Sunday, March 28, 2010

JOEY RATZ XVI

“Although they have committed their own heinous crimes, the inmates regard 'short eyes', prison slang for sex-offenders, as the lowest-of-the-low.”


SOME TIME AFTER HIS MEMBERSHIP IN GERMANY’S 'MANDATORY' HITLER YOUTH ORGANIZATION, BUT BEFORE HE BECAME THE ‘INFALLIBLE’ ONE, JOEY RATZ WAS THE ARCHBISHOP OF MUNICH.

IN 1980, ARCHBISHOP JOEY APPROVED THERAPY FOR A SEXUAL PREDATOR PRIEST WHO HAD SODOMIZED YOUNG CHILDREN.
DAYS AFTER THE TREATMENT STARTED, JOEY APPROVED THE PEDOPHILE’S TRANSFER TO ANOTHER PARISH.

IN 1996, CARDINAL JOEY FAILED TO RESPOND TO LETTERS ABOUT THE CASE OF A PRIEST WHO SEXUALLY ABUSED OVER 200 DEAF CHILDREN IN A WISCONSIN PARISH.
THE VATICAN IS CLAIMING THAT HE WAS PREOCCUPIED WITH MORE PRESSING ISSUES.
THE SHEPHERD WAS PROTECTING THE WOLVES INSTEAD OF THE LAMBS.

POPE RATZ NEEDS COVER.
HE HAS FALLIBLES JUMPING ON THEIR SWORDS.

"HOLY WATERGATE".

21 comments:

ben's friend said...

The Catholic Church has never been shy about its corporate status in addition to its "spiritual" status. Apparently in all these cases there was the perception of "circling the wagons" to protect the corporate entity at the expense of the companies customers. The customers turned out to be innocent, confused and shamelessly exploited children.

Perhaps the statistics on pedophilia in the Catholic clergy was no greater than the stats on pedophilia in other organizations in which children are entrusted to adults (teachers, boy scout leaders, etc. etc.) The fact that that happens at all is horrific enough. Even more horrifying is the realization that these priests are supposed to answer to a higher authority and code of conduct. To bring this horror to an even more grotesque level is the realization that these offenses were covered up. If the hell that we were taught to fear in catholic schools does exist these priests who committed these acts and those who helped to cover them up certainly have earned front row seats in the orchestra section.

The Political Impaler said...

Terrific article. I agree with you,100%. This is your best work yet. Anyone at the New York Times would be jealous.

quicksand said...

BEN
IT'S ENOUGH TO MAKE ONE HOPE THAT THERE IS A GOD.

quicksand said...

IMPALER,
HEY, THANKS.
ALTHOUGH TODAY I WENT BACK AND TWEAKED IT SOME .

ben's friend said...

Quicksand:
Of course you are assuming that the God you are hoping for is a just God.

Great turn of phrase, "The shepherd was protecting the wolves instead of the lambs." That says it all!

quicksand said...

RECEIVED BY E-MAIL


Joey ratz. The thing that gets me is that people think that this is a string of isolated incidents, it is not. It is a tradition. These guys castrated little kids to fill in the choir.
They would do it today if they could get away with it. It may be time to light the torches, get the pitchforks and head to the castle. You would think you could not top joining the Hitler Youth. Maybe he has. Experts have said that about 1/3 of the clergy has been involved in one way or another. Sheep.

ED B.

quicksand said...

ED

YES...THE CASTRATI!
HOW COULD I HAVE FORGOTTEN?

OUT OF THE CASTLES AND INTO THE JAILS!

Anonymous said...

Ed B:

Certainly I don't (wouldn't, couldn't) defend these pedophiles or the pope for his alleged involvement in a cover up. Yet, is it fair to allude to his involvement in a Hitler Youth organization which he belonged to as a child? Also, to bring up the choir boys is not news. It is ancient history. Horrible but ancient history. Do your really think that "they would do it today if they could get away with it?" Should we also hold present day Germans responsible for the holocaust? Should we hold the current citizens of Salem responsible for the witch craft trials?

quicksand said...

DEAR ANON

THE CHURCH CONTINUES TO TREAT THE ABUSE AS A SIN...NOT A CRIME.

ED B. said...

Dear Anonymous (if that is your real name),
Yes, I do think it is correct to bring up the continuing narrative of the Catholic Church and the Pope.
I've been to Salem, they are not burning witches anymore. I've been to Germany they are not still gassing Jews. That is history.
What the Catholic Clergy is doing and what the bishops are protecting is going on today. The $2,500,000,000 (yes, that is the correct number of zeros) the Church has spent on legal fees and payoffs in the US alone has not been enough to make the problem disappear. The only thing which may help is for Catholics to stop pretending that some guy wearing red Prada shoes has some moral authority given to him by God and apply the standards we apply to everyone else.
ED B.

Anonymous said...

Mr B

No my name is clearly not "anonymous." Just like your last name is probably not "B."

I too have been to Salem. Just like you I saw no evidence of the burning of witches. (BTW there was never a witch "burned" in Salem. Nineteen were hanged and one was crushed to death. The burnings only took place in Europe). After all that is history, not current events. I too was in Germany and just like you I saw no evidence of Jews being exterminated. After all that is history not current events. More to the point, I have also been to Vienna Austria and saw no evidence of boys being castrated to sing in the Vienna Boys Choir. After all that is history and not currently ongoing. And that is precisely why I took exception to you using that as an example. You have, I think, made my point for me.

Don't get me wrong. I agree with you on most counts. Pedophilia evidenced anywhere is a most despicable crime, especially in an organization which is charged with the spiritual welfare of its victims. Covering up those crimes is also despicable. Exorbitant amounts of money spent on for legal fees and hush money is also blood money.

Vienna Snausage said...

Anonymous:

I think you might have missed the point re: Hitler Youth, as well as the joke about your name really being "Anonymous"...

Mine real name, however, is Vienna Snausage if you need to contact me further.

quicksand said...

VIENNA,

YOUR NAME REALLY TIES INTO THIS WHOLE ISSUE.

ED B. said...

Dear Anon,
I am sorry that you did not like my joke about your real name. My real name is Ed Brickley.
Bruce asked if he could post a private email from me on the site. I emailed him back saying yes and to use my name. He chose to use Ed B. I used it later so you would know that I was the same person.
I have no idea what point of yours I made, but I am happy to see that we agree on something.
I think that the important issue is that this is an ongoing problem with the Church and that for once we should hold their feet to the fire instead of the other way around.
Platitudes like those from the Pope about heinous crimes are dis ingenious unless there is an admission that heinous crimes are committed by heinous criminals and that there has to be punishment for such criminals and those who protect them.
I'll give you the last word.

Ami DeBen said...

Dear Mr. B or Vienna, or Ed Brickley.

I don't want nor need the last word. I am enjoying the dialoque. Normally I go by the moniker of "ben's friend" but by mistake I forgot to fill in the user name in one of a correspondence and it automatically came up as "anonymous." Like you, I used it again in my reply to you so that there would be no confusion as to whom you were conversing with.

The point that I was trying to make was a simple one. You brought up the castration abuse. I simply pointed out that that may not be fair to hold church officials of today responsible for what happened historically. To dramatize the point I asked if we should hold the current Germans responsible for the holocaust or the present residents of Salem responsible for the witchcraft trials. YOu responded to those points by pointing out that they are no longer gassing Jews or persecuting witches
And that was precisely my point. They are no longer castrating boys for the sake of the choir either. It is all history.

About monikers for blogs. I frankly don't quite understand the protocol. I chose a moniker just to fit in, not to remain anonymous... peer pressure I guess. In my first submission to the blog was a quote about freedom attributed to Ben Franklin, something to the effect, "Those who are willing to sacrifice a bit of freedom for the sake of security get neither freedom or security." That's to the best of my memory. So I thought that it would be appropriate to show my respect for old Ben's sentiments by calling him my friend. Anyway we may have more in common than the fact that we both abhor the pedophilia scandal and all its tangential cover ups etc.

You old fried Jim Brennan

P.S. Does the Pope really wear Prada?

ED B. said...

Jim,
Yes on the shoes. No on the Vienna.
Ed

quicksand said...

ONLY PROBLEM IS...DO WE WANT TO COMPARE A GOVERNMENT WITH A RELIGION?

Anonymous said...

As a RC -- I struggle with this very issue. There will always be wolves among the sheep -- as you say. My anger with my church has been its unwillingness to stand up and do the right thing, to pass off pedophile priests to other parishes, where they had access to a fresh supply of children. As you say -- it is not just a sin, but a crime, and they should have treated it as such. Now, even if they were too cowardly to turn these priests over to the authorities, couldn't they at least have sent these priests away from society -- into a monastery where they would make comunion wafers for the rest of their days?? One thing I have always admired about my church was its ability to speak out -- even when it was not in vogue or was out of step with pop culture. When given the chance to be a beacon of truth, it chose to protect its own interests at the greatest expense to the most vulnerable. It has taken some very hard line positions on the sanctity of life -- but it has only been the unborn child, not the ones that are alive and well - that it has sought to protect. While I believe in my faith -- I cannot support the church itself and I cannot give it money to pay off its sins. My children (baptized Catholic) have been attending a Lutheran Church because I have been so conflicted about this, even though I consider myself a Catholic. I resent the position the church has put me in.

ben's friend said...

Like you, anonymous, I too am conflicted about the Catholic church. As a lapsed agnostic I have been struggling with questions about the existence of God, religion, and Catholicism, the organization I was born and raised in and left for 20 years, before coming back. My children are both athiests and my wife has refused to step inside a church since this entire scandal broke out. I have tried to hold on to the idea that the organization is not to be held accountable for the corruption of some of its members. However, the number of crimes continues to grow and on top of that we have the suggestion that those in the highest positions of authority have been complicit in the cover ups. Now it seems that the more the Church does to work at damage control the more damage it does.

In addition to the present scandal the church's problems are, I think, rooted in its stubborn refusal to change. Its policies on birth control, celibacy, ordination of women and homosexuality, jut to mention a few, are so archaic and transparently mindless that it makes even believers shake their heads in incredulity. Hell, only in 1992 did the church actually admit that it was mistaken in its persecution of Gallileo for his radical theory of the sun being the center of this solar system. Perhaps if the church were willing to admit more than once every 400 years that it made a mistake it may be perceived as a more humane and relevant organization. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Ancient Rocker said...

I just dug in to this thread and am impressed by the thoughtfulness of the responses.Having been an alter boy in both Brooklyn as well as Port Jefferson and while certainly damaged by the nuns the priests left me alone. Sadly, that was not the case for many. I can understand why people would leave this church having certainly strayed over the years myself (and no longer insist that my children attend mass with me on holidays.) I have read the conspiracy books, Holy Blood/ Holy Grail, Dan Browns fiction and various knight templar accounts and have enraged more than a few relatives when asserting that Jesus likely faked his death and is buried somewhere in India.. not to mention his sons James and jesus junior who founded a church in England and then there is his wife Mary Magdalene who was villified by the church to create more distance between the savior and his secret life.So yes my personal fascination with the history and mythology is deep. This past week the newspapers reported that at Easter masses priests will be confronting the issue. I attended church for the first time in months and must say I was impressed by father Sean in Kings Park. He spoke to the sins of those who prey on the innocent and touched on why he remains a priest. "If the church was only about Good Friday he would have no reason to stay... but it dosen't end there as it is about the redemption and renewal of Easter". My point in writing all of this is that the Pope is fallible and frail as a man no matter what the dogma says and we live in a world of transparency where the sins of the Fathers have and will see the light of day. As for the faithful... I refer to the late tee pee Ted who taught me that " The god spirit within me sees the god spirit in you" or as the alter boys said in 1959..when it doubt call the church at
et cum spiri 2 2 0!

quicksand said...

amen gentlemen.