It's not fundamentally true. - Edit 1
Before modification by Joel at 14/03/2010 06:24:53 PM
I mean, seriously, if it weren't so obviously BS there'd probably be grounds for libel. And, for the record, I'm not Catholic, and actually have some significant issues with the Vatican (for one thing, I think requiring celibacy in priests has a lot to do with how many people entering the priesthood turn out to be sexual deviants... ) but that was offensive on several levels. Saying all Catholics, or Catholic priests, are pedophiles is like saying all Muslims, or all imams, are terrorists. It's not funny, it's insulting.
More on other topics later, but this one drew the attention of my inner self righteous SOB.
More on other topics later, but this one drew the attention of my inner self righteous SOB.
And it's also fundamentally true. Need we once again trawl through the various worldwide incidents we know of? The practice of rape may not be totally endemic throughout the church, but the hiding and covering up most certainly is, possibly on the basis of this week to the very top itself. Though obviously the Popes people are doing everything they can to make that go away.
The best humour often is offensive, it is often used to hit hard on topics people shy away from, and the best humour is always at some level based on a truth...you may stretch it, but it is there.
He says, obviously in the name of satire, that the entire Catholic hierarchy exists, and has always existed, for the sole purpose of pedophilia. Again, that's like saying the entire hierarchy of Islam was created for terrorism, or the entire Mormon one was created for plural marriage, or the entire Southern Baptist one was created to destroy science. It's insulting to thousands of past and present Catholic priests who've never engaged in pedophilia nor concealed the crimes of others and, given that the Roman Catholic Church was THE Christian Church until the Great Schism, insulting to every Christian priest from Peter down till then. I suppose to that extent I can be personally offended as a Christian rather than just generally as an intelligent and (hopefully) fair minded person. And, just to be fair, it was equally insulting (but more original) when South Park did it several years ago.
Even for someone who's frequently gotten in trouble with friends for tarring with too broad a brush this is extreme.