Tirade. Written passionately. not carefully edited.

With the recent resurgence (this time in Europe) of the Catholic abuse scandal, I’ve been more inflamed than ever with respect to the Catholic Church as an institution and the tacit claim by the clergy that the abuse is something new.

There is no reason, I can’t stress that enough: no reason to suspect that similar abuse has not occurred for centuries. It’s more likely, in fact, that in the past, when the Catholic Church was more influential and protected behind the walls of powerful governments, that this behavior was even more common. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. If a political institution, such as the church, holds sway over governments for centuries, humble use of power by its respected authority figures is not to be expected. Certainly not more humble what we see today, after the Church’s influence has waned. This abuse is not a weed, a shameful trend to be uprooted and forgotten, but an ugly, rank flower tended behind the walls of political and social clout. Are we to imagine that former popes did not know of the abuse? The current pope? Words fail me in describing the magnitude of shame all clergy who have remained silent on this issue should feel.

I don’t at all mean this to be an indictment of the Catholic message. As organized religions go, it has its strengths. But after literally a millennium of privilege and power, the controlling hierarchy has devoured itself from within and deserves the shame and stagnation it has brought upon itself.