Henry at Crooked Timber points out Ross Douthat's apologia for the Roman Catholic pederasty cover-up. Like the old chestnut about Satanists across the country breeding babies for sacrifice, Douthat's lie is worth considering in detail. The "culture of permissiveness" to which Douthat refers never existed, except in the minds of those who had no idea that people had sex. Furthermore, Douthat projected this idea of America's fall from sexual grace on to a completely different country. Even further still, he projected this particular bit of crazy back two decades.
What I would like to know is this: Is it possible for a Roman Catholic to stand up and say that, first, the current Pope did indeed know and covered up his own and the entire hierarchy's knowledge of the predations upon Irish boys; further, I would like to know if it is possible to discuss this particular "scandal" as what it actually is - a crime that not only demystifies but really destroys the moral authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Why is it that whenever members of a favorite institution of the right becomes subject of scrutiny for crimes, it is never the fault of those who committed the crimes in question?
Why can't Douthat man up and lay the blame where it belongs - squarely at the feet of Josef Cardinal Ratzinger, ne Pope Benedict XVI?
What a horrible, despicable man he is.
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