Priests @ MindSay

Warning!

Achtung!

If you are religious or feel that you may be offended by anti-religious commentary, please DO NOT READ THIS ENTRY.

Well World Youth day is here, it happens this week in Sydney. Honestly, it's like watching a pod of dolphins, herd a school of sardines towards shallow water. Doesn't anyone 'get' what this is all about? The catholic priests invite their favourite prey, young people, to spend a week "getting to know you" in a foreign land, away from their families. Does anyone else see a problem with this?

See, in olden times priests used to refer to 'being called to the cloth'. They described their vocation to the preisthood as a 'calling' and said that if you were called to the priesthood, you'd know it inside yourself. This was of course, a referrence to being gay. It was born of a time when homosexuals were persecuted and could indeed be prosecuted under the law for 'unnatural acts'. Being gay was a crime and so homosexuality went into hiding. Gay men and women went into hiding in monasteries and convents. This then, was 'the calling'. Priests in any land would help and protect another priest who was escaping persecution. 

The result today, is a culture of secrecy and protectionism in the catholic church, where a priest who is known to be a paedophile is given in-house counselling by the church and expected to learn to resist the urges he feels. He will then be transferred to another parish after an indiscretion and his past wiped away. Society's attitude towards gays today, is almost benevolent. The modern persecution is against paedophiles and in the same way it did before, the church tightens the ranks to hide and protect it's molesters. The difference this time is that child-molesters are not simply living a different lifestyle. They are in fact a vile, cruel and saddistic group of rapists.

Until the catholic church learns to become a transparent entity, open to scrutiny and subject to the laws of the land, they cannot and should not be  trusted.  This is especially true where children are concerned. I have no objection to people wanting to have a religion, good luck to them but don't give the church any greater status in the law than anyone else. I gew up in the catholic school system and a more saddistic, cruel and hateful group of people I have yet to meet. 

World Youth day, it's like paedophile heaven.

Don't like my blog? Offended? Tough, why did you read it after you were warned?      

A couple were driving to a church to get married. On the way, they got into a car accident and died. When they arrive in heaven, they see St. Peter at the gate. They ask him if he could arrange it so they could marry in heaven.

St. Peter tells them that he'll do his best to work on it for them.

Three months pass by and the couple hear nothing. They bump into St. Peter and ask him about the marriage.

He says, "I'm still working on it."

Two years pass by and no marriage.

St. Peter again assures them that he's working on it.

Finally after twenty long years, St. Peter comes running with a priest and tells the couple it's time for their wedding.

The couple marry and live happily for a while. But after a few months the couple go and find St. Peter and tell him things are not working out, and that they want to get a divorce.

"Can you arrange it for us?" they ask.

St. Peter replies, "Are you kidding?!! It took me twenty years to find a priest up here. How am I gonna find you a lawyer?"

That snow storm last night only dumped down a little on my mountain, but it was enough that we got the call at 10 last night that 8 this morning we were shoveling walks in front of, behind, around, and even thru(?) the church. As teachers, it is our duty to maintain the premises of the church. I think I once heard that the prepratory priesthood gave us stewardship over physical aspects of the church, such as passing the sacrament, the responsibiltiy to set up chairs, shovel the sidewalks, bless the sacrament, baptize, and maintain peace and order within the quorum. The only non-temperal power given to us is the ministering of angels, but I'm still trying to find out exactly what that means (only the ministering of angels somehow represents the white shirts and ties, if that has anything to do with it). We can still bless the lives of others, but I want to serve God in the most helpful way I can. Say somebody lapses into a coma. The stuwardship of the sacrament isn't going to do them any good. I don't wish the power of the Melchezedik Prieshood for my own benifit, because that's not what the priesthood is. Both Priesthoods are in place to serve others, and that's what I wish. Sigh.

Sometimes I wonder if the young women get to feel the joys of this kind of service. I've already written once of my idea about the combined campout. It's like...mutual service. The girls get to cook us a meal and we get to set up their tents, build their fire, haul their gear, all the things that men are good at.

In other news, if somebody comes across a cd case filled with church cd's, weird al, dr. demento, and a whole bunch of self-burnt rock cd's, could you give me a call?