests and others in the male-controlled church hierarchy.  According to the St.  Louis Post-Dispatch, which obtained a copy of the report, a "minimum" of 34,000 Catholics nuns -- about 40% of the national total -- have suffered some kind of sexual trauma”, (From: “Confidential Study Reveals Church Abuse Of Nuns”: John T. Chibnall, St.  Louis University, co-author of the research summary.) 

 

• The control of priests’ sexual behavior by demanding a vow of celebacy from them and lying about it as a “choice” : Pope Paul VI released his encyclical; Priestly Celibracy (Sacerdotalis Caelibatus) on June 12, 1867, his difficulty here was even greater than it would be in his contraception encyclical, Humanae Vitae, [1968].  

 

• A carefully cultivated fallacy of trust by congregants in priests and bishops who are supposed to minister to all their “spiritual needs” : “Devout Catholic families......will also, precisely because of their faith and trust, be most deeply seared by betrayal. “I never molested a stranger, or even a casual acquaintance.  There always had to be that element of trust and even adulation on the part of both the boy and his parents.” (Statement made by Father Robert Peebles the priest abuser of Mike Miglini in Dallas Texas.) (From: “Papal Sin - Structure of Deceit,” by Gary Wills.) “I know, for I have experienced the thing, that the great prejudice against the church among educated Englishmen is not a religious one against the dogmas, but an ethical and political one; they think that no Catholic can be truthful, honest or free, and that if he tries he is subject to persecution.” (Lord Acton, ibid.) 

• The support of wars and internecene violence by providing military chaplains for armies, preached support from the pulpits of Catholic churches for soldiers in battle, and even the support of one side against the other in civil wars:  The doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church vis-a-vis violence and particularly war insisted on today is essentially based on the concept of “a just war.”  Until the fourth century when Ambrose began the discussion of the just war, Christianity seemed to oppose war and violence for the most part.  Augustine then expanded the concept which was finalized in the sixteenth century.  The current war between America and Iraq was rejected by most Catholic clergy, but not because all war and violence is indefensible, but because the Iraq war is not considered a “just war” by the clergy according to the Catholic doctrine now in place.  The “just war” doctrine gave credence to direct religious involvement in the Crusades, the battles against South American Indians - justified once again by Pope Benedict XVI and various wars in Ireland and Eastern Europe today (See: “When Religion Becomes Evil”, by Charles Kimball, Chapter 6 - ‘Declaring Holy War.’)

 

• Finally, the growth of secrets, secret societies and lies within the Catholic Church, answerable only to the Pope, and then so secretive that everything is never told.  These secret groups are powerful and have the rights and abilities of full dioceses.  These new societies have moved beyond the type of power and influence of the Jesuits and Franciscans by including in their membership the selected rich among church laity.  These secret groups include such names as Opus Dei,  Regnum Christi, and Legionaries of Christ.  They are very secret, very conservative and have developed their own written directions from the men who symbolize their orthodox ideas and their attempt to rebuild a church which they believe has become too liberal.  (See: “Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II” by Jason Berry and Gerald Renner.)  Before he became Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was approached, both in writing and verbally, to help alleged sexual abuse victims of  Maciel Degodollado Marcial, the founder of  Legionaries of Christ (one of the current Catholic “secret societies”).  Ratzinger ignored all requests for help.  This problem emulates the ways in which such abuse cases have been handled by the Church across the globe leading to further and wider violence and abuse.  By ignoring the problem (described thus: “If the Vatican’s blindness to sexual reality under a new pope indifferent to structural reform, the church will see a continued loss of numbers and declining credibility in the countries on which it relies for financial support.)  Ratzinger (is now that Pope) hoped it would go away - and he was proved correct.  His predecessor, Pope John Paul II helped to support this closed-minded approach to supporting abusive priests while ignorning their victims: “Tarcisio Bertone - the canon lawyer under Ratzinger who sheltered Maciel, while endorsing ‘professional secrecy’ for clergy - became the archbishop of Genoa.   “In October 2003 , John Paul elevated him to the College of Cardinals. Bertone, like Ratzinger, refused our interview requests, in keeping with the vow of pontifical secrecy.” (From: “Vows of Silence, The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II”, pp 305, by Jason Berry and Gerald Renner.)

............................................

 

Bindoon, Mt. Cashel, Stephenville, Ballarat, Kinkora, Artane, Bangor, Kilkenney, St. Joseph’s, Kuper Island, Cape Croker, St. Anthony's - 11 quaint names that could be wonderful vacation spots in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada and the United States, where the laughter of children and the happy calls of mothers and fathers ring across the beaches and down mountain valleys.

 

But these are not places of family fun and child amusement.  These are not places where wonderful memories of chilhood games and friends meeting friends.  No, these are not places of childish amusement, but places where Catholic priests raped and abused small children over many years with impugnity.

 

Two political and religious motives brought unsuspecting young children and perverted black cassocked priests together in these places and in many other places across the globe: free-and-easy access to young, soft flesh without any chance of recourse, and white children to help swell the numbers of white people in populations that were in “danger” of being “overrun” by black and other colored local natives in involved countries where politicians and churches worked in tandem to import “orphans” : ”The Sunday Times doubled the number of UK child migrants sent to Australia between 1947 and 1967, and it suggested that that the only motivation for the scheme was "to populate the colonies with 'good white stock’.”

 

Here are some headlines and quotes covering Catholic priests’, Bishops’ and Cardinals’ perversions and violence around the world (note: the only Bishop to be prosecuted is in France; Reuters: Bishop Pierre Pican of the northern town of Bayeux is expected to stand trial in June, a justice official said.) Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, NY, was sued for his support of pedofile priests sent from diocese to diocese where they committed the same crime with more children.  He was recalled to the Vatican where he was given a job in spite of this.

 

1. CANADA; BRITISH COLUMBIA, B.C. PRIEST CONVICTED OF BUGGERY.

 

2. NEWFOUNDLAND BROTHER GETS 4 YEARS. Mount Cashel Christian brother Alan Ralph was sentenced to 4 years after pleading guilty to 11 counts of sexually abusing 10 boys at Mount Cashel orphanage.

 

3. Ballarat Bishop accepts criticism in sex abuse case.

 

4. Irish paedophiles force children to have sex with animals.

 

5. Quite exceptional depravity – (Christian) Brothers - Senate Committee, Canberra, part of "Lost Innocents: Righting the Record," August 2001 The Christian Brothers: Bindoon, Castledare, Clontarf and Tardun.

 

6. PRIEST ACCUSED OF ASSAULTING GIRL. Catholic priest Hillary Maher, 42, was charged with 6 counts of sexual assault on a girl between the ages of 14-16 in the early 1980s while he was a parish priest in Stephenville. 

 

7. “I saw Brother --- use a pool table stick to hit children if they would not have anal sex with him. Children were given cold showers then strapped. If I told any Brothers that another Brother tried to have sex with me, I would be strapped." 

 

8. "The abuse perpetrated by our own brothers on the victims and their families is truly horrific," said the Rev. Joseph Chinnici, minister of the Oakland-based Province of St. Barbara and leader of Franciscans in seven Western states. 

 

9.  SUPERIOR COURT judge ruled that there was enough evidence in the lawsuits against to sue the cardinal (Bernard Law, Boston, NY) also, as one observer notes, 'Suing Law is almost like suing the Pope.' 

 

10. “Reuters News Service in 2004 told the world of a Roman Catholic order of nuns in Ireland, known as the Congregation of the Sisters of Mary, who had ‘apologised unconditionally for the physical and emotional trauma its nuns had inflicted on children raised in its orphanage and schools.”  This abuse had been uncovered in a television expose of enormous maltreatment in Dublin in the 1950’s and 1960’s. (From: “The Sins of Scripture - Exposing the Bible’s Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love”, by John Shelby Spong.)

 

11. In 1766 at Abbeville, France, a teenage boy was accused of singing irreverant songs, mocking the Virgin Mary, marring a crucifix, and wearing his hat when a religious procession passed.  Criticising the church [Roman Catholic] was punisable by death.  The youth, Chevalier de la Barre, was sentenced to have his tongue cut out, his right hand cut off, and to be burned at the stake.....The clergy demanded death, warning of the dire spread of doubt.....Parliament showed mercy by allowing the youth to be decapitated instead of mutilated and burned alive.  He was first tortured....then executed.” (From: “Holy Horrors - An Illustrated History of Religious Murder and Madness”, by James A. Haught).

 

12. “Millions of men, women and children since the introduction of Christianity, have been burned, tortured, fined imprisoned, yet we have not advanced one inch toward uniformity.  What has been the effect of coercion? To make half ofthe world fools, and the other half hypocrites.” (From: “Notes on Virginia”, by Thomas Jefferson).

 

13. The Catholic Church and transubstantiation (the sacraments become the real flesh and blood of Jesus when the biscuit and wine are consumed at communion - essentially resulting in cannibalism: “...there is no tenet in all paganism which would give so fair a scope to ridicule as that of the “real presence” (transubstantiation) ; for it is so absurd , that it eludes the force of all argument.” (From:  “The Natural History of Religion”, by David Hume). This ridiculous myth would be funny if it were not, once again, a religious act supporting violence: eating human flesh and drinking human blood (presumably the flesh and blood are from Jesus’ supposed human existence,) is truly barbaric and must terrify young people.

 

14. The violence eminating from the Roman Catholic Church is well represented by its Roman murals, sculptures (especially the magnificent Machaelangelo art; the Pieta and horned Moses in Rome, and the unfinished Pieta in Florence with its blank faces representing the massive grief of Mary and Joseph of  Aramathea,) and the hideous array of dead, embalmed Pope’s bodies.  But the most violently horrendous symbols are the huge crosses above the altar in most Catholic churches with an effigy of Jesus hanging from them with blood running from its thorned head, feet, hands and side.  And thenthere are the stations of the cross reliving all the violence that Christ suffered as he moved toward Golgotha carrying the cross, dropping the cross, and finally being nailed to the cross and then his pitiful last gasp: “Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabakthani”. [“My god, my god, why hast thou forsaked me?”]  And then there is the battle beween Heaven and Hell with huge stained glass windows representing Satan’s banishment to Hell by the Angel Gabriel who speared Satan through his chest.  It is strange that the cross as we know it; a vertical single long beam with a horizontal cross bean about 2/3 up the long beam,and affixed to it was not a Christian symbol to early Christians.  The Greek word Stauros was used and depicted as a stake, “and horrible to contemplate; it was used in the cruelest  fashion to execute prisoners and other people.....It was sometimes pointed and thrust through the victim’s body to pin him to earth; or he was placed on top of  the stake with its point upwards so that it gradually pierced his body; or he was tied upon it and left exposed till death intervened; and there were other methods, too.  There is not a scrap of evidence that a stauros was ever in the form of a cross or even a T-shape. (It is curious that impalement through the enemy’s anus by an upright, sharpened beam was also used by the Zulus under Chaka whose religious beliefs was based in ancestor worship.)

 

There is no cross in early Christian art before the middle of the 5th century where it [probably] appears on a coin in a painting.  The first clear crucifix appears in the late 7th century. (From: “Jesus: God, Man, or Myth in The Truth Seeker , 1950.)

 

John Adams, the second President of the United States had this to say about the cross: “I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved - The Cross.  Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced.” (Letter to Thomas Jefferson).  

As suggested in the first section of this essay, the horrors perpetrated by Roman Catholic priests are not their fault alone.  Many Popes, their Curiae and Holy Office (formerly the Inquisition), the Catholic Church as a whole, including their congregations who have turned a blind eye and thus contributed to the abuses by remaining loyal to the Church, Bishops and other members of the Vatican hierarchy, adherence to the ancient myths of the bible which promote these perversions across decades of ignorance, systematized superstition and power struggles - all are as responsible for these perversions as are the priests that committed them. 

 

And the perversions will not stop - indeed, as we speak, they continue: the raping of nuns by priests in Africa because they are “clean” of Aids, the expansion of Aids across the world because the Catholic Church (specifically, the Vatican and rulings by Popes banning contraception), the continued deceptions and lies of the Popes to maintain their power (even three of the most modern Popes; Pius XI and his support of priests who worked with the Nazis and of Nazis themselves - see details of Nazi atrocities in Lord Russell of Liverpool’s “Scourge of the Swastika: here it is significant to mention that the Catholic Church represented by its Pope did not state that the Jews did not kill Jesus until two decades after the second world war and it must be surmised that the church rulings which killed thousands of Jews as “evil representatives of Satan” aligned themselves and cooperated with the Nazis as anti-Jewish bretheren.  To read and see what Nazis did and the church supported, either directly or by their silence go to ”A Short History of Nazi War Crimes”, by Lord Russell of Liverpool ignoring Jews and their massacre. 

 

Lies and a good, heavy twisting of the truth is found in some modern Popes: John Paul II and the Gertrude Stein fiasco,  Benedict XVI and the slaughtered indiginous South American peoples who, according to him, “silently longed” to become Christians - see, Papal Sin: Structure of Deceit by Gary Wills - (e.g., the doctrine of infallability allowing Popes to control all Catholic Church doctrine; even destructive and conservative doctrine where their opinions are always right).  The refusal of American Bishops to develop regulations which control pedophile priests and turns them over immediately they are discovered to local authorities for prosecution, again promotes the continuation of Catholic Church perversions.

 

One of the most egregious lies from the Vatican and perpetuated by bishops across the world is the attempt to exonerate the Catholic Church from the perversions of its priests, bishops and cardinals.  This is the maintenance that the pedophiles, rapists, and other violent Catholic individuals and groups are simply a bunch of individual  “bad apples”.  This nonsense tries to avoid the definition of the Catholic Church as an all-encompassing, all-inclusive society.  Catholic Church members, in terms of their own definition of their church, are all guilty of these crimes against children, women, and “enemies” of Catholicism.  

 

The understanding of the “Catholic Church is the sum total of its members” by the congregation is emphasized by a statement made by the leader of  the violent Catholic military arm in Ireland, the Sinn Fein, Tom Hartley: “Catholics like himself were ‘hierarchical,’ Hartley explained, adding that it was a hallmark of Catholic thinking to assume that all Catholics in a region such as Ireland are part of a unified community....” (From: Terror in the Mind of God - the Global Rise of Religious Violence, by Mark Jeurgensmeyer.)   Even If the vatican and the various country Bishops continue this re-definition of their church to benefit themselves, their priests and congregations, if, statistically, the “church” is to be analysed as broadly as possible, there are perverts walking around the Vatican and in countries that have not been involved in the latest exposure of priest perverts.   And this will continue.  

 

The Popes’ continued support for members of their flock whatever their crimes is evinced by the treatment of Cardinal Bernard Law who resigned from his Boston Archbishop position because of his own support of priest pedophiles; Law left the U.S. and went to the Vatican: “(Pope) John Paul appointed Law to several authoritative positions in Rome and the Vatican.  “He is currently the archpriest of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. He is also a member of the Congregations of Oriental Churches, Clergy, Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, Evangelisation of Peoples, Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Catholic Education, Bishops as well as the Pontifical Council for the Family. This is a large number of organisations for any cardinal to be involved in and is partly due to residing in Rome.”  As a Cardinal, Law was also involved in the election of the new Pope after John Paul died - another disgrace and a thumbing of all the Cardinals’  noses at the Catholic congregations in Boston who had forced Law’s resignation and those who were abused by priests whom Law supported and tried to hide.  

 

Historically, from the early torture and murders of non-christians by the Catholic Church including threats to the lives of other early christian groups and banning them, to wars against Muslims and Jews, from witch hunts and killings to the torture and burning of believers by the inquisition, the Roman Catholic Church has left a trail of blood and gore, the abuse of women and children.  This is important today because this perverted behavior and the associated power struggles of the Bishop of Rome and his followers to maintain and expand the Church still stand as an example to other religious groups who justify their own barbarism in the same way that Catholics have: by reference to their holy books where the words of their god are written supporting violence, and their prayers asking their god for his blessing of their pending violence.  Revelation, which cannot be proven, almost always provides these blessings of violence.

   

The historical horrors of the Roman Catholic Church continue to be supported by the actions of the church today in its alignment with violent criminals doing much the samed things that they have done in the past: “....the Pope disgraced himself utterly by issuing a personal invitation to the wanted war criminal Tariq Aziz, a man responsible for the state murder of children.  Not only was Aziz welcomed at the Vatican as the senior Catholic member of a ruling fascist party (not the first time that such an indulgence had been granted), he was taken to Assisi for a personal session of prayer at the shrine of Saint Francis.” (From: “God Is Not Great - How Religion Poisons Everything”, by Christopher Hitchens).

 

Not only Roman Catholics, but all theists who find their moral values in the Christian Bible, the Muslim Qur’an, the Torah and any other revelation-based religious books, have been involved in terrible perversions against the human race in the name of their gods.  The Roman Catholic Church continues to reject reason and science as the bases for clear thinking and criticism of their mythical and superstitous doctrines an early example of this was their condemnation of the invention of printing press recognizing that it would allow easy and free circulation of the printed word.  Before this all text was written and much of it was controlled by the Church’s monks and scribes).  

 

The spread of Islam today, its violence against non-muslims (Dhimmis), and its maltreatment of girls and women, especially through Sharia (religious law) also reflects Roman Catholicism’s violence and most pernitious actions during the dark ages.  It is no mistake that much of the Qur’an is almost an exact copy of the Bible and the Torah and that Muslims venerate Jesus Christ as one of the true messengers from god.  

 

“Religion has run out of justifications,”  writes Christopher Hitchins. “Thanks to the telescope and the microscope it no longer offers an opinion on anything important.  Where it used to be able, by its total command of a worldview, to prevent the emergence of rivals, it can now only impede and retard - or try to turn back - the measurable advances we have made.  Sometimes, true, it will artfully concede them (for example, their use of the Internet [my words]).  But this is to offer itself the choice between irrelevence and obstruction, impotence and outright reaction...”.

 

The shrinking of the Catholic Church, especially in Europe, is evinced by Pope Benedict’s first trip as Pope, to Germany - his home country where he was a member of the Hitler youth - where he attempted to encourage the mass of fallen Catholics to rejoin the Church and thus to rebuild the failing German dioceses.  After the mass rape and abuse of children by Catholic priests in orphanages around the world many of the orphanages and Catholic Church schools have been closed, especially those administered by the Christian Brothers; this has affected both the potential number of priests in seminaries and the continued support of th church by congregants.  

 

In South America the growth of Protestant missionary work with poor communities has affected the growth of the number of priests and Catholic congregants, many of whom have left the Catholic Church to join the Protestant churches.  Again, cases of priestly abuse and Bishops support of the abusers on this continent have added to the congregations’ disenchantment with the Catholic Church.  But the shrinking of the Catholic Church is not enough for a prediction that it will collapse sometime in the near future.  Exposing the church’s horrors and its illogical adherence to biblical mythological writings and ancient doctrines that have no application, anywhere, today, is insufficient (many books do this).  To complete the circle we must discuss what can  be done to accelerate the exclusion of this abusing church from society.

 

The Roman Catholic Church has never atoned (a good biblical word) for its violence although, much to conservatives’ chagrin Pope John Paul made good faith attempts to begin the process: Luigi Accattoli, a Vatican Correspondent, wrote: “...in more than fifteen years of his pontificate, Pope John Paul had acknowledged at least 40 instances of sins and errors.  He had already spoken, directly or indirectly, about responsibility for the treatment of Galileo, the Jews and Muslims, ....Luther and the Indians, the injustices of the Inquisition, the Mafia, racism, religious integralism, schism and the Papacy, wars and injustice, and the treatment of the Blacks.  After the issuence of the of the memorandum, there would be Papal pronouncements on the Crusades, dictatorships, women, religious wars, and Rwanda.”   

 

 For 2000 years the Catholic Church has killed, raped, murdered, tortured, abused, and psychologically terrified its adherents and its enemies.  The first step in any Catholic healing is an admission of crimes committed.  The second step is a request for forgiveness from its victims or their descendents.  The third step is the payment of restitution - the return of property, the payment of cash (as has been done in the USA to victims of priest sexual perversion), and the  continuous supply of goods to poor communities as a whole (such as the descendants of the Incas and other South American Indian groups who were almost wiped out in the name of the Catholic Church).  Finally the Church must provide easily recognition of its acolytes who are responsible for all of this and continue it: for example they might all (including cardinals and the Pope) wear black without collars, preach their guilt from their pulpits, and put aside a number of days a year for special fasting and public self-flagellation.

 

But this is not enough.  It is time for secular society (and even moderate and liberal Catholics) to object to the conitinous violent behavior of the Church and the sources of the motivation of this violence.  Verbal objections have showed little effect in the past and are shrugged off or ignored by the Church, therefore the objections must include action (specifically NOT violence).  The most effective forms of action seem to be as follows:

 

SUGGESTED ACTION

 

• The publicising of the horrors perpetrated by the church (instead of attacking Atheists and lying about christian violence as done by Dinesh D’Souza, 2007)

 

• The suing of the Church and individuals in its hierarchy, and the charging of crimes against humanity in the international court in the Hague.

     

• The rejection of the Vatican as a “separate” country by all the world’s nations.

 

• The patment of taxes on all church properties and an income tax on all money collected by the church.  This should be retroactive.

 

• A full, independent, investigation if all Catholic Priests, including the hierarchy in the Vatican.  Full access to the Church’s libraries and archives, wordwide, must be a part of this, and prosecution of individuals and groups within the church for past crimes must follow.

 

• The banning of the bible from all children under the age of 16, as a perverted book filled with murder, rape and other perversions.

 

• The removal of all protection under the law if the church or its priests use the church for political ends.

 

• The demand that all Catholic secret societies open their books, their procedures and their actions since their inception, to public scrutiny.

 

• That all statements of miracles be opened to the examination of non-Catholic scientists before such miracles are announced.

 

• The end of the sanctification or beatification of past members of the church.

 

• The opening of all Catholic teaching institutions must open their doors to secular scrutiny.  All schools and universities must be certified by recognized State organizations and those with questionable procedures and teaching practices, closed.

 

• Open debate about church dogma and doctrines must be encouraged, especially questions about the historicity of Christ, the reality of faith, and the promotion of violence by the church currently and in the past.

 

• That the rejection of particular social and cultural groups by the church be punished - this must include women, homosexuals and Atheists - by fines and/or imprisonment.

 

• The teaching of children in church schools must include secular options as alternatives to christian teaching with a focus on christianity and the bible as myths.

 

• The true separation of church and state in all countries of the world including countries where the titular head of the church is the ruler of that country (such as the U.K. where the Queen is the titular head of the Anglican Church and where the Archbishop of Canterbury has a seat in the House of Lords.) The Anglican Church, although considered a protestant church because of its split with the Catholic Church under Henry VIII, still maintains a Catholic veneer especially in its “high” church.

 

• Community churches and their perpetuation should be open to their community debate, including the whole community, not only Catholics.  If the community deems it necessary then these churches must be closed down.

 

• An permanent oversite council of secular people must be established in all countries where Cathlicism is found.  It is this oversite council that will both regulate and police the Catholic dioceses and the Catholic priests in each country.  The Catholic Church has shown quite clearly that it cannot function legitimately in countries that allow the practice of freedom of religion.  They have abused this freedom and continue to do so.

 

• All secular-related regulations impinged on society by the Catholic Church must be end.  This includes but is not limited to: the use of condoms and other sexual practices, the practice of women’s choice, the condemnation of political practices and politicians (also the manipluation of politicians who are members of the church by threatening excommunication or the end to communion for them if they do not comply with the church’s doctrines while in their public office.)

 

Christianity and the Catholic Church must be seen for what it is, and secular teaching in our schools and universities must also reflect the history of violence, the myths and lies, and the continuous suppression of reason and science by the Catholic Church.  It is apt, therefore, to end with a quote from Madalyn Murray O’Hair,  that great crusader (dare we use the term!) against religion and who underlines the need for strong action against the guilty churches, especially the Catholic Church:

 

“Religion has ever been anti-human, anti-woman, anti-life, anti-peace,

anti-reason, and anti-science.  The god idea has been detrimental

not only to humankind but to the earth.  It is now time for reason, 

education and science to take over.” (Speech in St. Petersburg, Florida,

April 4, 1990.)