Why is This Acceptable?
The Catholics do love to have a good conference. Always finding better ways to help the poor, instructing people in Africa on the correct usage of condoms, and so much else. That’s why when I see a story like Catholic Bishops are not required to report child abuse to police, I’m flabbergasted. Oh, that’s right. Reverse that. Not surprised at all.
The recent Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (CDF) suggested every Bishop Conference needed to draft a statement aimed at protecting children if those groups did not already have one in place. The Italian Bishop’s Conference (CIE), which works directly under Pope Benedict (Ratzinger), did not have any such document in place.
Inside the five page document released by the CDF, they advise Italian Bishops how to deal with pedophilia inside the church… but not a single word about reporting the person to the police and I quote the document:
Under Italian law, the bishop, given that he holds no public office nor is he a public servant, is not obliged to report illicit facts of the type covered by this document to the relevant state judicial authorities.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests released a statement lambasting the Catholics – and deservedly so:
Where’s the beef? There’s no enforcement here. There are no penalties for bishops who don’t come up with guidelines or who violate their own guidelines, just like right now, there are no penalties for bishops who ignore or conceal heinous child sex crimes. Until that happens – until top church officials who hide and enable abuse are severely disciplined – top church officials will continue to hide and enable abuse.
I think this is (yet another) perfect reason to remove the power that priests have to hide behind the cloth from the police, the courts, and jail. It’s time to lose the religious privilege we give clergy to sidestep the law. Everyone has seen the Wizard of Oz. It’s time to see the man behind the curtain – and prosecute the fuck out of him.
Protracted Suicide
Mark Randall “Mack” Wolford was a Pentecostal pastor from West Virginia. He was a snake-handling preacher like his father before him. And, like his father, he is dead from a snake bite at a young age. I will not extol the virtues of their actions. They do not deserve it. I have no sadness inside me for his suicide.
Homeopath Playing Doctor
Ponneri City, in the state of Tamil Nadu, India is the place of the latest death that is so far attributed to a homeopath. “Dr” Hameed – who has a bachelor degree in electro-homeopathy – gave injections of Rantac (0.5ml) and Emeset (0.5ml) for the vomiting the child was suffering from. Just a few minutes later, she was dead.
“Dr” Hameed has worked for the hospital for about 18 months. Hameed – a person that has no medical training that I can find – and would not have proper knowledge of what he was doing, said: “I work under a qualified MBBS doctor. It was she who prescribed these injections. I had to give them as a first aid measure. The child was extremely dehydrated and I asked the family to rush the child to a bigger hospital, but they delayed.”
A case has been registered under Section 174 (suspicious death) of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). an inudentified investigating officer made a statement, saying: “We will take action against the doctor only after getting the postmortem report.”
After my article recently talking about India taking homeopaths to court when they play doctor, I have high hopes of “Dr” Hameed sent to the pokey… the slammer… the pound-me-in-the-ass prison. I hope the rest of the world starts cracking down on homeopaths taking over the role of a real doctor.
Boy, I can be a cold bastard
~Wesley