Boy, she sure was right, wasn’t she?

I can’t say I was ever really harmed by the Catholic church. I was raised in it, I went there on Sunday, I went to catechism, and so forth. When it came time for my Confirmation, I declined, already having some doubts (though at the time they were more doubts about the Catholics than about God in general.) You know the rest of the story. I was neither physically nor mentally abused by anyone in the Catholic Church.

But boy howdy, I sure don’t like them.

(Ms. O’Connor has a very good editorial in yesterday’s Washington Post.)

The Catholic Clergy Sex Scandal has been going on for a few years now, with little effect other than more and more stories coming out. The Church itself has been desperately trying to fight the allegations, to the point now where it’s become a meta-scandal, with accusations of a cover-up of a cover-up.

The question on my mind is: how is this not a criminal organization?

The defenses so far have been: “that’s just how it was dealt with at the time,” or “other people abuse children too,” or “the parents didn’t report it right away so clearly they are lying,” or “it wasn’t as bad as they say,” or the old, “a few bad apples” chestnut.

It doesn’t even seem as though there’s a question about what happened, either in size or in scope. And there also doesn’t seem to be any question about whether or not the church, as an entity, knew what was happening and was trying to hide it to protect its own image. It really appears as though right now we’re just dotting Is and crossing Ts.

Yet the big question is: should the Pope step down?

Really? That’s what will help make things better? The Pope stepping down? Hell, Ratzinger should consider himself lucky if that’s ALL he has to do. I want to see the whole College of Cardinals appearing before an international court. I want Ratzinger to be confined to Vatican City soil, lest he be hauled in on criminal conspiracy charges. In short, I want the governments of this world to not let this corrupt, condemnable, and criminal group not be able to hide behind…what? The fact that it’s a big ol’ religion?

There is no reason secular society needs to defer to the judgment of this bunch.

Tear it all up. See if God will step in to protect His own.