Holy Cow or Holy Bull...?

Dedicated to one of my heroes, Maureen Dowd


What I know about Catholicism you could put in a small chalice.

I know next to nothing other than the fact that Midnight Mass was always fun with my friend because we would laugh and get caught by my her mother who would lean forward and stare across all of us in an attempt to guilt us into being quiet and serious but would only cause us to laugh more in that wonderful way you laugh when you're not supposed to...like in class or at a funeral or when an adult says "If you don't stop laughing and wipe that silly grin off your face you'll be in a lot of trouble"...which then, you inevitably, were...

So...Catholicism and me...not much there.  I respect it but I'm as dumb as a stone when it comes to understanding it.

But I do know about morality and the concept of honor.  I admit that I haven't always been a saint...or a choirboy...but I do know the difference between right and wrong and have tried to live good life.

It seems that the Catholic High Command has not gotten that message.  The Pope is resigning, something a Pope hasn't done for something like 700 years and, one after another, we hear of a priest or a cardinal ( I feel sorry for the bird, getting all of this bad press...they are so beautiful, especially set against all of the snow we've been getting lately...) being accused of some wrongdoing or another.

And most of it seems to have to do with sex which is not looked upon with too much favor at the Vatican.

Sex is okay if you're married...by the church...but not before marriage, not with a member of your own sex and never with a child.

But that seems to be the order of the day in the Order of the Priesthood.

Sex in spite of marriage, almost always with a member of their own sex and too often with little boys.

The only explanation is that the men of cloth are really just men at heart and have urges like the rest of us and because of the Church's ban on sex in the priesthood, they are left to only have sex...in the priesthood.

I feel sorry for those guys.  Surrounded by women who do everything they ask and other women who confess everything, often about sex, and the poor guys are left with no outlet.  No wonder they turn to each other and, unfortunately, to the powerless children in their care.

And the Vatican thinks it can police itself?  Classic fox/chicken coop stuff if you ask me. No way...

It's hard not to think that the Pope is giving up the Papacy and all of it's power only because he feels old and weak.

He's just not into the fight and is, as they say, "kicking the can down the road," to the next guy who will have to deal with the ever evolving sordid mess that has become the modern Catholic church.

But it seems that people never learn.  It seems that when someone is caught with their hand in the, proverbial, cookie jar that they just can't seem to come clean, take responsibility and let the dust settle.

Noooo...they have to prevaricate, dodge, connive and try to avoid consequence.

Richard Nixon. Lance Armstrong.  Pope Benedict...?

"Only the Shadow knows" and he ain't talkin'...