Sunday, March 28, 2010

Church scandal, BA strike, Politicians for Hire, Suede at RAH...

...that was the week that was...

The things I would have blogged on last week are piling up:

- the escalating Catholic church sex abuse scandal. This week's revelations were the most shocking, with the news that, in 2001, the current Pope ordered a cover-up of up to 200 cases of paedopriests and nonces.

But the most ridiculous bit is when you hear the Vatican's defence line.

The other day, top Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco repeated that "the phenomenon of paedophilia has been tragically widespread in different sectors and various categories of people and various places, even non-Catholic". Is that supposed to make it any better, you utter imbecile?

It's like having Fred West pleading mitigation on the grounds that "serial killers have always tragically been around, I'm not the only one";

- the 2nd BA strikes, along with the notion that nobody strikes for fun or because they feel like it - a simple fact that the press at large seem to have forgotten. Just look at Unite's Dossier of disgrace, highlighting the bullying and harassment that's been taking place against union members under the management of Willie Walsh;

- Channel 4's Politicians for Hire and the greedy, shameless, cringeworthy procession of former Blairite ministers begging for secret deals. I wish I could say "why am I surprised", given that the New Labour project could only have worked by removing any remaining trace of 'integrity'. And yet, seeing Stephen Byers, Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt doing an Alan Partridge on telly was just gut-wrenching.

The politicians' responses at the end of each piece were just priceless. The succession of hollow disclaimers such as "Mr/Mrs [...] did not breach the MPs' Code of Conduct" was the equivalent of watching clear footage of a man punching a victim in the face followed by the same man's statement that he "denies any wrongdoing";

- Suede reforming after 7 years for a one-off gig in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust at the Royal Albert Hall. Read Mark Reed's amazing review of the night here.

3 comments:

M said...

These rapists priests should be put in jail - and so should all the bishops who knew about the abuse and covered it up. The Church will continue hiding attrocities such as these, unless those who hide the crimes are prosecuted just like those who commit them. These are not abuses that happened once, or twice, these are serial rapists who have been protected by the Church for years and decades. I cannot explain how fucking mad this makes me. It makes me wish there is a hell after all, because they deserve to burn.

claude said...

Exactly. And if you think of the millions of people who trusted their local priests over decades.

So many were taken advantage of.

It's incredible how the Vatican top barons (Bagnasco followed Bishop Christopher Jones, one of the top people in the Irish episcopate) keep saying in defence of the hundreds of nonces in their organisation that the church is being singled out and that most abuse happens inside families and other institutions.

And billions of muggings out there buying the notion that the Church holds absolute moral values and top moral standards! That it was safe, virtually free of sin, righteous, as well as a reliable beacon of peace from a depraved and deranged world out there...

Now - and this is sickening- the Catholic Church is asking to be judged against the most depraved parts of the secular world.

Un-be-lie-va-ble.

Mark said...

Ta for the link, Mx