It’s hard out here for a priest.
The sex-abuse scandals rocking the Roman Catholic Church refuse to go away,
with more cases coming to light and casting doubt on the actions of those in
the highest offices of the Vatican, including
Big Pope-a himself:
Critics have charged that Pope Benedict XVI, at best, failed
to deal with abusive priests. At worst, they say, he presided over a church
that systematically shielded abusers from the law.[…]
It’s highly unlikely that Pope Benedict will resign his office in response
to the abuse scandals — it’s been almost 600 years since the last pope
stepped down. But his character and personal beliefs will be crucial as he
seeks to guide a church that claims 1 billion adherents through what the
National Catholic Reporter in the United States calls the church’s “largest
institutional crisis in centuries, possibly in church history.”
Pope Benedict has slowly descended from infallibility to “cartoonish
supervillainy,” as Smithers might put it. Ex-Brown Shirt? Check.
Past history of obstructing inquiries into child abuse? Check.
Uncanny resemblance to Emperor Palpatine? Check.
The guy could be the villain in the next ten Bond movies, yet the best
defense the Church has come up with so far is that anti-Vatican sentiment is
the moral
equivalent of anti-Semitism. An outrageous assertion, especially since
it’s unlikely that they’ve thought that line of thought out to its logical
conclusion, which would be the gassing of Church leadership complicit in the
cover-up.
If I may, I’d like to offer a different perspective. Namely, that the
Vatican change their boring “deny, deny, deny” approach and start changing
things up, maybe by learning from the example of these notorious (and
fictitious) child predators.
Herbert — Family Guy
The Church used to throw some great parties back in the
day. Naturally, they’d have to tone down the group sex and bestiality of
Benedict IX’s era, but everybody loves a musical number, right?
Bill Maplewood (Dylan Baker) — Happiness (1998)
I think it was Roger Ebert who said that Bill’s brutal honesty in owning
up
to his deeds might help his son come to grips with the monster his
father
has become. It’s a long shot, but a sincere admission of wrongdoing
might go
a long way towards encouraging people to send their kids back to Sunday
school.
Jesus Quintana (John Turturro) — The Big Lebowski (1998)
And then there’s this guy. I’m not saying I recommend that Church
officials
adopt The Jesus’ approach, mocking “this day of rest shit” and telling
the
aggrieved, “Nobody fucks with the Ratzinger.” Then again, it can’t work
any
worse than what they’ve been doing.
Capt. Clarence Oveur (Peter Graves) — Airplane! (1980)
Maybe screening potential parishioners for things like “enjoys movies
about
gladiators” might help the Church avoid problematic scenarios. Or here’s
a
wacky thought: how about letting priests get married?
Jeff Kohlver (Patrick Wilson) — Hard Candy (2005)
[SPOILER] When all else fails, pedophile priests are left with the Hard
Candy option, which is — as Dennis Miller once said when he used
to be
somewhat funny — to lean into the strike zone and take one for the
team.
This article appears in Apr 1-7, 2010.
