What pisses you off?

[Pies4shaw]

[think positive]

Sacrilege! Not the maserati!

[stui magpie]

[stui magpie]

[think positive]

jesus fecking christ
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-21/cyclist-slashed-robbed-in-random-attack-in-north-melbourne/8139622

[HAL]

Who are you talking about?

[think positive]

and more
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-21/more-than-400-footballers-allege-child-abuse-in-british-scandal/8122926

this should put an end to soccer yeah?

[David]

Perhaps the issue was never priests in the Catholic Church so much as any form of institutional power that gave adults unmoderated access to children. Kind of terrifying to think about.

[Mugwump]

[think positive]

[Mugwump]

^ TP I think sexual abuse is probably worse today as sex saturates our society so it seems less of a big deal to transgress - but data is very hard to find. It is certainly true that the world has always been wicked and sexuality always a hard beast to tame.

I don't think the Catholic Church intended to wink at child abuse. I think it found itself - because of its doctrines - with a problem that it did not know how to resolve and I think it's own sense of shame at sexuality and the fact that so many of its clergy were closeted gay men from unhappy homes made a level of "understanding" a natural response. In practice, however, it often did wink at it, whatever its intentions.

I can say that my mother's cousin, a Christian Brother who joined at 15 to escape a violent alcoholic home, left the order at the age of 40 and ended up living in a gay relationship before dying a few years ago, was fairly typical of the breed. A staunch defender of vigorous corporal punishment in his mid thirties, by 45 he had achieved the rare and courageous human feat of revising almost all of his convictions. He apparently did not commit any sexual abuse, and he is still fondly remembered by one E McGuire, whom he taught, and who attended his funeral. He was scathing of those few who did commit sexual abuse, and those in authority who then ducked responsibility, though he would freely admit, in his later years, that his own corporal punishment violence against students in that system had a level of sexual frustration and rage underneath it.

It is a matter of great shame and the Church (with which I have no personal affiliation) deserves much of the opprobrium that has rebounded upon it. It failed, partly because too many senior clergy prioritised its reputation rather than protecting the vulnerable, and its contrition should be absolute. Still, we should try to understand that this emerged from a set of sad social forces and sorry compromises, if only because understanding why it happened helps us see it honestly, and honesty is essential to contrition, proper reparation and forgiveness.

It is, by the way, interesting that most of the child abuse emerged from the Irish-influenced Church, little from the Italian church. The Italians were always more understanding that sexuality is impossible to tame, and (I believe) more likely to wink at healthy priestly sexuality. And, of course, Italy was a far less brutalised and repressive society and nation than Ireland, which was practically a theocracy until the 1990s.

[think positive]

As a Pom, I'll just happily accept that explanation!

[David]

[stui magpie]

Ahhhhh Fuckityfuckfuckdamnshitfuck. Went to raise the bistro blinds on the back deck, the ropes snapped. I guess about 8 years out in the weather took their toll.
Got a shitload of cooking and prep to do tomorrow, now I have to do a bunnings run for some nylon rope and practice my levitation to replace all the rope and re-thread the pulleys.
Anyone got a large bag of pixie dust? gonna need more than a pinch to float me 4m above ground level.

[Mugwump]